But by the fourth to eighth week, everything will get worse, and you will feel hungrier and less satisfied between meals. The energy level has also dropped, and it is difficult to continue to increase the load of compound actions. Worst of all, the speed of losing weight is getting slower and slower.
What the hell happened? In fact, these reasons are related to a hormone called leptin. By understanding the working mechanism of leptin, you can better understand what happens to your body during weight loss and how to adjust your diet to make weight loss easier.
What is leptin?
Leptin is a hormone secreted by fat cells, which is related to many functions of the body, such as regulating appetite, metabolic rate, motivation, immunity and so on. However, the main function of leptin is to help you maintain a healthy weight, mainly by telling your brain the calories and fat in your diet.
When the leptin level is relatively high, it will tell your brain that there is enough energy in your body at present. At this time, your brain will respond accordingly, such as reducing hunger and improving metabolic activity. However, when leptin levels are low, it will tell you that your brain fat reserves and calorie intake are decreasing. Similarly, the brain will respond, increasing your hunger and reducing your energy activity. This is manifested in drowsiness, lack of motivation and discomfort during dieting.
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For healthy people, this? Feedback loop? No problem can help us maintain a healthy body fat level. We feel hungry, and then when we eat, the body will tell us that we are full. Some foods will be stored as fat, and some foods will be used to consume energy. When we consume energy and burn fat, the body will tell the brain that we need more energy and we will continue to eat. This is the repetitive cycle in our bodies.
Therefore, our bodies can usually keep our weight in a very small range without making us gain weight or lose too much fat.
However, you may think, if so, why are some people fat? Why didn't leptin stop these people from eating?
Then we need to know how leptin affects weight loss.
In order to understand how leptin affects weight loss, you need to understand how leptin rises and falls with changes in diet and body composition.
Leptin level in the body is related to two variables: daily calorie intake and body fat level.
When you eat enough calories to maintain or gain weight, fat cells secrete leptin to tell the brain that you are enough? Energy flow? . As I mentioned before, this will cause the brain to reduce hunger and improve its activity level.
Leptin levels are closely related to the food you eat every hour. It will increase five hours after meals, and it is particularly sensitive to foods rich in carbohydrates.
Similarly, within a few days after you start to limit your calorie intake, leptin levels will also drop.
Many people think that fat is a burden, but in fact, fat is the best way for human beings to store energy and allow us to survive in famine. So the body has evolved into a highly adaptable system, which can always pay attention to the body's fat content.
Adipocytes are the main organs that secrete leptin, so when the body fat level rises, the leptin level will also rise. On the contrary, when the body fat level decreases, the leptin secretion level will also decrease.