If people are looking for alternative approaches to weight loss, I would consider simply buying a blood glucose monitor. They cost about $100 on Amazon or less and test strips less than $0.50.
The thing that makes it alternative is that it sets you up to be reactive rather than prescriptive. A lot of people end up rebelling against prescriptive rules for eating and then fall off the wagon in frustration.
The Blood Glucose monitoring approach is to see what spikes your blood sugar on the idea that higher levels are more likely to lead to reduced insulin sensitivity which often leads to more of the calories you eat being stored as fat. I just take the measurement first thing in the morning.
I find that how I eat shows up in my morning BGL and so I can be a little bit more reactive. If the level is high, then I need to pull harder on some of the levers that day.
This way of thinking also sets you up to have a better personal sense of what levers matter. For me, pasta is much worse than chocolate chips. What really flips my levels though is two high carb meals in the same day.
For some reason, pharmacy nearby threw out a bunch of glucose monitors for diabete (we assumed it was some legal obligation to replace stock every N years). Would these work in theory ?
Insulin does not lead to increased weight gain. If this approach does work, it's because it's a roundabout way of eating lower calorie foods and thus lowering daily caloric intake.
Afaiu insulin in combination with elevated blood glucose levels specifically does lead directly to weight gain - it's like a vicious cycle in that high blood sugar = increased insulin levels = excess glucose is stored as fat.
No. I can elaborate but generally it's the glucose that stimulates the insulin release (the pancreas has glucose receptors).
Weight gain IS NOT driven by insulin or glucose. You can put someone on euglycemic clamp literally pumping him with insulin and glucose and he won't get fat from that. He will hover start storing fat IF we give him too much glucose for his needs.
Frankly, if you were a very mad you could theoretically put yourself on insulin/protein infusion to lose fat.
Idea being that insulin will drop your blood glucose (via insulin-dependant glucose transporter translocation) forcing liver to balance that out. When liver runs out of stored glucose it will start breaking down fat.
The downside of that is that eventually muscles won't store more glucose (you'd somehow need to get rid of that) and the risk of dying is pretty high.
The thing that makes it alternative is that it sets you up to be reactive rather than prescriptive. A lot of people end up rebelling against prescriptive rules for eating and then fall off the wagon in frustration.
The Blood Glucose monitoring approach is to see what spikes your blood sugar on the idea that higher levels are more likely to lead to reduced insulin sensitivity which often leads to more of the calories you eat being stored as fat. I just take the measurement first thing in the morning.
I find that how I eat shows up in my morning BGL and so I can be a little bit more reactive. If the level is high, then I need to pull harder on some of the levers that day.
This way of thinking also sets you up to have a better personal sense of what levers matter. For me, pasta is much worse than chocolate chips. What really flips my levels though is two high carb meals in the same day.