Have you ever set a weight loss goal of, let’s say, twenty pounds and got stuck after losing the first ten, or so, pounds? No matter what some people do, short of starvation, after the initial drop in weight they just don’t progress any further. Some increase their diet regime, they eat less, they exercise more, they drink more water and eat more veggies but their weight stays the same. This is enough to send you crazy, because, you know that you are doing all the right things but just not seeing the desired results.

This weight loss plateau is common. It occurs not necessarily because of inappropriate dietary behavior or exercise routine on the part of the individual, but it is more as a result of how the body responds to the onset of the conditions that promote weight loss. The body is an extremely sensitive machine. When it detects that conditions around it is changing, in this case food consumption, it immediately goes into a survival mode. This means, it will conserve whatever it has left by slowing down or shutting off some functions. In the case of dieting it meticulously controls how fat is used. Leptin is the master hormone in the body that instructs the body in the efficient use of fat.

Burning fat depends on the availability of high levels of leptin which appears to be most plentiful in the body after we eat a big meal with a good amount of carbohydrates in particular. Now watch this, most diets severely reduce the amount of carbohydrate and restrict the quantity of food we should eat. This means that the amount of leptin available to burn fat is minimized which tells the body to enter a fat conservation mode. Consequently, it does not matter how much you exercise or how less you eat, the message the body gets is to conserve fat causing your weight to remain constant.

If you wish to remedy this problem and ensure that your weight loss program works, you have to find a way to keep your leptin levels high while at the same time cutting back on fats and carbohydrates. To do this it is recommended that you consume low caloric meals throughout the day. This will help to pump up the fat burning hormone, leptin and force the body to keep up its fat burning activities. Consuming foods high in fiber that give you the feeling of fullness after eating just a small amount is recommended here. It is a good idea to with a registered dietitian who could design meals for you that are low in caloric value and nutritional at the same time.

So do not despair if your diet does not appear to be working. It’s not your fault; it may be that your body is too efficient at protecting itself from starvation. The master hormone leptin may be at work cutting back on your fat burning capacity. Manage the level of leptin in your body and you will be better able to control fat burning and concomitantly lose weight.

In addition to losing weight, fat burning also helps the body maintain good health in many other ways including maintaining healthy blood pressure levels.