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Two Keys to Weight Loss
I'm diabetic and t2 and have gone to great pains to educate myself about all asspects of the disease, including insulin and it's role in metabolism and the progression of resestence in diabetes. For one with a metabolic disorder, consideration of the ratio of macro food sources is important, for those without them it is ony so if one is putting one's health at risk of obesity etc. by over consumption of all food sources and the unhealthy content of easily available foods. If we are talking about low carb for weight loss it is another question and far too many urban myths are afloat then can be supported,ex. high carb foods should be avoided because they will make you fat, which is only the case if one is over consuming to the excess of one's energy needs. The body can not store energy that is being used for daily activity, regardless of macro source and the body is happy to store that energy from any macro source. You're diabetic, correct? I believe I've seen you on ASD. You're T1 though, not T2 if I remember. You probably know a good deal about diabetes as you are diabetic, but you are either undereducated about insulin resistance because you are T1 or GROSSLY misinformed & confused about your disease if you are T2. Insulin resistance is a risk factor for fat-creation and storage independent of consumed caloric energy. This is rudimentary, foundational knowledge of the syndrome. Here is a brief outline of what happens... 1) LOW RATE OF TRANSFORMATION OF SUGAR INTO THERMIC ENERGY. Insulin resistance does not strike all tissues equally. Tissues with a high demand for energy such as muscle tend to lose sensitivity first, storage/processing organs like the liver and adipose last. As anyone with IR will tell you, being insulin resistant and eating a high-sugar diet translates into feeling like *crap* all day. This is because when you are insulin resistant sugar is being preferentially metabolized by the liver and stored in fat cells, instead of being taken up by the energy using tissues as needed as your body has a really hard time doing this. This equates to a pervasive state of lethargy, tiredness, fogginess, etc. 2) HIGH RATE OF FAT STORING, LOWERED ABILITY TO USE STORED FAT. Hyperinsulinemia is a condition where insulin levels are higher than they should be for the physiological need of it. This basically means that hyperinsulinemic people produce too much insulin per unit of energy consumed... the body "overproduces" the hormone for some reason, usually because of peripheral insulin resistance. Insulin resistant people - yet diabetic or not - all tend to have hyperinsulinemia. It is IMPOSSIBLE to burn body fat in a hyperinsulinemic environment, just as it is impossible to store fat in a hypoinsulinemic environment (i.e. out of control T1 diabetes). I'll explain why. Insulin is an anabolic (tissue - fat - building) hormone. It is also the master metabolic hormone, meaning the state of insulin in the body determines the nature of all metabolic processes. The antagonist to insulin, and therefore the catabolic hormone (tissue wasting), is glucagon. Insulin and glucagon cannot be dominant at the same time, as they work as antagonists, counter weights, a see-saw keeping metabolism regulated. Insulin rises in response to energy intake. Insulin falls when consumed energy is low. Glucagon rises in response to energy deficiency (such as hypoglycemia or fasting). Glucagon falls when consumed energy is high. A drop in insulin is a prerequisite for catabolic action (lipolysis, gluconeogenisis) to occur. So what does all this mean? IF ONE is hyperinsulinemic - meaning they produce too much of the fat storing, anabolic hormone insulin per caloric energy consumed - this means their body more readily turns energy into fat. No problem, you are probably thinking. Then they just eat a normal energy diet and feed off of their body fat! Wrong. It doesn't work like that. As I said before, the only way for catabolic activities to occur is when insulin levels fall and glucagon levels rise. However, insulin and glucagon are *antagonists*, and being hyperinsulinemic precludes having inordinately high amounts of insulin per calories consumed. The body CAN NOT AND WILL NOT produce glucagon when insulin is high, as insulin is the "master hormone". The actions of insulin influence the actions of all other metabolic hormones - when insulin is high the body thinks this means lots of energy is present, and therefore it will not produce the catabolic hormone glucagon. This is the physiological basis for complications of hyperinsulinemia, such as the disease of chronic hypoglycemia. This is also the reason behind why IDDM patients need to have glucagon on hand. If they accidentally take too much insulin and for whatever reason won't be able to eat sugar in the event of a severe hypo, they need someone to administer glucagon to them so catabolic energy synthesis may occur. Failure to do this means death from hypoglycemia. Their bodies won't produce the glucagon on their own due to the high amounts of synthetic insulin present, the only way to save their lives is to pump them full of sugar *or* to inject catabolic hormone. There is just one way for a hyperinsulinemic person to lose weight (other than treating the hyperinsulinism with a low glycemic diet). Reduce caloric energy to ridiculously low, unsustainable levels. Remember what we have established already, a hyperinsulinemic person produces too much insulin in response to sugar consumed. A normal person does not. A normal person can restrict sugar calories to reasonable levels and this is enough to drop insulin so that glucagon may rise and catabolic activity may be facilitated (i.e. 1400 calories will produce safe body fat loss for a metabolically normal small woman). However, a hyperinsulinemic person must make much more severe caloric restrictions in order to drop insulin low enough to allow glucagon to rise and facilitate catabolism. Depending on degree of hyperinsulinism, they must restrict calories very severely to see weight loss. A person of similar build with bad enough hyperinsulinemia may even GAIN weight on that aforementioned 1400 calorie diet! So what we have here is a double threat to body weight - a high rate of storing energy as fat, and a debilitated ability to elicit catabolism (body fat burning). You may be wondering how hyperinsulinemic people function if their bodies are using less energy than others. They are storing fat, not burning energy sufficiently, yet they are alive with needs for energy just like everyone else. It seems to "violate the law of thermodynamics". If what I am saying is true, being hyperinsulinemic must be a lot like walking around starving all the time. The answer is that yes, IR people are basically walking around effectively starved for energy, as contradictory as that sounds. It matters not that they may be even eating more calories than other people, the fact is that energy is only being put onto body fat and it is not going to fuel the brain, muscles, etc. There is a deficiency of energy for vital metabolic processes. Debilitating fatigue is one of the most common symptoms of insulin resistance / T2 diabetes. The fatigue, fogginess, inability to concentrate, the tiredness - these are symptoms of your body being starved for energy. This is why LCing, metformin treatment, etc often produces a "burst of energy" for IR people. It's not that they are GAINING energy relative to normal people on a normal diet, it's more an issue of their bodies using ADEQUATE ENERGY for the first time ever. Normal people won't experience energy gains on LC because they don't have problems using sugar for energy. In closing, yes, insulin resistance with hyperinsulinemia is a RISK FACTOR INDEPENDENT OF CALORIES for weight gain. It causes an increased rate of anabolism (body fat storage), a debilitated capacity for catabolism (body fat burning), a debilitated capacity for sugar energy usage (resulting in fatigue, fogginess, feeling like a tired slug, etc) which then results in compensatory slashing of metabolic rates (as is seen in starvation or other conditions where energy is restricted from the body - in this case adequate calories may be present, the problem is the body can not use them for thermogenesis due to the IR, so the body is effectively "starving" for energy). wrote in message -n et.com... Oh where is logic when we need it? Even assuming your take on insulin, greatly over simplified and misleading as stated, on what does the insulin have to work if there are fewer calories then required to maintain weight status? Does insulin generate calories and weight gain out of thin air? If all calories are used to maintain daily activity, or less then required, does insulin still cause a weight gain? "Silly" does seem the correct word here. Assuming that calories are the only factor involved in weight management in humans, then you may have a point, otherwise this is a silly exercise in theoretical weight management. Calories do not trigger fat storage, hormones do, insulin to be precise. Calories are secondary to hormonal flunctuations. TC |
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