Six common beliefs addressed, Part 144

1. It is not difficult to get rid of fat from around the waist because visceral fat is the first to go. 

The waist is usually where subcutaneous fat is also stored. The body doesn't like storing fat on its limbs as this reduces mobility. This means that the waist is up for grabs. We can all reach down and grab some fat from around our middle. This is the normal location for fat storage. 

Women also store fat along the hips, buttocks and thighs because women have a body that is designed for more fat storage. So even if you lose all of your visceral fat, you might still have the infamous muffin top.

2. My insulin is very high but my HbA1C is 5.4. 

Well, I don't know just how "high" your insulin is because you didn't provide a number. What I do know is that an HbA1C of 5.4 is on the high side. 

Your "high" insulin is controlling your blood glucose for the time being, but sooner or later your insulin to glucagon ratio will deteriorate and your blood glucose will begin to rise, regardless of your insulin levels. When your body can no longer produce enough insulin to control this rising blood glucose, your doctor will put you on exogenous insulin or medications that force the body to output even more insulin and/or eliminate more glucose. 

You have to take control of this impending train wreck as soon as possible by actively trying to lower both insulin levels and your HbA1C. 

3. Bad dietary protocols are continued to be advised, even though they don't work.

Because most dietary protocols are based on compliance, not reality. For this reason you see the same protocols, making their rounds every few decades, reinvented, renamed and revamped but at the end of the day they are all the same BS with a new name. 

Most dietary protocols are based on calorie in/calorie out (CICO) models, whether it's directly or indirectly, by using portion control or even time restricted eating. No protocol wants to recommend the elimination of anything. It's all reduction or replacement. 

Like I have said before, as long as "weight loss" protocols are profit driven, results are not necessary. Empty promises and temporary benefits are all they have to deliver to bait people in. Baiting people in, is very easy. Overweight/obesity is a common problem that many people want to "fix", so as long as there is a demand for a solution, more diet protocols will continue popping up. But the reality is that, as of the time of this post, there is no known cure for overweight/obesity. 

4. My insulin has lowered and my blood glucose is stable but I’m having a horrible "stress response" where I’m jittery, can't sleep and often hungry.  

Those are all signs of systemic stress. This is normal as your metabolism is primed to keep higher insulin levels and higher blood glucose in response and vice versa. Breaking that feedback loop will cause side effects as the body actively fights to keep its blood glucose set point. 

Give it some time and allow for your hormones to stabilize and follow suit to your insulin's new lows. It will stop fighting this with time. In the meantime make sure you get plenty of steady state exercise to help signal to the body that it needs to burn energy and that the new low insulin and blood glucose levels are normal. You also have to keep your electrolytes in mind and make sure you aren't going deficient. 

5. I began following a "conventional" diet and was able to lose weight and lower my weight set point.  

This is the case for any diet. As far as obtaining a new weight set point is concerned, wait to make that claim a year from now. It takes a long term dietary regimen to reduce weight set points, from overweight/obesity, and conventional diets can not be followed long term to achieve this. 

Also, "weight set points" are fluid and constantly changing with age, environment and metabolic status. They aren't written in stone. The set point you had at age 15 will not be the same at age 50. So weight set points can be modified, for a span of time, but not permanently. In normal metabolism weight set points will keep for about a decade and then slightly change to a higher or lower point. 

The reason that it might appear as though the diet has worked wonders, for the time being, is from an effect on leptin which can enhance its expression temporarily and cause weight loss. Maybe your diet has a different macronutrient composition that triggered this effect. For example, diets that include carbs can trigger a leptin effect because of their rise in insulin levels which signal to the body that there are enough nutrients. Carbs also cause the person to eat more often or more food in general and this also causes leptin to increase temporarily from a blood glucose rise. 

Like I have stated before, weight loss can occur from a caloric deficit as well as a caloric surplus. Both trigger different hormones. It's what occurs in the long term that effects the end results. Triggering leptin in this manner only has a temporary beneficial effect until insulin levels begin to rise and its function deteriorates once again causing overweight/obesity to follow. 

6. You should not supplement with Lite Salt for more potassium because it contains dextrose. 

A good alternative is Lo Salt, which is nothing but potassium bicarbonate with no fillers. It is a bit more difficult to find but you can order it off Amazon or find it at Whole Foods. 

Lite Salt is a low sodium salt that is used by people who are on some type of sodium restriction. Because it is mostly potassium bicarbonate, people who want to supplement potassium use it as well. It is the safest way to supplement potassium as potassium supplementation should be reviewed by a doctor. 

Lite Salt contains dextrose as its a conventional iodized salt mixed with potassium bicarbonate. This doesn't mean you have to stop using it if its a good way for you to increase your potassium safely and you can't find the alternative. You can use it on specific items rather than as your main salt. For example, on certain dishes or to mix an electrolyte drink with. Dextrose comprises very little of this salt so it's not enough to make a difference, especially when the rest of your diet is low carb.

 

Metabolic syndrome is the result of poor blood glucose regulation. It takes much more than some dextrose in salt to cause it.