[ellenuw]

About a year ago Meg attended a lecture and shared her notes. Here is an excerpt, specifically dealing with the hormone Leptin: (hope I did this right)

Originally Posted by Meg

I attended a lecture this week given by Rudolph L. Leibel, head of Molecular Genetics at Columbia Medical School, titled Mechanisms For Body Weight Regulation. ...


Leptin Levels: The scientific reason for this change in metabolic rates between normal and obese and reduced obese persons has to do with leptin levels (a hormone). If you google Leibel and leptin, you’ll find a lot of scientific articles about his research that explains it all much better than I an. Currently Dr, Leibel is experimenting with giving reduced obese small doses of leptin to restore its level to that of normal and obese people and it seems to reverse this metabolic slowdown. Unfortunately, it’s not anywhere close to being released as a treatment for weight maintenance (he emphasized that it wouldn’t help for weight loss; it only works for maintainers).

My Thoughts On What This Mean For Us Maintainers: ...

... But he emphasized that it IS possible to maintain a large weight loss – it’s just a little harder for us to maintain our new normal weights than for people who never have been fat (again, not news to any of us). All these hormones and body weight regulations can be defeated by monitoring our calories in versus calories out because – remember - it’s all numbers. OK, our energy expenditure side of the equation is a little slower than normal people’s. But we still can maintain our weight losses by eating a little less or moving a little more – eating about 15 – 20% less or exercising about 15 - 20% more than normal people.

I sat there with my mouth hanging open for an hour and a half while I listened to all of this. I always suspected that it was all true, but here was the proof. On the one hand, it’s kind of depressing but on the other, I realize that nothing’s changed. Honestly, we’ve all puzzled this out for ourselves already, right?

In mulling all this information over, I’ve got several thoughts:
[list][*]Maintenance IS harder than losing! Not just psychologically, but for real, measurable physical reasons. Our metabolisms are slowed down by weight loss.

[*]This explains why so many losers regain weight. Our bodies are genetically and biologically programmed to return to our previous obese weights and will lower our metabolisms and release hormones to get us to eat more and burn fewer calories in order to regain fat. It’s a scientific fact – this is what we’re up against.

[*]Once we reach goal weight, not only can’t we go back to our old ways of eating, we can’t even start to eat like normal (never fat) people without gaining weight. Those of us who are the reduced obese are and always will be different and we need to recognize and adapt to that fact.

[*]Therefore, the diet’s not ever going to be over – we’re going to have to eat thoughtfully for the rest of our lives in order to defeat our bodies’ biochemical mechanisms to regain fat.
[*]The worst possible way to maintain a weight loss would be to try to eat intuitively because our bodies will be cueing us to eat more with lowered leptin levels – we need to eat non-intuitively to outwit our bodies' desire to return to obesity.


Please anyone - maintainers and those who are still losing - post your thoughts, opinions, comments, and questions. This is the physical framework in which we're going to live for the rest of our lives and I think it's so important to understand and adapt to it.

For those of you who don't hang out on LWL, a little about me (me, me, me). I started on my new lifestyle in Oct 03 and lost about 65 pounds. I got sideswiped with vision loss and fatigue and shingles between Sep 05 and Jan 06 (while training formy 1st marathon). Recently I was diagnosed with MS.

I have approached the MS diagnosis with the same research and vigor I approached my loosing weight and regaining my health. Today I ran across and article on MS and Leptin. You can read it here if you are interested: http://www.healthday.com/view.cfm?id=530281

Blocking Fat Hormone Might Slow MS
But results in mice may not translate to humans, experts add

Basically, the article states that an experiment in a similar disease in mice was performed that blocked the activity of leptin and slowed the progression of the disease. So, in mice at least, it looks like blocking this hormone helps.

Recent longevity studies in women have been released telling us HRT is unsafe and then it is safe until 10 years past the onset of menopause, low fat diets don't protect against cancers, calcium doesn't protect bones ... (and I can go on and on).

This has all gotten me thinking about quite a few things. First, the reports in our general media do more of a dis-service than a service by only reporting the headlines and not the findings. We need to go look at the reports and educate ourselves.

The other thing (on a much more positive note) is how cool and exciting it is to be around as all these new hormones and physiological and psychological issues related to weight and obesity and health are being discovered. Heck, we didnlt even know about specific hormones besides estrogen, progesteren and testosterone until a few years ago. This is a fantastic time to be learning how to take care of ourselves! And look at our grocery stores - Icanlt remember produce sections like this when I was growing up, or the choices in restaurants, or sources like 3Fc or ...

Wow, we are lucky to be here now and the future only looks better and better, mostly because we are still discovering and knowledge is power!

Thanks for listening and I'd like to hear (read) your thoughts, too.