The Hormone Responsible for Staying Thin
We’ve always known that a certain abundance of hormones, say too much estrogen, can cause us to gain weight, especially in certain areas, but is there an actual weight-regulating hormone that may be the golden ticket to permanent thin-ness? Well, scientists are very excited that they may have found yet another answer to why certain people are thin and certain people are obese. Well, besides what we put into our bodies and how we burn off calories (ie if we exercise or are couch potatoes).
The magic hormone is called the FGF21 hormone, which is made by our livers. This is quite a surprise, as no one had ever linked a hormone that was manufactured in the liver as a hormone that is responsible for our fatness or thinness. The interesting part is that mice that had higher levels of this hormone in their body had lower levels of lipids (fats) circulating in their blood stream, and also had a harder time “plumping up”, even when put on higher calorie and higher fat diets. Their counterparts who did not have higher levels of the FDF21 hormone circulating in their blood stream actually gained weight much more quickly.
The outcome and finding of the study showed that higher levels of this hormone actually dictated the metabolic rate of mice, and changed their whole metabolism profile, making them into efficient (perhaps even too efficient if this hormone level was very high) calorie burning machines.
This hormone may lead to a devlopment of some kind of “miracle cure” for obesity or another fix, but we here at Daily Diet Blog still think the way to all around health, well being and staying skinny is dieting and exercise - the good kind that is, not a reduce calorie diet of nothing but cheese puffs and ice cream!
