Muscle for Life

The first few weeks after starting a diet are usually smooth sailing. You aren’t that hungry, your energy levels are good, and you’re still adding weight in the gym. Then, often at about the four to eight-week mark, the gears begin to grind to a halt. You feel more hungry before meals and less satisfied after. Your energy levels drop and it becomes increasingly hard to add weight to your compound exercises. And worst of all, the number on the scale moves slower and slower with every weekly weigh-in. What changed? Why did dieting suddenly transform from a sprint into a slog? Are you eating too much or too little? Not doing enough cardio? Not eating the right foods? Not taking the right supplements? The answer to all of those questions lies in a hormone called leptin, which is the topic of this podcast. Leptin lies at the center of the constellation of problems every dieter experiences as they lose fat—lethargy, hunger, metabolic slowdown, and even increased risk of illness. Like anything related to weight loss