Insulin Makes Us Fat (Apparently)

I have recently finished reading a very interesting book called “Why We Get Fat” by Gary Tuabes (here on Amazon). Gary Taubes also wrote the better known top selling “Good Calories, Bad Calories” (here on Amazon).

“Why We Get Fat” is around 225 pages not including the index or the 15 page introduction. In these 225 pages Mr. Taubes outlines, what is in his view (and is the view of other experts he refers to in his book), the primary cause of people putting on weight. In the next 500 words or so I am going to try and provide the key understanding from the book. This will take all my powers of summarisation (I think that’s a word) … but here I go.

High Insulin=Store Calories, Low Insulin=Use Stored Calories and Eject Excess

The foundation principle of the book is that if our insulin levels are high (raised) then the body will store calories as fat in preference to burning them or ejecting them (passing them in urine), but if the insulin levels are low the body will either use stored calories (fat) if we are not ingesting food, or burn or eject excess calories not required if we are ingesting food.

The reason that someone who is becoming diabetic needs to drink more and starts to urinate more is because their insulin levels are low (because the pancreas is not producing sufficient insulin) hence the body is working overtime to eject sugars (calories) in the urine. The reason someone who is diabetic and is not being treated suffers from rapid weight loss is the same: insulin is permanently low hence the body is continually pulling off stored calories and ejecting any excess calories from food intake (rather than storing them back as fat reserves).

So, given this, losing weight is really easy. Just keep insulin levels low. Then nothing will be stored as fat and all consumed calories will be burnt or ejected—and any pre-existing fat will be burned off at a great rate. Perfect …

But nothing is this easy. Nothing!!

Keeping Insulin Levels Low=NOT EASY

On the upside, for all those people who don’t have any pre-existing versions of diabetes (i.e., issues with the body’s production, regulation, and use of insulin), there are only four things that make insulin levels curve up and would therefore cause your body to store fat:

1. Carbohydrates.
2. Sugars.
3. Starches.
4. Exercise.

So, as long you don’t eat any of 1, 2, or 3 and don’t do any exercise then you will lose weight. Still sounding easy? Well it isn’t!

1, 2, and 3 mean no bread, rice, pasta, grains, cereals, bagels, muffins (sweet or plain), scones, buns, crackers, potatoes; or anything with high natural sugars including apples, grapes, watermelon, rock melon, honey, maple syrup, corn syrup, beer, milk, yogurts, fruit juices (with or without added sugar); and more.

Still sounding easy?

But wait, you can’t exercise! Well. Not quite. You can exercise (and probably should, for reasons other than weight loss), but you have to be aware that exercising causes insulin production to curve up. So to get the fat burning weight loss benefit of any exercise you cannot eat anything for about two to three hours after exercising because most of the calorific value of anything you eat will be stored—because your insulin levels are high.

Everyone Eventually Develops (a form of) Diabetes

For all of us, as we get older, our body’s ability to produce and regulate insulin begins to get faulty. Technically, when this happens, it is a form of diabetes—in that the definition of diabetes is when our insulin production and regulation is not working up to specification. So although this production and regulation failure might not be severe enough to be formally diagnosed with clinical diabetes it is none-the-less a mild non-life threatening version of diabetes. And it happens with age for everyone but, a bit like eyesight degradation, the amount and degree varies from person to person.

For most females this faultiness of the insulin regulatory system starts in the early-30s and for men—about 10 years later—in the early 40s. Hence this is why the real battle with weight for most people gets serious around 35. Up until then it is harder to put weight on, and also much easier to lose weight, because the insulin system is working as it should.

What Can You Eat?

Basically you can eat what people used to eat “in the old days”. This is mainly:

• Fats and oils.
• Meat, meat, meat (pork, ham, bacon, lamb, veal, chicken, turkey, duck, etc.,).
• Fish.
• Eggs, eggs, eggs.
• Salad greens.
• Non-starch vegetables (cauliflower, celery, green beans, pumpkin, tomatoes, zucchini, eggplant, etc.,).
• Cheese (with less than 1gm of carbs per serving).
• And more …

Basically you can eat anything that does not cause your insulin level to curve up. Because if they do go high then the body is going to work hard to store the calorific value of anything you are eating, including the “good stuff”, as fat. So it is no good having two eggs with bacon and sausages on toast for breakfast because the two slice of toast are going to spike your insulin levels and hence the bulk of the calorific value of the entire meal is going to be targeted for fat storage. However, leave out the toast, and you have a completely different outcome. Insulin levels remain low so those calories needed are burnt and the excess calories are ejected—because neither fat nor meat trigger insulin to go high.

Okay … I am approaching a 1,000 words now. Time to close off.

Close

I am a type 2 diabetic. I have to inject a small dose of insulin (about 6 mmols) before my morning and evening meal. Based on Mr. Tuabes’ view of why we put on weight I am probably starting out from a losing position—in that my insulin levels are pushed up by injection even before I start to consume my meal.

Even so, when I started reading this book I thought it might be useful in getting some kilograms off (1 kg = 2.2 lb for my US readers). But after reading it and thinking about it for a few days it actually made me more pessimistic about losing weight. Implementing 1, 2, and 3 from above just seem to be impossible in our modern world. I mean … NO cereals! Seriously!!

If any of this interests you then I guess you should consider picking up Gary Taubes’ book. The prices I have seen hover around $25 for the hardcopy and I believe it is available from the Apple Store for consumption on the iPAD for $17 and on TWiT they mentioned that the Kindle version from Amazon is $10. So if you have a Kindle, and I am seriously thinking of getting one, then $10 from Amazon delivered over-the-net in seconds seems to be the cheapest option.