by Mike T Nelson, PhD
230 Seconds to Leanness
The fastest workout will give you results in just 30 seconds. How's that possible? It has to do with leptin. Here's why and how to do it.
Leptin And The World’s Fastest Workout
The body isn’t a simple, linear, or straightforward machine – it’s complex. And overcomplicating the fat-loss process usually backfires. But just because the physiology is messy doesn’t mean your actions can’t be simple and effective.
Understanding the hormone leptin may help uncover the answers to getting leaner. The good news? Making this hormone work for you instead of against you only takes 30-seconds a day… 30 very INTENSE seconds.
First, here’s a short crash course on leptin.
What Is Leptin Anyway?
Leptin was discovered by researchers in the '50s. Fast forward to the '90s when it was “rediscovered,” and many predicted it would be the biggest weight loss breakthrough ever.
It’s a hormone that’s released primarily by fat cells (adipocytes) and works to regulate appetite, body fat mass, and basal metabolic rate. Until just a few years ago, researchers thought fat cells were just storage facility for unsightly body fat. We know now that they’re very metabolically active, releasing and receiving a myriad of messenger hormones, one of which is leptin.
Leptin travels up to the brain where it acts on receptors in the hypothalamus to inhibit appetite. More leptin in your brain = less food intake.
This is great news for anyone looking to get leaner since more leptin means you’ll be less likely to overeat. Leptin is your body’s way of putting the brakes on fat gain by decreasing appetite.
The chronic level of leptin you have is also a rough measure of the amount of fat you have on your body. Many things can affect leptin:
Factors Promoting Leptin Secretion
- Excess energy stored as fat (obesity)
- Overfeeding
- Glucose
- Insulin
- Glucocorticoids
- Estrogens
- Inflammatory cytokines, including tumor necrosis factor and Interleukin-6 (acute effect)
Factors Inhibiting Leptin Secretion
- Fasting
- Catecholamines and adrenergic agonists
- Thyroid hormones
- Androgens
- Low energy states with decreased fat stores (leanness)
- Peroxisome proliferator–activated receptor-agonists
- Inflammatory cytokines, including tumor necrosis factor (prolonged effect)
How Obese Mice Got Sexy Fast
Researchers in the '90s did a series of mouse experiments to show that mice with messed-up leptin became profoundly obese. Their metabolic rate was lower, they didn’t move as much, and they ate tons of food.
The mice didn’t make any leptin at all. To make the mice lean, they injected it with leptin, and voila – thin mice again!
The researchers thought this was the solution to the obesity problems: just inject humans with leptin and poof, thin humans. The problem is, it didn’t work. Researchers measured blood levels of leptin in obese humans and found that their leptin levels were sky high!
That wasn’t supposed to happen. Leptin levels were expected to be low since the humans were fat. As leptin increases, it tells the brain that the body has enough fat. So you see why they would expect low leptin levels in obese populations.
Remember, when injected with leptin (thus increasing the level), the mice in the studies got thinner. But the obese humans already had high levels of leptin. Injecting more leptin was like pissing in the ocean to try to raise the water level.
What researchers discovered was that the receptor for leptin may be what’s out of whack in the obese. The receptor isn’t telling the brain that leptin is high. They may have tons of leptin, but the brain can’t tell since the receptor is broken. So the answer for leanness isn’t about increasing leptin but increasing the body’s sensitivity to it.
Exercise That Increases Leptin Signaling
Sprint training is a great way to burn fat, but it may have another benefit. Researchers in 2011 looked at sprints as a leptin-signaling mimetic.
This study used a group of fit people who were pretty lean (about 15% body fat) and young (23 years old). They split them into two groups: a fasting group, and a glucose group which ingested 75 grams of glucose an hour before sprints.
Both groups did one Wingate bike sprint for only 30 seconds. If you’re not familiar with this setup: you hop on a bike with the resistance set to a high workload (10% of body weight used here) and pedal like a rabid grizzly bear is chasing you.
Subjects had a series of muscle biopsies done throughout the study, and researchers found that a single session of sprint training showed alterations in leptin signaling.
The sprints were jacking up leptin that, in theory, should cause obese to start dropping fat. However, this wasn’t seen in the group that ingested glucose before their sprint. Only the fasted group saw leptin alterations. It appears insulin may interfere with leptin signaling to some degree.
The researchers said that sprints done while fasting elicited signaling like what was found in the rodents’ muscle after receiving leptin injections. But glucose ingestion before the exercise diminished the effect.
So it appears that fasted sprint training can pinch hit for leptin and sensitivity to it.
Sample Sprint Workout
Want to give this a shot? Get on a bike and work up to a single, maximum, pedal-as-hard-as-you-can sprint for 30 seconds.
The tension should be relatively high, but the goal is to keep your pedaling at a fast pace for the entire 30 seconds. If you slowed to a snail’s pace 20 seconds in, go to a lighter workload. Do this fasted, like first thing in the morning.
Don’t have a bike? While the study didn’t look at running, it may elicit the same response because the pathways are very similar.
It sounds ridiculously simple, but my experience with my athletes shows that this does seem to help speed fat loss.
Sum It Up For Me!
- More leptin production is associated with less food intake, but only in those whose body responds to leptin properly.
- Some may have a leptin receptor issue where it’s not responding to the amount of leptin floating around.
- Science isn’t at the point yet where we can always tell who has a receptor issue, but the more overweight you are, the more likely you have broken leptin receptors.
- Doing just one sprint in a fasted state works to pinch hit for leptin, putting you on the road to leanness. Non-fasted training doesn’t have the same effect.
- Fasted sprints can be done any time on a fasting day or done before breakfast. This way, it’s unlikely to interfere with your normal training session.
References
References
- Everard A et al. Responses of gut microbiota and glucose and lipid metabolism to prebiotics in genetic obese and diet-induced leptin-resistant mice. Diabetes. 2011 Nov;60(11):2775-86. PubMed.
- Finocchietto PV et al. Defective leptin-AMP-dependent kinase pathway induces nitric oxide release and contributes to mitochondrial dysfunction and obesity in ob/ob mice. Antioxid Redox Signal. 2011 Nov 1;15(9):2395-406. PubMed.
- Galgani JE et al. Leptin replacement prevents weight loss-induced metabolic adaptation in congenital leptin-deficient patients. J Clin Endocrinol Metab. 2010 Feb;95(2):851–855. PMC.
- Guerra B et al. **Is sprint exercise a leptin signaling mimetic in human skeletal muscle?**J Appl Physiol (1985). 2011 Sep;111(3):715-25. PubMed.
- Ho JN et al. Anti-obesity effect of a standardised ethanol extract from curcuma longa L. fermented with aspergillus oryzae in ob/ob mice and primary mouse adipocytes. J Sci Food Agric. 2012 Jul;92(9):1833-40. PubMed.
- Ingalls AM et al. Obese, a new mutation in the house mouse. J Hered. 1950 Dec;41(12):317-8. PubMed.
- Kelesidis T et al. Narrative review: The role of leptin in human physiology: Emerging clinical applications. Ann Intern Med. 2010 Jan 19;152(2):93–100. PMC.
- Kowalik S et al. The effect of interval versus continuous exercise on plasma leptin and ghrelin concentration in young trotters. Pol J Vet Sci. 2011;14(3):373-8. PubMed.
- Plinta R et al. The effect of three-month pre-season preparatory period and short-term exercise on plasma leptin, adiponectin, visfatin and ghrelin levels in young female handball and basketball players. PubMed.
- Wolsk E et al. The role of leptin in human lipid and glucose metabolism: The effects of acute recombinant human leptin infusion in young healthy males. Am J Clin Nutr. 2011 Dec;94(6):1533-44. PubMed.
- Zhang Y et al. **Positional cloning of the mouse obese gene and its human homologue.**Nature. 1994 Dec 1;372(6505):425-32. PubMed.
