Glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1). Incretin hormone. Effects on the brain and hunger. Can it all be done with a keto diet?

#1

The Search function on the forums shows quite a few mentions of glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) dating back over 7 years. Many conversations in the “Show me the Science” sub-stack. There is lots of interesting reading to be done. I haven’t done it yet. So please excuse me if I sound like a dummy.

Doing a topic search really demonstrates what an important resource these forums have become.

https://www.ketogenicforums.com/search?q=GLP-1&expanded=true

Summary: There are GLP-1 receptor agonist micro-dosing protocols being advocated for clearing brain fog, creating calmness, suppressing appetite and increasing satiety, lowering blood sugar and lowering blood pressure. The list of medication effects mirrors the effects of a properly formulated ketogenic diet. The dietary and lifestyle changes pathway do the same things without the expense of the drug. But maybe not for everybody. Maybe the drugs will help people who are stuck in ill-health? Many mainstream advocates apply the drug treatment without lifestyle and eating behaviour support, so that the drugs become deemed, “life-long”. As stopping the drug reverts the person back to problems. More functional-medicine style practitioners will use the micro-dosing as part of a protocol that includes dietary changes and lifestyle improvements such as sleep improvement and lowering stress. So, I wonder if a drug-free protocol of a well formulated ketogenic diet, better sleep, more physical activity, stress lowering practies (e.g. meditation), improved social relationships, might produce similar results?

Before we launch into a discussion about more recent GLP-1 treatments and usages, I thought I would ask Ben Bikman to join us with his summary of a study about dietary fats and GLP-1 response:

Dr. Bikman gets back to basics here:

I’m not posting Ivor Cummins to cause a stir. I rate his guest Gabor Erdosi as one of the best knowledge sources on the processing of foods and how it effects metabolic health. So, more for my own resource, I’m dropping Gabor in here, at least until I find the Peak Human podcast episode where he describes the anatomy of the gut and the biochemistry of gut hormones effects even more clearly:

Released from cells in the proximal intestine (closer to stomach)

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Released from cells in the distal intestine (further from the stomach, closer to the large bowel)

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This was the podcast where I first listened about Semaglutide/ GLP-1 agonist micro-dosing. I am so late to this party. Despite the production values being quite annoying (to my ear) there were some interesting concepts presented to think about:

Carnivore 30-day Challenge - Carniv-August 2024!
#2

For me, even after 4yrs eating strict keto, although it did help hunger and made my blood sugar much better and obviously lowered my A1C a ton, it’s wasn’t even remotely the same as even 0.25mg of Semaglutide!

(Bob M) #3

I have been testing allulose, which supposedly stimulates GLP-1, and inulin, which might also help stimulate GLP-1 through the biome, and I think there is something here.

I’ve been taking 2 tsp of allulose and 1 tsp of inulin and adding it to my raw milk (about 6 ounces) for my “lunch” (first meal of the day). I then have a chocolate “pudding” from Maria Emmerich, which is made from egg whites mainly, but I has allulose added to that. I have about 10 ounces of meat also.

Often – though not always – I have an intense lack of hunger hours after eating this. Last night for dinner, for instance, I ate one hamburger with cheese, some mushrooms, a home-made fermented pickle, and a small other type of “pudding” (also made with allulose). My “normal” meal would have been two if not three hamburgers, but I was truly not hungry.

I’ve often thought that I had something messed up with my hormones, and this seems to be correcting some of that.

Of course, it’s a hard analysis, as even when I am not hungry for dinner, I can sometimes eat a larger meal. Also, while I am not a big “calories” believer, maybe my lunches are getting larger, eg, to pack in the “pudding”, and that has an effect too?

The Gabor Erdosi talk about noodles with protein was interesting. (I saw it a while ago.)

Edit: I should say that my lunch with allulose and inulin always causes a lack of hunger, though that lack of hunger takes hours to affect me. What changes, however, is sometimes that lack of hunger lasts through dinner (I eat less) and sometimes it does not (I eat a normal-sized meal).

#4

I love the bio-hacking report @ctviggen Bob and the quest for understanding of your biological self.

#5

That is very interesting as I respect your contributions in the forum. Are you on semaglutide weekly until you are not? What do you think about micro-dosing, taking that 0.25mg droplet and dividing it smaller?

#6

From playing with the dosages a lot over the last year or two, seems the 0.25mg is pretty much the lowest dose where you can actually notice it working, you can adapt pretty quickly, especially if you follow the dosage guidelines, but for appetite suppression, you definitely don’t need to ramp the dose up like you’re supposed to, for a while when I up’d to 0.25mg/2xwk which kept the suppression down better after I originally adapted.

Couple weeks ago when I was going on vaca for a week and knew I’d screw up I went to 0.75mg, and YO! I could have went all day without eating, wound up backing back down to 0.50mg because I was forcing everything at that point and not making my protein goals and no riding this out once a week until this stops working.

I’ve stopped it a couple times here and there, but after week 2-3 I’m reminded why I’m taking it when my real appetite starts coming back. Other plus is it’s the only time when my fasting glucose has really good numbers. Without it I’m lucky to be below the low 90’s, but typically 105-110 range. With it I’m in the low 80’s, high 70’s.