What Are the Hormones That Affect Your Appetite?
What Are the Hormones That Affect Your Appetite? Modern research is showing that several varying hormones transmit or dampen hunger signals, which directly and indirectly influence our best efforts to lose weight. However, we still have a long way to go before we fully understand how the hormones of appetite and satiety actually work in the human body.
What we now know is there are very real hormonal factors involved. It’s not just your genetics, willpower, or eating habits. What is takes to balance the weight equation that leaves so many of us struggling, is a balancing act of each of these elements.
As we uncover new pieces to the inner workings of our metabolism, we can see clearly how crucial hormonal balance can be to naturally shedding weight and keeping it off for good.
What our hormones have to say
Ghrelin, the most predominant “hunger hormone” identified to date, is a peptide released by endocrine cells mostly within the stomach’s lining. It counteracts leptin to increase metabolic efficiency and stimulate appetite. It normally indicates hunger: “If your stomach’s growlin’, you’re making ghrelin.” Though, it can also be released after a high-protein meal.
Neuropeptide Y (NPY) is an extremely potent stimulator of feeding behavior. It is also the most abundant neuropeptide in the brain. In addition to its function in feeding behavior, it also takes part in circadian rhythms, sexual functioning, and anxiety responses. Clearly, NPY is a key player! Much research is being done on this hormone as many are very invested in finding out what the magic answer is for obesity.
Leptin. From leptos, the Greek word for “thin,” leptin is synthesized within fat cells, and works as a “satiety factor” on the hypothalamus to dampen eating behavior while increasing energy expenditure. Leptin appears to act, at least in part, by inhibiting NPY synthesis and release in the hypothalamus. New hopes of a magic weight-loss pill based on leptin have yet to reach fruition.
Adiponectin, a mixture of anti-inflammatory peptides secreted by fat cells, helps regulate energy balance and the metabolism of sugars and fats, as well as increasing insulin sensitivity. Paradoxically, overweight people often have less circulating adiponectin than slim individuals. What triggers its secretion from fat cells is still unclear. More than likely this is a very complex system that will take some time to understand.
Peptide YY (PYY) has been shown to slow digestion, suppress appetite, and significantly reduce food consumption.
Cholecystokinin (CCK) is released in the duodenum in response to high-fat or high-protein meals. It signals the brain to produce a sense of fullness or satiety. Fatty meals are an especially effective trigger in the release of CCK.
Hunger’s messages: what our other hormones have to say
While it is tempting to think of the above hormones as “niche” players with somewhat specific effects on our desire to eat, the reality is that we don’t fully understand their effects. Many of our more well-known hormones still play into the equation.
When it comes to natural weight loss, the hormones that regulate metabolism play an enormous role, with the three major hormones in the body: insulin, cortisol, and thyroid hormones, having the most to say.
Insulin. Any discussion about hormones, metabolism, and healthy weight would be incomplete without including this major player in the hormone scenario. Insulin determines whether blood sugar gets used right away for immediate energy, or is alternatively stored as fat. Furthermore, because fat is not simply a passive energy-storage site (as previously thought), but functions as an endocrine organ that produces important hormones itself, what we eat really does matter when it comes to losing weight and keeping it off.
Insulin levels are directly impacted by our diets, particularly the ratio of carbohydrates to fiber, fat, and protein. Any disruption in the insulin-regulating mechanism, such as insulin resistance, has an immediate influence on several of the lesser metabolic hormones. For more information, read our many articles about insulin resistance.
Thyroid hormones may also play a lead role in everyone’s unique physiology. Women often question if a recent increase in weight could be due to a thyroid imbalance. This is a question I hear on a daily basis. While the thyroid does act very much like a gas pedal in regulating your metabolism, we most often find its relationship to weight gain is more indirect. Sluggish thyroid function is a consequence of an imbalance between other hormones.
Stress hormones. Adrenal imbalance caused by excessive anxiety, stress, and cortisol production is typically at the top of the list when it comes to the correlation of unwanted weight and hormonal imbalance. Sustained high cortisol levels can lead to intense cravings and binge eating. High cortisol production can throw off any or all of the other hormones in the body, major or minor, setting off a chain reaction that leaves your body in chronic crisis mode.
The simple significance of this is that no diet will succeed if you are under tremendous stress, no matter what you do. A simple saliva test can reveal whether your daily cortisol levels are in line with where they need to be.
Melatonin, the hormone that regulates the circadian rhythm, also factors into your hunger time-clock. Research shows that sleep deprivation throws off melatonin production, which in turn influences leptin and ghrelin production. In one study, subjects who were chronically sleep deprived had 15% more ghrelin than those who were well-rested. There is also some evidence that lack of sleep affects your levels of human growth hormone (hGH), because “pulses” of hGH are released at night.
Sex hormones. Let’s not forget estrogen, progesterone, and testosterone, also known as the minor hormones. Adequate levels of estrogen seem to help in hunger regulation, simulating the soothing “full” or satiety effect of serotonin. As anyone familiar with premenstrual binges can attest, an imbalance in the ratio between estrogen and progesterone can trigger intense food cravings.
Add in the negative effects of stress hormones, and one begins to understand why women accumulate abdominal fat during perimenopause. If a woman is testosterone-deficient, which can occur with poor nutrition or during perimenopause, she will have difficulty building muscle mass no matter how much she works out. Testosterone production relies on adequate levels of cholesterol, the building block of all sex hormones. This is why we so often will not suggest the low fat diet.