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

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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.

But low carb isn’t cutting out a whole food group.

There are plenty of carbs in root vegetables, pulses, fruit, seeds and nuts, for example.

I think people mistake ‘carbs’ with ‘refined carbs’ and think low carb means you don’t get any carbohydrate in your body.

It is low carb - it’s reducing refined carbs and sugar right down 🤔

but I can eat unrefined carbs, so it isn’t low carb.

Grains, oats, brown rice. Not all carbs are refined.

I think your theory is rubbish I think already being fat increases risk of insulin resistance. I've never cut carbs or sugar I eat all food groups my fasting glucose at 18 stone was 6.5 my fasting glucose at 10 stone is 4.

🙄

It’s still low carb compared to the standard diet of pasta/rice/bread/potatoes with every meal.

I believe that if everyone in the developed world just cut out wheat we wouldn’t have an obesity epidemic.

Blinded with bro science.

I don't understand why the OP's posts are considered so controversial. I thought the science about sugar levels/obesity/ fasting was pretty well accepted nowadays. Obviously everyone's biochemistry is slightly different and other hormones will interact but in general isn't it now thought that keeping a relatively low stable blood sugar level is better for your health and obviously insulin plays a major role in that.

My understanding is that if you eat a lot of sugar you'll get a large sugar spike and (in a healthy person) a consequent large release of insulin. This will make the cells take up the sugar quickly meaning that the cells won't need to burn fat plus your blood sugar levels will drop suddenly leading to an energy slump which will make you want to eat more. Plus your cells may become resistant to insulin meaning that the sugar will stay in your blood wreaking all the havoc associated with diabetes.

And low carb is different to no carb. No carb would cut out fruit and veg and a complete lack of fibre would be pretty bad for most people. I try to cut out simple carbs and stick to complex carbs like brown rice/bread etc and combine them with proteins and fats to reduce blood sugar spikes and don't snack or eat late evening. I find it makes me less hungry and it's easy for me to keep to a healthy weight.

I have seen though people being really negative regards low carb diets and I don't get it.

Because every few years someone comes out with a new fad to make money.

How long were fats the bad guys and now all of a sudden some diets promote high fat foods.

Literally all food groups have been labelled as bad at some point.

If you look at all of the diets they all increase veg and cut out refined sugar and junk food.

I do think insulin is important and I think we eat way too many sugars/carbs in the western diet due mainly to snacking and portion size but I don’t think carbs should be demonised as things like potatoes are so good for you.

I am not a scientist but my brief reading suggests the science is not settled that only low carb diets work. There are tribes that eat a high sugar diet, in the form of fruit and honey, that don’t have obesity, heart disease etc. Steve Guyenet a neuro scientist and someone interested in the science of body weight and health. He writes about the tribe that has a high sugar diet in the below link. He thinks physical activity helps regulate insulin and he is also interested in the role of food reward in the brain and overeating. Also once a person is obese insulin then can be affected.

www.stephanguyenet.com/bad-sugar-or-bad-journalism-an-expert-review-of-the-case-against-sugar/

They DO work (well, SW works).

But you can't think it's a temporary fix like a fasting or juice diet - you have to stick at it forever (or at least most of the time, as I said in my post) for you to keep the weight off. It is designed to be sustainable.

And as I said, it's not really restrictive and relies heavily on common sense plus lots of homemade cooking. Eat loads of lean protein and vegetables = brilliant. Make your own pasta sauce/stew/soup = no added refined sugar. Limit your everyday intake of processed sugary, fatty food = duh. No food is off-limits, just some in moderation = no-brainer.

Bacibaci yes I agree that it is more complicated. And exercise is known to be an important factor in blood sugar level control hence people with T2 diabetes are advised to exercise. Plus there are genetic factors to consider, I remember in the Michael Mosley fasting book that there is a tribe of people who never get cancer because of their genes. However it has meant that the people take no care of their health, smoke drink, bad diet etc. because they consider themselves immune to illness and so live no longer than other populations because they die from other conditions!

This is why I do fasting (16/8). It works brilliantly for me! People say fasting only works because you eat less calories but that's simply not the only reason - it's a lot to do with insulin as you say.
I personally can't do low carb. I've tried it and both times I felt miserable and was horribly constipated (that's despite me eating loads of veg and chia seeds etc.). I have the type of digestive system that needs lots of wholegrain carbs to keep regular.

Tbh I think a lot of this is down to lifestyle - it's often just impractical to hold down a 9-5, raise young kids and find all the time in the world to go to the gym and eat veg sticks for dinner. Most people don't live the lifestyle that allows for a lot of these things.

I think we can just look at countries with low level of obesity and sew that carb isn't the issue.

I agree with pps talking about activity. While when losing weight, it's essentially impossible to lose purely by being active, it has masive benefits when keeping weight off and how we process the food. Activity also affects blood sugar levels as said. And many other things like digestive. We have lost lots of that here.

Also, things like nicotine, for example, change how we process sugars.

Then you look at gut. We have everything sterilised and dead with no or very little gut bacteria in. If you look at countries where fermented food is popular it shows quite a few benefits as well.

It's not carbs. It's us

From my own anectodal experience you are right OP.

I recently had a blood test which showed my average blood glucose level was way too high. It was a surprise because I wouldn't have said my diet was particular sugar heavy in the sense of sweets, cakes desserts etc. I was however eating a lot of refined carbs - Cereal for breakfast l. Sandwich for lunch, pasta for tea - and had been gradually gaining weight.

Testing my blood sugar, it seems a lot of white & refined carbs give me an enormous sugar spike and then reactive hypoglycemia. I've cut out all sugar and white carbs now and am eating brown rice/bread in very limited quantities, and am eating a lot more protein.

I'm actually shocked at the effect its had. For the first time for about a decade I no longer get ravenously hungry before meals, (I would get home from work and have to have a snack to have enough energy to make dinner) my appetite has decreased, my IBS has disappeared, I feel generally better and my spots have cleared up. I'm craving things I wasn't keen on before - oily fish, certain vegetables, eggs. It feels like with a veil of constantly fluctuating blood sugar lifted i can actually listen to my body and what it wants without the interference of the "give me easily accessible glucose now" klaxon going off every few hours.

I'm losing weight slowly but steadily, but even if i plateaued tomorrow I would carry on with this way of eating. I genuinely think for whatever reason my body cannot process refined carbs effectively. When I have tried classic calorie counting diets in the past I've simply gone mad with hunger and fallen off the wagon when my body's need for sugar gets louder than my willpower.

I think a carby diet is fine for some people, and I don't think everyone needs to go lower carb. I think it's worth a try though if other methods are not working well for you.

Thanks Sago!

I honestly don't think low carb is the long-term answer. Neither is low fat.

For me, just restricting highly processed carbohydrates like cakes, biscuits, crisps and sweets keeps my weight stable. If I eat sugary items I notice my weight creeping up and I feel lethargic.

I never eat traditional cereals like cornflakes, rice-crispier etc.- instead breakfast is either porridge, wholegrain toast and peanut butter, or egg, or cheese spread, and fruit and/or yoghurt. Lunch is usually leftovers of pasta, curry etc. or salt and some kind of meat, , or soup with seeded bread, or sandwich with cheese, ham or chicken and some more fruit. To snack I might have cheese and oatcakes, nuts, rye crisp breads with butter or cheese spread, humous and bread-sticks, or yoghurt. Meals are just normal things like pasta and sauces, meat or fish with veg and potatoes, curry and rice, casseroles, fish and chips and peas, etc. I always include a protein source in every meal as otherwise I find I get hungry soon after, and always some form of carb- but I always serve a relatively small portion of rice, potatoes or pasta compared to other items in the meal- probably around 1/3 of the plate.

I genuinely think for whatever reason my body cannot process refined carbs effectively

I actually think the problem with refined carbs is exactly the opposite- our bodies can process and digest them too easily- so they are quickly digested and turned into fat leaving your stomach empty and you hungry!

They're only turned into fat if you over eat them. You could eat 1200 calories of biscuits and lose weight.

I'm very athletic since I stopped carbs. I also never crave them now and actually feel a bit grossed out by bread. This is from somebody who thought they could never do keto etc.

I found fibre is what my body wanted, so to stick to low carb I had to add in a lot of dietary fibre. Without that I found it unmanageable.

I can get fat just looking at a bowl of oats. A lot if cereals (I don't even mean the processed sugary boxed kind) are absolutely awful. Anything that can be used to put weight on cattle and horses doesn't really belong in a human diet! The exception being if you are a runner etc with huge energy expenditure.

During my 20s I was very slim and ate an almighty amount of pasta and potato every day, I have no idea how I didn't gain weight, if I ate like that now I'd be very overweight. I think as we age and amd our metabolism changes its often hard to let go of old eating habits.

I got so hungry reading this thread I went and made myself an omelette.

Though look at people years ago - like looking at a different race.

The daily diet wasn't low carb by any means, though people certainly seemed to eat more meat, eggs, milk etc.

Portion sizes were smaller, there was less grazing, and certainly no adult snacking culture. Less wine about, far fewer takeaways. And more common to eat more during the day, and less in the evening. And probably more walking, I'd say.

I dont think i understand anything any better from this thread.

My only take is people do seem to hear low carb and think no carb.

The diabetes uk low carb diet is eating less than 130g of carbs a day so a slice of bread is about 20g and a jacket potato 90g but obviously all your apples and veg can be carby too. They actually have a few different eating plans this one is suggested for type 2s struggling to control blood sugar.

Its not good for children.

I believe that if everyone in the developed world just cut out wheat we wouldn’t have an obesity epidemic.

I'm not so sure. I think cutting out highly processed foods would be better (many of which obviously do contain wheat).

I've been dairy and gluten free for 6 months now. I've maybe lost a tiny bit of weight, but I'd have thought I'd lose quite a lot. If people don't eat wheat, they tend to replace it with other carby things. For a while I didn't do that, but then I gradually discovered acceptable substitutes for gluteny things.

My cousin is super pissed off she hasn't lost weight as a result of going vegan. It's amazing to me how much people believe in "magic" foods.