Have you ever felt like you’re doing all the right things – eating less, eating healthily, balancing your macros, moving more. And yet, your weight won’t budge or you’re in a weight plateau funk, your cravings are a source of self disappointment and your energy is consistently low?
If that sounds familiar, it could be your hormones, not your willpower.
Let me introduce you to leptin – a hormone that plays a starring role in your metabolism, hunger, and how your body stores fat. And when leptin gets out of balance, it can throw everything else off too.
So, What Is Leptin?
Leptin is a hormone made by your fat cells. You can think of it as your body’s built-in appetite regulator. When everything’s working properly, leptin tells your brain:
“We’ve got enough energy stored, thanks. You can stop eating now.”
In theory, more body fat means more leptin, which should signal your brain to reduce hunger and help burn off excess energy/calories.
But here’s the catch.
When there’s too much leptin (yes, you can produce too much), the brain stops responding properly to it. It’s like shouting at someone who’s wearing noise-cancelling headphones. This is called leptin resistance.
How Do You Develop Leptin Resistance?
Leptin resistance doesn’t happen overnight. It builds up over time, often silently — until your body starts sending louder signals like stubborn weight, constant hunger, and burnout.
Here are some of the most common causes:
Too much processed food
Diets high in refined carbs, sugar, and processed fats can lead to chronic inflammation — particularly in the brain — which interferes with leptin’s ability to do its job. These foods also spike insulin, which blocks leptin signalling even more.
Frequent eating and snacking
If you’re eating all day long (even “healthy” snacks), leptin never gets a break. Constant food intake — especially carb-heavy or sugary snacks — keeps insulin high, which contributes to leptin resistance over time.
Poor sleep
Lack of quality sleep disrupts all kinds of hormone signals, especially leptin. Just one night of poor sleep can make you hungrier the next day and reduce your sensitivity to leptin’s “I’m full” signal.
Chronic stress
High stress = high cortisol, which messes with insulin and blood sugar, encourages fat storage (especially around the belly), and can blunt your brain’s response to leptin.
Yo-yo dieting or crash diets
Repeated calorie restriction slows your metabolism and confuses your body’s hormone feedback systems. Your body may become more resistant to leptin in an effort to hold onto energy for survival.
How Leptin Resistance Messes With Your Metabolism
When your brain can’t hear leptin’s message, it thinks you’re starving — even if you’ve got plenty of energy stored in fat. So it ramps up hunger and slows down your metabolism to “protect” you. That means:
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You feel hungry all the time (especially for carbs and sugar)
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You gain weight easily, even on small portions
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You feel tired, foggy, and unmotivated
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You might struggle with sleep, mood swings, or anxiety
Leptin resistance becomes a vicious cycle: more fat cells produce more leptin, but your brain becomes even less responsive. So your appetite increases, and your ability to burn fat decreases.
How Does Insulin Fit Into the Picture?
Here’s where insulin comes in — another key hormone in the hunger-metabolism story.
Every time you eat, especially carbohydrates, your body releases insulin to help move glucose (sugar) into your cells for energy. But when you eat too often, or eat a lot of refined carbs and sugar, insulin levels stay high. Over time, your cells stop responding properly to insulin. That’s called insulin resistance — and it often goes hand-in-hand with leptin resistance.
High insulin keeps fat locked in storage mode, so it’s harder to burn it for energy. Plus, high insulin also interferes with leptin signals, making you feel even hungrier.
Put simply:
- Leptin resistance = Always hungry
- Insulin resistance = Can’t burn fat properly
Together, they can make weight loss feel almost impossible — even when you’re trying really hard.
How to Start Reversing Leptin Resistance
The good news? Leptin resistance isn’t a life sentence. With the right approach, you can reset your body’s hunger signals, support a healthy metabolism, and start to feel like yourself again.
Here’s what works:
✅ Balance your blood sugar (which will help to reduce insulin levels)
Stabilising blood glucose and insulin is step one. That means:
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Eat three solid meals a day with a good source of protein (like eggs, fish, meat, or legumes)
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Avoid grazing and constant snacking — especially on sweet or starchy foods
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Focus on whole foods, not ultra-processed ones
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Don’t skip meals or crash diet — that backfires with leptin
✅ Cut back on sugar and refined carbs
Sugar and processed carbs cause glucose spikes, insulin surges, and mess with leptin signalling. Think less white bread, pastries, juice, and lollies — and more veggies, protein, and healthy fats.
✅ Stop eating late at night
Late-night eating messes with circadian rhythms and increases leptin and insulin resistance. Try to finish eating 2–3 hours before bed to give your body time to reset overnight.
✅ Get good quality sleep
Poor sleep increases leptin resistance and makes you hungrier the next day. Aim for 7–8 hours of quality sleep — and keep a regular bedtime (yes, even on weekends).
✅ Move your body — gently and consistently
You don’t have to go hard. Walking, strength training, yoga, and even gentle stretching help improve insulin sensitivity and support leptin function.
✅ Consider a structured food plan like Metabolic Balance
Programs like Metabolic Balance are designed to reset hormone balance (including leptin and insulin), stabilise blood sugar, and guide your body back to its natural rhythm — using real food. It’s not a fad diet. It’s a personalised, scientific approach based on your own biochemistry.
What Doesn’t Work to Correct Leptin Resistance
❌ Fasting for long periods (especially for women in after 40)
Long fasts can spike stress hormones like cortisol and make leptin resistance worse, especially if you’re already exhausted or hormonally sensitive.
❌ Crash dieting, low caloric intake or skipping meals
Skipping meals slows metabolism and tells your brain to hold on to fat for survival. Not the message you want to send to your body.
❌ Over-exercising or punishing workouts
Excessive exercise raises cortisol, which can worsen insulin and leptin resistance and leave you even more drained.
The Bottom Line
If you feel like your hunger signals are broken, or your body isn’t responding the way it used to, leptin resistance could be part of the story.
This isn’t about willpower. It’s about hormonal miscommunication and the good news is, you can help your body recalibrate with some smart, consistent steps.
Would you like help putting this into practice?
I work with women to rebuild hormone balance and metabolism with simple, natural strategies and yes, food is a big part of the process. If you’re curious about how the Metabolic Balance Program could help you, let’s chat.
With your health in mind,
Catherine
Read more about your metabolism and how to get control of it here:
