Several years ago those of us who counsel weight management clients were intrigued by rumors that scientists had discovered a protein that appeared to play an important role in how the body manages its supply of fat. The protein, which ironically is produced by fat, is LEPTIN. At that time research on mice showed that fat mice had higher blood levels of leptin than skinny mice.

Now that research has been replicated in humans and a variety of studies about leptin have been published in reputable peer-reviewed journals. Leptin, now called "the obesity hormone" probably acts as a signal to the brain's hyopthalamus which coordinates basic body functions such as eating behaviors, how the body uses the energy it gets from food calories and whether or not we are predisposed to dietary related diseases like diabetes.

It's the more recent studies that are supportive to those of us who continue to believe that exercise is mandatory for weight loss. We've always known that exercise helps regulate appetite, increases metabolism, makes it easier for us to control our weight and decreases a diabetic's dependency on restrictive diets, oral hypoglycemics or insulin. Now we are learning more about the variety of contributing factors that make that happen.

The most recent study divided 190 men with moderately high blood pressure and cholesterol levels into one of four groups: reduced calorie diet group, exercise only group, exercise and diet group and control group. While researchers expected to find that participants in the diet and exercise, exercise-only and diet groups lost weight and reduced body fat, they were surprised to find that the participants leptin levels also dropped significantly.

For too many years American's have been buying diet books and adopting weird diet strategies in an effort to to lose weight. Now perhaps everyone will begin to get the message that focusing on how to mobilize the stored calories you already have makes much more sense if you want to lose stored fat. And, once they prove that crash diets play havoc with your leptins people will give up that habit and be able to say, "Bottom line for me (if you'll excuse the pun) is exercise!"