Leptin- I will balance you

My best friend is a personal trainer and massage therapist. She looks great, so she has to have the answers. I've been complaining about my overeating and general malaise and she told me about this book. Here's a tidbit about Leptin:

The Five Rules of Mastering Leptin

1. Never eat after dinner. Never go to bed on a full stomach. Leave a gap of 11-12 hours between dinner and breakfast as the best fat burn zone occurs 8 and 12 hours after eating. If you snack before bedtime, the leptin tells your brain that no energy is required and therefore no fat burning will occur during the night.

2. Eat 3 meals per day. Allow 5-6 hours between meals with no snacks inbetween. Snacks would only stimulate the relase of insulin and while that happens, the body is not burning fat. If you find it difficult to eat only 3 meals per day, start with 4 per day. In time, with regular exercise, it will be easier and easier for you to leave 5 hours between meals.

3. Do not eat large meals. If you provide your body with more fuel than it needs, leptin and insulin resistance can result. You can learn to reduce meal sizes by eating slowly and chewing properly, also by putting the fork down from time to time. This will give your appetite the chance to catch up with your food intake.

4. Eat a high-protein breakfast. This supports blood sugar levels throughout the day and will minimize afternoon energy crashes. These energy crashes in the afternoon are often due to eating a breakfast with too many carbohydrates and too little protein. People who eat a high carbohydrate breakfast and who are leptin resistant are more likely to overeat.

5. Reduce the amount and glycemic index of carbohydrates eaten. This doesn’t mean that you can only eat very low or very restricted carbohydrates, but that you should match the amount of starchy carbohydrates with the same portion of proteins. You may eat fibrous vegetables in abundance. There’s an easy way to find out if you are eating too many carbohydrates. Weigh yourself in the morning and at bedtime. If your bedtime weight is more than 2 pounds over your morning weight and if you followed rules 1-4 during the day, then you consumed too many carbohydrates that day.

The authors developed these five rules after making an in-depth stuy of all the leptin research studies so far (approximately 9000) and combined this with experiences with clients. The aim of these rules is to restore the body’s sensitivity to leptin and by that re-establish the body’s ability to efficiently produce energy from food which will lead to weight loss and better health.