Why We Eat (Too Much): The New Science of Appetite

by Andrew Jenkinson

So it is not about the total number of calories that we are consuming with our constant snacking – if these calories counted as part of an energy in/out equation we would quickly balloon to 200kg, and remember that the massive increase in the number of calories that we are consuming in our sugary snacks is burned off by ratcheting up our metabolic afterburners. This is our normal metabolic adaptation to over-eating (as discussed in chapters 1 and 3). The crucial point – which contributes to people gaining weight – is the effect of insulin on the weight set-point. Insulin dulls the leptin signal and the body gets the message to store extra energy. As the insulin level increases, so leptin resistance appears. If our master weight controller, leptin, is not heard, our set-point will rise and our weight will follow it.