Carbs/Sugar don't make you fat.

Then how do you get insulin resistance with the absence of obesity?

You don't. You don't have to be overweight according to BMI to have obese levels of body fat. Insulin resistance happens when there is excess fat in the blood stream that prevents insulin receptors from receiving insulin. It can also be tracked, measured, and predicted by the amounts of free fatty acids and branched-chain amino acids in the blood stream.

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Uhm. no. I have an insulin resistance and am not obese or even overweight anymore. I was not when I was diagnosed either. It was measured by the glucose tolerance test. It measured how the body reacted to the presence of the glucose in the blood. It had nothing to do with fat at all.......

PCOS changes the calories out side of the equation. That's what all metabolic disorders do. A healthy person may burn 2000 calories a day, but a person with a metabolic disorder may only burn 1400 calories a day. But there is no way to know that, without actual metabolic testing.

That's why one person can eat 1500 calories a day and lose weight no problem, and another person can eat 1500 calories a day and gain. It doesn't mean calories in/calories out doesn't work, it just means calories out is being changed due to a disease.

I am insulin resistant with PCOS as for calories in and out I ate low fat high carb 1200cal a day and gained 20 lbs, ate 1800cal high protiend low carb and lost 20lbs so there goes your theory.

Sorry but you're lying. 1200 cal a day and gained 20lbs? ROFL. Mmmm...yea. You'd be the first in all of mankind. ;-)

You have no right to call her a liar! You have absolutely NO knowledge of PCOS or how it affects metabolism and insulin! You are rude AND uneducated on this subject!

While it affects metabolism, it doesn't cause one to gain weight eating 1200 calories and lose weight eating 1800 calories regardless of the macros. There is more to this story than she is telling. Probably the binges while on the 1200 calorie diet that she didn't go on when eating 1800 calories.

It's as others have said PCOS causes your metabolism to lower. You have to eat less than another person of your size in order to lose weight, but weight loss remains the same. You don't gain if you are eating less than you are burning.

I swear I must be the only one on here who can EASILY go over calories with healthy foods? Most consisting of meat, veggies, and fruit?

Eating too much.....(more than your maintenance) regardless of macronutrient composition makes you fat. Just had to throw this out there.

Seriously? Sugar... one of the main contributers to belly fat,you will rarely find someone with beautiful ABS consuming high quantities of sugar daily,added/fruits/ect. As for carbs,good carbs are needed but bad carbs will cause unwanted effects on the body in most cases.

There are lots of people on here that eat sugar/fruit/ice cream and have great abs.

I suppose it's possible but improbable and you wouldn't be healthy, as per Cordain or Wolf and their Paleo books, humans are not fully adapted to dairy, so eating ice cream is not a very good idea

damn, I knew I was doing something wrong. I must go home and toss all my turkey hill because it is definitely, beyond a shadow of a doubt, not working for me *sobs*

It is not just the metabolism.

If I eat 600 calories of carbs, and 600 calories of protein, my body does not treat them the same. The carbs should be converted to energy, but only 20% of them are (roughly). The rest of them, my body stores. Then, because I have not had the same energy burst or sugar rush, because the insulin has flooded my system and kept me from using them properly, I am starving 20 minutes later.

I have worked very closely with a nutritionist, endocrinologist and trainer to lose a total of over 180 lbs by using this principle of being careful of the carbs I consume. I still have a lot of carbs. I try to get them from more natural sources, and sometimes get unhealthy ones in too........ but to say that "it only works like this", when it is a condition with hundreds of causes and even more effects is ignorant and perpetuates the problem instead of bringing attention to it and helping people cope with it.

Sigh. I give up.

I swear I must be the only one on here who can EASILY go over calories with healthy foods? Most consisting of meat, veggies, and fruit?

No, not the only one.

I just want to lose weight dammit...

It is not just the metabolism.

If I eat 600 calories of carbs, and 600 calories of protein, my body does not treat them the same. The carbs should be converted to energy, but only 20% of them are (roughly). The rest of them, my body stores. Then, because I have not had the same energy burst or sugar rush, because the insulin has flooded my system and kept me from using them properly, I am starving 20 minutes later.

I have worked very closely with a nutritionist, endocrinologist and trainer to lose a total of over 180 lbs by using this principle of being careful of the carbs I consume. I still have a lot of carbs. I try to get them from more natural sources, and sometimes get unhealthy ones in too........ but to say that "it only works like this", when it is a condition with hundreds of causes and even more effects is ignorant and perpetuates the problem instead of bringing attention to it and helping people cope with it.

not everybody has a good metabolism - most people can get away with eating whatever...not me...with hypothyroid, hyperinsulism, and insulin sensitivity I struggle daily. A portion of pasta puts me out cold...seriously- there is no way I can help falling asleep. I eat small amounts of slow carbs and feel much better! Congrats on your weight loss!

Then how do you get insulin resistance with the absence of obesity?

You don't. You don't have to be overweight according to BMI to have obese levels of body fat. Insulin resistance happens when there is excess fat in the blood stream that prevents insulin receptors from receiving insulin. It can also be tracked, measured, and predicted by the amounts of free fatty acids and branched-chain amino acids in the blood stream.

Uhm. no. I have an insulin resistance and am not obese or even overweight anymore. I was not when I was diagnosed either. It was measured by the glucose tolerance test. It measured how the body reacted to the presence of the glucose in the blood. It had nothing to do with fat at all.......

It had to do with the amount of fat in your blood, not how "fat" you were. You do not have to be obese to have fat in your blood. Or it was a genetic issue. Both cause this. Not carbs.
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As a 10 year old, competitive swimmer and gymnast that didnt even weigh 65 lbs, I had no issues with that. Lipid panels were also done. The carbs did not CAUSE the insulin resistance. That is not what I said at all.......

In my case, it was a suspected magnesium and calcium deficiency that caused the hormonal levels to be off that caused the insulin resistance. But the argument was made previously that Insulin resistance is a symptom of obesity. That is NOT the case. However I came about to HAVE it, the carbs and processed sweets are what caused the extreme obesity. Yes, I ate too much. Because the carbs were not being processed correctly and my body did not use them all, I stored a lot of them and did gain weight that was extreme. I was 342 lbs. I didn't ever eat super bad. Sweets were my downfall. Until we got the insulin resistance diagnosed and began treatment.

Believe what you want. But I will bet you anything that if you look at the people with 6 packs, or look at any fitness site/mag (like bodybuilding.com or Oxygen), you will see that it is critical to clean up the diet - eliminate processed foods, esp. those high in sugar (and refined flours/pasta etc are included in that).

At the end of the day, it is true that you will NOT look the same if you eat 1200 cal/day of junk vs. 1200 cal/day of REAL food. I speak from first hand experience, too.

Sorry - I hate to tell you this, but that is not true. Not for everyone. I was on a 1500 calorie, low fat diet for a year and gained 40 pounds. I have been on a low sugar, low carb diet (given to my by my endocrinologist) and have lost 20 lbs. Low carb is not for everyone but just as I cannot say - YOU need to be on a low carb, low sugar diet because then you will lose weight... You cannot make that generalization about the millions of people in this world. I have a metabolic disorder combined with PCOS and Insulin Resistance which means I basically dont metabolize sugar and my body converts it to fat almost immediately. I was told this by a medical professional who is deemed the best in the state. There are thousands of women out there with the same disorder that have discovered the same thing. So, while carbs and sugar might not make YOU (or a lot of people) fat, that doesnt hold weight (no pun intended) for the entire population.

Let me be clear for a moment - I am not talking about healthy carbs from veggies and fruits or whole grains - I am talking about sugar, white flour, heavy starches, etc. I still eat veggies and most fruits (in moderation) but have completely cut out almost every other type of "processed" carb or heavy starch.

okay..... you know what. You do what you do if it works. I will do what I do if it works. I have lost nearly 200 lbs doing things the way that my body needs them to. It has taken me a while, but I have done it, dont look like I was ever that big and my body runs a lot better. I still have carbs. I just try to make them as close to natural as I can.

But if you wanna eat a case of snickers bars and lose, good. Hope it works for you. I am gonna get back to doing my thing, now. None of you are worth the argument. I have things that *actually* matter in my life.

Believe what you want. But I will bet you anything that if you look at the people with 6 packs, or look at any fitness site/mag (like bodybuilding.com or Oxygen), you will see that it is critical to clean up the diet - eliminate processed foods, esp. those high in sugar (and refined flours/pasta etc are included in that).

I will take that bet. You need to eat at a calorie deficit and you need sufficient macronutrients. Now it may be in your best interest to reduce your intake of "junk" food, but elimination of such foods is not necessary and clean eating is ambiguous.

EDIT: Showing my abs to validate my claim. LOL.

LOVE!

Sidesteal, Acg, fpacudan, sublog, joe, other amazing people on here!
Hell even me. Pretty lean and have my fair share of "junk" with my healthy food.

Interesting discussion!

What about this question?... If carbs/sugar don't MAKE you fat, can carbs/sugar KEEP you fat?

I'm asking this for the sake of those who have struggled with insulin resistance and/or PCOS.

As already said, insulin resistance is a symptom of obesity (although not necessarily clinical obesity according to BMI), which is the result of a metabolic problem or overeating or both.

For me, the trigger was pregnancy. I gained a little too much weight, which I don't blame on carbs, but which was impossible to get back off postpartum. I tried cutting calories and I tried burning calories through exercise, but due to the insulin resistance, a lot of the carbs I ate were still stored as fat because my body couldn't keep up with them. I was never able to lose more than 5 or so lbs., and was extremely frustrated.

Then, I lowered the amount of carbs to an amount that my body could keep up with and maintained a moderate calorie deficit, and the pounds started coming off. Once I had lost enough weight to tip the balance, the insulin resistance resolved itself and I could add the carbs back in slowly, while still maintaining my weight.

So, although my experience is that carbs probably don't make you fat, it seems that for some people, carbs may KEEP them fat.

Thoughts?

Sorry - I hate to tell you this, but that is not true. Not for everyone. I was on a 1500 calorie, low fat diet for a year and gained 40 pounds. I have been on a low sugar, low carb diet (given to my by my endocrinologist) and have lost 20 lbs. Low carb is not for everyone but just as I cannot say - YOU need to be on a low carb, low sugar diet because then you will lose weight... You cannot make that generalization about the millions of people in this world. I have a metabolic disorder combined with PCOS and Insulin Resistance which means I basically dont metabolize sugar and my body converts it to fat almost immediately. I was told this by a medical professional who is deemed the best in the state. There are thousands of women out there with the same disorder that have discovered the same thing. So, while carbs and sugar might not make YOU (or a lot of people) fat, that doesnt hold weight (no pun intended) for the entire population.

Let me be clear for a moment - I am not talking about healthy carbs from veggies and fruits or whole grains - I am talking about sugar, white flour, heavy starches, etc. I still eat veggies and most fruits (in moderation) but have completely cut out almost every other type of "processed" carb or heavy starch.

*sigh*

Ok, if your body couldn't metabolize sugar, it wouldn't be able to convert it to fat, because that requires metabolizing it. Insulin resistance means the insulin receptors in your body don't respond effectively to insulin in your blood, whether due to metabolic and genetic issues with the receptors themselves (less common) or due to an excess of fat and sometimes BCAA's in the blood stream physically blocking them (more common.) The latter is why most cases of insulin resistance improve markedly, and even disappear completely, with weight loss. Now, for people with insulin resistance, when the insulin carrying glucose gets rejected by the receptor, or is unable to attach to it for any reason, it is transported back to the liver, where the glucose is converted into glycerol and then into a triglyceride, which is then transported to an adipose station for storage. This also happens in perfectly healthy people, when cells are full of glycogen/glucose, excess gets stored as fat until needed. Now, in a healthy human being, when glucose drops, the body draws triglycerides back out of the adipose stations and converts them back into glucose (well, glycogen) and then insulin carries them back through the blood to where it needs to go. All is right. Unfortunately for the insulin resistant person, the body pulls the triglyceride out of the adipose station, converts it to glycogen, ships it off to where it's needed, but again, due to the insulin resistance, the glucose carrying insulin once again fails to connect with the insulin receptor and gets sent back to the adipose station for storage. Again, carbs don't cause this, and also, since gluconeogenesis can create glucose from both protein, and fat, carbs aren't the sole problem with this, either.