Insulin

nick1109

http://weightology.net/weightologyweekly/?page_id=319

Interesting article here, personally I don't buy it and still think low ish carb is the best way to maintain a healthy, lean body. For people looking to get truly huge and do power lifting maybe its not the most optimal way to go though

Thoughts?

TheVimFuego

My thoughts are that there is a lot more to controlling weight than attempting to keep insulin 'low' (whatever low may be).

The whole 'carbs are driving insulin is driving fat' thing sounds good on an intuitive level but doesn't tell the whole story. I read Good Calories, etc (a lot of etc too ) so I've been down that road.

In my experience and research the body has ways of adjusting to a varying macronutrient intake mix and we can equally well gain (or lose) fat on any plan if we keep the energy surplus (or loss) the same.

Sure, protein will help keep us satiated and this is the first number I try to hit.

But, and it pains me to type this given some of my rants in the past, calories are king.

Low carb helps people to lose by naturally reducing intake, not by some insulin-controlling magic, IMO. Maybe reducing blood sugar has some health benefits too but for lard-loss ...

nick1109

I tend to agree with you. Although for me personally I do eat low (ish) carbs. I'm not convinced insulin is the devil but a lot over weight people would be better placed looking to lower insulin which in turn comes from eating less, and less sugary stuff.

I agree also with weight loss/gain- the main factor is calories in vs calories out but only to an extent. Yes you can loose weight eating 5 mars bars a day if you are keeping calroies under that which you burn but is it going to make your boy look all that good, retain muscle and improve body composition..probably not

TheVimFuego

I tend to agree with you. Although for me personally I do eat low (ish) carbs. I'm not convinced insulin is the devil but a lot over weight people would be better placed looking to lower insulin which in turn comes from eating less, and less sugary stuff.

I agree also with weight loss/gain- the main factor is calories in vs calories out but only to an extent. Yes you can loose weight eating 5 mars bars a day if you are keeping calroies under that which you burn but is it going to make your boy look all that good, retain muscle and improve body composition..probably not

Absolutely, I can't fault that logic. We can all benefit from decent protein sources and some resistance training even if you don't think macros matter and exercise is pointless.

The problem with the insulin thing (and the focus on it in some low carb/paleo books) is that people take it as gospel that it's hard to gain weight if you don't have much of it kicking around so it's open season on the cream and bacon and if we just keep all carbs low we'll be OK.

Turns out to be not the case as the body will adapt and shift the metabolism around. Which is kind of frustrating if you want to lose fat on loads of cream, coconut and bacon but a wonderful thing from an evolutionary biological point of view.

Something the popular blogger, Robb Wolf, has recently acknowledged. I like the guy but I think his book (and Mark Sisson's) needs a quick rewrite as they focus on the whole carbs/insulin shebang a lot.

busywaterbending

Sharing some info. about insulin; regulation of blood sugar - which is toxic - is the no. 1 reason for the existance of insulin. We release it when there is TOO much sugar in the blood. It's a regulatory hormone. Just like too much sugar, too much insulin is toxic as well. We shouldn't deamonize it, as it is a necessary hormone for health, among other things it does.

Some people ruin their pancreas, the organ that produces insulin, and a low carb, VLC diet helps to heal the organ if it is not too far gone. That's the main point Sissoms and others tout. I do think they go overboard on their point to the extreme, making it appear like insulin is the cause of all ill health and obesity.

Here's a bit of history about insulin:

http://www.nobelprize.org/educational/medicine/insulin/discovery-insulin.html