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I'm looking up the Leptin Diet at the moment.
It makes sense- but it means re-setting your eating habits of a lifetime and won't produce instant results for Gout.
It's a way of finding a non medicated route for high triglycerides, BP, weight control + immune support- and a lot more besides.Tell me about the Leptin Diet…it SOUNDS like a hormone made from fat that tells you eat less…so het big and fat and lose weight? Straighten me out. How do you get the body to make leptin without needing to be fat to do it
I'm getting sick of my 27.5 BMI and I'm getting tired of making believe it's ALL MUSCLE! I need 195# for 25.0 and I'm at 214 today.
I've not finished the book yet and it gets quite complicated to explain the absolute details- even if I could remember them.
The first thing that comes to mind, strangely, is Smoking tobacco products.
I 've never quite bought the idea given out that it is as addictive as H ,I think it's a Habit which can be triggered by association and a myriad other connected feelings. Well, leptin seems a bit like that- a hidden top down hormone that controls everything but is hidden from out conscious control. The reason?- It's designed to keep us alive and doesn't want to be 'turned off' easily.
Ignoring false demands for food is the secret- my other posts about water might help.Thirst is mistaken for hunger as we age, starting in our early twenties,I've read.
'Turning down' even, is like stopping smoking after the next ciggy- so it's a habit that needs training [Well, you're the trainee in fact].
So we need to become our own trainer in the matter of appetite and diet patterns. it doesn't seem to matter too much what you eat so long as it's a normal balanced diet to start with- it's WHEN , not too big -and not too much carbs.
In my battle with BP [and Gout also] I realised that glycerides,UA, lbs weight etc are long term effects that build on short term triggers that seem almost harmless at the time and in controlling these as much as I could I was losing weight- so when I read this book after connecting with the concept online- I realised it was already doing the business for me without too much effort.
One of the main basics is that the body can burn fat overnight if you shut down the digestve system properly so a 12hr break is the norm between dinner/supper and breakfast.
No snacks, ever and 3 meals a day only. The routine is really simple ,but the thinking behind the approach is complex.
It's a fairly recent discovery that fat is the top hormone and it affects everything in the body ,top down essentially.
Modern life seems designed to turn off our appestats and sell us what we don't really need, only want.
In some ways, Gout seems to get the flak for this -as it illustrates an out of control status in the sufferer and maybe it serves as a hair shirt scourge the rest of society can wave at us?
[The supposedly over indulgent]
In some way, the Leptin approach appeals to me – as it is a subtle, under the counter riposte to the element of victimed hair shirt wearer not getting enough healing from society- and why I see a drug solution to it as' consumerist' in the same light.
This covers only the long term aspects of my life- there are obviously times and situations when drug interventions are really needed, in my case BP, certainly -and maybe for gout in the end.
So, it is early days,but the mental attitude we have to life and illness is fundamental as to living with it -if not always curing it!
The body will follow, hopefully.
It does seem mind over matter, at first sight, but reading the book, I think there are physiological arguments that hold the theory solid.
The main lynchpin is that we don't give our bodies time to hear the 'full' sign and get used , in a rich enough world, to taking in easy calories in excess.
I 've never quite bought the idea given out that it is as addictive as H ,I think it's a Habit which can be triggered by association and a myriad other connected feelings.
You have no idea how happy it makes me to read that sentence…I think we are the 2 people on Earth who believe that. I have argued to the point of APOPLEXY with smokers online over this issue. Of course they are just justifying their own inability to QUIT. My evidence was that I used 2 weeks of self hypnosis from a wonderful short book written some 30 years ago. I smoked normally during the period and “indoctrinated myself” against advertising, habits, etc…the crux being that smoking provides a “relaxation response” that can be replaced by 3 deep breaths if trained. Day 14, my last cigarette for 10 years…NO PHYSICAL RESPONSE AT ALL, NONE. Addiction is NOT like that because I often quit drinking for months at a time using the same methodology and let me tell yoou, I cannot do it without a passle of valium for several days. THAT'S ADDICTION. If I miss my coffee in the morning I have a crushing headachee by mid-afternoon. THAT'S ADDICTION.
Double whammy, after the first 10 years I smoked ONE cigarette and was hooked for 2 months…THAT'S HABIT. None for the last 20 years. Smoking is no more addictive than sucking one's thumb, nail biting, or nose-picking (and probably not as nice as either.)
Sorry for the diversion but that topic is one of my hot buttons.
Thanks for the Leptin discussion. The diet flies in the face of what passes for “common” thinking now…that silly 6 small meal routine. My response is that if I had to fiddle in the kitchen 6 times a day, the last trip would be for a sharp knife for my wrists so I never swallowed it. I am fine with 3 meals or even 2. Nighttime snacks though are still a tough bugaboo for me…and that's boredome and habit.
What I have found recently is how very easlily my stomach contracts to accommodate less food and I have cut my portions down considerably with NO difficulty unless I have a humongous pig out…then I suffer discomfort, let's call it welcome discomfort. Not starving mind you but now instead of an entire 3 servings of a Stouffer's 21 ounce lasagna, half will do without hunger…this I found quite eye opening.
Let me throw in just a couple of ancillaries. Cardiac tissue is reallly the only practical burner of fat (forget long distance running and brown fat discussions.) The heart PREFERS lipids STRONGLY, almost as much as the brain demands glucose as it's nearly exclusive fuel. Not QUITE sure how this works into the 12 hour fast each day…but on the simplest level it's a lot of time with NO FOOD!
Thus I think that cardio excercise is a good fat burner if you can keep your heart rate up for an hour. Another reason I hate beta-blockers is that they make it impossible for the heart to operate at high output…natural corollary is no fat burning.
Leptin activity, like every bodily function has evolved to preserve life (not sure about gout though.) Since the days of pre-cave men the major threat to survival was starvation. Fat men lived to procreate and get kids to publerty, skinny guys didn't. Leptin preserves the fat and saves our life when there's no food. Heck it isn't Leptin's fault that the last couple generations want to live to be 90. By the year 3,000 maybe Leptin will catch onto the fact that fat kills too when we reach our “prime.”
Hey, I'm glad my baccy 'line' didn't get an off topic note! Pleased it rang a bell !
The only, rather obvious, difference I didn't stress about the similarities was that at least food is necessary for life, even though it can be dangerous in its own subtle way. In fact ,this subtlety illustrates how hard it is to 'nail'.
I thought seeing your response that you would have no problem losing weight ,via Leptin balance, with your realistic attitude to life -and experience over smoking cessation.
I can reliably report that I can go 15 hours without hunger overnight, but resisting the toast and honey at 4am is the only minor challenge…that's when the mental training comes in and ignoring it. Decaff tea suffices.
[If still in a conventional working regime , these timings could be harder to manage.]
I do have a novel get back to sleep technique involving counting – can't remember where I learned it. [not Playboy btw 🙂 ] which helps the lying awake tendency, which food can often assuage.
Interesting what you say about the heart and lipids. The broader point is that leptin is involved in all these lower level reactions- we just don't associate them together, after all -it's a new finding.
This makes it not just novel, but extremely attractive ground for self help enquirers.
[Before Nanny State or Big Pharma get hungry for control/profit..Sorry, my rant]
All I can say, from reading the book so far, is that it's part of a wider picture that the night fast is normal, not something to be suffered.
When it runs right, I would hope it would settle down – as for me.
One concept mentioned is that 'Leptin Resistance' occurs (very like Insulin can do in Diabetes) and needs to be managed correctly.This seems to be the target function for weight loss in many cases.
On your final, you're 'dead bang on right'.
Recent reports have stressed that heavy exercise is the best and most effective cardiac improvemement and weight loss regime -and one that I don't follow [too heavily] admittedly.
I did manage 20mph on my bike yesterday , downhill -and pedalled back up mostly seated on return 🙂 and I'm older (but not heavier) than your goodself , Zip!
But not taller either!
Im 6'2″…and 66!But when I hit 199 again it will be Dom Perignon for anyone who wants to visit!
I'll be happy to reach 99, or even 79 hehe- but we are the same age. BMI apart
I'm going to have to get back swimming soon- to follow your good gym example.
Just an update- I haven't forgotten my search on this Leptin thing.
I know Mercola isn't to everyones taste [Zip?}- but this article:
articles.mercola.com/si…..mmentfocus
discusses an interesting link between Leptin, insulin, ghrelin and sucrose in the pursuit of weight loss.
It's not in great depth- but these connections seem very little discussed generally- and make me wonder if there isn't sometimes a conspiracy of silence over diet and food choices involved in health issues.
Next to Oil/Pharma- food is an even more necessary input for life and must get 'big biz distortions'. A lot of money is tied up in production/distribution & supply.
Maybe sugar will be taxed soon- if world finances keep going wrong?
It's not unlike alcohol and 'Baccy, really.
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