Gary Taubes's argument that GLP-1 inhibitors work through fuel (re)partitioning

(Bob M) #1

In short, he thinks the GLP-1 inhibitors are allowing the body to access the calories stored in fat, and this is what causes people to (want to) eat less.

There’s an interesting mouse study of genetically altered mice (so called “transgenic” mice) where some took a drug and some did not, but they kept the calorie intake the same for both groups. Even though EATING THE SAME CALORIES, the mice taking the drug lost more weight. Why? Gary theorizes it’s because the drug provided access to the calories stored in fat, whereas the other mice could not access those calories.

As an aside, I think this is why some people can lose X pounds quickly (say X = 100 pounds), while it takes others a very long to never time to lose that weight. I think the latter have broken something that prevents the body from accessing the fat in the fat cells. I think hormones have a lot to do with this, including “insulin resistance” (by the hormone insulin), but this could vary a lot by person. For instance, menopausal women aren’t the same as men as far as hormones are concerned. I have no proof for this, other than it makes logical sense to me.

#2

I feel that’s just a rewording of what we already know of how GLP-1’s work. Once you’re on a GLP-1, you’re insulin sensitive, you’ll release more insulin when it’s needed because you’ll be receptive to that queue, because of that your blood sugar is only elevated long enough to do the job and not stay high longer than that, which means your blood sugar elevations (time wise) are minimal, and when that’s the case you can get a fat more often than when it’s chromincally elevated.

Me without Semaglutide will have an idle glucose level in the 105-115 range. I doin’t usually spike nuless I’ve been getting crappy sleep, which shows huge, A1C is usually low 5’s either way, but ith it, it’s usually in the high 80’s - low 90’s. With it I was able to get my BF% from the high 10’s to 9.2% at last check, eating in a surplus again now but going to try to hit the high 8’s next time. That definitely wouldn’t have happened without it.

Keep in mind that’s doing TKD/CKD!

I don’t pay retail gouge rate for it like most so long term isn’t an issue, but also have no intentions of it being a life thing either.