The Dietary Spectrum
Peter Attia at The War On Insulin -- asking the big question:
If insulin is so important in regulating fat metabolism, why do some people eat whatever they want and not get fat? Conversely, why do some people following the strictest carbohydrate-reduced diet remain fat?
He later explains:
Insulin is the most important hormone in our body when it comes to fat mobilization (breakdown) and fat storage. This is a fact. There is not one person who studies the endocrine system who will not acknowledge the following quote from Lehninger's Principles of Biochemistry (the "bible" of biochemistry)."High blood glucose elicits the release of insulin, which speeds the uptake of glucose by tissues and favors the storage of fuels as glycogen and triglycerides, while inhibiting fatty acid mobilization in adipose tissue."
In other words, eating glucose (carbohydrates) increases insulin levels in our body. Insulin drives glucose into liver and muscle cells as glycogen (in small, finite amounts) and into fat cells as triglycerides (in unlimited amounts). Insulin also inhibits the breakdown and utilization of fat, as shown here.
Insulin does not act alone, and the story of fat storage and breakdown is complex if you want to understand every single detail, but the "first order term" is insulin. I will spend time in the future writing about insulin's "dance partner," leptin. But insulin is probably the General when it comes to determining how the body partitions fat.
So, insulin is sort of like gravity. It's in your body whether you know about it or not. It's acting on your cells whether you like it or not. It's playing a major role in determining your ability to mobilize versus store fat if you believe me or not.
Does this mean insulin has the same effect on everyone? Does this mean insulin has the same effect on any given person over time? Of course not. Contrast me and my wife. I look at carbohydrates and start to store fat. If you want a reminder of what I looked like on an "athlete's diet" of complex carbs and little saturated fat, coupled with 3 to 4 hours of exercise a day, look here, here, and here. On the other hand, my wife can eat a bag of Oreo cookies for dinner every night, coupled with all the pasta, bread, and rice the world has to offer and not put on one pound (she has weighed about 110 pounds her entire adult life). How is this possible? Does this mean insulin doesn't control fat metabolism? No, it means we have an entirely different genetic make-up. Her grandmother is 86 years old, eats bread all day long, is healthy as a horse, and weighs 100 pounds. Conversely, I come from a family where every single man has died of heart disease and looked like the Pillsbury Dough Boy prior to doing so. I'm genetically programmed to lean towards metabolic syndrome, but I've been able to reverse it through strict attention to my eating habits.
This isn't unique to me and my wife. There is an entire spectrum - a distribution across the population - of people with varying degrees of susceptibilities to the effects of carbohydrate on insulin levels and the commensurate effects of insulin levels on fat storage and breakdown.
And like gravity, the effect of insulin on our metabolism of fat changes over time at the individual level, usually for the worse.
via @DrEades
That is one of the first things people have to accept with low carb - Life is not fair. Some lucky bastards can eat all the carbs they want and will look fine and slim. Me I eat carbs, I get fat. Tough titty. Suck it up and move one.
John Paulson at April 27, 2012 2:13 AM
I use to be able to eat whatever I wanted (although, I never had a sweet tooth until I quit drinking and smoking- both of which artificially mitigated the sugar cravings) all the time and with just a few hours of exercise a week (walking a dog) I stayed slim. Until June of last year.
Then I quit drinking and smoking (only two cigarettes daily, just to show you how little it took to affect me) - and holy crap, I experienced weight gain with even non-fatty carb intake (whole grain bread, little pasta here or there, polenta - no donuts or anything like that). I was diagnosed with POCS/insulin resistance and gluten intolerance. WHAMMO.
I was so pissed because here I was, trying to take better care of myself - only to find out that I had only been masking these underlying conditions, that when looking back on it - I'd probably had all my life - and IMHO environmental stress factors of my childhood played a major, major role in the development of my hormones and endocrine system.
Anyway, I lost another 3 low carbing this week and it's awesome. 7 more to go.
ALSO, another story Amy you might find of interest, which I forgot to mention before was my dog now on a high protien/fat diet.
Long story short she had gotten spay (urinary) incontenence as a result of being spayed too young. This threw off her hormonal balance and estrogen levels causing the urethra sphincter to "Leak" after heavy exercise (which, she is active so she does), or after drinking a lot of water.
So we got a drug called propylene from the vet. (At this time I was feeding her an expensive brand of dog food with a lot of "meal filler" - or carbs). Turns out, people make meth from the propylene so they discontinued a drug that worked PERFECTLY for my dog, (ridiculous) for another one that made her vomit - regardless of the dose. Our only other option was estrogen supplements (which creates a whole host of other issues).
So, I was doing research about estrogene hormones and carbs etc etc for myself and I thought to switch her diet (EVO is the brand now, which is really expensive but you only have to feed your dog HALF because it is so high in protein, so it lasts twice as long) to a higher protien with less meal and carbs, and add coconut oil, fish oil and a raw egg every day...and voila. I am not kidding you, now it is the rare occassion that she "leaks". Very rare. Like, we were over my boyfriends parents house and his nieces and nephews give her cookies. Or she is exercising ALL DAY LONG and drinking lots and lots of water. I'd say, accidnets now happen maybe once a month.
Everytime I tell a vet about this they kinda roll their eyes at me and shrug their shoulders, like, "OK, whatever works..." as if they dont really believe me but dont want to take the time to argue their side. Whatever I don't care. It works.
Sorry for the offtopic, but it's just amazing - this stuff really, really works and even helped improve the quality of life for my dog.
Feebie at April 27, 2012 5:44 AM
This is what I have been saying all along. Dieting is a tricky thing, everyone reacts differently to different foods. But there does seem to be evidence that either your body reacts to carbs or to calories/fat. Take my own body for example, I was always at 100lbs eating low fat/low calorie/ high carbs. Then I took a medication known for fucking up your body and causing diabetes (INSULIN ISSUES!) and now I can not touch a carb without gaining 100lbs. As soon as I cut out carbs I loose weight at a rate of about 1lb a day!
Yet more evidence the human body was designed without plan....
And one more thing to keep note of, bread has been used throughout history as "filler" food because people could not afford to eat meat.
Purplepen at April 27, 2012 3:53 PM
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