Set point and holiday weight gain

Leptin, leptin resistance and SIRT1

After demand for resveratrol and pterostilbene went up considerably, due to a remark on tv by a doctor about its' effect on leptin and cardiovascular function, we got a lot of requests to explain how leptin works. 

Currently, a major topic in the field of obesity research is the link between obesity and the hormone leptin. Some evidence suggests that obese-prone individuals don’t respond to increasing leptin levels in the same way that non-obese-prone individuals do, which is the reason obesity is now being associated with possible “leptin resistance.” Scientists first discovered leptin in 1994, after years of research focused on hormones that affect body weight and calorie intake. While initially researchers believed the discovery could be used to create powerful weight loss supplements, this has never happened.

How does leptin function in the body and where does the hormone come from? Leptin interacts with areas of the brain that control hunger and eating behavior. The nickname “the starvation hormone” has been given to leptin because levels tend to plummet when someone restricts their calorie intake too much, exercises more and loses body fat. These are all factors involved in what’s called “starvation mode.”
Meanwhile, ghrelin is called a “hunger hormone” that increases your desire to eat.

At your ideal “set point weight,” fat cells produce a given amount of leptin, which maintains the internal energy balance needed for necessary cellular function and proper weight management. In most healthy adults, changes in body weight will trigger changes in leptin, causing appetite to either increase when body fat falls or decrease when body fat rises — although in some susceptible individuals this energy-balance system seems to malfunction.

There’s still a lot to learn about how leptin resistance or decreased sensitivity to leptin’s signals develops, and what can be done to prevent or reverse it. Many experts believe that eating a highly processed diet — especially while also leading a stressful and mostly sedentary lifestyle — is the perfect storm for developing leptin resistance.

Even if someone is genetically susceptible to weight gain or obesity, there’s still a lot they can do to help prevent this from happening, especially eating a nutrient-dense diet, getting enough exercise and taking steps to manage stress.

Exercise or diet, what's better for weight loss?

Especially in January, we are asked whether it is better to lose weight by exercise or by diet.
The response I mostly give is that diet is the more efficient method but makes you grumpy and if you overdo it, will lose muscle, while exercise can make you happy, fit and strong.
A few years ago the discovery how in general, exercise doesn't make you lose weight made headlines.
In my former life as a long-distance cyclist I'd have shaken my head in disbelief.. after all, every single spring, fat would almost literally melt away once the cycling season started.

Anyhow, as counterintuitive as it seems to mile-eating cardio-junkies, exercising more is not the best solution to weight loss mostly because the weight piles on off-season.
True enough , once the season was over, the fat would pile on equally fast. Why?
Quite simply, unlike many of my cycling buddies who were also passionate about (marathon) skating, I didn't practice any other sport. Some others refused to skate indoor and only wanted to skate on natural ice, which has become a rarity in the the past 30 years!
Of course I knew exercise burns calories, but somehow it is very difficult to adjust to diet upwards or downwards as appetite lags behind so much!