A many of the processes that occur in our bodies are controlled by chemicals called hormones. Hormones basically chemical signals. For example you may have high blood sugar, so you body releases insulin in order to trigger a number of processes that will reduce your blood sugar. Hormone levels are something that we cannot control directly, but we can indirectly control them by changing our lifestyle and taking supplements. Many factors such as sleep, exercise, nutrition and stress effect the hormone levels in your body.

The hormone that we are going to talk about today is leptin .

Leptin

is a substance that is involved with the regulation of energy levels and fat metabolism in your body. Leptin does three things in order to achieve this. Firstly it will counter Neuropeptide Y, a chemical that stimulates feeding (produced in the gut). In addition to this is counters another feeding stimulant called Anandamide. Lastly it will make you body produce more of a chemical called a-MSH that will suppress your appetite, meaning that you do not feel as hungry. To summarise its effects, it will naturally make you feel fuller for longer and decrease the need to eat (of course, this is all to a natural and healthy extent).

The effects of this hormone were first discovered by looking at a population of obese mice. To summarise a rather complex set of experiments, scientists increased the leptin levels of the obese mice they started to lose their fat quickly. The effect of leptin on mice and humans is essentially the same – it causes a loss of weight.

So, as you can see high leptin levels are something that would be very beneficial to someone who wants to lose weight. When it was first discovered it was hailed as being the cure to the growing problem so obesity. Mastering the control of your leptin levels is one of the biggest things that you can learn in relation to weight loss. There are lifestyle changes that you can make to passively increase leptin levels as well as supplements that you can take to directly increase leptin levels.

The first thing that you must do is watch your fructose intake. Scientific testing has shown that high fructose levels will increase the activity of chemicals that inhibit leptin – meaning it has a greatly reduced effect. Now, fruits do contain fructose but don’t worry as it’s in moderate levels. Taking fruit is an essential part of a healthy diet and must not be cut out. When I say to watch you fructose levels I mean any foods with an artificially high level of fructose.

Secondly you want to get good sleep every night on a regular basis. Maintaining a regular and healthy sleeping pattern is very important. I would recommend 8 hours a night, no less and not too much more. Sleep deprivation causes the release of a hormone called cortisol which inhibits leptin and makes you feel stressed. It will also cause your body to produce leptin in lower amounts. Watch out though, getting excess sleep eg 10+ hours has been linked to an increase in the rate of brain related diseases later on in life. A regular 8 hour a day sleep pattern will keep your leptin levels at the right amount.

Lastly, you will want to avoid any diets that restrict your calorie intake significantly. Diets like this inhibit the production of leptin, meaning that you body retains weight and you start to feel more hungry.

Now that lifestyle changes have been covered, I am going to talk about a fantastic supplement called African Mango. African Mango is a supplement derived from the seeds of the African Mango plant. Its effects were discovered by local hunters who would crush up and then eat the seeds in order to stave off hunger during a long hunt. African Mango supplements will increase your leptin levels and give you all of the positive effects that I mentioned above. Taking regular African Mango supplements in conjunction with the lifestyle changes mentioned above will set you on the path to losing weight.