Fat Hormone #4 Adiponectin

Hmmm.  Adiponectin.  This is a metabolic hormone that I am just learning about - but here's what I know so far: you need adiponectin to release fat stores.  Fat people generally do not have much adiponectin circulating in their bodies and people who are fat are generally already suffering from insulin resistance, diabetes 2, and/or metabolic syndrome.
Adiponectin, in combination with leptin, has been shown to completely reverse insulin resistance in mice.
(for more scientific explanation click here)

Chew on this: People with high levels of adiponectin are slim. 

You can increase levels of adiponectin increase when you are fasting for short fasts.

And adiponectin increases your bodies sensitivity to insulin, so you produce less insulin and less insulin means less fat storage too.

So just how do you combine adiponectin and leptin?
Commit a day to a 3/4 day long fast, breaking the fast at dinner time with a high fat, high protein meal (in essence, a steak day) and then get a good nights sleep.  That should result in increased levels of adiponectin and leptin and a drop in weight.

This hormone may be the reason 'steak days' work to drop several pounds overnight - because the 3/4 day-long fast results in increased levels of adiponectin and lowered insulin levels and now your body can/will release some fat from it's fat stores.  I've dropped as much as 3.5 lbs from a steak day and never understood how exactly that worked, but I think this hormone may explain it.