The origin of obesity. Why do current diets fail?

In the 1990s it was shown that adipose tissue is not an inactive tissue with the sole function of storing fat, but also acts as an endocrine organ capable of producing different substances that modulate fat deposits. Among these substances is leptin, which is the hormone responsible for communicating to the brain the amount of fat present in the body. These findings provide a metabolic explanation for the origin of obesity.

How does the process work? Adipocytes are cells that form adipose tissue and produce several hormones, including leptin. It travels in the blood throughout the body reaching the brain that perceives the amount of leptin as a measure of how much adipose tissue the body has. The more adipose tissue, the greater leptin concentration in the blood and therefore the brain will receive the message that there is enough stored energy and can consume it. By expending such energy, the adipose tissue decreases and with it the leptin concentration in the blood. The person experiences a greater appetite and consequently will eat more,  absorbing nutrients which cause a weight gain. This cycle is intended to balance leptin levels in the body and with it the quantity of adipose tissue we have.

The cycle works perfectly during the younger years. Young people can usually eat without measure and do not get fat. At that age, the brain is perfectly sensitive to leptin levels and the balance remains almost unchanged. However, over the years the person eats much less than he ate before and on the contrary, fattens quickly. What happens is that over time brain receptors that detect the amount of leptin in the body no longer work as before. Our brain tends to lose the sensitivity to leptin that it had in its youth and we fatten easily. Now a higher concentration of leptin in the blood is needed for our brain to detect it. To produce higher amounts of leptin more adipose tissue is needed. The cycle that in our younger years helped us to avoid obesity now acts against us favoring it.

There are several facts that accelerate the process of brain deterioration to detect leptin. One of them is the decrease of oxygen levels in the organism. Second is the fact that the cellular medium in our body becomes acid rather than alkaline; we experience a transformation towards acidity. The third factor is that our cells, which are now part of a several years old body, produce more substances known as free radicals, which are the end residual of our metabolism. So-called antioxidants are precisely those substances that counteract the presence of free radicals in the body and its consumption is highly recommended.

Today the effect of insensitivity to leptin has accelerated its appearance and this anomaly is appreciated now in earlier ages. What we know as fast food and the so-called cafeteria diet make people consume genetically altered foods and other substances that modify the way our body works from the endocrine point of view. This causes a higher incidence of the three factors that alter our sensitivity to leptin.

Today there is an industry dedicated to weight control that makes profits that exceed hundreds of billions of dollars a year. A large number of weight loss diets are promoted in the media and they are designed for all preferences. 95% of these diets work the same way: they all focus on controlling the daily amount of calories the individual consumes. However, that same percentage does not take into account the endocrine point of view on weight management.

When a person follows a diet, his endocrine system will continue working as usual and while food decreases, the message that reaches the brain is yelling that we need to eat more to store more energy. Some diets even use drugs to lower appetite and that way they manage to control this natural reaction of our body. Given the inability to receive more food, the logic that our brain will follow is to reduce energy expenditure as much as possible, leaving the existing reserves to ensure the vital functions of the body. People who undergo one of these diets usually experience weakness and debilitation. They usually talk softly, have sweatings and their appearance is flaccid and hypotonic. There is great suffering on the organism internal behavior and even from a psychological point of view.

Many "successful" diets nowadays are designed to achieve weight goals in a short time. However, it happens that once the desired weight goal is reached, the individual begins to eat normally but the brain does not react as fast and maintains a decreased energy expenditure, resulting in a storage of that excess energy in the form of fat. People in a short time end up with even greater weight than they had when they started the diet. This is known as the rebound effect.

If we want to be successful in managing our weight, in addition to decreasing the intake of calories, we must also help our brain to regain its sensitivity to leptin. This is only possible by fighting the three factors that difficult leptin's detection: bad oxygenation, high levels of acidity and high concentration of free radicals in the body. This way we will be able to maintain our normal energy consumption levels and thus avoid the rebound effect. Fortunately, there are substances in nature called adaptogens that allow these objectives to be achieved. We will be referring to them in our next article.