Lifestyle and Weight Loss For Teens

Ep. 48 Why Teens Have Big Appetite Despite High Leptin (Thin Hormone)

• Dr Jenny Gourgari

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Ever wondered why teenagers seem perpetually hungry despite having high levels of the "thin" hormone leptin? Discover the complex interplay between hormones and appetite during puberty in today's episode of the Lifestyle and Weight Loss for Teens podcast. I talk about the thin hormone "leptin"—its role in signaling fullness, how its levels fluctuate differently in boys and girls during puberty, and the curious phenomenon of leptin resistance that leaves many teens struggling with increased appetites.

If you're wondering…
❓ Why are teens hungry all the time during puberty?
❓ Why are teens craving sugar all the time?
❓ Why teens feel so tired—even when they sleep?

You’re not alone—and it’s not your fault.

Hormones play a HUGE role in how teens gain weight, feel energy, manage emotions, and grow.

Dr Gourgari is a certified pediatric endocrinologist, obesity medicine specialist and health coach for teens.

Each week, she break down how puberty hormones work—and how simple habits like eating better, sleeping more, and moving your body can help you feel better, stronger, and more confident.

We’ll talk about things like:
🥗 Are smoothies really healthy?
🍞 Are carbs bad for weight loss in teens?
💪 And how to stop emotional eating before it takes over your day.

Whether you’re a teen ready to make a change—or a parent looking to support your child the right way—this podcast is for you.

🎁 Want to jump in right now?
Grab your free guide: 30 Healthy, High-Protein Recipes for Teens at lifestyleforteens.com/recipes

Speaker 2:

This is the Lifestyle and Weight Loss for Teens podcast. If you're a mom and want to help your child who is struggling to lose weight, you are in the right place. If you are looking for healthy lifestyle tips, dr Gorgery is here to help you understand the science around safe weight loss in teens and children, because what works for adult weight loss is not always the best for children. This podcast is for educational purposes only. Dr Gorgory does not provide medical, psychological or nutrition therapy advice. You should not use this information to diagnose or treat any health problems without consulting your own medical practitioner and now your host, dr Jenny Gorgory.

Speaker 1:

Hello, hello, welcome to another episode of the Lifestyle and Weight Loss for Teens podcast. This is Dr Jenny Gorgory, and on today's episode I will be talking about a hormone that you may have heard about and is called leptin hormone. So leptin hormone comes from the Greek word leptos, which means thin. So leptin hormone is actually the hormone that talks to your brain and tells your brain hey, you're full, you don't need to eat anymore. So it is very important to regulate our weight Now.

Speaker 1:

Understanding how leptin levels change during puberty is important because it can help us better understand that the hormones during puberty play a significant role when we are talking about weight gain in teenagers. So let's start by what happens in leptin levels for boys. For boys, leptin levels peak before puberty and then, as their testosterone levels become higher and higher, then they have more muscle mass because of the higher testosterone and they have higher levels of leptin. On the other hand, when we talk about the girls, what happens in girls is that they have a gradual increase in their leptin levels throughout the puberty and at the same time, they have increase in their estrogen levels and they also have higher body fat. Now I've talked before how estrogen is important for putting more fat in girls, and if you haven't heard that episode, then I invite you to go back and listen to episode 44, why teenage girls have have More Body Fat Than Boys. But in this episode we're talking about the thin hormone which is called leptin. So one could ask if leptin hormone is high in puberty and this is the hormone that makes our brain feel full then why are all teenagers have this big appetite and they don't feel satisfied and they want to eat again and again? So it is obviously very complicated and it's not only one hormone that plays a role into appetite regulations. There are many hormones and leptin is just one of them. That is one thing.

Speaker 1:

Now the second thing is that leptin, even though there are children, that they are born. If it is a congenital deficiency of leptin and children really do not have any leptin, then we know that they can eat a lot and they can gain a lot of weight and they can have severe problems with their weight gain and then, once you give them leptin as a medicine, then they lose weight right away. Now, these cases are extremely rare. What typically happens in majority of children that are having extra weight and also in adults that are overweight. Their leptin hormone is very high, but the brain doesn't listen to it. So this is what we called a state of leptin resistance. So if you have heard of insulin resistance, that it's a state of where your body does not listen to insulin and that's like a sign of prediabetes. There is such a similar thing, but not with insulin hormone. It's the same thing with leptin hormone.

Speaker 1:

So, even though your body can produce a lot of leptin and it's trying to tell your brain you are full, you don't need to eat anymore, stop eating the brain does not listen, and that is what we call leptin resistance. So it would be wonderful if people that don't have leptin congenital leptin deficiency could get leptin and then they could lose weight. But it turns out they have done these experiments and if, when you give leptin to people that don't have congenital leptin deficiency, they actually do not lose any weight. Because the problem is it's not that they don't have leptin, it's that the leptin that they have doesn't work. And so the question is what can improve leptin resistance? How can we make your body listen to leptin? How can we make your body listen to the hunger and fullness signal that your body sends through leptin? So this is a very active area of scientific research at the moment and we don't have the scientific answers on how to improve leptin sensitivity. However, we know that once we notice that we don't have good appetite regulation and good control and there is something going on there, then we can always apply the general lifestyle measures that I keep talking about to help our body improve the balance between our hunger and fullness signals.

Speaker 1:

And applying those simple steps, even though we can still have leptin resistance, that doesn't mean that we cannot overcome it consciously by following those healthy habits. For example, if you are eating slowly during your lunch, that gives your body the opportunity to feel full because you're not rushing, because we know that your body needs 20 minutes to feel that you're full. That is just one example. We know also that if you prefer to eat whole foods compared to eating processed food, then that will give your body less spikes of insulin. So if you have less spikes of insulin after a meal, then that will give your body the opportunity to feel less hunger after a meal. So we can apply small lifestyle steps that can improve our insulin sensitivity and partially can control our hormonal levels as well, and hopefully in the near future we will learn more about the pathophysiology and the different mechanisms for leptin, and maybe a role for medications that can be used in the future that can attack this pathway, not only in people that have cogenital deficiency, but also the people that are having leptin resistance.

Speaker 1:

So, before I let you go, my question to you today is what is one step that you can take today that you can start with building a small habit that will get you closer to where you want to be? I mentioned a few seconds earlier that you can try by giving yourself enough time to have your meal. There is another thing you can do Maybe start walking, and maybe you can take 15 minutes every day to walk. Maybe you can take 20 minutes to go swimming. Maybe you can start dancing every day. That is, incorporating more movement in your life. Maybe you notice that every single day, you go and grab ice cream, especially now that it's like the summer and there's a lot of ice cream everywhere, right? So is this something that you could do? And if this is a daily thing, can you commit to cutting back from daily ice cream to maybe three days a week ice cream? What is it that you can commit to doing today to help your hormones get in better balance and start building those healthy habits that will get you where you want to go.

Speaker 1:

The last thing I want to mention is that leptin is very important when we are talking about initiation of puberty, and if there is not enough fat in your body, particularly the teenage girls, then the leptin levels are very, very low and these girls can lose their periods. And the reason I want to bring this up is that we know that we all need a certain level of body fat and a certain level of leptin hormone so that we can have initiation of puberty, so that we can have enough estrogen production, particularly in girls, and also testosterone in boys, and also testosterone in boys. So all these diets that are excessive and that they can lead to anorexia, they can lead to extreme thinness and extreme low body fat. That can be dangerous because that can make you lose the periods if you're a teenager and a teenage girl.

Speaker 1:

So my take-home message from this episode is that leptin is a hormone that is produced from the fat. It is there for a reason we need a certain level of body fat to go through puberty and that is okay, and even though we may have more body fat than we need at this point. But we can still follow healthy habits to start improving our hormones, to start improving our insulin resistance. We can improve our testosterone and estrogen balance, along with growth hormone and insulin hormone, along with growth hormone and insulin hormone. So take those small steps, commit to taking one small step and eventually, step by step, you will gradually build the healthy lifestyle that nobody can take away from you, and you can do this for life. Enjoy the summer, have fun and I will talk to you soon. Take care.

Speaker 2:

If you enjoyed listening to this podcast, I invite you to come check out the lift program. It's Dr Gregory's 12 week coaching program for teens and their moms, where we take all this information, we apply it to your daily life and we work together so your teenager learns how to create a healthy lifestyle. So they can feel happier, more confident, less stressed and love their body again. So they can feel happier, more confident, less stressed and love their body again. Visit the website at lifestyleforteenscom and click on the Work With Me and free resources to learn more about this program and get free help to start this journey right away. Thanks for tuning in and we'll catch you in the next episode of Lifestyle and Weight Loss for Teens. For teens.