Leptin and Runner's High

[OKCPirate 5,323]

This is a very interesting article

http://www.msn.com/en-us/health/fitness/why-are-morning-runners-so-happy/ar-AAdXPBx?ocid=spartandhp

Exercise first thing in morning on an empty stomach may optimize leptin levels making you feel full.

Edited September 7, 2015 by OKCPirate

[OutsideMatchInside 10,166]

Exercising first thing in the morning rocks. You feel like you can scale tall buildings all day. I wake up brush my teeth, walk the dog and hit the gym.

[B-52 7,113]

I've been doing that for years...not to feel full, but to burn fat...need energy to work out, so I used the energy I had stored aweay as fat instaed of burning anything I recently had eaten.

And it worked !!!

After my workout, I would have a high Protein, nutritious "Recovery Shake"

( I have to have my morning coffee, and I drink plenty of Water while running)

[jess9395 5,449]

Well dang! Guess I need to start exercising earlier in the day! I'm a get my kids off to school and then exercise gal. Hmmm...

[jess9395 5,449]

Wait I just read that article and I didn't get that out of it... It says that runners basically have lower leptin levels in general (all that the running needs fuel) and that running with lower leptin levels increases the desire to run further/faster and leads to the "runners high."

Am I missing something?

[OKCPirate 5,323]

@@jess9395 - Very good question. Best explanation may be here: http://www.webmd.boots.com/diet/guide/the-facts-on-leptin-faq

The better way to phrase is: Exersising in the morning may be the best way to optimize leptin levels

[Chrystee 838]

It doesn't necessarily have to be first thing in the morning either.. I experience this on any workouts I do that are over an hour or hour and a half, and when I work out really hard.. If I don't have much to eat before, I may be really hungry after, but a bite of food and i'm really full.

[jess9395 5,449]

@@jess9395 - Very good question. Best explanation may be here: http://www.webmd.boots.com/diet/guide/the-facts-on-leptin-faq

The better way to phrase is: Exersising in the morning may be the best way to optimize leptin levels

I must really be missing something, where in that article does it talk about exercise? Which page/section?

[jess9395 5,449]

It doesn't necessarily have to be first thing in the morning either.. I experience this on any workouts I do that are over an hour or hour and a half, and when I work out really hard.. If I don't have much to eat before, I may be really hungry after, but a bite of food and i'm really full.

See right after a workout that long I don't want ANYTHING to eat! In fact I have trouble fueling enough on long runs and races (half and full marathon) because by about 2/3 of the way I don't want to put Anything in my stomach, even Water.

If I don't eat before, I completely bonk if I'm going more than about 3-4 miles.

I should add that later in the day, say 3 hours after, THEN I'm HUNGRY.

[Chrystee 838]

@@jess9395 I can't eat right before a high intensity workout.. Maybe 1.5-2 hours before and no sooner.

[OKCPirate 5,323]

@jess9395- I thought your question was "what is leptin and why does it matter what level it is?"

My interest in the article is that it seems to address one of the interesting problems with weight loss/maintenance and your hormone leptin. Great explanation of why sustaining weight loss is so difficult: http://theweightofthenation.hbo.com/watch/bonus-shorts/the-quest-to-understand-the-biology-of-weight-loss go to the 12:30 mark

So yes, the article is about the runners high, but what is important to me is that it also shows that morning, empty stomach exercise seems to optimize leptin levels which is important for maintaining your new size. And heck if it makes you feel good, I'll take that too.

[jess9395 5,449]

@jess9395- I thought your question was "what is leptin and why does it matter what level it is?"

My interest in the article is that it seems to address one of the interesting problems with weight loss/maintenance and your hormone leptin. Great explanation of why sustaining weight loss is so difficult: http://theweightofthenation.hbo.com/watch/bonus-shorts/the-quest-to-understand-the-biology-of-weight-loss go to the 12:30 mark

So yes, the article is about the runners high, but what is important to me is that it also shows that morning, empty stomach exercise seems to optimize leptin levels which is important for maintaining your new size. And heck if it makes you feel good, I'll take that too.

Oh no I understand Leptin and what it does I just didn't get out of the article that running on an empty stomach did anything to the Leptin levels. Maybe I missed it. I just read that the Leptin levels led to a runners high and the desire to go longer/faster. Where does it talk about that changing the Leptin levels? That's what I missed. I only got out of it that the Leptin levels made you want to run longer/faster.

Sadly I can't usually watch the videos on my phone but I will try to watch it later

[jess9395 5,449]

@@jess9395 I can't eat right before a high intensity workout.. Maybe 1.5-2 hours before and no sooner.

I eat half an hour to an hour before. I wanna be like OKC Pirate who doesn't eat at all before! But I just can't

[stacyg1 136]

It doesn't necessarily have to be first thing in the morning either.. I experience this on any workouts I do that are over an hour or hour and a half, and when I work out really hard.. If I don't have much to eat before, I may be really hungry after, but a bite of food and i'm really full.

See right after a workout that long I don't want ANYTHING to eat! In fact I have trouble fueling enough on long runs and races (half and full marathon) because by about 2/3 of the way I don't want to put Anything in my stomach, even Water.

If I don't eat before, I completely bonk if I'm going more than about 3-4 miles.

I should add that later in the day, say 3 hours after, THEN I'm HUNGRY.

I totally agree with you. I have to eat something about 60-90 minutes before any run longer than 3-4 miles or I die!

Edited September 8, 2015 by stacyg1

[OKCPirate 5,323]

@@stacyg1 - but think of the "high" you get by almost fainting