Weight Loss This and That

I was reading health.msn.com and I found new 'to me' information.

The article was talking about one of the reasons why we gain back the weight after we have lost a lot of weight.

 It said that when you have lost considerable weight you've lost fat from fat cells, but the fat cells stilll remain in your body. These fat cells are programmed to be filled, since fat is the body's energy supply. So when weight is lost, energy preservation mechanisms kick in to attempt to restore the lost body fat. It's unclear how much weight loss triggers this phenomenon, but it appears that when weight loss starts to plateau, often after about six months of with loss, some biological triggers try to reverse the loss.

Biochemicals are released in your brain and body that may affect your tendency to regain weight in a varity of ways: You may feel less full after eating, you may crave snacks more often, you may crave more fattening foods, and or you may get hungrier sooner.

The weight loss hormone is LEPTIN, and it tells your brain to suppress hunger. Here's how to make the most of it. Leptin could be the master hormone for you appetite!

Elevated triglycerides in the blood, which prevent leptin from reaching the brain, allows hunger feelings to persist.

Fortunately, you can take steps to bathe your brain in leptin and quell appetite naturally:

Eat foods low in triglycerides: Dairy Fat
Get hooked on fish oil: It may lower triglycerides and facilitate leptin's passage to the brain.
Sleep about eight hours: Anything less is associated with lower levels of leptin in the blood and brain.
Exercise Often: Regular activity lowers triglycerides and helps the brain abosorb more leptin.

An additional bonus to maintaining robust levels of leptin in the brain: a flatter belly. When appetite(and, thus food intake) is suppressed by leptin, the body first turns to it most readily available source of body fat, which is stored around the belly, for fuel.

Thomas Crook, PH.D, a clinical psychologist , has conducted extensive research to improve our understanding of how the brain works. He is a former research program director at the National Institute of Mental Health and is CEO of Cognitive Research Corp.