Friday, May 01, 2009

Leptin

Apparently the big fitness idea that has been lighting up the KVM switch of most networks lately is the hormone leptin. A lot of people in the fitness profession have blogged about it this week, and despite not being a fitness pro myself, I didn't want to be left out.

Apparently leptin is a protein based hormone that tells your body that everything is good, when you are getting enough calories, and puts you into fat storage and hungry mode when you are not. The idea then is that in order to lose weight, you need to create a calorie deficit while at the same time tricking your body into thinking that you are getting plenty to eat.

This is done by employing everyone's favorite dieting technique. Cheating. Supposedly, high carb and high sugar foods really affect your leptin levels and can bring them back to normal pretty quickly. Fortunately, it takes about a week for them to come back down from dieting as well.

So if you haven't put two and two together yet, a once a week cheat day is not only good for you psychologically, but physically!

No comments: