Hormonal
Overweight/obese women have higher plasma leptin levels per unit of adiposity (leptin/adiposity ratio) compared to normal weight women, and this ratio decreases significantly after sustained weight loss in the overweight/obese group.
If you are overweight, your body produces more leptin for every pound of fat than a lean person does. When you lose weight, this 'leptin efficiency' improves significantly, dropping by about 30%. This suggests that obesity involves a specific hormonal resistance or dysregulation that improves with fat loss.
The plasma leptin/adiposity ratio was higher in overweight/obese women than in normal weight women... After 8 months on the low fat ad libitum diet, only overweight/obese women had a significant change in their leptin/adiposity ratio, which decreased by approximately 30%.
Why this rating
Controlled clinical trial with detailed subgroup analysis.
Source
Relationship of plasma leptin to plasma insulin and adiposity in normal weight and overweight women: effects of dietary fat content and sustained weight loss.
Peter J. Havel et al. · The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism · 1996
DOI 10.1210/jcem.81.12.8954050
More from this paper
- Plasma leptin concentrations are not affected by dietary fat content (ranging from 14% to 31% of energy) when body weight and adiposity are held constant.Good
- Sustained weight loss on a very low-fat diet significantly decreases plasma leptin concentrations, with the magnitude of decrease correlating with the amount of body mass lost.Good
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