Fullness Signaling

Your result, the one DNA position behind it, and what the research says.

7/10 confidence.

About Fullness Signaling

Leptin is made by fat tissue and acts on the brain as a long-run energy report: plenty stored, and the signal is strong. It is not a moment-to-moment fullness switch, which is a common misunderstanding; it works over days and weeks rather than during a meal. This marker sits near the gene rather than inside it, and is associated with how much leptin circulates at a given amount of body fat. How it acts is not established. Leptin signaling is one input among many, and appetite is shaped far more by sleep, habit, meal composition and what is in front of you.

Good to know: Leptin reports stored energy over weeks, not fullness during a meal. It is one input among many into appetite. Short sleep shifts appetite hormones more sharply than this variant does.

Fun fact: Leptin was discovered in 1994 in mice that lacked it entirely, and giving it back reversed their condition almost completely, which is why expectations for it in humans ran so far ahead of reality.

Discovery: Leptin was identified in 1994, and common variants affecting its circulating level were mapped in later population studies.

The Variant

The single variant behind this trait

Gene: LEP

Variant (rsID): rs10487505

Location: Chr 7:128,220,110

dbSNP rs10487505

The studies

Genome-wide meta-analysis uncovers novel loci influencing circulating leptin levels (Kilpeläinen TO et al., Nature communications, 2016)

Genetic Studies of Leptin Concentrations Implicate Leptin in the Regulation of Early Adiposity (Yaghootkar H et al., Diabetes, 2020)

Sex-specific role of epigenetic modification of a leptin upstream enhancer in adipose tissue (Müller L et al., Clinical epigenetics, 2025)

Genetic variability in the leptin-melanocortin pathway and its role in weight loss (Santos-Pereira M et al., Molecular metabolism, 2026)

Other lifestyle traits

Coffee Intake: A change near the gene for the receptor that switches on caffeine-clearing enzymes, tied to how much coffee people actually drink.

Fresh Fruit Preference: A change near a transcription factor, linked in a very large survey to how much fresh fruit people report eating.

Water Intake: A change in a large calcium-release gene, linked in a UK Biobank survey to how many glasses of water people report drinking.

Back to All Traits

Content updated September 2026.

ReadYourDNA provides educational interpretation of DNA data you already have. It is not diagnostic, not a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment, and is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease. Talk to a clinician before acting on any result.

Raw DNA Data Reports for 23andMe & AncestryDNA · About ReadYourDNA · FAQ · Methodology & Science · Pricing · Support and complaints · Legal & Contact · Health Traits · Pharmacogenomics · Carrier Status · Variant Explorer · The Human Karyotype · Privacy Policy · Terms of Service · Accessibility · Consumer Health Data Privacy · Your Privacy Choices · Editorial Standards · Your Data, Checkable · Sample Report · ReadYourDNA and Promethease compared · What is inside a 23andMe raw data file · What is inside an AncestryDNA raw data file · What a chatbot can and cannot do with your raw DNA file · Where a raw DNA file can still be uploaded in 2026

Written, maintained and operated by Martin Pechhacker, sole proprietor, Vienna, Austria. Trade register GISA 40064420. support@readyourdna.com