Treat Leptin Resistance

Leptin is a hormone that decreases your appetite. Leptin resistance occurs when the brain doesn’t respond to the hormone, so you never seem to feel full. Simple lifestyle changes are the best way to treat leptin resistance. Eat a balanced diet and steer clear of unhealthy fats and refined sugars. Try to eat more apples, berries, and turmeric, which might help Stimulate-a-Leptin-Response-in-Your-Body. Get more exercise, especially aerobic workouts like running, swimming, and cycling. Since it's usually associated with other medical issues, consult your doctor about your overall health.

Steps

Making Dietary Changes

1. Cut triglycerides from your diet. Triglycerides are a type of fat that are associated with leptin resistance, obesity, heart disease, type 2 diabetes, and other medical issues. In addition to improving your overall health, cutting triglycerides from your diet could improve your leptin sensitivity.
   • Try swapping unhealthy fats in red meat and processed foods for canola and olive oils, plant-based fats, and salmon.
2. Eat less refined sugar. A low-sugar diet can help halt weight gain and decrease leptin resistance. Diets high in refined sugar can raise glucose and insulin levels, making your body less sensitive to leptin.
   • Steer clear of sugars and simple carbs found in processed foods, candy, cake, and soft drinks. Instead, go for complex carbs, like whole grains and starches, and naturally occurring sugars found in milk, fruits, and vegetables.
3. Drink less alcohol. Drinking a moderate amount of alcohol could decrease leptin production. If your body produces less leptin, you’ll have more of an appetite. Alcohol’s effects on appetite and metabolism are cumulative, or happen over time, so consider limiting your alcohol consumption in the long-term.  
4. Eat more apples, blackberries, and blueberries. Purple sweet potatoes, berries, and other red, blue, and purple foods contain anthocyanins, which can help the brain respond to leptin and curb your appetite. Apples contain pectin, which might improve leptin sensitivity.
   • Jams are also a rich pectin source, but store-bought jams usually contain lots of sugar. Instead, you could try making your own low-sugar, high-pectin preserves.
5. Try adding turmeric to your diet. Turmeric root contains curcumin, which, among other health benefits, could naturally reverse leptin resistance. Both the ground spice and fresh root contain curcumin.
   • Try sprinkling powdered turmeric in rice, roasted veggies, or sauteed greens. You can also sprinkle a pinch into a smoothie, or cut up a small piece of root and steep it with milk and honey to make a tea.

Getting Enough Exercise

1. Try to get an hour of exercise per day. It’s recommended that children exercise an hour per day and adults for 30 minutes. However, evidence suggests that exercising for less than an hour doesn’t affect leptin levels in the short-term.
   • Talk to your doctor before you start a new exercise regimen or increase your amount of exercise.
2. Go for longer aerobic workouts. Aerobic exercise can burn fat, reduce body mass, and increase leptin sensitivity. Go for endurance-focused exercises that last at least one hour.
   • Try running or fast walking, swimming, circuit training, cycling, or spin classes.  
3. Stick with your workouts in the long-term. Stay motivated and stick with your workout plan! Exercising for an hour just one day won’t help your body become more sensitive to leptin. Long-term lifestyle changes, including increased physical activity over time, are required in order to treat leptin resistance.
   • It’s been shown that short-term exercise has no measurable effect on leptin levels.

Consulting Your Doctor

1. Talk to your doctor about related health issues. Leptin resistance can be related to a number of obesity-related medical issues, from heart disease to diabetes. If you haven’t already, schedule a visit with your doctor to discuss your overall health.
   • If you’re concerned about losing weight and improving your health, ask them about medications, dietary changes, and workout routines you should adopt.
2. Discuss emerging gene and hormone therapies. Leptin resistance research is still a relatively young discipline, and new treatments are being studied and developed. In time, gene therapies could become available that help your brain respond to leptin in your system. Hormone treatments have already proved modestly successful at improving leptin sensitivity and aiding weight loss.
   • You could ask your doctor if they’re familiar with or recommend any emerging treatments. Ask them if they could refer you to a medical study on the subject.
3. Ask about medications for ER stress. The endoplasmic reticulum, or ER, is a part of a cell that, among other functions, helps with protein transport. ER stress, which can result from neurodegenerative disease, diabetes, and obesity, could be related to leptin resistance. Ask your doctor if you might have ER, and if medications that treat ER stress might also improve your leptin sensitivity.
   • Increased exercise can also improve ER stress.

Warnings

• Avoid starting a new exercise regimen without first consulting your doctor, especially if you have an existing condition, such as heart, circulatory, muscle, or joint issues.