Insulin and Fat Storage

Fat storage evolved in our cave man ancestor to help him survive famine. He might kill a deer and feast on it and not have another meal for several days. Each calorie was put to work for immediate energy needs and the rest was stored as fat. If a meal was not taken in in the next few days, the fat was released as needed.

In our modern society, there is plenty of food and little famine. But our prehistoric enzymes and hormones don’t know that. They conserve every excess calorie inside fat cells to save us from starvation.

Fat storage does not result only from the fat you eat. It also comes for fats you make from protein and carbohydrate. Any amino acids that are not needed for immediate body building are converted to fat. Excess carbohydrate from any source is converted to fat.

So what has been the standard prescription for excess fat? Why, a low fat, high complex-carbohydrate diet, of course. (The same kind of diet we fatten farm animals on!) The problem with that approach is that digestion of carbohydrates--any carbohydrates-- requires insulin. A low fat-high carb diet means replacing fat containing foods with carbs. Excess insulin is required to process it and one of insulin's job is to store excess carbs as fat.

Most of us know that with diligence we can lose weight on that diet.----Then we gain it back a lot faster than we took it off! Why is it so hard to maintain that weight loss?

Because of two things; lipoprotein lipase and excess insulin.

Lipoprotein lipase is a fat storage enzyme and resides on the surface of the fat cell. Stimulated by insulin, it transports fatty acids into the fat cells and keeps it there until stimulated by another hormone, glucogon, to release it.

When we lose weight lipoprotein lipase, stimulated by insulin, goes into overdrive, and we start regaining weight.

And what do we do to combat the gain? We go back on our low fat, high complex-carbohydrate diet. Our insulin making system goes into overtime. As far as it is concerned, we are eating pure sugar.

In the presence of the hyped up lipoprotein lipase, it starts filling those fat cells again, preparing to save our lives during the perceived famine.

How do we control the out -of-control lipoprotein lipase. Well, we can’t control it directly, but we can control the insulin that modulates it. We can go on a high protein, low carbohydrate Insulin Control Diet.

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