Leptin and Weight Loss

Most people do not know a lot about the science of weight loss. If you eat less and exercise then you will lose weight, and vice versa. At least that is what most people have been lead to believe. However, the reality of weight loss is much more complicated than that. While the amount of calories you take is fixed, the rate at which those calories are burned, often referred to as the metabolic rate, can vary quite dramatically.
It turns out that there are two very important hormones that are import to determining your metabolism. The best known one is insulin which is released into the blood stream in the presence of carbohydrates. As insulin levels rise, the body is pushed towards storing more fat. Most people are aware of this as insulin resistance and type II diabetes are well known problems amongst the public at large. Low carbohydrate diets such as the Atkins Diet will actually try to suppress insulin levels to help improve fat loss, although the long term wisdom of such an approach is hotly debated in scientific circles.
However, the other important hormone that is much less well known but almost as important is leptin. One of the reasons that it is not as well known is that its importance in regulating body fat was only really starting to be better appreciated by scientists in the late 1990s. Unlike insulin, the presence of leptin is a good thing, and higher levels of leptin stimulate fat loss.
Just as with insulin, leptin resistance can be a very significant problem. In fact, given various misconceptions about the way one needs to lose weight, leptin resistance can be the biggest obstacle towards meaningful body fat reduction, especially in women. In this video Shaun Hadsall describes some ways of combating leptin resistance:



As it turns out, this is a much bigger problem for women than for men. Women have twice the amount of leptin in their blood stream as men do. You might think that this would make it much easier for a women to lose weight. However, any woman can tell you, this is simply not true; it is normally much harder for a woman to drop those unsightly pounds.
The reason it is so much harder for women to lose weight is that they are naturally leptin resistant. This is especially true after pregnancy, which is the reason many women really find it difficult to get back down anywhere near their original weight after they have their first child. It is particularly difficult when doing conventional dieting because leptin levels drop very markedly as food intake decreases.
The good news is there are ways that women can restore their insulin sensitivity. One of the best ways is to cycle calories so your body never adjusts to lower calorie levels. There are also various substances that you can consume that will help combat insulin resistance. The Venus Factor is a new diet program that is designed specifically to women to teach them to successfully combat leptin resistance and shed pounds in record time.

Click on the following link to read my full review of the Venus Factor weight loss program.