Zinc Boosts Leptin Levels

Sheesh

Active member
For those of you interested in cutting, i'm sure you've heard of the role of leptin in weight loss. Heck, Avant Labs even has a product that boosts it. However, for those of us who are cheap, this study shows us how to do it the cheap-o way.

For Those Of You Who Just Want The Layman's Versions of These Two Studies, Scroll Down

The study is a little bit old, so some of you might have read before. I'm posting it anyway...



J Am Coll Nutr 1998 Jun;17(3):270-5 Related Articles, Links


Zinc may regulate serum leptin concentrations in humans.

Mantzoros CS, Prasad AS, Beck FW, Grabowski S, Kaplan J, Adair C, Brewer GJ.

Department of Internal Medicine, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, USA.

OBJECTIVE: Leptin, the product of the ob gene, plays a key role in a feedback loop that maintains energy balance by signaling the state of energy stores to the brain and by influencing the regulation of appetite and energy metabolism. Zinc also plays an important role in appetite regulation. Thus, we evaluated the relationship between zinc status and the leptin system in humans. METHODS: We studied nine healthy men with marginal zinc deficiency, induced by dietary means, before and after zinc supplementation. RESULTS: Zinc restriction decreased leptin levels while zinc supplementation of zinc-depleted subjects increased circulating leptin levels. In addition, zinc supplementation increased IL-2 and TNF-alpha production that could be responsible for the observed increase in leptin concentrations. CONCLUSIONS: Zinc may influence serum leptin levels, possibly by increasing the production of IL-2 and TNF-alpha.
 
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And here's one that shows how Leptin affects testosterone...

J Clin Endocrinol Metab 1998 Sep;83(9):3243-6 Related Articles, Links


Inverse correlation between serum testosterone and leptin in men.

Luukkaa V, Pesonen U, Huhtaniemi I, Lehtonen A, Tilvis R, Tuomilehto J, Koulu M, Huupponen R.

Department of Pharmacology, University of Turku, Finland. [email protected]

Besides its role in the regulation of energy balance, leptin seems to be involved in linking energy stores to the reproductive system. A gender-dependent difference exists in plasma leptin concentration and leptin messenger ribonucleic acid expression in rodents and humans. This difference does not seem to be explained simply by differences in the amount of body fat between genders. To elucidate the relationship of endogenous testosterone and leptin, we studied the serum leptin concentrations in 269 elderly nondiabetic men. In addition, to assess whether exogenously administered testosterone could influence leptin production, we followed the serum levels of leptin in 10 healthy men during a 12-month treatment with 200 mg testosterone enanthate, i.m., weekly for contraceptive purposes. We found that the serum leptin concentration correlated inversely (r = -0.39; P < 0.001) with that of testosterone in elderly men. This inverse correlation was still present when body mass index and plasma insulin were included in the analysis. The administration of testosterone to young men suppressed serum leptin from the pretreatment level of 3.4 +/- 1.4 to 1.9 +/- 0.6 micrograms/L during the therapy. After cessation of testosterone injections, serum leptin concentration returned back to the pretreatment level. It is concluded that testosterone has a suppressive effect on leptin production, as reflected by circulating levels of this hormone.
 
Layman's Breakdown

The two studies above may be a bit confusing/complex, so here's somewhat of a layman's breakdown.


The first one:

Most people know that your metabolism is probably the most important aspect of losing weight. That's why ECA stacks work, by increasing thermogenesis they increase your metabolism.

One substance that ur body makes itself to control its metabolism is leptin. Basically, the higher your leptin, the higher your metabolism.

Zinc increases leptin, thus increases your metabolism, which leads to fat loss.



The second one:

It appears that exogenous testosterone reduces serum leptin levels, as does endogenous testosterone. That's odd beacuse in those with zinc defincies who take zinc, their leptin is boosted and their testosterone goes up as well. Hmmm....



Anyways, Bottom line is, make sure you're getting at least 15 mg. of zinc daily.


Questions/clarifications, just post...
 
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I've known about the effects on testosterone for years, but the leptin effects look interesting - I'm going to see if I can find any more research on this.
 
Andy2k said:
I've known about the effects on testosterone for years, but the leptin effects look interesting - I'm going to see if I can find any more research on this.

Let me know if you find anything. And note that the 2nd study is how leptin affected testosterone, not how zinc did....
 
One thing...in that second study, didn't it say that testosterone has a negative effect of leptin, i.e. as you increase testosterone levels, you decrease your leptin levels?
 
So it sounds like it would be detremental if you were bulking, but zinc is a required nutrient...
 
p_zub said:
One thing...in that second study, didn't it say that testosterone has a negative effect of leptin, i.e. as you increase testosterone levels, you decrease your leptin levels?

Yup....
 
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