The Science of Body Metamorphosis
- About Us
- Articles
- Can Calcium and Vitamin D Help Reduce Fat Gain?
- Coaching Clients With Obesity Course
- Do Dietitians Accurately Report Their Food Intake?
- Eat Slow, Eat Less
- Fat Loss
- FREE Research Reviews!
- General Guidelines for Training Programs
- Get Access to the Weightology Archives!
- How Successful Are U.S. Citizens at Maintaining Long-Term Weight Loss?
- Increasing Protein, or Decreasing Carbohydrate…Which Gives You a Metabolic Advantage?
- Insulin, an Undeserved Bad Reputation: The Biggest Insulin Myth, Continued…
- Insulin, An Undeserved Bad Reputation: The Finale
- Insulin…an Undeserved Bad Reputation
- Insulin…Still an Undeserved Bad Reputation After 10 Years
- Insulin: An Undeserved Bad Reputation, Part 2
- Insulin: An Undeserved Bad Reputation, Part 3…MOOOOO!!!!
- Insulin: An Undeserved Bad Reputation, Part 4: The Biggest Insulin Myth of Them All
- Insulin: An Undeserved Bad Reputation, Part 5: Addressing the Critics
- Is High Fructose Corn Syrup Worse Than Regular Sugar?
- Jello to Rid the Jiggles? The Effects of Gelatin on Weight Maintenance
- Latest Content
- Miscellaneous Articles
- Muscle Gain
- Omron Exam: How Accurate Are These Pedometers?
- Online Coaching
- Physical Activity and Weight Regain
- Podcast Appearances
- Protein Before Or After Your Workout?
- Shop
- Sitting Too Much May Be Hazardous to Your Health
- Snooze to Lose
- Speed Eating: Do You Feel Less Full?
- Test Menu
- Testing the Phillips DirectLife Accelerometer
- Thank you!
- The Pitfalls of Body Fat “Measurement”, Part 3: Bod Pod
- The Pitfalls of Body Fat “Measurement”, Part 5: Skinfolds
- The Pitfalls of Body Fat “Measurement”, Part 6: Dual-Energy X-Ray Absorptiometry (DEXA)
- The Pitfalls of Body Fat “Measurement”, The Final Chapter
- The Pitfalls of Body Fat “Measurement”: Part 1
- The Pitfalls of Body Fat “Measurement”: Part 2
- The Pitfalls of Bodyfat “Measurement”, Part 4: Bioelectrical Impedance (BIA)
- The Use of Weighted Apparel During Contest Prep: The Science and Practical Application
- The Weightology Archives
- Thinking Better, Part 1: The False Dichotomy
- Thinking Better, Part 2: Confirmation Bias
- Thinking Better, Part 3: Non Causa Pro Causa
- Thinking Better, Part 4: The Straw Man
- Thinking Better, Part 5: The Ad Hominem
- Weightology Archives Terms & Conditions
- Weightology LLC Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy
- What’s In the Weightology Research Review?
- Why Is It So Easy To Regain Weight?
- Speaking
- Testimonials
- Contact
- How Much Do Variations in Physiological Testosterone Matter To Your Gains?
- Periodization / Variation in Repetition Ranges for Muscle Size: Your Complete Evidence Based Guide
- Set Volume for Muscle Size: The Ultimate Evidence Based Bible
- Training Frequency for Hypertrophy: The Evidence-Based Bible
- Post-Exercise Energy Expenditure, Part 4: The Effect of Low Volume Weight Training
- Post-Exercise Energy Expenditure, Part 6: The Effect of Weight Training Volume
- Research Review: How Much Does Weight Training Help With Fat Loss?
- Research Review: Intermittent vs. Continuous Calorie Restriction for Fat Loss
- Why Do Meal Replacements Work?
Further to Ian’s question; Do we have any studies showing that we can induce insulin resistance by overfeeding protein? I’m not aware of any. Presumably, insulin resistance could be induced by protein portions just as readily as with an equivalent portion/s of insulinogenic carbohydrate (i.e. by a portion of carb that provokes the same insulin response as the portion of protein)? I’m wondering about this, and hypothesising that perhaps insulin resistance isn’t merely a response to hyperinsulinemia (brought about by excessive carbs or proteins), but is actually a response to hyperglycemia? This would explain why excessive protein doesn’t seem to… Read more »
Harry,
I’m not aware of any studies specifically overfeeding on protein and looking at insulin resistance.
The whole concept of insulin resistance and hyperinsulinemia is a chicken/egg problem that scientists still haven’t quite solved. There is data indicating insulin resistance to come first, with hyperinsulinemia as a compensatory mechanism, but there’s also data indicating hyperinsulinemia to contribute to insulin resistance. It may very well be that it works both ways. I personally believe that, in most cases, it starts with insulin resistance leading to hyperinsulinemia. The scientific data definitely supports that there are many causes to insulin resistance.
So… we can store fat very easily even w/o the presence of insulin. But I’ve read that we can’t access those fat stores when insulin is high, and in healthy people, like you said, insulin and blood sugar go down after a meal (so they don’t stay high)- but what about in overweight/obese people? My impression from what I’ve read about nutrition is that the problem is insulin resistance. So what do you think causes/contributes to that aside from excess calories?
Ian,
There are many causes to insulin resistance, including, but not limited to, sleep loss, stress, inactivity, certain medications, etc. Many of these things act synergistically to create a “perfect storm”, resulting in the high prevalence of insulin resistance and metabolic syndrome we have in our society.
Once again, thank you for posting this article. I hope that some folks will have some enlightenment regards to insulin especially the people from low carb talibans. I will link this article to several sites.
Aziz, Tan…thanks for your comments.
CarbSane….thanks for the correction about low protein, low carb, high fat….I didn’t know there were people out there recommending such diets.
Hi James, I recently stumbled on your site via Alan’s weblog. I had a very informative time reading your articles. Little confused though by this sentence: ”Insulin doesn’t just regulate blood sugar. It has other effects as well. For example, it stimulates your muscles to build new protein (a process called protein synthesis)” I was always under the impression insulin only has a permissive role in MPS. It does prevent MPB, but only with a marginal raise (15 mU/l Rennie et al. 2006). Supraphysiological do however stimulate MPS (1000 fold increase). I haven’t read the fulltext of the study you… Read more »
Dutchbb, Thanks for your comment. The confusion regarding insulin and protein synthesis comes from differences in study design. From the paper I referenced: The notion that insulin stimulates skeletal muscle protein synthesis in adult humans has long been debated because some studies reported that insulin administration was unable to stimulate muscle protein synthesis while it decreased protein breakdown (8, 9, 21), whereas several others reported an increase in protein synthesis with no change in breakdown (6, 46–48).We have previously discussed this issue at length (10–12, 18), suggesting that differences in vasodilation and amino acid delivery might have explained these discrepancies.… Read more »
This paper might help you:
http://ajpendo.physiology.org/cgi/content/abstract/295/3/E595
Thanks James and Lucas.
I dug up the full-text of the first study and read Lucas’s reference but honestly most is way above my head. I have no background in physiology or exercise science whatsoever, just a genuine interest in the science behind bodybuilding.
But what does this mean for practical applications? Where the good old bro’s right and is ‘spiking up ur insulin’ a good thing afterall?
Dutch,
In terms of practical application, it doesn’t mean you purposely try to cause insulin spikes. It is more to dispel the notion that insulin spikes are inherently a bad thing. I will be a doing a follow-up post on this in the future, and discuss a drug that actually restores insulin spikes in type 2 diabetics and also causes weight loss.
The take home message is that insulin is released every time you eat. Insulin has a permissive role in MPS and MPB, as shown in the paper I linked. For switching the net protein balance after a workout you need aminoacids and insulin, period. Now the problem is you dont need that much insulin to get its maximal effects. The threshold seems to be around 30-60uU/mL. Consider that a whey protein shake (most widely used PWO) is very insulinogenic.
From the study you cite in the HSL discussion: “Arteriovenous NEFA concentration differences across the forearm did not change with either oral or intravenous lipid load. This suggests that there is no release into the circulation of LPL-derived fatty acids from skeletal muscle. This efficient entrapment of fatty acids in skeletal muscle occurred despite a high-fat load and lack of an insulin response. This is in contrast to what is seen in adipose tissue, where there is no significant trapping of fatty acids in the tissue with either oral or intravenous fat load.” “With both oral and intravenous fat load,… Read more »
“With both oral and intravenous fat load, NEFA transcapillary flux across adipose tissue was strongly negative (outward flow) in the fasting state, becoming close to zero at 180- 240 min before becoming strongly negative again (Fig. 7A). After a mixed meal, NEFA transcapillary flux becomes positive after 60 min and stays strongly positive until at least 300 min (15). The different responses can be attributed partly to the lack of reesterification after fat loading and partly to the earlier return of HSL activity.” This mixed meal only contained 10 grams of carbohydrate. Remember that a low-carb diet is not carbohydrate-free.… Read more »
More importantly, a low-carb diet is not protein-free (like the oral fat load in the study was IIRC). Glucogenic amino acids can provide substrate for glycerol phosphate synthesis.
Regarding the “mixed meal”, this is the study cited: http://ajpendo.physiology.org/cgi/reprint/266/3/E308?ijkey=13f80d732949a64d5baf093d4613ae2a0ec360fb
They used 80g of fat and 80g of CHO.
I (and I think James also) were referring to this study: Effects of an oral and intravenous fat load on adipose tissue and forearm lipid metabolism.
The test meal in the study was 9.6 g carbs, 40.3 g fat, 2.8 g protein.
Our point was that it’s not suprising that little reesterification was occurring because there’s not a lot of substrate available for glycerol phosphate synthesis when the diet contained only about 10 grams of carbohydrate and 3 grams of protein. This is not a typical low-carb meal (especially the protein content).
I dont know why I can post my original reply. Is there a limit of links or something permited per post?
Yes, usually posts with lots of links go in the spam folder. Your post should appear now.
Sorry for the untidiness (dont know how to post “clean links” here). The effect of incorporating fat into different components of a meal on gastric emptying and postprandial blood glucose and insulin responses: http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayFulltext?type=1&fid=863376&jid=&volumeId=&issueId=02&aid=863372&bodyId=&membershipNumber=&societyETOCSession= Effects of Fat on Gastric Emptying of and the Glycemic, Insulin, and Incretin Responses to a Carbohydrate Meal in Type 2 Diabetes: http://jcem.endojournals.org/cgi/reprint/91/6/2062 Effects of gastric emptying on the postprandial ghrelin response: http://ajpendo.physiology.org/cgi/reprint/290/2/E389 The Lipid Messenger OEA Links Dietary Fat Intake to Satiety: http://www.cell.com/cell-metabolism/retrieve/pii/S1550413108002465 A high-fat diet raises fasting plasma CCK but does not affect upper gut motility, PYY, and ghrelin, or energy intake during CCK-8… Read more »
Fat seems to, if anything, increase insulin response. Not sure about fat+protein, but in studies with potato meals, added fat decreases the glucose response with similar or enhanced insulin response.
There are studies where fat added to carbohydrate meals increase the insulin response, others show that fat reduces it. I have found one study where fat increased the insulin response to protein. (http://www.ajcn.org/cgi/content/abstract/37/6/941) The problem interpreting these results is that the response is measured only for a couple of meals (no long term effect) and individual variation is important regarding insulin secretion. As I have said before, what is relevant is the effect that a diet has on postprandial and basal insulin levels, not a single meal. You can see that after a LCKD the postprandial insulin response is reduced… Read more »
One study (sorry I don’t have the links handy) see a glucose amelioration adding fat to the first potato meal but not a second 4 hrs later.
this paper demonstrates that the human body can handle significant doses of carbs w/o fat accumulation.
While insulin responses can be varied, calorie balance always finds a way 😉
While insulin responses can be varied, calorie balance always finds a way
Dont get me wrong, calories do count.
I would add that near as I can tell, the Atkins Fat Fast was specifically designed to treat those with extreme insulin resistance to lower insulin levels. That is why the meager protein rations are split between 5-6 “meals”. But it is telling that Atkins also severely limited calories. If fat calories had nothing to do with fat accumulation there would have been no need for this. I think Atkins knew just about anyone will lose weight eating like this and catabolizing some LBM in the process, but if left to their own devices to “eat when hungry, stop when… Read more »
I think it’s noteworthy that Dr. Atkin’s didn’t recommend this approach unless a person was truly in a weightloss stall, and only for a few days. It wasn’t intended to be a daily WOE.
Excellent! A bit of irony in there. Biggest insulin response was for whey and leucine. Guess what’s the mainstay of the first two weeks of the Eades misguided 6 Week Cure for the Middle Aged Middle diet? LOL Most of the folks who tried that diet lost most of their weight those first two weeks. Although they never gave a reason, the Eades were adamant about you getting in your shakes. Insulin was coarsing through my veins! In fact, if you truly wanted to keep insulin as low as possible, then you wouldn’t eat a high protein diet…you would eat… Read more »
This was a ridiculously informative yet simple read. Definitely sharing this one.
Thanks man. This was a very informative essay and I learned a lot. I am following a “primal” way of eating which is high fat (55), regular protein (30), low carb (15). Of course these are just approximate numbers and I think that stressing about percentages is not healthy. Low carb is easily achieved, not because I’m carbophobic, but because I took off processed foods and grains (again if I want some bread some day, no stress), which I think are not optimal for reasons other than insulin. You’re then left with fruits and veggies, from which it is difficult… Read more »
You state this “The fact is that insulin is not this terrible, fat-producing hormone that must be kept as low as possible. It is an important hormone for appetite and blood sugar regulation. In fact, if you truly wanted to keep insulin as low as possible, then you wouldn’t eat a high protein diet…you would eat a low protein, low carbohydrate, high fat diet. However, I don’t see anybody recommending that.” I ask Why NOT? No-one has shown that a low carb /high fat diet is harmful. In fact it was shown as long ago as 1926, by Stefansson, to… Read more »