All of us who have struggled to lose weight, know one thing for sure. It’s not easy to lose weight. To begin with there is so much confusion with regards to what causes weight gain & if that is not enough, there are different ‘experts’ giving different advice on what works & what not. There is a multi-billion dollar weight-loss industry built around the desire to look good & lack of clarity about what really works. The idea of writing this article is to inform you about the real science behind weight gain & how you can use it to lose weight, permanently. 

Have you ever noticed, why are some parts of our body are always fat free (like the back of hand & forehead), why men & women fatten differently, why we are more likely to be fat, if our parents are fat? The reason is that when everything else in our body is meticulously regulated, why would fat be an exception. Fat regulation is delicately controlled by a set of hormones. When people accumulate access fat, this tells us that something has gone awry in the careful regulation of their fat tissue.

Obesity is simply a problem of hormonal imbalance, resulting in fat accumulation. People don’t get fat because they overeat. They overeat because their hormones raises their body’s set weight & the body responds by increasing weight. Both gluttony & sloth are effects of the drive to get fatter. 

Everything about human metabolism, including the body set weight, is regulated by hormones. We don’t consciously control our body weight any more than we control our heart rate, our metabolic rate, our temperature or our breathing. All these things are automatically regulated & so is our weight.

  • Hormones decide wither we should burn fat or store it (insulin)
  • Hormones tell us when we are hungry (ghrelin & Neuropeptide YY).
  • Hormones tell us when we are full (leptin, GLP-1 & Cholecystokinin). 
  • Hormones increase energy expenditure (adrenalin).
  • Hormones that shut down energy expenditure (thyroid hormone). 

To understand how powerful these hormones can be, imagine the day you were on fast (e.g. akadashi or karwachauth). What happens to your hunger? Even the site of food made you uncomfortable (that’s your hunger hormone at work). Now imagine your most favorite food, let’s say a pizza or amritsari kulcha. You eat one, you eat another one, but it’s difficult to eat one more. What’s happening? It’s your favorite food, why can’t you eat more of it? It’s because your satiety hormones would not allow you to eat, even one more bite. My point is wither we eat or don’t eat, we are totally under the control of hormones & only by understanding this, we can figure out how to get rid of this problem permanently. 

Following are the hormones which control eating, energy expenditure & storage 

Insulin

Insulin is the principal regulator of the fat metabolism. 75% of the weight loss response in obesity is predicted by Insulin levels. Not willpower, not caloric intake, not exercise, not peer support, just Insulin. Insulin is the major controller of the body’s set weight. As insulin goes up, body set weight goes up. The hypothalamus (in brain) sends signals to the body to gain weight. Insulin blocks lipolysis (breakdown of fat cells) & promotes fat storage. 

Insulin achieves this task primarily through two enzymes. First is LPL (also called Lipoprotein Lipase). The second enzyme is HSL (or Hormone Sensitive Lipase) LPL pulls fat from bloodstream & pushes it into the fat cells. HSL on the other hand work inside the fat cell, to break down the triglyceride into Fatty Acids,which can escape from the cell & be burnt as fuel. Insulin suppresses HSL & hence it is very difficult to burn fat if Insulin is high. In other words LPL makes the fat cells (& us) fatter, while the HSL makes the fat cells (& us) leaner.

Leptin 

In response to eating (& insulin secretion) leptin is secreted from the fat cells & acts on hypothalamus (in brain) to induce a feeling of satiety (feeling full) & makes you stop eating. Leptin is a counter-regulatory hormone to Insulin. Hyper-insulinemia leads to persistent high levels of Leptin, which gives rise to Leptin-resistance. Hence a fat person does not really know when to stop eating.

Ghrelin 

Produced in stomach & L-cells of small intestine. It is a hunger hormone. It causes one to eat more. Ghrelin levels are suppressed after a high protein diet.

Cortisol 

It is the Stress hormone. Prolonged cortisol stimulation raises glucose levels & subsequently raises Insulin thus leading to weight gain. Cortisol also increases insulin resistance further complicating the problem. Its well know that factors that reduce stress like meditation, adequate sleep, yoga, massage & moderate exercise all lead to weigh loss probably due to lowering cortisol levels.

Estrogen

Secreted by the ovaries in females. In males is secreted by the adrenal glands and by the testes. It acts via LPL (Lipoprotein Lipase) enzyme with causes you to store more fat. Estrogen happens to ‘inhibit’ or suppress the activity of LPL. In situations where estrogen is less (like menopause or surgical removal of ovaries or old age in men), LPL leads to fat storage. It also causes you to eat more thus leading to weight gain. This is the reason the lot of post menopausal women tend to gain lot of weight. 

NeuropeptideYY (NPY) 

It is one the most potent appetite stimulating peptides found in the brain. It stimulates food intake with a preferential effect on carbohydrate intake. It increases motivation to eat and delays satiety by augmenting the meal size. NPY appears to play an important role in body weight and feeding regulation.

GlucagonLike Peptide -1 (GLP-1)

Secreted by L-cells of small intestine – promotes satiety leading to lower caloric intake and weight loss. It also alters gastric emptying leading to a feeling of fullness. In addition it also helps control blood sugar. SeveralGLP-1 agonists are now used for treatment of obese diabetics for the same reason.

Cholecystokinin (CCK) 

Synthesized in duodenum and jejunum (small intestine). It is known to reduce appetite & hunger. Dietrich in fat & protein is known to increase CCK levels & increasesatiety.

Peptide YY 

Produced in ileum & colon. Peptide YY is released after eating, circulates in the blood and works by binding to receptors in the brain. Binding of peptide YY to brain receptors decreases appetite and makes people feel full after eating.

Thyroid hormone 

Secreted from the thyroid gland& controls the rate of metabolism. A normal thyroid function is a must foran effective weight loss, so a thyroid function test must be included when a general blood work is being done for weight loss.

Some of you may be wondering, if putting on weight is all about hormones, then what about the role of diet or exercise. Why are the doctors or dietitians not telling us about this stuff? All I can tell you that only doctors who have done extensive study & training in this field shall be able to guide you on how to use this information. I understand that you may have lot of genuine questions & I cannot answer each one of them, except that I can tell you how & where to find your answers. 

For those of you love reading, I recommend a book “The Obesity Code” by Dr Jason Fung. 

You can by it on Amazon https://amzn.to/2Wy2Akf 

For those of you who don’t like to read, check his video https://youtu.be/ZKC3hiyLeRc 

Now since you know that hormones are the cause for weight gain (or loss), how do you use this knowledge to your advantage. Of all the above mentioned hormones the top 4 are the most important & of which Insulin alone is responsible for 75 to 80% of the problem. 

So if there is just one thing you could learn from this article, it is learn to about foods that lead to production of more insulin (& how to avoid them, to keep you insulin low). A low carbohydrate diet will help you keep your insulin low & eventually lead lead you to lose your weight, permanently.

If you understand this little secret, you are already on your way to your weight loss journey.