Carbing it Up

I was told by another Paleo-er (which, we really need a better term to call one another now that I think about it. Unfortunately, since this lifestyle is still a bit too niche, it might actually do us a disservice though) that:

eating a crapload of carbs (complex) and low fat low pro... every 10 daya or so. Keeps your leptin up.

Now, I have been eating Paleo for the past 4 and a half months, with the only cheating I have done being small, very small, amounts. Even when cheating, I never do it enough in one day to even get down to the 80/20 principle that Mark from MarksDailyApple.com suggests for his followers and readers.

What is leptin? According to wikipedia, leptin is:

Leptin (Greek leptos meaning thin) is a 16 kDa protein hormone that plays a key role in regulating energy intake and energy expenditure, including appetite and metabolism. 

and:

The absence of a leptin (or its receptor) leads to uncontrolled food intake and resulting obesity. Several studies have shown that fasting or following a very-low-calorie diet (VLCD) lowers leptin levels.

For those who think weight gain/loss is all about calories

The math is a lot harder than you think and you can go into a deficit by eating more!

Here's a metabolic ward trial that sheds light on how this actually works:

patients were put on to 2000-calorie diets of normal proportions to show that their weight could be maintained while in hospital at this level and then placed on high-fat, high-protein diets providing 2600 calories per day. It was demonstrated that these patients on the whole could maintain or gain weight on 2000-calories but, except in one instance, lost weight consistently on a 2600 daily calorie intake.

This matches my own personal experience. It's not just about how much you eat. It's much more about what you eat (and other ways of changing metabolism, like IF). I lost body fat by eating a stupid amount of calories (regardless of activity level).

You can't just calculate a generic BMR and then try to stay under that. It's irrelevant and the reason many say they can't lose while in deficit. Your body adapts too well to what you eat.

Hormones drive the system, not just volume of food.