Well, not entired confused. But let’s go to the beginning.
So, this is what I know.
Insulin is a Hormone.
The Pancreas secretes Insulin.
The Pancreas secretes insulin when it detects a change of Blood Glucose in your blood.
Here is what comes the 1st Question:
How much blood glucose? Fat doesn´t have glucose but it still up the Insulin in your blood.
So, the insulin makes the cell barriers to open up to the glucose, so they can use as energy.
2) I did a test where I took a coffee with stevia, my BG was on 75 control, then it lowered to 70. That means there was an insulin response, but what are the cells getting? there were no calories on that coffee, maybe except the coffee in itself (8 cals per coffee) but it is 0% Carbs, so then again, what glucose?.
3) At what point Im storing glucose as glycogen and then fat?
I know Glycogen deposits goes to 2200 cals with the liver plus the muscles:
4) After that it goes to fat storage?
This is what I saw in a page
But then again… 5) how much is it? because if EVERY meal and thing you eat or drink (except water) changes your insulin levels, then how much you have to eat to make it as fat?.
Im eating less than 25gr of Carbs Total per day, the most BG I have in a day is 83, the lowest is 60 (If I exercise) so Im usually hipoglycemic, so is the body storing fat?, does the body store fat if there is not that much amount of BG in the body? at how much BG does the body stores fat?
amwassil
(Michael - When reality fails to meet expectations, the problem is not reality.)
#2
It’s not that complicated. Don’t make a mountain out of a molehill.
Keep your carbs to sub-20 grams per day, the more consistently the better. In ketosis, protein is going to increase insulin, but not much, and fat not at all.
Unless you are diabetic or prediabetic, don’t worry about numbers. Your body is doing what it needs to do. It’s going to synthesis the amount of glucose and glycogen you need via gluconeogenesis and the level of ketones you need via ketogenesis. You don’t have to do anything special! You especially do not have to chase numbers. Just relax and enjoy the ride.
You ate SAD in your previous life and did some damage. Your body needs to repair the damage. If you maintain ketosis consistently, that repair will happen. It’s interesting to track it, but don’t intervene because you will most likely just get in the way.
PaulL
(You've tried everything else; why not try bacon?)
#3
However much insulin is required to get the excess glucose safely out of the bloodstream. That amount depends on how insulin-resistant the patient is. All food stimulates insulin, by the way, and be glad it does, because without insulin to usher nutrients into our cells we starve. This was demonstrated a century ago by Dr. Frederick Banting, who pioneered insulin treatment for Type I diabetes (in which the pancreas loses the ability to secrete insulin) and saved many lives.
Carbohydrate stimulates the greatest insulin response, protein stimulates a response that depends on how much carbohydrate is also in the diet, and fat never stimulates more than the bare amount of insulin required for survival.
There is plenty more to the story, because the pancreas also secretes a second hormone, called glucagon, which works in tandem with insulin to regulate the level of glucose in the bloodstream, to regulate how much glucose and ketones the liver produces, and much more.
There is always some glucose circulating in our blood, because certain cells need it (for example, the red blood corpuscles). And this question illustrates why you don’t want an unnecessary insulin response. It’s there, but it has nothing to do, so what else is it going to do in the body?
The liver takes the glucose from our diet and turns some of it into glycogen. It converts the rest into fatty acids, which get taken around to the fat tissue in VLDL to be stored. If we don’t eat glucose (that is, carbohydrate), the liver makes a small amount of glucose from protein (and sometimes from fat) and releases it into the bloodstream for those cells that need it. Or possibly the way it works is that the liver releases glucose from its glycogen store and makes new glycogen out of the protein (or fat). Glycogen stored in the muscle can be used only within that muscle. Glycogen stored in the liver can be released for use elsewhere. The body has mechanisms to regulate glucose and glycogen, depending on need.
The normal evolutionary pattern, which developed in a low-carbohydrate context, is for food to be digested, cause a rise in insulin, when then makes our fat cells store energy (as fat) for later use. Between meals, as cells need energy, the insulin level drops, freeing the stored fat for use until the next meal. It’s very much like charging the battery while your car is running, so that you have power to use while the engine is turned off. But glucose remains low, insulin fluctuates gently and fat flows into and out of the adipose tissue (fat cells).
On a high carbohydrate diet, the excess glucose gets stored as fat in the adipose tissue, but the insulin level rises much higher, and this high level of insulin stops us from feeling full, so we continue eating, because we’re hungry—but on the other hand, our fat cells are forced to store more and more fat, because of this high insulin level. This process is useful for putting on weight to get us through the winter, but it’s not useful when we eat a high-carbohydrate diet year-round. It’s like overcharging your car battery to the point where it gets damaged, even explodes.
Under normal, low-carb circumstances, the male body stores somewhere around 10-14% of its weight as fat at all times. The female body stores around 20-23% of its weight as fat, as a reserve against pregnancy and lactation. Under the onslaught of a consistently high-carb diet, the percentage of body weight stored as fat can rise above 30%.
PaulL
(You've tried everything else; why not try bacon?)
#4
This lecture by Dr. Roger Unger explains the whole process. The focus is on the root causes of diabetes, but he discusses the roles of insulin and glucagon in regulating serum glucose, gluconeogenesis, ketogenesis, and lipogenesis.
