1. I find that I do better not eating excess calories, which adds body fat over time, and reduces insulin sensitivity.
I can absolutely see how not eating excess calories makes you believe you are not adding body fat, over time, since your scale weight will maintain itself or even lower at times. Unfortunately, calories are not a good way of controlling body fat in the long term. We know this because we have seen, time and time again, how low-calorie diets actually increase body fat, over time, while keeping scale weight stable or even low. So, if your target is body weight, then calories work just fine, but if your target is body fat, then not so much. Body fat should be your target because it is correct that adding on body fat, over time, reduces insulin sensitivity further. This is why there are so many "skinny", calorie counting diabetics.
For this very reason, we focus on body fat, on this blog, and not scale weight. That’s why calories won’t cut it. If you only focus on calories, you will ultimately end up ignoring your blood glucose regulation. It is better to target macronutrients. Instead of treating all calories as equal, you could instead decrease your storage "calories" (carbs and fat) and increase your non-storage "calories" (protein) and get way better results in reducing body fat and not gaining more of it with time.
Not all calories are created equal and not all calories affect blood glucose the same way. Ultimately, all you care about is what the body can use and for what, as that will affect your health, not what's burned in a calorimeter.
2. Is extended fasting a good tool for “highly insulin resistant” people?
There is no such thing as "highly insulin resistant" people. You are either insulin resistant or you’re not. You might be an individual that has been insulin resistant for a longer period of time and so have more complications, related to this adaptation, but there are no “degrees” to insulin resistance except at the tissue and organ level. Metabolic adaptations are only time dependent. The longer time you remain in this pathological adaptive state, the more risk of developing its complications.
Extended fasting is not a good tool for insulin resistance, period. It is a scam that will not address obesity, and its metabolic adaptations, one bit. Insulin resistance is the result of poor blood glucose regulation, which interferes in proper insulin release and expression. This ends in varying degrees of insulin resistance of tissues and organs. It causes super insulin sensitivity of the fat mass. Insulin resistance will worsen blood glucose regulation and blood glucose dysregulation worsens insulin resistance. It is a viscous circle.
For this reason, you want to eliminate any lifestyle practice that interferes further in proper blood glucose regulation. This includes certain dietary, exercise and fasting practices. The longer the fast, the more it will interrupt blood glucose homeostasis because of too much time spent in hypoglycemia. Your time in hypoglycemia sets blood glucose set points to starvation levels. Meaning the body will actively try to raise blood glucose and keep it high.
3. Fasting “disposes” of the extra energy caused by hyperglucagonemia.
Fasting causes counter regulatory glucose release, but by stress hormones, so this is not really referred to as "hyperglucagonemia", though glucagon has some involvement. It is more accurate to describe it as adrenal counter regulation. Hyperglucagonemia occurs mainly postprandial.
This energy is “disposed” of where exactly? The Land of Oz or Troll World? Because energy can only be burned and extended fasting does not burn enough of it to make a bit of difference. This is because you cannot fast forever. The body has counter regulatory systems in place to slow down the burning of energy, when no energy is coming in. Short fasts do not give enough time for the body to do this, in any significant way, but extended fasting sure does. The body likes to be in energy flux, not in states of prolonged energy in or prolonged energy out.
For some reason, everyone keeps forgetting that the body always compensates. If you twist your ankle, you don’t start flying. You continue to walk, but the body simply compensates with your other leg. So, when you do extended fasting, the body doesn’t shed all of your excess body fat. It actually slows your metabolism down and prevents you from burning through your fat stores indiscriminately. This is especially true if you are overweight/obese, as your metabolism is primed and honed to spare fat mass, not get rid of it. Every time its fat mass is challenged, it doubles down on trying to keep it in place. Extended fasting does not address this mechanism at all. Not one little bit, as this mechanism is an adaptation that only responds to long term treatments. Extended fasting cannot be long term, because if it is, you die of starvation.
So, instead of “flying” during extended fasting, the body simply slows down, ramps up glucose production and then does the worst thing that you want it to ever do – store everything you eat as fat, once you eat again. See? The body simply compensated. Just like your twisted ankle is now wearing down your good hip and leg. Soon you won’t be limping, but you’ll need crutches. You never fly.
The energy you will be releasing from stress hormones, during an extended fast, will be going right back into your fat mass and then some. To make matters worse, everything you eat later, will be joining it as well. And you will eat again later. I guarantee it, unless you’re in the Gulag. This compensation by metabolism is exactly why fasting has not ever been used for the treatment of overweight/obesity, in any serious way, though we have known about fasting for millennia.
4. Everyone must find "what works for them". There are people who can fast for days, every week, for months and do great.
Everyone must find "what works for them" in the box of things that are known to actually work. Just like every carpenter must find the right tool, at the hardware store, not the bakery. Going to the bakery will waste a lot of time and time is money. For the obese, time is crucial because as I stated before, pathological metabolic adaptations are time dependent. The longer the obese person fools around, trying protocols that will fail, they are wasting time and making their condition worse in the interim. So, when you are trying to find solutions, it is best to narrow down your options to known treatments and not quackery.
Depending on your current metabolic state, you will not see the detrimental effects of extended fasting right away. It takes time for metabolism to adapt negatively to this practice, just like it took time for it to adapt negatively to doughnuts. Adaptations don’t occur overnight. So, telling people to "find what works for them" is not helpful. You have to show people what truly works, for them to choose the proper protocol that fits their lifestyle and warn them of snake oil, so they don’t end up harming themselves in the long term.
5. Extended fasting should always be supervised by a “professional”.
No professional will supervise you with this and put their "profession" on the line, except for a professional scammer.
6. Extended fasting teaches you that you won’t die if you don’t eat for 24 hours.
And how does that help you with obesity exactly? Right. It doesn’t.
Low carb advocates create "memories" of things that never occurred. I don’t know if this is part of insulin resistance of the brain or what. It’s as if they pulled this stuff out of their dreams and now claim, up and down, that it really happened. It didn’t. Just like they "dreamed" that the Dietary Guidelines told them to eat doughnuts all of the time. That is false. The Dietary Guidelines have caloric and macronutrient restrictions. The only one who told anyone to eat doughnuts, at will, is the person selling doughnuts and the customers who decided that doughnuts are okay, because the Dietary Guidelines never made the claim that doughnuts are evil. Just because the Dietary Guidelines never claimed doughnuts are evil, does not mean that automatically makes doughnuts good. Everyone knows they aren’t. This sleight of hand doesn’t work on this blog. It’s gaslighting, plain and simple and this is a No BS and No Gaslighting zone.
I know that low carb advocates want to play rock ‘em sock ‘em robots with every single recommendation that has ever been given, so far, simply because they are bitter at their obesity, but doubling down on the stupidity will not make you slim. Eating sticks of butter to stick it to “the man”, who recommended you reduce your saturated fat intake, is not causing them a bit of harm. It’s only making you fatter, while looking crazy to boot.
The same goes for "dying if you don’t eat for 24 hours". No one has ever made that claim. This is what was actually said and why - Diabetics who are on blood glucose lowering medications, must intake dietary glucose, by eating something periodically, in order to prevent dangerous hypoglycemia. This is why it is recommended for them to eat several "small" meals a day or have snacks between main meals, in order to keep blood glucose steady. "Small" means calorically restricted, since caloric restriction is the conventional, universal method of controlling nutrient intake.
Several "small" meals a day has also been used to stimulate leptin and cause weight loss. Of course, the weight loss is only temporary as the body, one again, puts a halt on anything that challenges its fat mass. But it does work in the short term! Several small meals a day will cause initial weight loss, through the manipulation of leptin in individuals who still have intact leptin senstviity. Just like caloric restriction causes temporary weight loss, through the manipulation of insulin.
Doubling down and not eating for 3 days, just to prove that these recommendations are false is utter stupidity, since all you're doing is causing metabolic damage in the long term. So, low carb advocates not only like to sacrifice themselves, to try and prove something “to the world”, but they like to sacrifice their followers as well. Don’t be a sacrificial lamb upon the altar of BS. You will only end up hurting yourself.
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