Excerpts from the forthcoming Book – “60 Day Turnaround”
Leptin is the most significant hormone in the life of anybody concerned about their weight. Often we pursue thyroid tests, and will chase down small blips in thyroid hormone levels to no avail. This is because in most of those cases, leptin is not functioning properly and because of it’s designation as the master hormone above all others, you will not function properly until that one is working.
You might ask, why has my doctor not told me this? As with any “untreatable condition”, your doctor will shy away from discussing. Untreatable? Well, it is completely treatable, just not with any medication. For this reason changing leptin is simply no fun. There is no singular pill to fix it, no cream, or elixir. Good old fashion hard work is the only way, follow a diet of restriction and stay committed.
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In our culture as we begin eating higher levels of sugar, mind you this is typically by one year of age. We are told to move quickly to grains, then fruits. If we attempt to utilize vegetables they are typically the sweetest ones you can find, carrots and peas. And we are already formulating the prospect of sugar addiction as we raise our children. As toddlers we keep them quiet with Cheerios and raisins, both pure sugar in the blood stream.
We praise our children with rewards of sugar, allowing them special treats when they do well. Much like we train a dog, we utilize what ultimately hurts them, hurts their health. Culturally we are set up for failure. In many cases, the children don’t gain too much weight as most children are metabolically gifted. They burn at great intensity, utilizing the sugar in their bloodstream for fuel and therefore they do not store it.
This goes in one of two directions as they hit their later teens and early 20s. In some cases the sugar addict child maintains the metabolic gift, and they quickly develop the pseudo-diagnosis of “hypoglycemia”. Even though they are not gaining weight, but because they are addicted to sugar, they cannot utilize fat for energy even though they have “some” fat available, it is useless to them. That individual ends up needing to eat every 60 minutes or less in order to feel comfortable. Pull them away from snacks for five hours and they feel weak and lightheaded, no energy and useless to the world. This is no way to live… how would you fare if you were lost in the woods?
More commonly however, the individual becomes overweight. But perhaps not significantly, but at an extremely acceptable level in our culture at first; but over time, as they begin to put on additional inches around the midsection, changing their shape to become less like the athlete they might have once been and more representative of a pear, their weight gain becomes more of a concern for social and health reasons.
When we test these two individuals for leptin, we will see that the overweight individual has a much higher leptin number than the metabolically gifted counterpart. The metabolically gifted counterpart still does not have a number that I would recommend, though they will fit perfectly into the norms that are published by the lab companies. This is because the lab companies have no idea what normal is, they base it upon culture and BMI numbers (which automatically say the normal range is higher if you have a higher body mass… well of course this is exactly what we are trying to change). If you want to have the most successful outcome for your energy utilization and production, as well as your hormonal balance. You should target a leptin from 0 to 2 as a male and from 2 to 4 as a female. These numbers will fly in the face of every published norm out there, but these are OPTIMAL. What does it take to be optimal? Commitment.
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Thanks for reading these excerpts. My 60 Day Team is working hard to help finish this book so that we have something available for February! Be well and be blessed! – Dr E