When one want to utilize fat as an energy source in a purpose of physical activity or fat loss, we need to understand how our physiology actually works. So many times, we focus so much about what to eat or diet to follow or amount of calories we should be consuming without really thinking about the functioning of our body. It's like pulling Tesla to gas station to get a gas. Doesn't make sense right?
Whether body want to use or store fat is determined by stimulating insulin or glucagon. Insulin as you might know is anabolic in nature, which means it's main purpose is to store. So when the insulin level is high, insulin guide the body to store fat. Glucagon on the other hand is catabolic in nature, or favor to use.
Insulin and glucagon are secreted in pancreas and are opposite in its behavior. Both are very important for our survival. However, depending on what you want to accomplish, which hormone to secrete will be different. If you want to store fat then focus on secrete insulin. If you want to use fat, stimulate glucagon.
Now let's talk about 3 macro nutrients and connect them to how they impact insulin and glucagon. 3 macro nutrients are carbohydrate, protein and fat.
Carbohydrate stimulate insulin more than glucagon.
Fat stimulate glucagon more than insulin.
Protein stimulate both but not as much as carbohydrate stimulating insulin or fat stimulating glucagon.
So all 3 macro nutrients can stimulate both insulin and glucagon. Which means when you eat food you will stimulate both insulin and glucagon. However, ratio between insulin and glucagon will dictate whether you will be in anabolic (store) or catabolic (use) state.
For example, when fasted (>24 hr) the body will be in catabolic state with insulin and glucagon ratio of 0.8. When adding carbohydrate the ratio jumps to 4, which means insulin is higher so the body will be anabolic. When adding just fat the ratio will jump up to 1.3, which is still in catabolic state. And here is the interesting part. When adding protein to carbohydrate diet insulin to glucagon ratio drastically jump up to 70. Where as for fat based diet with protein have showed 6% increase and kept it around ratio of 1.3. 20 fold increase in carbohydrate and protein diet seems to happen because of insulin level already been elevated with carbohydrate diet as the protein or amino acid enter the system.
What does this all means?
When your goal is to gain weight, stimulating insulin, by increase the carbohydrate and protein, become beneficial rather than stimulating glucagon. However, if you are looking to lose fat or use fat as primary energy source, for fat loss for example, you will need to decrease carbohydrate and increase fat intake to stimulate glucagon and suppress insulin. For someone who are already having insulin resistance, may need to modify protein intake and meal frequency for few month to keep the insulin level under control.
For fat loss purpose, many have tried low carb diet. However, majority of them lower the carbohydrate but never increase fat intake. This doesn't work because of not being able to stimulate glucagon for catabolic benefit. If you are doing low carb diet for fat loss purpose, then you will need to increase fat intake to offset insulin to glucagon ratio. So if you are already doing low carb diet through ketogenic, vegan, paleo, carnivore, and so on, add fat into your diet and let the hormones work for you.
If you are satisfied with body fat percentage that you have, it is beneficial to flip flop between high insulin, low glucagon and low insulin, high glucagon diet to allow the body to utilize both immediate food energy and stored fat energy. Ability for the body to be able to change energy source is called metabolic flexibility.
You can find your insulin level from your blood profiling prescribed by your doctors. This may help understand your current insulin level and also know whether you are insulin dominant or glucagon dominant at fasted state. Ideal insulin (HbA1c) level is 4-5.6. Anything above that you should work on lowering the number by minimizing the carbohydrate intake.
It is not just about calories. We need to be mindful about our hormone balance before even consider how much calories we should be consuming.
In Health,
Kota Shimada
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