Insulin confusion

[ZxViCkYxZ]

Hey guys.

I've read through a lot of threads on JSF regarding insulin and I'm still a little confused.

In a post by Bluestreak, he says:

"With higher protein and some fattier foods, insulin is produced in smaller quantities. This is the premise of the Atkins diet. Eat high protein, produce less insulin. And technically, you do. But with any diet, as we all know, it's a function of calories. Eat too many calories in a day (regardless of the composition of the calories) and you'll store fat, or at the very least you'll achieve the steady state of not burning any fat. Fat intake should be carefully monitored because insulin transports the ingested fat for immediate storage as body fat. Surplus carbohydratic calories actually have the advantage because the body has to burn additional calories in order to turn carbohydrate into fat for storage."

Does that mean that if less insulin is produced in the body, LESS fat will be transported or will the fat be transported SLOWER? Either way, it sounds like the body will have to reach into its stored fat to burn the ingested fat and turn it into energy, which is what we want.

Also, I read in another post that eating foods with a high GI isn't that bad if its low in carbs, in which case the amount of glucose that is being released into blood sugar is minimal. At least that's what I believe he was saying.

Thoughts?

[guava]

Deja vu. Did you post this a couple of days ago? No replies, I guess. Oops.

I don't completely understand the role of insulin in the body. I suggest you read this book that helped me to understand it, but not well enough to explain it to someone else. I tend to remember the parts that are relevant to my diet and quickly forget the rest.

Good Calories Bad Calories by Gary Taubes

From marcus's sticky:

When you consume high GI foods you experience a sudden increase in your blood glucose levels, which trigger the insulin response. The pancreas releases heaps of insulin with the aim of reducing the blood glucose levels. Before I go on there are two enzymes and their functions you must understand.

Lipoprotein lipase (LPL) is an enzyme that takes free fatty acids from the blood and stores it in the fat cells as triglycerides. This is called lipogenesis, the making of fat. It expands the size of fat cells by filling them up.

Hormone Sensitive Lipase (HSL) is an enzyme responsible for the release of fat from the fat cells and back into the blood stream making it available to the body for energy. This process is known as lipolysis. It reduces the size of the fat cells as the fat is being released.

Now, when insulin is released into the blood stream it increases the action of LPL (lipogenesis) in the fat cells and suppresses the action of HSL (lipolysis). So when you eat foods high in sugar, your blood glucose levels rise and the pancreas releases insulin. The insulin increases the process of lipogenesis, which means more fat is being stored in fat cells instead of being used for energy. Its even worse eating high sugar and high fat foods at the same time because the sugar increases the insulin response and the fat in the blood stream goes straight to the fat cells.

So to lose fat we must increase the use of HSL (lipolysis), which will speed up the breakdown of fat in the cells and cause it to be used as energy. Adrenaline and Cortisol enhance HSL production and are produced in response to stress. Physical stress in the form of exercise increases the rate of fat breakdown and uses the resultant free fatty acids to power muscles. Emotional stress also increases the rate of fat breakdown, however, fat stays in the bloodstream putting you at risk for artery disease. Stimulant drugs like caffeine and amphetamines also increase the above hormone production.

So, successful fat loss is dependant on maintaining blood sugar levels during the day, thereby reducing the negative effects of the insulin response. This state is produced by eating Low GI foods, preventing peaks and troughs in blood glucose levels and therefore insulin levels.

I hadn't heard of the advice not to eat fat with high GI foods. In fact, I'd always thought that fat blunted the insulin response and was therefore a good thing to combine with high GI foods.

Originally Posted by ZxViCkYxZ

Does that mean that if less insulin is produced in the body, LESS fat will be transported or will the fat be transported SLOWER?

What I believed it to mean is that if I have a high level of insulin, more of my calories will be stored as fat instead of burned as fuel. If I have a low level of insulin, I'm more likely to have a lower appetite and possibly will be more likely to burn the calories I've eaten. That's Taubes theory, and some of the ways he suggests that a person might burn more calories under low levels of insulin included things like increased metabolism, motivation to physical exertion, and increased non-exercise activity thermogenesis (NEAT) through fidgeting and other things.

Strangely enough, I don't know of any studies that have attempted to correlate insulin levels with NEAT.

Originally Posted by ZxViCkYxZ

eating foods with a high GI isn't that bad if its low in carbs, in which case the amount of glucose that is being released into blood sugar is minimal.

Yes, that's completely true. Watermelon and carrots, for instance, have a very high glycemic index, but because they have so few carbohydrates, they don't impact your blood sugar levels very much at all.

[ZxViCkYxZ]

Originally Posted by guava

Deja vu. Did you post this a couple of days ago? No replies, I guess. Oops.

Yeah I did. Since no one replied, I decided to post it in the nutrition and supplements section to see if anyone would be kind enough to enlighten me on this topic. Thanks, Guava!

I had forgotten that Marcus had talked about this a little bit in his sticky, even though I've read it a bunch of times .

Again, thanks a bunch!