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Leptin and Ghrelin: Regulate Hunger Hormones from CrossFit BC. Why willpower loses to biology, and the sleep, protein, fibre and training habits that make hunger hormones work with you instead of against you.
Leptin and Ghrelin: How to Stop Fighting Your Hunger Hormones
This article is part of the CrossFit BC journal, written by the coaching staff who run our classes in Olympic Village, Vancouver. We publish what we teach on the floor: training decisions, recovery, nutrition, and the honest tradeoffs behind them.
Leptin is produced by fat tissue and tells the brain that energy stores are adequate. With chronically elevated levels, the brain becomes less responsive to the signal, so the message is sent and not received. The practical result is persistent hunger despite plenty of stored energy. It improves with better sleep, reduced ultra-processed food intake, consistent training and gradual fat loss rather than crash dieting.
Ghrelin rises in anticipation of the times you usually eat, so it depends on your pattern rather than the clock. If you normally eat at 7am and skip it, hunger arrives hard mid-morning. People who habitually eat later adapt within about a week. The bigger issue is what happens at the first meal: a low-protein, high-refined-carbohydrate start sets up a steeper hunger curve regardless of the timing.
Seven to nine hours. The classic research showed measurable ghrelin increases and leptin decreases after nights restricted to four to five hours, along with a strong preference for calorie-dense food the next day. If your fat loss has stalled and your sleep is short, fix sleep first. Our sleep and performance guide covers the practical side.