Leptin the Dark

In my last post, "Inflated with Emotion", I wrote about the hard, physical reality of fat cells—how they are "built," how they shrink but don't disappear, and why this makes my health journey a lifelong "management protocol."

Today, I want to talk about the invisible side of that equation: the powerful, hormonal operating system that controls those balloons.

For decades, my body felt like a broken machine. I was living inside a rollercoaster of stress and grief, and my primary coping mechanism was emotional eating. I would gain weight, and then, no matter how hard I tried to diet, my body would fight me tooth and nail. It felt like a failure of willpower, but I've learned it was actually a failure of a specific, broken feedback loop.

My "fuel gauge" was broken.

That fuel gauge is a master hormone called Leptin, and my clean keto lifestyle is, at its core, a systematic protocol designed to fix it.

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Part 1: The "Fuel Gauge" (How Leptin is Supposed to Work)

Leptin is the "satiety" hormone. It is produced and secreted by your fat cells (your "balloons"). Its entire job is to be your body's "fuel gauge" and send a report directly to your brain's control center (the hypothalamus).

Here is how the system is supposed to work:

1. You Eat: Your body gets the energy it needs.

2. Fat Cells Fill: A portion of that energy is stored, slightly "inflating" your fat cells.

3. Leptin is Released: Those full fat cells release leptin into your bloodstream.

4. Brain Gets the Signal: Your brain "hears" the leptin signal, which says:

   "Report from the field: The fuel tanks are full! We have plenty of energy. You can stop being hungry now."

5. You Respond: Your brain then sends out two powerful commands:

   • It shuts off your appetite (you feel full and satisfied).

   • It revs up your metabolism (it gives the "all-clear" to burn energy at a high rate).

This is a perfect, efficient feedback loop. It's designed to keep you from overeating and to keep your body composition stable.

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Part 2: The Breakdown: "Leptin Resistance"

So what's the problem? The problem is that in people with significant, long-term obesity (like me), that signal is broken. The brain becomes "deaf" to the signal.

This is called Leptin Resistance.

It's one of the most cruel biological traps I can imagine. Here's what happens:

1. You Have Tons of Storage Fat: Your "balloons" are over-inflated from years of a high-carb, fat-storing lifestyle.

2. You Are Flooding Your Body with Leptin: Because you have so many over-filled fat cells, you are producing a massive, screaming amount of leptin.

3. Your Brain Hears... Nothing: The signal is so loud, for so long, that the brain's "receptors" have burned out. It has become "deaf" to the "full" signal.

4. Your Brain Thinks You Are Starving: This is the core of the tragedy. Your brain, hearing no leptin signal, believes the fuel tanks are empty. It believes you are in a state of perpetual, desperate starvation.

5. You Are Programmed to Gain Weight: Your "starving" brain then issues two commands that make long-term health impossible:

   • It cranks up your hunger hormones (especially ghrelin). You feel a deep, primal, "real" hunger, even right after a meal.

   • It slams the brakes on your metabolism (your BMR - basal metabolic rate). It tries to conserve every possible calorie to "save you" from the famine it perceives.

This is why it's not a failure of willpower. It's a biological mismatch. It's your conscious mind trying to "diet" while your primal, non-conscious brain is screaming that you are starving and must eat and conserve energy. You can't win that fight long-term.

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Part 3: The Clean Keto Hack (in 4 Steps)

So, how do you fix a broken fuel gauge? You can't just "will" it. You have to systematically repair the system.

Leptin resistance is primarily caused by two things: chronically high insulin and chronic inflammation. My entire protocol is a multi-pronged attack on those two root causes.

Hack #1: Stop the Insulin Spikes (The #1 Priority)

• The Problem: Chronically high insulin (from a high-carb/sugar diet) is a primary cause of leptin resistance.

• The Fix: My strict, <20g carb "Clean Keto" diet and my 22-hour daily fast are the most powerful tools on earth for lowering insulin. This takes the "static" off the line, allowing the hormonal receptors to "reboot" and start listening again.

Hack #2: Extinguish the Inflammatory Fire

• The Problem: Inflammation "jams" the leptin signal. This inflammation comes from two sources:

  1. The inflammatory food we eat.

  2. The excess fat cells themselves, which secrete inflammatory molecules (cytokines).

• The Fix: This is a two-part solution.

  1. I stop adding fuel to the fire by eliminating inflammatory seed oils (canola, soy, etc.) and replacing them with clean fats (olive oil, ghee, avocado oil, and Omega-3s from fish).

  2. I dismantle the "inflammatory factories" by being in a calorie deficit and burning my excess storage fat. My daily walks and calisthenics (fasted exercise) are my tools for actively breaking down the very source of the inflammation.

Hack #3: Heal the "Second Brain" (The Gut)

• The Problem: An unhealthy gut is a source of inflammation that directly jams the gut-brain-leptin axis.

• The Fix: My entire protocol—no sugar (which feeds bad bacteria), no gut-irritating sweeteners (like sucralose or maltitol), and no processed starches—is designed to heal my gut lining and support a healthy microbiome, which is essential for clear hormonal signaling.

Hack #4: Prioritize Sleep (The Non-Negotiable)

• The Problem: This is a new, hard-and-fast rule in my book. Poor sleep (less than 7-8 hours) is scientifically proven to disrupt leptin and ghrelin (your hunger hormone) overnight.

• The Fix: Getting high-quality, consistent sleep is a non-negotiable part of re-sensitizing this loop. You cannot "hack" your hormones if you are not sleeping.

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The Takeaway

This is why my clean keto lifestyle is so much more than a weight-loss diet. I'm not just "dieting" in a state of leptin resistance; I am actively healing the leptin resistance itself.

I am not just "emptying the balloons." I am systematically repairing the "fuel gauge" so that, as my storage fat shrinks, my brain can finally hear the signal, understand that I am not starving, and grant me permission to have a stable metabolism and a normal appetite. I'm not just losing weight; I'm fixing the broken system that caused it.