In 1994, a researcher named Jeffrey Friedman discovered a groundbreaking hormone called leptin that regulates appetite, promotes satiety (or fullness), and curbs cravings. The name leptin was derived from leptos, the Greek term for “thin”, because leptin was considered to be a signal from fat cells to the brain that turned down hunger.
Since its discovery, leptin—now known as the “satiety hormone”—has been the focus of numerous studies, with many zeroed in on its ability to regulate calorie intake and energy expenditure, making it easier to maintain a healthy body weight.
Leptin has revolutionized our understanding of how the brain responds to food and how the body manages nutritional intake and weight. Below, we’ll look closely at leptin’s roles in supporting overall health and discuss specific diet and lifestyle habits that can significantly impact its production and function.
We’ll also explore the ins and outs of leptin resistance, a condition in which the brain becomes less responsive to leptin’s signals, disrupting appetite regulation, increasing food intake, and contributing to weight gain. Let’s dive in.
- ABOUT OUR EXPERTS: Dr. Chelsea Azarcon, N.D., is a naturopathic doctor. Dr. Joshua Axe, D.N.M., C.N., N.M.D., is a doctor of natural medicine, nutritionist, and the founder of Ancient Nutrition.
What is Leptin?
Leptin is a hormone synthesized primarily by adipose (fat) tissue. Its primary role is to communicate with the hypothalamus, the brain region responsible for regulating appetite and metabolism.
Leptin is believed to work by signaling the brain about energy balance and influencing hunger and satiety levels, according to research. Additionally, it’s involved in growth and development, inflammatory responses, and balance of fats (lipids) in the blood.
In healthy adults, when body fat stores increase, leptin levels rise, communicating to the brain that the body has sufficient energy reserves. This signal then suppresses hunger, reduces food intake, and increases energy expenditure, thereby helping the body maintain a healthy weight. In other words, when your body feels amply nourished, you produce more leptin, and your desire to eat decreases.
“In a healthy body, leptin secretion increases with weight gain and decreases with weight loss,” explains naturopathic doctor Dr. Chelsea Azarcon, N.D. “In addition to telling your body you are full, leptin increases your metabolic rate to help you burn more calories. As such, a lower basal metabolic body rate can develop among those with leptin dysregulation.” (We’ll dig into what leptin dysregulation looks like soon.)
Factors Influencing Leptin Balance
Several factors—including diet choices, sleep quality and patterns, habits like exposure to sunlight, and genetics—can influence leptin production, sensitivity, and signaling:
1. Sunlight Exposure and Circadian Rhythms
Sunlight exposure does more than increase your vitamin D levels; it also helps regulate your circadian rhythms, which influence the production of hormones, including leptin, explains Dr. Joshua Axe, D.N.M., C.N., N.M.D., a doctor of natural medicine, nutritionist, and the founder of Ancient Nutrition.
Studies suggest that disruptions in circadian rhythms due to inadequate sunlight exposure can alter leptin levels, leading to dysregulated hunger cues and potential weight gain. Do you sit indoors all day under artificial lighting? Don’t get outside in the sun much? You’re at higher risk for leptin resistance, says Axe.
2. Sleep Patterns
Adequate sleep is essential for many aspects of health, including mood regulation, cognitive function, metabolic function, and optimal production of leptin. Of course, in addition to lack of sunlight exposure, irregular sleep patterns also impact circadian rhythms that influence leptin.
Specifically, sleep deprivation disrupts the balance of hunger and satiety hormones, causing less leptin to be made in proportion to ghrelin, a hormone that stimulates appetite, explains Axe. This imbalance can lead to increased cravings, overeating, and weight gain over time. In addition, sleep deprivation can increase cortisol levels, which simultaneously messes with leptin sensitivity and triggers cravings for “junk foods” that ramp up calorie intake.
Read More: Steal These Health Experts’ Nighttime Rituals For Better Sleep And Well-being
“Chronic sleep disruption has been demonstrated to induce leptin resistance (or insensitivity) and chronically high leptin levels,” adds Azarcon. “In mice, this leptin insensitivity is even capable of triggering weight gain independent of changes in exercise or food intake.”
3. Diet Quality
The quality of your diet plays a critical role in your leptin sensitivity. According to Axe, diets high in refined sugars and carbs (such as lots of white flour), processed foods with lots of additives and sodium, and unhealthy fats (like trans fats and refined vegetable oils) can induce leptin resistance.
The reason here is that these foods make it hard to control your portion sizes and are easy to over-indulge in, he says. Plus, they can mess with gut health and contribute to inflammation in the long term, both of which are associated with greater risk of leptin resistance.
Dangers of Leptin Resistance And Signs You’re Experiencing It
Leptin resistance occurs when someone stops responding to increasing leptin levels as they normally would, meaning that high leptin no longer has its usual effect of downregulating appetite and food intake while upping metabolic rate. As a result, hunger remains high despite adequate (or high) body fat stores. Leptin resistance is often seen in obesity and can contribute to weight gain and difficulty losing weight.
“This tricks the body into feeling overly hungry all the time, even when one may be, in fact, well-fed,” explains Azarcon. “When someone is leptin resistant, their body thinks they are starving even though they’re not. This leads to elevated blood glucose and the propensity to hold onto more body fat.”
Some of the signs of leptin resistance include:
- A tendency to overeat and a hard time managing calorie intake
- Signs of slow metabolism, such as easily gaining weight or experiencing lots of weight fluctuations (which often goes hand-in-hand with yo-yo dieting)
- Obesity, which has been shown to be strongly linked to leptin resistance, along with metabolic syndrome, including insulin resistance, type 2 diabetes, and abnormally high levels of lipids in the blood (dyslipidemia)
- Blood sugar fluctuations, which can cause a rollercoaster of energy, bouts of fatigue, jitters, brain fog, and cravings for sugar
Risk Factors for Leptin Resistance
According to Axe and Azarcon, the following habits, lifestyle factors, and health issues increase your risk of experiencing leptin resistance:
- Chronic inflammation, which can mess with leptin receptor sensitivity
- High stress levels, which cause an increase in cortisol levels that interfere with leptin sensitivity
- Certain health conditions, including obesity, nonalcoholic fatty liver disease, and depression
- Eating a highly processed diet, such as one that includes lots of added sugar, sodium, and refined fats (especially in combination), which makes it difficult to control calorie intake
- Mold exposure, in which harmful mycotoxins may bind to fat cells and disrupt how they produce and respond to leptin
- A sedentary lifestyle, which can interfere with normal appetite control and lead to worsened inflammation, weight gain, and other health issues
Lifestyle Habits That Support Healthy Leptin Function
Now that you know why leptin function is so important for your weight and long-term well-being, let’s look at how to keep leptin in balance via a healthy lifestyle.
1. Eat A Balanced, Whole Foods Diet
A diet rich in whole foods, including lean proteins, complex carbohydrates, fiber-rich fruits and vegetables, and healthy fats, supports stable leptin levels, says Azarcon. (The emphasis on complex carbohydrates is key, as the fiber they offer helps satiate you and keep blood sugar under control.) Studies back this up, demonstrating that whole foods provide essential nutrients and promote satiety, helping to regulate appetite and prevent overeating.
Read More: Your Guide To Cutting Highly-Processed Foods In 2 Weeks
She and Axe recommend steering clear of ultra-processed foods and those containing added sugar (including sugary beverages) to remain as metabolically healthy as possible.
2. Prioritize Getting Enough Sleep
Not currently sleeping for seven to nine hours most nights? If so, make a serious effort to get more restorative sleep on the calendar. Adequate, uninterrupted sleep supports optimal hormone production and regulation. Establishing a consistent sleep schedule and creating a sleep-friendly environment (free of blue light from screens, noise, and distractions) can enhance sleep quality and leptin function.
If you have trouble nodding off, Azaron and Axe suggest considering trying herbs and supplements such as ashwagandha, valerian root, and melatonin to help your body and mind wind down. Talk to your doctor, a credentialed nutritionist, or an herbalist to decide which—and how much—to try.
3. Increase Your Sunlight Exposure
Exposure to natural sunlight, especially in the morning, is a key input for the body’s internal clock, promoting healthy sleep-wake cycles and optimizing hormone balance, says Axe. He recommends getting outside regularly, including for 10 minutes or more in the morning, to help regulate your circadian rhythms and improve your metabolism and sleep.
4. Consider Trying Alternate-Day or Intermittent Fasting
One of fasting’s many potential metabolic benefits is that it can help balance leptin (in addition to promoting weight loss, regulating calorie intake, and helping to normalize inflammation responses), suggest Axe and Azarcon.
If you want to optimize your leptin function, “follow an alternate-day cycling diet or intermittent fasting schedule,” says Azarcon. “Within your eating window, focus on eating meals with protein and fat every few hours.”
Read More: How To Adjust Your Workout Routine When Intermittent Fasting
Another interesting tactic here is to include a heavier feeding day, in which you increase your carbohydrate and calorie intake, into your weekly schedule. This essentially “helps trick the brain into thinking it is being overfed and signals it to release more leptin,” Azarcon says.
5. Get Your Stress Under Control
Chronic stress can disrupt hormone balance, including the regulation of leptin and cortisol. That’s where natural stress-reducing techniques, such as meditation, deep breathing exercises, yoga, or mindfulness practices come into play.
Adding these practices into your daily routine can help mitigate stress’s impact on your sleep, appetite, and weight.
6. Exercise Regularly
Exercise enhances leptin sensitivity by promoting the uptake of glucose and fatty acids into muscle cells. “Aerobic exercise, resistance training, and high-intensity interval training (HIIT) have all been shown to improve leptin signaling and aid in weight management efforts,” explains Axe.
How much sweating do you need to do? A general recommendation is to aim for 30 minutes of exercise most days of the week, although more may be better if you’re leptin-resistant. “Try to exercise for 45 to 60 minutes most days if you can,” recommends Azarcon.
7. Supplement to Fill Nutritional Gaps
Certain supplements may support healthy leptin function.
Omega-3 fatty acids, found in fatty fish like salmon, flaxseeds, and fish oil supplements, have been shown to help support the balance of inflammation in the body, promoting brain health and potentially improving leptin signaling.
Vitamin D, meanwhile, which is obtained via sunlight exposure or supplements, plays a role in immune function and metabolic processes, including the regulation of leptin and other hormones. Vitamin D supplements can be especially helpful for those who spend little time indoors and are at risk for deficiency.
Finally, some studies suggest conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) can help balance leptin levels, promote leptin sensitivity, aid in weight management, and support healthy blood sugar.