The Effect of Inflammation on Weight Loss
If you are to successfully lose weight you will likely focus on eating fewer calories and increasing your activity to burn more calories. It’s important that you also address inflammation on your journey to lose weight.
Research on mice has shown a “switch” controlling inflammation in the hypothalamus (region of the brain that regulates energy) becomes “flipped on” in response to high fat diets. It also shows that “overnutrition” (i.e. eating too much) turns on this inflammatory switch.
An increased level of inflammation leads our cells to become resistant to insulin and leptin.
Insulin plays a messenger role in that it tells cells it is time to take in glucose (sugar). If cells become resistant to insulin, they ignore the message that it is time to take in more glucose, glucose is converted to fatty acids, and is stored by our fat cells. If insulin resistance is persistent, eventually the fat cells will no longer respond and increased levels of fatty acids will remain in circulation.
Leptin is a hormone that triggers satiety. This is your body’s way of telling you you’ve had enough to eat. When production of leptin is hindered, we do not feel satisfied and tend to eat more.
As inflammation causes the cells to ignore the messages of insulin and leptin, you are more likely to consume more calories (because you still feel hungry) and potentially store increased levels of fat due to the increased level of circulating fatty acids.
