QUOTE from Dr Fung (emphasis mine):
“Long-term weight loss is really a two-step process. Two major factors maintain our insulin at a high level. The first is the foods that we eat—which are what we usually change when we go on a diet. But we fail to address the other factor: the long-term problem of insulin resistance. This problem is one of meal timing. Insulin resistance keeps our insulin levels high. High insulin maintains our high body set weight. Inexorably, our high body set weight erodes our weight-loss efforts. We start feeling hungrier. Our metabolism (that is, our total energy expenditure) relentlessly decreases until it falls below the level of our energy intake. Our weight plateaus and ruthlessly climbs back up to our original body set weight, even as we keep dieting. Clearly, changing what we eat is not always enough. To succeed, we must break the insulin-resistance cycle.” [1]
NOTE (my commentary): When we eat, the body releases insulin to deal with rising glucose in the blood. The amount of glucose is directly related to how much we eat. And for many who are obese, we eat not only far more than our body needs, we consume far more than our body can safely handle.
Just like the rising waters of a flood, glucose rises up in the streets. Like water, it fills every place available, and we keep eating more and it keeps rising. There is a false understanding, according to Dr Fung, that high glucose means that the cells are starved for sugar to burn. The reality is that they are flooded with sugar and can accept no more.
The amount of sugar in the blood is intolerable, so the body increases the amount of insulin to solve the problem. Insulin does two things. It can pressure the cell to accept more sugar that it needs, basically putting sugar in the cell under pressure. But eventually this no longer works, even with more and more insulin building up in the bloodstream in response to ever-increasing amounts of sugar. The cells become insulin resistant in order to protect the cell from too much sugar … and eventually, rising levels of insulin no longer work.
… the long-term problem of insulin resistance … is one of meal timing.
The second job that insulin does is to convert sugar in the blood, flood level high, into visceral fat, which is white fat that’s stored in the abdomen and around all of the major organs, such as the liver, kidneys, pancreas, intestines, and heart. Visceral fat is very unhealthy. It takes a while for insulin to make fat, so blood sugars remain high, causing the amount of insulin in the bloodstream to remain high.
When you overeat, high insulin increases visceral fat. As you continue to overeat, high levels of insulin keep your body set to gain fat. Ultimately, high levels of insulin create a set point to which your body returns inevitably. In order to lose weight permanently, you need consistent long periods of low insulin. The best way to do that is to have consistent long periods of not eating food that causes insulin to be released.
Our weight plateaus and ruthlessly climbs back up to our original body set weight
Simply decreasing the amount you’re eating … not stopping and then starting … results in your metabolism decreasing to match your calorie intake. So the moment the calories increase, insulin increases and puts the extra sugar into the form of fat.
STRATEGY: It’s not that I need to merely lower my blood glucose or lower my food intake; how do I lower the level of insulin in my blood?
DISCERNMENT QUESTIONS
What gets my attention?
Do I understand the need or problem?
Do I understand the potential solution?
Do I understand how to apply that strategy?
What questions do I have for the experts? What might be the answers?
Who needs to hear this?
What do I do next?
RESOURCES
SOURCE – Footnotes:
[1] “The Obesity Code: Unlocking the Secrets of Weight Loss” by Dr. Jason Fung, Timothy Noakes, page 235.
Photo by U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Nashville District Cumberland River Flood 1937 – Eddyville, Kentucky via Flickr.
Image: On-Off Switch.jpg From Wikimedia Commons
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Key: Fung-10-30.60 Last Revision: 01/13/2022.