If you have proper blood glucose regulation, you should not be hoarding any more body fat. Insulin is not an obesity hormone. Lower insulin levels are not indicative of proper insulin sensitivity or normal insulin expression at the fat mass. This is why serum levels are only a guide, as to what could potentially be going wrong. We know that tissues, particularly the fat mass, will continue having a long lasting response to insulin, even with insulin at low levels.
Thyroid is similar. "Low" or "high" thyroid numbers, in the absence of some autoimmune or other disease of the thyroid itself, are meaningless without context, as thyroid is a slave to other hormones. Regardless of its numbers, your thyroid could be completely healthy and responding appropriately to the environment it's in.
All of these individual markers are at the mercy of your overall metabolic state and function. This is why we do not give much credence to any one marker in isolation.
2. Is "keto" working if you are not gaining weight?
No. "Keto", or any diet, works when you lose body fat and then replace it with muscle. If you are simply remaining obese, then it’s not working enough to make a difference. The measurement for ascertaining results are actual results.
3. Going low carb will always lower your triglycerides (trigs).
Triglycerides are a measure of fat based energy. Sometimes trigs will go up temporarily, when you first go low carb, as the liver begins to dump out its fat stores into the bloodstream. This occurs because low carb diets have an immediate effect on the release of liver fat. The problem occurs when these high trigs aren't temporary, but continue to increase or remain high.
High carb diets usually cause high trigs because the body is simply converting excess glucose into fat energy, through denovo lipogenesis. But, if this occurs with low carb it means you’re consuming excess dietary fat, which does not require conversion, but results in the same thing. You basically rearranged the chairs in the Titanic, but you’re still going down.
Other causes of high trigs include hypothyroidism, kidney disease, certain inherited lipid disorders, estrogen therapy and certain medications.
I recommend you reduce the added fats in your diet and keep your fat intake to only what comes naturally in food. Limit this to around 50 - 75 grams of fat a day, especially if you have excess body fat you need to lose. Also, make sure your carb consumption is truly low.
4. Eating low carb can cause weight gain.
First, "weight gain" says nothing about metabolic function. Weight fluctuates, up and down, on a daily basis. You need to know if you're gaining body fat and that doesn’t occur in a week or two, but in the long term. Obesity is a long term problem.
Sometimes people on low carb release excess glucose into their body, from a stress response to the diet, which causes water weight gain in the short term, but body fat gain in the long term. A stress response to the diet can be caused by numerous factors, such as not eating enough, the presence of ketones or an imbalance of electrolytes.
Weight gain on low carb, can be caused by a multitude of things. Usually it's the result of a badly formulated diet full of chaffles and artificial sweeteners. Make sure you are following an appropriate low carb protocol and then tweak it, until you see results.
5. Toenail fungus is indicative of insulin resistance.
Negative. Toenail fungus is indicative of improper air flow to the feet. Fungus likes damp and dark places. So, you can acquire toenail fungus from wearing closed shoes or socks for extended periods of time. Athletes and people who work in humid conditions, are at risk for developing toenail fungus. These same people are also at risk for developing other types of fungus, like Athletes Foot or candida in other areas of the body. Some of these fungi are contagious and can be passed from one person to another, by sharing the same shower or walking barefoot on the same floor.
People with advanced metabolic disease or diabetes, have a compromised immune system, which makes them susceptible to infections from bacteria or fungi, especially in their extremities like the feet. Feet are the farthest from the heart, so they have reduced blood flow. But, toenail fungus, in of itself, is not a marker for metabolic disease. Many, very healthy, people develop toenail fungus and it is extremely difficult to treat.
Prevention is better than cure, in this case, so make sure you let your feet dry and expose them to proper air flow by removing socks immediately after a work out and wearing open toed shoes, while at home. It's also good to expose your feet to sunlight every once in a while. If you have to share a shower, wear rubber slippers and do not walk barefoot in public bathrooms or locker rooms. If you have access to a pool, dip your feet in it. You would be surprised how many ailments a pool can help resolve.
6. If your insulin is low, you cannot be overweight/obese.
Insulin is not an obesity hormone. There is a correlation between hyperinsulinemia and metabolic abnormalities, but it is not 100% linear. There is a percentage of obese people who do not have significantly high insulin levels, at all. If insulin levels were the sole culprit of obesity, then we would have found its cure, the moment we discovered insulin.
Obesity is a combination of poor insulin function and abnormal insulin action on certain tissues. For example, an obese person with a fasting insulin of 7, simply means that all of the insulin they are producing is taking primary action on their fat mass, so they are still insulin resistant. The culprit for this is improper blood glucose regulation.
Insulin is just one metric of many and is best understood alongside other tests, such as fasting glucose, HbAIC and C Peptide. All of these tests are dependent on each other. Aside from that, your metabolic state is the context for which to interpret test results. Your metabolic state is simply whether you are gaining, maintaining or losing weight and whether you are already overweight/obese or were in the past.
Fasting insulin should be between 3 - 6. That is the average fasting insulin levels of hunter/gatherers. You better make sure that you are building lean muscle mass and have low body fat if your insulin levels are approaching 6. Otherwise, your insulin should be much lower, especially if you are on low carb. People on low carb usually have very low fasting insulin levels, but this is only acquired when body fat is also low. So, keep in mind that fasting insulin is not just affected by diet, but it is also affected by body fat.
The key to acquiring lower insulin is to reduce your body fat. The primary way to address this is to make sure you are not over consuming fat in your diet, because if you are, your insulin will remain high, as it stores dietary fat and prevents you from burning body fat. So, make sure that you revisit your diet and fix what's wrong with it. While you're at it, make sure you address any Dawn Phenomenon and/or hyperglucagonemia, since these stress responses release glucose, which will interfere with insulin function.
The bottom line is that if you are still obese, your insulin is still malfunctioning, regardless of its level. You have brought the number down, but you haven't improved its actual function. The goal is not to reduce numbers, the goal is to regain function. These numbers can be a guide, as to what is occurring and the direction you are headed, but they shouldn't be the primary focus.
No comments:
Post a Comment