Leptin is a hormone that has been found to help the brain resist tempting foods. The natural appetite suppressant was discovered in the 1990s when researchers found leptin caused mice to eat less and lose weight. Since then they have been trying to find a way to use leptin to help treat obesity.

In earlier studies, researchers found that when people lose weight, leptin levels fall as the body tries to protect its energy stores.

Rosenbaum investigated the impact of this loss of leptin on the brains of people who had lost weight, and whether replacing the hormone might help them keep off the weight.

He used an imaging technique known as functional magnetic resonance imaging that shows activity in the brain. The researchers studied six obese patients before and after going on a hospital-supervised diet that reduced their body weight by 10 percent.

People were shown pictures of food and non-food items, such as an apple or a yo-yo. The researchers found that after weight loss, areas in the brain responsible for regulating food intake were less active when people were shown food images. Areas in the brain responsible for emotion were more active.

When the researchers restored leptin to the levels before the dieting, these changes were largely reversed.

SOURCE: AOL

According to recent studies, belly fat is the worst of it's kind and the most difficult to get rid of. It's more than just unattractive, in fact researchers are finding that abdominal fat leads to higher risks of heart disease, diabetes and even certain types of cancers. I know from my own personal experience that blasting belly fat is no walk in the park. Even devotion to a strict exercise regimen may not do the trick for you. So how does one go about losing the extra jiggle? Along with a regular exercise program and a healthy diet, these three tips should help:

 1. Avoid Trans Fats: What you don't eat is just as important to your waistline as what you're eating. A recent study done at Wake Forest University has concluded that trans fat, which has been shown to increase the risk of heart disease, may also increase dangerous belly fat.

Trans fat is formed during a hydrogenation process in which vegetable oil is converted into a solid to increase shelf life of a food. As of this year, manufacturers were required to list trans fat on the labels of their products.

2. Get More Sleep: Studies have shown that those who get less than four hours of sleep per night are more than 70 percent more likely to be obese than those who get seven to nine hours. Sleep deprivation lowers leptin, a protein that suppresses appetite and tells the brain when the stomach is full. Not catching enough Z's also inhibits the production of insulin, which regulates blood sugar. So, if you're constantly burning the midnight oil, you're interfering with your body's ability to burn off extra calories.

3. Manage Stress: The "Fight or Flight" response has been around for millions of years, but it could also be adding unwanted inches to your waistline. When faced with stress, our bodies release a hormonal cocktail of adrenaline, cortisol and insulin.

Not only have high cortisol levels been associated with increased appetite and fat production, but the fat has been shown to typically deposit itself in the belly area.

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I love how they come out with a new study saying the same thing every other week. Isn't it obvious by now that eating healthy and exercising has health benefits? In case you needed more evidence that you're not wasting your time at the gym, here's another study:

Drinking less alcohol, eating more vegetables and exercising can delay or even prevent the onset of diabetes, according to scientists.

Diet and exercise reduced the incidence of diabetes by about 43 per cent over 20 years among 577 high-risk Chinese adults, the researchers reported in the journal Lancet.

At the end of the 20 years, 80 per cent of those who changed what they ate and exercised more had diabetes, compared with 93 per cent who made no changes, said Guangwei Li of the China-Japan Friendship Hospital in Beijing and Ping Zhang at the U.S. Centre for Disease Control and Prevention.

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Selenium is one awesome mineral that many people don't get enough of. A recent survey of over 8,000 Americans found that this cancer-fighting mineral also seemed to lower rates of abdominal obesity, reporting that those with lower levels of selenium had larger waistlines.

Use this WHFoods chart to help you get your recommended 55 mcg of selenium per day:

CLICK HERE to learn more of the benefits of selenium!

Can extra pounds be sexy? Reader's Digest surveyed nearly 1,800 respondents and here are the results:

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