Are you a chronic over-eater? Do you find yourself snacking all day? Do you break into bouts of binge-eating, and then feel disgusting afterwards?

Really, if you are hormonally healthy, you should only eat when you’re actually hungry. It’s a pretty easy concept to grasp: wait until you start having those slight hunger pains – you know, the growling, gurgling stomach – before you pop something into your cake-hole.

If it’s so easy, then why do so many people in Australia struggle with over-eating?

Leptin Resistance & Over-Eating

Recent research suggests that a hormone called ‘leptin’ may be the major reason behind fat-storage and obesity. Leptin is supposed to tell our brain when we are ‘full’ and to stop eating. Researchers suggest that Leptin resistance (when the hormone stops working because of poor diet, movement and lifestyle) is a major cause in obesity (possibly the leading cause) as Leptin stops ‘seeing’ that there is enough fat stored, and instead sends signals to the brain to keep eating, eating, eating.

If you have trouble over-eating, if you feel hungry all the time, even though you eat constantly, or if you have stubborn fat stored around the belly in particular, it is very likely that you have Leptin Resistance. Being aware of this will help you become aware of why you have issues with eating and fat-storage, and can help you to become more focused in reversing Leptin Resistance.

How To Prevent/Reverse Leptin Resistance

A key to preventing (or reversing) leptin resistance, is reducing diet-induced inflammation.

There are several things you can do:

Avoid processed food: Highly processed foods may compromise the integrity of the gut and drive inflammation.
Eat Soluble Fiber: Eating soluble fiber can help improve gut health and may protect against obesity.
Exercise: Physical activity may help to reverse leptin resistance.
Sleep: Poor sleep has been implicated in problems with leptin.
Lower your triglycerides: Having high blood triglycerides can prevent the transport of leptin from blood and into the brain. The best way to lower triglycerides is to reduce carbohydrate intake.
Eat Protein: Eating plenty of protein can cause automatic weight loss. There are many reason for that, one of them may be an improvement in leptin sensitivity.

Any of these look familiar? These happen to be many of the same things we generally associate with good health! There is no simple way to reverse Leptin Resistance. Eating real food, maintaining a healthy gut, exercising, sleeping well, stressing less… these are all lifelong endeavours that require a drastic shift in lifestyle.

Time to take check…

Take some time to think about when you eat – and why you eat. Do you eat only when you’re hungry? Do you eat to heal and fuel your body? Or do you eat out of habit? Out of boredom? Or do you forget to eat? Are you addicted to food? Are you an emotional eater? Is hard for you to stop ‘grazing’ or over-eating? Have you thought about tools to help you overcome this? Most people, if eating regular healthy meals, will experience hunger every 2-4 hours (give or take).

If you have problems with over-eating, constant snacking, skipping meals and then bingeing, or general stubborn fat that won’t shift, particularly around the mid-line, it is highly likely you need help with your hormones.

At Move Strong Gym we have an amazing program that involves a holistic approach to take control of your eating patterns and your weight by changing your hormones. To give you an idea of what we have on offer, here’s a run-down of all that is included to ensure you make some MASSIVE and LIFELONG changes: