To think too few people understand the role of insulin with regards to weight loss?

[Redterror]

So I am an advocate of low carb but I know plenty of people who have used slimming world, or weight watchers or any other diet to lose weight. I have seen though people being really negative regards low carb diets and I don't get it.

When you understand how your body deals with different nutrients it because clear that all diets need to lower insulin. How you do this is up to you but ultimately all weight loss diets do it.

When insulin is elevated then you can't burn much fat and instead rely on mostly burning sugar from your diet. If you want to burn mostly fat from your fat cells your insulin needs to be lowered.

People say eat less move more without understanding that for someone who is insulin resistant this is really hard. The body cells stop responding to insulin so stop taking up sugar from the blood. This effectively means the cells feel like they are 'starving' as they can't get enough sugar and this drives hunger signals. It also makes the person feel lethargic and lacking in energy, so exercise is harder.

You can reduce insulin levels by fasting, reducing carbs in the diet, reducing consumption of refined carbohydrates, cutting calories etc but the key is your insulin.

*I agree - very preachy.

It can put people off*

I've found a lot of Keto people are like that, where low carb is almost a religion to them.

For most people it's calories in vs calories out.

@Redterror you are ill informed if you base your beliefs on Fung who is on the Nutrition Quack list.
Insulin levels are not linked to weight gain or loss. You can have high insulin and lose weight.
Fung is active on Youtube, other university professors are active at Stanford, Duke, ... and say the opposite because they have done controlled trials and test after test, theory of insulin disproven.

Eating white bread that’s been frozen and then toasted reduces the carbs by about 30 %, and eating leftover pasta the next day at least 24 hours, reduces carbs, it changes the composition, but still tastes great.

Wrong. It effects the GI but the total carb count isn't altered.

I'm doing really well at the moment with eating sensibly but with no snacking at all and concentrating on nutritious meals. Once I ditched sugar I stayed fuller for longer so it was easy, sugar makes me hungry.

Wow how interesting! Gives me hope that if I keep this up over time those fat cells may die off or at least recreate in smaller numbers!

Exactly so many here jump on the low carb band wagon

You sparked my curiosity OP. Found this online, makes for an interesting read (basically says a lot of it isn’t backed up by science, even if it can be effective):

biolayne.com/articles/research/its-not-calories-its-hormones-a-response-to-dr-jason-fung/

Are you very overweight and possibly insulin resistant? If you are then your cells may be struggling to remove sugar from the blood. In this situation your cells will signal they need more energy triggering hunger.

LOL as if the role of cells was to remove sugar from blood.

It's not your insulin you're trying to lower!
It's your blood glucose. You can't 'lower your insulin' as you have stated in your op.
Insulin is used to lower BG.
Insulin is a hormone.
You are spreading a lot of misinformation

Are you debating diets? Or the role of insulin?

As a type 1 diabetic I can confirm that this is not true.

How many people on the thread now asking 'how can I lower my insulin?' 🤦🏻‍♀️

What do you think happens to the food you eat?

@Simonjt
Frightening isn't it?
I can confirm (also T1D) that bread fresh or frozen still needs the same amount of insulin.

I did Slimming World and found it really good for steady weight loss that I kept off for years. Whilst I was doing it and after I stopped going to the groups, I also trained for half marathons, triathlons and all sorts, as I had so much energy which I didn't get from any other diets.

It didn't feel very restricted and I was (and still am) eating loads of carbs - big plates of pasta, rice, couscous, fruit etc. I did consciously make the choice of not touching bread and ate things like Weetabix/Ryvita instead, as you get one 'fiber' choice.

I think it works as although you are eating carbs, you really have to make most meals from scratch to stand a chance of keeping within your syns for the day - which means no added or artificial sugars or fats.

I think convenience food is the biggest contributor to how unhealthy society is right now, rather than simply blaming carbs or fats. The best diets incorporate all types of food, in moderation - and homemade/fresh is always best.

And for me, SW is one of the easiest diets to keep up forever - even if you're only following 80/90% of the time, you will keep the weight off.

Are you really asking me to explain microcellular biology?

I agree with this. I have been on a high carb low fat diet for a couple of years and I am never hungry and have easily kept off my initial weight loss with no issues and lots of energies. I only eat whole un processed starches so no issues either with my blood sugar.

This kind of misinformation is both frightening and dangerous in equal measure.

This is what I was coming on to say! It's your blood glucose that spikes and your pancreas produces insulin to convert it into energy. OP doesn't understand the basics.

Wasnt this in the news a couple of days ago, i'm sure I read about the success of an NHS app aimed at diabetics in also reducing weight

Is that something similar?

Your cells don't remove glucose from your blood, insulin does, which is a hormone produced by the pancreas. Please stop posting OP, you're getting it so wrong.

"all diets need to lower insulin. How you do this is up to you but ultimately all weight loss diets do it."

I am just wondering about the black-n-white nature of that claim. Is there ... literally no example ever where people lost weight on a diet but had no change in their insulin levels? This seems like an example where there was lots of weight loss by people who maintained higher blood glucose & insulin levels.

What do you think happens to it? Insulin is a hormone that facilitates the entry of sugar into body cells.

www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/guides/zt49gdm/revision/2