Thanks for looking this up - it doesn't depress me because leptin is available for purchase as a supplement, so we could always just take it. I personally think that I could stay on phase one pretty much forever if that is what I had to do. I am far less hungry eating this way than I was when I was eating 5x as much food!
NSV - I am a diabetic and was able to stop taking any diabetic medication after about 20 days on this diet. Recently I have had a cold, so I was checking my blood sugar because typically when you are sick and a diabetic, your blood sugar spikes. Guess what it was - only 88! That is practically a fasting blood sugar of a non-diabetic! Just so grateful for this diet and all of you!
Thank you for the support on my recent weigh in, I appreciate it!
AllisonS, I didn't realize leptin was available as a supplement. I'll have to investigate that.
HalfAgain's question got me thinking, and I started googling... which lead me to the website link below. There's an interesting article there about why it's so hard to maintain a weight loss, and the author talks about the role of leptin. Interesting, if a bit depressing. http://www.drsharma.ca/obesitywhy-is...dy-weight.html
Awesome link! thank you. It is indeed depressing, but then all the talk about how hard it is to maintain is drepressing in itself, and the stats for those who keep it off for 5 years. At least there's some why's being answered by this link. I'll have to google even more to see what else is out there. I forget to go outside our 3FC for info at times.
Hi Karenbf - AWESOME first WI!!! Congratulations lady! And what a great MIL to give you her packets (of course she will want them back after she sees how successful you're going to be!)
Seems like just taking a supplement for leptin is not that simple.
I read this om WebMD:
Q. What about leptin supplements, such as those sold on the Internet?
Because leptin is a digestible protein that doesn’t enter the bloodstream, it can’t be taken in supplement form, Atkinson says. “If you were to take it as a pill, it’s just like eating chicken or beef. It’s a protein and your body would just break it up, so you wouldn’t absorb it from a pill.”
So those “leptin supplements” sold on the Internet don’t actually contain leptin, even though their name can be misleading. Instead, these supplements contain ingredients that are purported to help improve leptin functioning or feelings of fullness.
“A variety of these supplements may be more aimed at total wellness -- things like helping balance other hormones, thyroid hormones -- just optimizing health so that the body begins to respond to leptin more appropriately and allows the person to feel full,” says Duffy MacKay, ND, a licensed naturopathic doctor who serves as vice president of scientific and regulatory affairs at the Council for Responsible Nutrition, a trade group for the supplements industry.
“Some of what you’re seeing is tried-and-true ingredients that are known to cause satiety, things like soluble fibers that have been known for a long time to help make people full,” MacKay says.
As for supplements’ effects on leptin functioning, the picture is less clear, he says. “The leptin science has only been unraveling since 1994, so there are a lot of unanswered questions.”
“No magic bullets are being discovered,” MacKay says. “[But] we shouldn’t write this pathway off as something that we shouldn’t continue to explore.”
Rather than taking supplements that haven’t been fully proven to help, overweight people have other options to aid leptin functioning, experts say. Lustig advises them to reduce resistance to insulin (a hormone that controls blood sugar) and to bring down high levels of triglycerides (a blood lipid).
There is a natural health doctor with a leptin reset protocol. His stuff is pretty complicated so don't google "leptin reset" unless you have some time to spend reading. It would have to be something we'd do after hitting goal.
Seems like just taking a supplement for leptin is not that simple.
I read this om WebMD:
Q. What about leptin supplements, such as those sold on the Internet?
Because leptin is a digestible protein that doesn’t enter the bloodstream, it can’t be taken in supplement form, Atkinson says. “If you were to take it as a pill, it’s just like eating chicken or beef. It’s a protein and your body would just break it up, so you wouldn’t absorb it from a pill.”
So those “leptin supplements” sold on the Internet don’t actually contain leptin, even though their name can be misleading. Instead, these supplements contain ingredients that are purported to help improve leptin functioning or feelings of fullness.
“A variety of these supplements may be more aimed at total wellness -- things like helping balance other hormones, thyroid hormones -- just optimizing health so that the body begins to respond to leptin more appropriately and allows the person to feel full,” says Duffy MacKay, ND, a licensed naturopathic doctor who serves as vice president of scientific and regulatory affairs at the Council for Responsible Nutrition, a trade group for the supplements industry.
“Some of what you’re seeing is tried-and-true ingredients that are known to cause satiety, things like soluble fibers that have been known for a long time to help make people full,” MacKay says.
As for supplements’ effects on leptin functioning, the picture is less clear, he says. “The leptin science has only been unraveling since 1994, so there are a lot of unanswered questions.”
“No magic bullets are being discovered,” MacKay says. “[But] we shouldn’t write this pathway off as something that we shouldn’t continue to explore.”
Rather than taking supplements that haven’t been fully proven to help, overweight people have other options to aid leptin functioning, experts say. Lustig advises them to reduce resistance to insulin (a hormone that controls blood sugar) and to bring down high levels of triglycerides (a blood lipid).
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Thank you Patns. Well shucks and darn. This makes me rather more comfortable with having upped my goal from 175 to 195. I'll wait and see how I am feeling and doing as I progress. I appreciate everyones thoughts and help. You all are the Best!
There were some books written that explained that many of the menopausal symptoms are more from estrogen (first 2 weeks of the cycle) and progesterone (2nd 2 weeks) being out of balance, such that in peri-menopause you loose estrogen but you loose progesterone at a faster rate. If you added some progesterone then your estrogen and progesterone would be back in balance. That may be the reason why some folks are having hot flashes again, because their fat cells are releasing estrogen but there is no additional progesterone to balance.
I dont know all the biology, but at least the progesterone cream worked for me. It wasn't like a pill that you take once and viola, but like melatonin you have to build it up gradually. Progesterone cream is available at the drugstore. You rub about a quarter size dab onto a fatty area of the skin once a day or twice a day if needed.
Seems like just taking a supplement for leptin is not that simple.
I read this om WebMD:
Q. What about leptin supplements, such as those sold on the Internet?
Because leptin is a digestible protein that doesn’t enter the bloodstream, it can’t be taken in supplement form, Atkinson says. “If you were to take it as a pill, it’s just like eating chicken or beef. It’s a protein and your body would just break it up, so you wouldn’t absorb it from a pill.”
So those “leptin supplements” sold on the Internet don’t actually contain leptin, even though their name can be misleading. Instead, these supplements contain ingredients that are purported to help improve leptin functioning or feelings of fullness.
“A variety of these supplements may be more aimed at total wellness -- things like helping balance other hormones, thyroid hormones -- just optimizing health so that the body begins to respond to leptin more appropriately and allows the person to feel full,” says Duffy MacKay, ND, a licensed naturopathic doctor who serves as vice president of scientific and regulatory affairs at the Council for Responsible Nutrition, a trade group for the supplements industry.
“Some of what you’re seeing is tried-and-true ingredients that are known to cause satiety, things like soluble fibers that have been known for a long time to help make people full,” MacKay says.
As for supplements’ effects on leptin functioning, the picture is less clear, he says. “The leptin science has only been unraveling since 1994, so there are a lot of unanswered questions.”
“No magic bullets are being discovered,” MacKay says. “[But] we shouldn’t write this pathway off as something that we shouldn’t continue to explore.”
Rather than taking supplements that haven’t been fully proven to help, overweight people have other options to aid leptin functioning, experts say. Lustig advises them to reduce resistance to insulin (a hormone that controls blood sugar) and to bring down high levels of triglycerides (a blood lipid).
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I've been googling around a bit too, and it does seem like it's not as simple as taking a pill. It seems like diet is the better way to go. There is a book called 'The Leptin Diet' by Bryon J. Richards that I wouldn't mind getting. Also 'Mastering Leptin' by the same author. I think I'll wait for a while though, until I'm closer to my final goal weight. Interesting stuff though.
Yesterday was the first time I got hungry and wanted to cheat. It was about 4:30 and I just decided to go ahead and eat my evening protein. That worked. I got past the craving and had vegetables at my regular evening meal time. Crisis averted!
