Six common beliefs addressed, Part 22

1. Is saturated fat dangerous?

Saturated fat is dangerous alongside insulin resistance, so if you are on a high carbohydrate diet, it's a good idea to limit dietary saturated fat.

There are some people who have a genetic predisposition for saturated fat to have an adverse affect on their lipoprotein function. These individuals should also limit their saturated fat consumption or swap out saturated fats with monounsaturated fats instead. 

2. Is weight stalling normal?

Weight is affected by many factors and this is why it's so important to measure instead of weighing in.

Weight can be affected by:

• Food: Whatever you consume has weight and can affect your scale weight for hours or days afterwards.
• Water: Water retention is affected by exercise, hydration status, digestion, types of food being eaten and temperature.
• Body composition: Shifts between fat and lean muscle mass affect weight. If you increase your muscle mass and lose fat, you will be leaner, even though your scale weight remains the same or increases. Muscle and bone weigh more than fat.

Weight plateaus are a normal process of weight loss. The body does not lose weight linearly. Weight fluctuates up and down and weight loss tends to stop periodically, during this process, as the body configures and adjusts to a lower fat mass. Therefore, weight fluctuations tell you nothing about losing or gaining body fat. These constantly shifting 10 - 15 pounds are the effects of short term events, but are not indicative of what’s occurring in the long term. You need to focus on the long term trend. Do you weigh less and have less inches today than you did two months ago? A good way to see your weight loss is to track it over the long term.

If your scale weight or measurements aren't going downwards, for 6 weeks or more, you need to reformulate your diet and exercise protocol. True weight changes are accumulated in months, not weeks or days. For this reason, you must adhere to your diet diligently, because following any diet for a few weeks, or only on weekdays or in the summertime, is not enough. You need to be consistent. If you flip flop diets, your weight will just continue fluctuating, but you will continue to be at the same place you have always been.

3. I am "very insulin resistant".

Insulin resistance has become an umbrella term that people use even when they are misinterpreting normal processes in the body.

Insulin resistance manifests itself as metabolic syndrome, which is excess weight around the middle, high triglycerides, high blood pressure, high fasting blood glucose and low HDL. Basically its referring to abnormal insulin release, function and expression. This is what manifests as the syndrome. 

Oftentimes, high postprandial blood glucose, above 140 mg/dL, officially, but realistically above 100 mg/dL, is an indication that you are consuming something that is interfering with your blood glucose homeostasis. This is often the first sign that trouble lies ahead and can actually continue on for many years, while showing no pathology, until it's diabetes. Though this high postprandial blood glucose is not an official symptom of insulin resistance, it should be interpreted as such.

4. Chemicals should not be feared, because all chemicals originally came from natural sources.

They obviously can't come from Mars. Everything found on planet earth, is original to it, unless it was dropped here by a meteor. Just because it's natural to earth, does not mean it's natural to us. There are a lot of natural things on earth that are poisonous or deadly to us. This is because during the course of our existence, we never evolved around certain things and so they can be harmful. 

There is no particular metabolic harm when it comes to chemicals in foods. Remember, the only metric of whether a food is harmful or not is whether it interferes with blood glucose homeostasis or not. The only thing chemicals in foods can tell you, is that heavily processed foods tend to interfere with blood glucose control. 

5. Are fat fasts the worst thing you can do?

Fat fasts are not new. Dr. Atkins used them as part of his protocol, so they have been around for awhile and they were most likely around before Atkins.

I have discussed these types of "hack" diets before, on this blog, and I don't personally feel they are needed in any way. But, fat fasts are not the "worst" thing that people with metabolic disease can do. 

The worst thing they can do is continue to chase high postprandial blood glucose in lieu of overall blood glucose regulation. 

6. Do you need to fast for extended periods of time to correct insulin resistance?

No. 

You need to correct blood glucose regulation in order to correct insulin resistance. Extended fasts do not correct poor blood glucose regulation, they instead exacerbate it further. 

Things that can help you reduce erratic blood glucose are:

• Elimination of carbohydrates in the form of grains and sugar. Restriction of starches indefinitely. Carbohydrates interfere with blood glucose homeostasis.
• Elimination of "vegetables" oils as they interfere with lipolysis (breakdown of fat for energy). 
• Moderation of dietary fat. Too much fat interferes with basal insulin levels.
• A consistent exercise, eating and fasting routine. This helps reduce systemic stress by promoting a healthy circadian rhythm. 

These are the proper lifestyle changes required to help reverse insulin resistance. There are no magic pills for it.