insulin sensitivity

I wouldn't use "energy levels" as a means of diagnosing any physiological condition. People report energy surges and crashes with almost no relevance towards glucose levels. You can be high, low, or in the middle and people will self-report all kinds of different things regarding alertness, energy, concentration, etc.

Insulin sensitivity likely has nothing to do with OP's problem. He's on a low calorie diet (1200kcal a day), and is fasting for 24 hours at a time (let's face it, this is a problem in and of itself likely). The insoluble fibre present in most carbohydrates + rapid gastric distension from the fast/feed cycle is likely the cause of the bloating feeling.

A person can't just switch from eating low carbs to eating high carbs and not expect a negative outcome. High fat diets negatively impact insulin sensitivity, insulin secretion, and additionally, switching from a low fibre diet to a high fibre diet has to be done gradually - reason being, it's likely your body needs time to rebuild the gut biota and enzymes that process indigestible fibre - its not something it can adapt to overnight.

Also, something as simple as drinking water can really help reduce bloating from fibre, just to help it clear your system faster.

I wasn't implying that it's a totally accurate way to diagnose it, but that's a non-clinical method that certain very credible people use as a rough gauge of insulin sensitivity. Obviously a lab is the only truly good way to do it.

I agree with the rest. What I said was more general and not related to the TS at all.
 
i havnt had fruit in 2 weeks and i have coconut oil daily all i drink now is water and broth right now leading up til wednesday.
I don't think i have a problem with gluten since my primary food sources are spinach brocolli eggs chicken turkey sweet potatoes and coconut oil.

you might have, cut out gluten 100% and see for your self

maybe your vitamin b12 levels are low
at least 20% of your daily food comes from fat?
 
you might have, cut out gluten 100% and see for your self

maybe your vitamin b12 levels are low
at least 20% of your daily food comes from fat?

What foods have gluten in them from what i seen none have brocolli sweet potato chicken or coconut oils
 
I've been going low carb for a few weeks now and decided I would try to see how taking in some carbs would effect me. I ate cream of wheat - 50g of carbs. I felt like shit for an hour.
 
I've been going low carb for a few weeks now and decided I would try to see how taking in some carbs would effect me. I ate cream of wheat - 50g of carbs. I felt like shit for an hour.

That's likely because your body isn't used to being out of ketosis.
 
same i ate about 5 packets of quacker oats lol i felt like i drank a bottle of cough syrup after
 
Am I the only one just a bit surprised that so many people feel they are able to self-diagnose insulin sensitivity from how bloated or energetic they feel after meals?!

Could be wrong but that sounds like a crock of shit to me.
 
Am I the only one just a bit surprised that so many people feel they are able to self-diagnose insulin sensitivity from how bloated or energetic they feel after meals?!

Could be wrong but that sounds like a crock of shit to me.

You're not alone.
 
You're not alone.

Wouldn't be the first time I've been wrong. :D I don't know enough about the actual biological processes that occur, so I looked at what Lyle McDonald and others had to say.

I still maintain that actual lab testing is the only way to truly diagnose insulin sensitivity.

I think that people get their jimmies in a bunch far too quickly over insulin resistance, and I blame the paleo crowd for that. The vast majority of people aren't insulin resistant, and most people who do have poor insulin sensitivity can be cured by lifting and dieting.
 
Wouldn't be the first time I've been wrong. :D I don't know enough about the actual biological processes that occur, so I looked at what Lyle McDonald and others had to say.

I still maintain that actual lab testing is the only way to truly diagnose insulin sensitivity.

I think that people get their jimmies in a bunch far too quickly over insulin resistance, and I blame the paleo crowd for that. The vast majority of people aren't insulin resistant, and most people who do have poor insulin sensitivity can be cured by lifting and dieting.

Most people are probably insulin resistant to a degree. About 16% of the normal weight <25 BMI population are severely insulin resistance (ref), while the rates get higher for overweight and obese individuals (which are now representative of the majority). It's actually a big problem, but unfortunately most primary care physicians aren't measuring it. The paleo crowd is much more mistaken on issues like celiac and inflammation though.

In a place like where I'm from, the prevalence of Type 2 Diabetes is at about 10% of the entire population, with obesity at about 30%. It's not a big problem in places like this forum with a training population, where the issue is likely overblown by health obsessed hypochondriacs, but in the real world it's a health care disaster.

But you are correct on how easy the solution is. An okay diet + resistance training is enough to fix most people up in just a few short months.
 
I don't think training and eating right will permanently fix insulin issues in a matter of months, or even years.

I have been eating ketogenic or borderline ketogenic for over 1.5 years now, and although I have lost a lot of weight and my overall health has been amazing - I can still regain weight at an absolutely meteoric pace, even with water weight considered, if I eat a lot of carbs.

I think the health benefits of a low carb diet are immediate - I immediately felt like a different person when I started, even though I was still morbidly obese. Weight doesn't cause health issues, it's just an indicator for health issues.

That being said, it's going on 3 weeks since I stopped my holidays feeding and i'm still 6 lbs (from 28 gained in about a week) overweight - that's with intermittent fasting, low calorie, heavy lifting etc.
 
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I don't think training and eating right will permanently fix insulin issues in a matter of months, or even years.

I have been eating ketogenic or borderline ketogenic for over 1.5 years now, and although I have lost a lot of weight and my overall health has been amazing - I can still regain weight at an absolutely meteoric pace, even with water weight considered, if I eat a lot of carbs.

I think the health benefits of a low carb diet are immediate - I immediately felt like a different person when I started, even though I was still morbidly obese. Weight doesn't cause health issues, it's just an indicator for health issues.

That being said, it's going on 3 weeks since I stopped my holidays feeding and i'm still 6 lbs (from 28 gained in less than a week) overweight - that's with intermittent fasting, low calorie, heavy lifting etc.

I have told you this before, but low carb diets negatively impact insulin sensitivity and secretion. You are aggravating the problem of insulin resistance, not solving it. Very low carb diets induce physiological insulin resistance, where muscle tissue refuses to take up glucose in order to spare glucose for the brain. This is different from pathological insulin resistance, where normal processes - the glucose uptake pathways, the liver's constant gluconeogenesis, and cellular metabolism - are disrupted. Physiological insulin resistance isn't really a health issue, that is, until you want to enjoy some delicious carbohydrate rich foods every once in a while. Luckily, that's even more easily reversible than pathological insulin resistance. All you have to do in that case is eat carbs a little more regularly.

The only time low carb diets improve insulin sensitivity is when there is significant weight loss, but they'll never ultimately fix the issue of insulin resistance, just slightly improve it from baseline. In order to actually fully restore insulin sensitivity and a tolerance for carbohydrates, you actually need to slowly re-introduce carbohydrates into your regular diet.

Additionally, until you actually go and get a glucose sensitivity test done, you can't really conclude anything about how insulin resistant or sensitive you are. However, your "true" glucose tolerance won't actually be measured, because the physiological insulin resistance from low-carb dieting will screw up the test results. This has happened to people in the past on low-carb diets, where they actually get mistakenly diagnosed with diabetes because their glucose uptake is so poor.
 
I have told you this before, but low carb diets negatively impact insulin sensitivity and secretion. You are aggravating the problem of insulin resistance, not solving it. Very low carb diets induce physiological insulin resistance, where muscle tissue refuses to take up glucose in order to spare glucose for the brain. This is different from pathological insulin resistance, where normal processes - the glucose uptake pathways, the liver's constant gluconeogenesis, and cellular metabolism - are disrupted. Physiological insulin resistance isn't really a health issue, that is, until you want to enjoy some delicious carbohydrate rich foods every once in a while. Luckily, that's even more easily reversible than pathological insulin resistance. All you have to do in that case is eat carbs a little more regularly.

The only time low carb diets improve insulin sensitivity is when there is significant weight loss, but they'll never ultimately fix the issue of insulin resistance, just slightly improve it from baseline. In order to actually fully restore insulin sensitivity and a tolerance for carbohydrates, you actually need to slowly re-introduce carbohydrates into your regular diet.

Additionally, until you actually go and get a glucose sensitivity test done, you can't really conclude anything about how insulin resistant or sensitive you are. However, your "true" glucose tolerance won't actually be measured, because the physiological insulin resistance from low-carb dieting will screw up the test results. This has happened to people in the past on low-carb diets, where they actually get mistakenly diagnosed with diabetes because their glucose uptake is so poor.

Awesome post. As usual.
 
I swear people worry about getting every single micro part of each diet correct they abandon the basics of eating good and exercising. I've never understood the worry with things like mercury poisoning from tuna (who the hell eats that much tuna at a sustained rate?) and it would seem all the insulin hype is blown out of proportion?
Or am I just plain ignorant here.
 
I swear people worry about getting every single micro part of each diet correct they abandon the basics of eating good and exercising. I've never understood the worry with things like mercury poisoning from tuna (who the hell eats that much tuna at a sustained rate?) and it would seem all the insulin hype is blown out of proportion?
Or am I just plain ignorant here.

You are right on the money. Most people obsess over unimportant details, and spend too many hours stressing out over things that ultimately don't matter. I think nutrition attracts the horribly neurotic. I don't know why it be like it is, but it do.
 
Most people are probably insulin resistant to a degree. About 16% of the normal weight <25 BMI population are severely insulin resistance (ref), while the rates get higher for overweight and obese individuals (which are now representative of the majority). It's actually a big problem, but unfortunately most primary care physicians aren't measuring it. The paleo crowd is much more mistaken on issues like celiac and inflammation though.

In a place like where I'm from, the prevalence of Type 2 Diabetes is at about 10% of the entire population, with obesity at about 30%. It's not a big problem in places like this forum with a training population, where the issue is likely overblown by health obsessed hypochondriacs, but in the real world it's a health care disaster.

But you are correct on how easy the solution is. An okay diet + resistance training is enough to fix most people up in just a few short months.

I agree that 16% is sizeable, but I would still say that 84% is quite a substantial majority. As you said, though, a good number of people in the study who missed the cutoff would probably qualify for something like "insulin insensitive."
 
First you have to consult with your GB or doctor before take any step.You should also look into supplementing with fish oil as omega 3's have been shown to have beneficial effects on insulin sensitivity.Des Moines Boxing
 
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I have told you this before, but low carb diets negatively impact insulin sensitivity and secretion. You are aggravating the problem of insulin resistance, not solving it. Very low carb diets induce physiological insulin resistance, where muscle tissue refuses to take up glucose in order to spare glucose for the brain. This is different from pathological insulin resistance, where normal processes - the glucose uptake pathways, the liver's constant gluconeogenesis, and cellular metabolism - are disrupted. Physiological insulin resistance isn't really a health issue, that is, until you want to enjoy some delicious carbohydrate rich foods every once in a while. Luckily, that's even more easily reversible than pathological insulin resistance. All you have to do in that case is eat carbs a little more regularly.

The only time low carb diets improve insulin sensitivity is when there is significant weight loss, but they'll never ultimately fix the issue of insulin resistance, just slightly improve it from baseline. In order to actually fully restore insulin sensitivity and a tolerance for carbohydrates, you actually need to slowly re-introduce carbohydrates into your regular diet.

Additionally, until you actually go and get a glucose sensitivity test done, you can't really conclude anything about how insulin resistant or sensitive you are. However, your "true" glucose tolerance won't actually be measured, because the physiological insulin resistance from low-carb dieting will screw up the test results. This has happened to people in the past on low-carb diets, where they actually get mistakenly diagnosed with diabetes because their glucose uptake is so poor.


I try to stay on the low carb side of things for reasons pertaining to satiation and cognition. I'm terribly prone to overeating and the greater the carb partition of my diet the greater the problem. What i generally do is just ensure i get some carbs PWO. Ranges from 50 grams to 100 a day. For whatever reason i find that PWO carbs don't kindle my appetite at all. Will this prevent the problem you are alluding to with low carb diets? I really want to maintain some metabolic flexibility.
 
I try to stay on the low carb side of things for reasons pertaining to satiation and cognition. I'm terribly prone to overeating and the greater the carb partition of my diet the greater the problem. What i generally do is just ensure i get some carbs PWO. Ranges from 50 grams to 100 a day. For whatever reason i find that PWO carbs don't kindle my appetite at all. Will this prevent the problem you are alluding to with low carb diets? I really want to maintain some metabolic flexibility.

Yup, this will probably be enough to ensure some flexibility. Another good trick is to have some carb-rich foods before bed. That way if they make you sleepy, lazy, or lower your cognition just take advantage of it and hit the sack.
 
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