This Seems Weird! - Tryptophan Apparently Increases Fat Loss?

Re.Generate

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Hey there all,

Names Harry - First-time thread-er but long time reader...god I enjoy this stuff and would have been posting much much earlier were it not for my two mad kiddies! - little spare time to put it mildly!

Anyway - for now - I have been doing a lot of reading lately on Tryptophan and especially looking at a possible idea I have of a way to facilitate very fast fat loss whilst also maintaining a very high metabolic rate at the same time - essentially a PUFA and tryptophan depletion type thing.

Anyway - came across this study - Error - Cookies Turned Off

And wondering what yall make of it - considering it seems to say that tryptophan increases weight loss at least - true - the participants were all on a very low-calorie PSMF diet and so presumably would have lost tons of weight whatever they did......but I just can't for the life of me imagine how tryptophan - associated with fat gain through serotonin increase, could help weight loss efforts.

I had the thought that perhaps they were just converting it to niacin instead-but surely that doesn't make sense considering their metabolic rates were probably pretty terrible to begin with - the only other possibility is that they were perhaps getting all their calories from casein or something else with very high calcium levels....but yes....simply unsure.

Any ideas???

Thanks
 

Frankdee20

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The only thing I can think of is that serotonin is associated with anorexic states, and things like garcenia cambogia help weight loss due to curbing appetite, as it increases serotonin, and hydroxytryptophan can do this too...
 

Jessie

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Serotonin and estrogen are closely influenced by one another. People in states of high serotonin, also typically have higher estrogen. When estrogen is elevated lypolisis will be elevated. I think the important thing to keep in mind here is "weight loss" and "healthy metabolism" won't necessarily always be linear. In fact, often times they aren't. Case in point, ketogenic diets are a prime example of such catabolic behavior.
 

Hans

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Hey there all,

Names Harry - First-time thread-er but long time reader...god I enjoy this stuff and would have been posting much much earlier were it not for my two mad kiddies! - little spare time to put it mildly!

Anyway - for now - I have been doing a lot of reading lately on Tryptophan and especially looking at a possible idea I have of a way to facilitate very fast fat loss whilst also maintaining a very high metabolic rate at the same time - essentially a PUFA and tryptophan depletion type thing.

Anyway - came across this study - Error - Cookies Turned Off

And wondering what yall make of it - considering it seems to say that tryptophan increases weight loss at least - true - the participants were all on a very low-calorie PSMF diet and so presumably would have lost tons of weight whatever they did......but I just can't for the life of me imagine how tryptophan - associated with fat gain through serotonin increase, could help weight loss efforts.

I had the thought that perhaps they were just converting it to niacin instead-but surely that doesn't make sense considering their metabolic rates were probably pretty terrible to begin with - the only other possibility is that they were perhaps getting all their calories from casein or something else with very high calcium levels....but yes....simply unsure.

Any ideas???

Thanks
Serotonin is thought to reduce appetite, that's why there are serotonergic drugs, specifically 5-HT2C agonists, that are used to promote fat loss. However, there are many side effects involved as well, since 5-HT2C increases cortisol and prolactin. Many cognition-enhancing substances block 5-HT2C.
So regardless if tryptophan promotes satiety or not, I would not use it.
As a side note, tryptophan can lower cortisol and increase dopamine as well, which has been shown to promote satiety.
 

Frankdee20

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Serotonin is thought to reduce appetite, that's why there are serotonergic drugs, specifically 5-HT2C agonists, that are used to promote fat loss. However, there are many side effects involved as well, since 5-HT2C increases cortisol and prolactin. Many cognition-enhancing substances block 5-HT2C.
So regardless if tryptophan promotes satiety or not, I would not use it.
As a side note, tryptophan can lower cortisol and increase dopamine as well, which has been shown to promote satiety.

How can tryptophan increase dopamine ? Is this indirectly through lowering cortisol ? But if it raises serotonin and serotonin raises cortisol, how so ?
 

Hans

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How can tryptophan increase dopamine ? Is this indirectly through lowering cortisol ? But if it raises serotonin and serotonin raises cortisol, how so ?
This study explains it. It was in fish though.
Tryptophan Metabolic Pathways and Brain Serotonergic Activity: A Comparative Review
"Furthermore, in the earlier studies showing a suppressive effect of elevated dietary Trp on the neuroendocrine response to an acute stressor the effects were investigated during or directly following a period of dietary Trp supplementation (10, 52). However, in recent studies in sea water reared Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar), the suppressive effect on post-stress plasma cortisol seems to appear between 2 and 8 days after terminating the Trp supplementation. Moreover, in Atlantic salmon, this suppressive effect was still present at 21 days post Trp supplementation (7, 53). Basic et al. (53) suggested that such slow acting Trp-induced alterations of HPI-axis reactivity could be related to smoltification, a process where salmonid fish adapt to sea water. Moreover, these long-term alternations of HPI axis reactivity was not related to changes in hypothalamic 5-HT neurochemistry. Instead they coincided with changes in dopaminergic neurochemistry in this brain part, effects which may be related to elevated activity of the kynruneric pathway, as discussed in section The Kynurenic pathway."
 
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Re.Generate

Re.Generate

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ah....so maybe simply a short term thing possibly?....or essentially also just putting one into a stress based metabolism it would seem....anyhow....essentially yes back to the whole fat loss not necessarily meaning "good"
 

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