Insulin as our Fat Storage Hormone
May 3, 2023
By Cara Phillipo
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Insulin is clearly the #1 most important controller of fat storage and fat breakdown in the body. Insulin plays many significant metabolic roles that allow it to lead to fat accumulation in the body. First, insulin promotes the storage of fat and inhibits the breakdown of fat stores. When we eat, we often choose foods that elevate blood sugar. The excess quantity of glucose that enters the liver cells is more than can be stored as glycogen. Therefore, insulin has to promote the conversion of excess glucose into fatty acids that are transported to the adipose tissue, where they are deposited as fat. Then, insulin programs the cells to use the glucose in the bloodstream, which inhibits the body from burning fat.
In the presence of insulin, it is extremely easy to store fat and very difficult to burn fat. Insulin promotes obesity. Due to insulin’s obesity promoting effects, an insulin promoting diet will cause fat storage and make it very difficult to lose weight.
The Danger of Visceral Fat and Insulin Resistance
Fat cells generally have the function of storing energy. This was very important many moons ago when our ancestors would endure a famine. Having the extra fat for fuel kept our human race alive. Back then, this design with insulin was a blessing. Today, we end up storing so much excess fat that we begin to pile it up in our intra-abdominal or visceral fat cells. These are very specialized fat cells that can also making inflammatory cytokines. These cytokines can interfere with normal hormonal functions. For reasons still being researched, some of these inflammatory cytokines disrupt insulin’s role on a cellular level and make insulin less effective on the cell receptor. The medical term for this condition is called ‘insulin resistance.’ To get the same job done as before, the body compensates by producing even more insulin. Now, the fat storage effects of insulin and its role in inhibiting fat breakdown are even stronger. This is why so many feel that their metabolism has slowed down. This becomes a vicious cycle. Dialing into an eating plan that will keep blood sugar and insulin stable over time will allow you to burn your fat stores for fuel.
Fat Breakdown is Enhanced in the Absence of High Insulin Levels
When insulin is held at a stable level, fat stores become much easier to be broken down for fuel. Simple lifestyle changes such as holding a longer space in between meals or doing intermittent fasting allow for insulin levels to decrease. When insulin levels fall into a healthy range, we will find that fat can easily become available to be burned for fuel, and fat storage dramatically slows down. When insulin is regulated, we see the enzyme hormone-sensitive lipase in the fat cells become strongly activated. This causes hydrolysis or the breakdown of stored fat. The overall effect is significant weight-loss. This is the #1 reason that I recommend the specific eating plans that I do on our medically supervised weight loss programs at The Natural Path. This also takes TIME. We see in the research that it can take up to 6 months of following a low carb diet to get insulin to become sensitive again.
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