Hunger, or lack of, can both have a negative or positive meaning, depending on what’s causing it. Hunger is subjective and it varies often.
Hunger is not always indicative that a protocol is not functioning or that there is a problem with metabolism. Day to day fluctuations, in food consumption, are completely normal and mostly irrelevant.
2. Insulin cannot make you hungry, because it's an anti-hunger hormone.
According to low carb dogma insulin is the hormone to blame when it comes to hunger, but insulin is anabolic. It actually suppresses appetite through the suppression of ghrelin (the hunger hormone). Insulin's presence is a signal, to the body, that it has enough nutrients and energy available. High insulin equates to a fed state, so in this context, you would think insulin is a very anti-hunger hormone and it absolutely is.
2. Insulin cannot make you hungry, because it's an anti-hunger hormone.
According to low carb dogma insulin is the hormone to blame when it comes to hunger, but insulin is anabolic. It actually suppresses appetite through the suppression of ghrelin (the hunger hormone). Insulin's presence is a signal, to the body, that it has enough nutrients and energy available. High insulin equates to a fed state, so in this context, you would think insulin is a very anti-hunger hormone and it absolutely is.
Except when there is insulin resistance.
In the context of insulin resistance, insulin's anti-hunger effect is absent, because there is no proper insulin function. If there is no proper insulin function then every benefit, insulin would otherwise have, is null and void.
People who have low body fat and/or are losing weight have declining insulin, leptin and ghrelin levels, but that is not descriptive of an obese person. Obese people have high body fat and chronically high insulin levels. Chronically high insulin disrupts every other metabolic hormone, in the body, some of which induce quite a bit of hunger, since they are anti-starvation hormones. We usually think of obesity as a disease of excess and this is correct, but the excess is at the fat mass only. The rest of the body is basically "starving" and responds as such.
So, the claim that insulin, directly, causes hunger is incorrect. The effect occurs further downstream. It's poor insulin function alongside high insulin levels, which affect other hormones, that ultimately cause hunger.
3. You must change your diet every time you experience a weight stall.
Leptin is usually the culprit for weight stalls and unlike insulin, leptin only responds to long term nutrition and energy inputs. This means that it does not correct itself overnight. It can take months to years to obtain adequate leptin expression, depending on your resistance, and each time you change your protocol, you reset this process all over again. This is why chronic, yo-yo dieting eventually causes metabolism to break and obesity becomes intractable. At that point there is no protocol extreme enough to reset leptin again, aside from exogenous administration of leptin, which is only done in a research setting.
The best way to address a weight stall and lower your weight set point is by addressing the following issues:
"Diseases of growth?" If you have some uncontrolled growth like a tumor, "elephantitis" or a fetus, you are on the wrong blog. This blog is only for people who are experiencing uncontrolled growth of their fat mass.
The only way to stop your fat mass from uncontrolled growth is to stop the onslaught on your blood glucose by restricting carbohydrates.
5. You should skip breakfast to be leaner, because morning insulin sensitivity is at the fat mass, not the muscle mass.
Studies have shown, consistently, that people who eat earlier are leaner. It doesn't matter if morning insulin sensitivity is mostly at the fat cell and in the evening mostly in the muscle. That is a great fact for a bodybuilder to know, but doesn't make an iota of difference for the obese. The obese are insulin sensitive at the fat cell 24 hours a day, not just in the mornings. Their dinner is going straight to their fat cells, just as fast as their breakfast. In fact, most obese people are never hungry in the mornings, but they tend to overeat in the evenings and never acquire a single bit of muscle growth or fat loss to show for it. So, are they doomed? No.
Eating earlier, for the obese, is advantageous because it allows longer periods of very low insulin at night. Insulin drops to its lowest level during the night time fast, which uses mainly fat for fuel. That's right, you burn a lot of fat during sleep, because glucose naturally, not artificially, lowers. So, if you start with an already low insulin level, before sleep, you are at an advantage, throughout the night, automatically as this low insulin will not interfere with lowering blood glucose.
People who have low body fat and/or are losing weight have declining insulin, leptin and ghrelin levels, but that is not descriptive of an obese person. Obese people have high body fat and chronically high insulin levels. Chronically high insulin disrupts every other metabolic hormone, in the body, some of which induce quite a bit of hunger, since they are anti-starvation hormones. We usually think of obesity as a disease of excess and this is correct, but the excess is at the fat mass only. The rest of the body is basically "starving" and responds as such.
So, the claim that insulin, directly, causes hunger is incorrect. The effect occurs further downstream. It's poor insulin function alongside high insulin levels, which affect other hormones, that ultimately cause hunger.
3. You must change your diet every time you experience a weight stall.
Leptin is usually the culprit for weight stalls and unlike insulin, leptin only responds to long term nutrition and energy inputs. This means that it does not correct itself overnight. It can take months to years to obtain adequate leptin expression, depending on your resistance, and each time you change your protocol, you reset this process all over again. This is why chronic, yo-yo dieting eventually causes metabolism to break and obesity becomes intractable. At that point there is no protocol extreme enough to reset leptin again, aside from exogenous administration of leptin, which is only done in a research setting.
The best way to address a weight stall and lower your weight set point is by addressing the following issues:
- Lower your insulin by improving blood glucose homeostasis.
- Lower your triglycerides through carbohydrate restriction.
- Stick to one protocol and do not flip flop.
- Do not go extreme. No "hacking" or fooling around.
- Get adequate amounts of protein.
- Lower your dietary fat intake.
- Get moving by following a consistent, daily exercise routine.
- They cannot be consistently followed.
- They do not produce sustainable results.
- They are not improving health markers.
- They are making health markers worse.
- They are not allowing you to reach your goals, even with consistent adherence.
"Diseases of growth?" If you have some uncontrolled growth like a tumor, "elephantitis" or a fetus, you are on the wrong blog. This blog is only for people who are experiencing uncontrolled growth of their fat mass.
The only way to stop your fat mass from uncontrolled growth is to stop the onslaught on your blood glucose by restricting carbohydrates.
5. You should skip breakfast to be leaner, because morning insulin sensitivity is at the fat mass, not the muscle mass.
Studies have shown, consistently, that people who eat earlier are leaner. It doesn't matter if morning insulin sensitivity is mostly at the fat cell and in the evening mostly in the muscle. That is a great fact for a bodybuilder to know, but doesn't make an iota of difference for the obese. The obese are insulin sensitive at the fat cell 24 hours a day, not just in the mornings. Their dinner is going straight to their fat cells, just as fast as their breakfast. In fact, most obese people are never hungry in the mornings, but they tend to overeat in the evenings and never acquire a single bit of muscle growth or fat loss to show for it. So, are they doomed? No.
Eating earlier, for the obese, is advantageous because it allows longer periods of very low insulin at night. Insulin drops to its lowest level during the night time fast, which uses mainly fat for fuel. That's right, you burn a lot of fat during sleep, because glucose naturally, not artificially, lowers. So, if you start with an already low insulin level, before sleep, you are at an advantage, throughout the night, automatically as this low insulin will not interfere with lowering blood glucose.
The lower the night time insulin, the more fat will be burned as you sleep because blood glucose will not be disrupted. This indicates that low insulin levels supersede energy compartmentalization. Lowering insulin levels begins to reverse the resistance. This is important to know, because it gives you a target of action, without the need of getting side tracked with other facts.
This does not mean that you need to force feed yourself breakfast and purposely skip dinner, if you can't sustain it. It's just information for you to know. So, you don't need to avoid breakfast, if you like to eat it. There are lean people on both sides, just more lean people on the earlier eating side.
6. Will ketones spare my lean muscle mass?
Though Drs. Phinney and Volek found that ketones (B-hydroxybutyrate) had an anti-catabolic effect on human muscle/skeletal tissue, through the preservation of essential amino acids (primarily leucine), they continue to advise to not fast for longer than 24 hours. This is because ketones are protective of muscle mass, but in the context of metabolic disease, that protection can only go so far.
People with metabolic syndrome/diabetes are in a state of exaggerated catabolism due to poor insulin function. Glucagon is a catabolic hormone and it is not well regulated in people with metabolic disease, due to leptin deficiency and insulin resistance of the pancreatic alpha cells. Basically, the liver never stops dumping glucose or breaking down nutrients into glucose, even when it shouldn’t. If the body is in a state of uncontrolled catabolism, as is the case with unregulated glucagon levels, ketones won't save your muscle mass, as protein, the building block of muscle mass, is constantly being broken down into glucose, at an exaggerated rate, rather than being used for building muscle. So, people with metabolic disease are exceptionally at risk for the loss of lean muscle mass.
Glucagon is also part of metabolic conservation. It's a "starvation hormone" that catabolizes protein into glucose energy, while sparing fat tissue, during times of "starvation". For this reason, you want to make sure you keep fasting times at beneficial durations. You never want to fast so long that you trigger metabolic conservation and ramp up your already high glucagon production, through further leptin dysregulation, as this will cause further break down of your lean muscle mass. This is the last thing a person with metabolic disease wants. The person with metabolic disease does not want to lose anymore muscle, they instead want to build muscle, because it's this lean muscle mass that drives metabolism.
This does not mean that you need to force feed yourself breakfast and purposely skip dinner, if you can't sustain it. It's just information for you to know. So, you don't need to avoid breakfast, if you like to eat it. There are lean people on both sides, just more lean people on the earlier eating side.
6. Will ketones spare my lean muscle mass?
Though Drs. Phinney and Volek found that ketones (B-hydroxybutyrate) had an anti-catabolic effect on human muscle/skeletal tissue, through the preservation of essential amino acids (primarily leucine), they continue to advise to not fast for longer than 24 hours. This is because ketones are protective of muscle mass, but in the context of metabolic disease, that protection can only go so far.
People with metabolic syndrome/diabetes are in a state of exaggerated catabolism due to poor insulin function. Glucagon is a catabolic hormone and it is not well regulated in people with metabolic disease, due to leptin deficiency and insulin resistance of the pancreatic alpha cells. Basically, the liver never stops dumping glucose or breaking down nutrients into glucose, even when it shouldn’t. If the body is in a state of uncontrolled catabolism, as is the case with unregulated glucagon levels, ketones won't save your muscle mass, as protein, the building block of muscle mass, is constantly being broken down into glucose, at an exaggerated rate, rather than being used for building muscle. So, people with metabolic disease are exceptionally at risk for the loss of lean muscle mass.
Glucagon is also part of metabolic conservation. It's a "starvation hormone" that catabolizes protein into glucose energy, while sparing fat tissue, during times of "starvation". For this reason, you want to make sure you keep fasting times at beneficial durations. You never want to fast so long that you trigger metabolic conservation and ramp up your already high glucagon production, through further leptin dysregulation, as this will cause further break down of your lean muscle mass. This is the last thing a person with metabolic disease wants. The person with metabolic disease does not want to lose anymore muscle, they instead want to build muscle, because it's this lean muscle mass that drives metabolism.
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