We talked about the importance of water in the last post. And making certain to drink plenty. It is critical to maintaining overall good health, as well as instrumental in successful weight loss. A general rule of thumb for how much to drink daily is to divide your body weight by 2, and drink that number in ounces. For instance, someone weighing 200 pounds should drink about 100 fluid ounces of pure (filtered) water daily, more if active.
So if weight loss is a goal, and you’re serious about losing some, then water is a must. Besides, it has no calories, and our bodies thrive on it. (It’s everywhere in us!) Let us now talk about the food we eat, and how it affects the leptin signals.
Remember leptin is the hormone in our bloodstream that our brains detect to turn on and off the fat storing response. Less leptin tells the brain to store fat from the food we eat, for future energy use. We’re in starvation mode. When the cells are “full”, more leptin is released, and our brains shut down the fat storing response. Instead, the stored fat is now used for energy. That’s how our bodies work, and leptin is a major player. All this happens without us ever having to think about it.
Enter the 20th century, and our diets and lifestyles have messed up the way leptin works in our bodies. We’ve gorged and snacked ourselves to weight gain and disease. There’s a balance, and a timetable for the leptin to work properly. How and when we eat can alter the messages sent to our brains. Something called leptin resistance happens, and the fat storing mechanism never gets turned off. Although there’s plenty of leptin “messengers” trying to signal the brain, and message isn’t getting through. And our subconscious mind thinks we’re still in starvation mode. (You can’t “wish” it differently; willpower has nothing over our subconscious.)
There are eating habits that help improve the leptin message, and hence will aid in weight loss, naturally and without stimulants. I’m fascinated with a book on the subject called “Mastering Leptin” by Byron J. Richards, with Mary Guignon Richards. What follows are their recommendations, based on 20 years experience helping thousands of people regain their health. We won’t go into the science of why this is; the Richards do that very well in their book. But the body never lies, and these steps are proven to help. They may seem difficult at first, but you need to remind yourself who else is going to take care of your health? You’ll like the book’s subtitle- “The Key to Energetic Vitality, Youthful Hormonal Balance, Optimum Body Weight, and Disease Prevention!” It’s really good stuff 
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