Hormonal
In obese humans, circulating leptin levels are elevated while ghrelin levels are decreased, and the body exhibits leptin resistance, meaning high leptin fails to suppress food intake or increase energy expenditure as it does in lean individuals.
If you are obese, your body likely has high levels of leptin (the 'stop eating' hormone) and low levels of ghrelin (the 'start eating' hormone), but your brain has become resistant to these signals. This is why standard dieting often fails; your body fights back by ignoring the satiety signals. Understanding this resistance explains why simply 'trying harder' is physiologically difficult and why treatments must address the signaling pathway, not just hormone levels.
In obese subjects the circulating level of the anorexigenic hormone leptin is increased, whereas surprisingly, the level of the orexigenic hormone ghrelin is decreased. It is now established that obese patients are leptin-resistant.
Why this rating
The paper is a comprehensive review citing multiple studies establishing these correlations and the concept of resistance.
Source
The role of leptin and ghrelin in the regulation of food intake and body weight in humans: a review
Melanie D. Klok et al. · Obesity Reviews · 2006
DOI 10.1111/j.1467-789x.2006.00270.x
More from this paper
- Leptin resistance in obesity is likely caused by defective transport of leptin across the blood-brain barrier (BBB) and/or downregulation of hypothalamic leptin receptors, rather than a lack of leptin production.Good
- Ghrelin functions as a meal-initiation signal in humans, with preprandial increases correlating with hunger, and its levels are suppressed by food intake, although its role in long-term weight regulation is less clear than leptin's.Good
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