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Bingeing, Body fat, Leptin and Light – Connecting the Dots


 

There’s a relatively new kid (hormone) on the block, only classified in 1994, largely overlooked and central and essential when it comes to energy expenditure, energy storage and the regulation of stress, sex and thyroid hormones. It’s called leptin and it has everything to do with cravings, bingeing, yo-yo dieting and hard to shift body fat.

 

If you have tried multiple diets: keto, carnivore, intermittent fasting, low carb, low fat, and tried multiple exercise programs: bootcamp, crossfit, aerobics, high intensity, low intensity, walking, running, and still struggling to balance energy and weight, have you looked at your leptin levels? There’s a good chance your leptin is not in a healthy range.

 

Gained unwanted body fat despite all your efforts?

 

If so, it’s likely your leptin, the master hormone that influences appetite and energy, is running amok. Leptin’s job is to communicate between the brain and body how much energy/fat is in storage and how much energy/fat is available to use. Leptin also signals when we are full, so if it’s not ‘just right,’ overeating and bingeing often result. A smaller percentage of folk have low leptin and are underweight, and the remedy is fairly similar.

 

Leptin, Sleep and Fat Stores

 

Whether you toss and turn, stay up late, sleep in, have trouble drifting off or wake too early, rest assured (pun intended) leptin metabolism will be adversely affected.

Leptin is THE master hormone that affects appetite, cravings, satiety and determines whether we store the energy from food as fat or burn it for energy. Leptin ‘docks’ in the hypothalamus (in the brain) when we get appropriate sleep aligned with the day/night cycle. Essentially, leptin function is determined by sleep, both quality, timing and duration.


Leptin resistance is a precursor to insulin resistance and diabetes, and if there’s a diagnosis of diabetes or insulin resistance, leptin resistance is a guarantee. Furthermore, untreated leptin resistance virtually guarantees that diets fail time and again, bingeing and cravings persist, fat is hard to shift and exercise, especially high intensity, may actually cause weight gain.

 

Leptin & Light- The importance of a balanced circadian cycle

 

The full spectrum of light waves from the sun are encoded with different frequencies (information) that regulates our sleep/wake cycle. Morning sunlight (and breakfast) tells our body to gently raise cortisol levels, raise serotonin levels and even primes our evening melatonin production. As the sun sets, blue light frequencies disappear from the light spectrum, red light increases, ‘informing’ our body to lower cortisol and increase melatonin so that leptin docking occurs between midnight and 2am.


Unfortunately, our modern lighting environment is wreaking havoc on our hormones.



Light at night = fat

Blue light exists in the natural light spectrum of sunlight so in and of itself it isn’t harmful.  However, artificial lighting supplies an excess of blue light compared to the natural  light spectrum (and lacks red/violet light) plus blue light at night (light bulbs and screens), wreaks havoc on our hormones.

 

Blue light at night (screens, fluorescents and LED lights) tell your body it’s midday in summer; resulting in elevated cortisol that impairs melatonin production and creates sleep issues that prevent leptin docking, which can lead to diabetes, weight gain and insulinogenesis.


Think about it like this- if your body is receiving a signal that it’s midday when it’s actually 9pm e.g. blue light from the TV screen, your body simply doesn’t have enough time to produce the required amount of melatonin thereby causing disruption to the leptin system.



Light up my Life


Light, in all its myriad forms influences how leptin functions; sunrise, sunlight, daylight, evening light, artificial daylight (working indoors under lights), light at night, both indoor lighting and streetlights, plus lights from phones, tablets, computers and television. If we are to enjoy healthy hormonal functioning, we do need to take a close look at our light environment! You would probably be surprised to know there are over 30 000 studies looking at light and health.

 

Hidden in plain sight

 

Unfortunately, excessive blue light at night (LED bulbs and screens) is harmful to health; blue light at night is obesogenic, blood sugar dysregulating and prevents melatonin from doing its main job; that of clean-up crew, tagging, identifying and destroying diseased, ageing and precancerous cells. This is one of the reasons why breast cancer incidence is so much higher in nurses and found to be lower in African countries and populations of blind women.

  

 


Unfortunately, most diet and exercise plans targeting weight loss wreak havoc on leptin function.

 


No more counting macro’s and calories

 

If you’re fed up with diets and exercise plans, fed up with feeling tired and blagh, a leptin reset is the most natural way to regulate your metabolism, just like nature intended. When your leptin is well regulated, appetite is regulated, cravings disappear, energy is abundant; you don’t have to think about what and how much to eat, it just happens. And the best thing about having healthy leptin levels, all your other hormones come back to balance too!


If this resonates and you think your leptin may need coaxing back into shape, call Rian on 0449 569 064 or book directly here.

 


For more on light and health- https://thelightdoctor.com/


 

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