Only eating fat

(c90666d9756f957dec40) #1

OK, carbohydrates raise insulin a lot.
Protein raises insulin some
Fat raises insulin very little.

What happens if I only eat fat?
What if I drink fatty coffee all day?
Thoughts?

(Jane) #2

For how long?

(c90666d9756f957dec40) #3

Let’s say for a week

(mole person) #4

It does still raise insulin albeit less than protein or carbs so you’d probably still want to restrict how frequently you took some.

I think I read recently that with respect to insulin 20 grams of carbohydrates is on average equivalent to 35 grams of protein and 50 grams of fat.

That is a huge win for fat in terms of insulin to energy since it’s 140 calories from protein having the same insulin effect as 450 calories from fat. But there is still some insulin every time it’s consumed. Also, every bit of fat you eat is fuel your body goes through before tapping it’s own reserves. So you have to expect fat fasting to be slower than water fasting.

(Jane) #5

I don’t see any issue with that - go for it and report back!

(You've tried everything else; why not try bacon?) #6

This is a fascinating question.

I suspect that you wouldn’t be able to sustain a fat-only diet for very long. There is a certain irreducible minimum of nitrogen lost to the body every day (it averages out to the equivalent of 0.6 grams of protein per kilo of lean mass a day). Protein contains nitrogen, whereas carbohydrate and fat do not. This is why people on a protein-deficient diet become malnourished fairly quickly.

While we fear chronically elevated levels of insulin in the blood, because of the deleterious effects, we have to remember that a minimum amount of insulin is necessary to our very survival. The horror of Type I diabetes is that, before the discovery of insulin in 1920 and the first successful treatment of a Type I diabetic with it in 1923, diabetics invariably died of starvation, because they could not make use of their food energy, no matter how much they ate.

We also need to bear in mind that the effect of protein on insulin varies with the quantity of carbohydrate in our diet. If we eat more than our carb tolerance, the protein combines with it to have a siginificant effect—about half the effect per gram of the carbohydrate. In a low-carbohydrate situation, however, the effect of protein on insulin is matched by a similar effect on glucagon, with the result that the insulin/glucagon ratio remains unchanged, because the additional glucagon offsets the additional insulin.

Given that we need protein to build and maintain our muscles and bones, and given that we do need our pancreas to be secreting some insulin, I conclude that there is really no point in worrying about the effect of eating protein on insulin secretion. As long as we keep our carbohydrate intake low enough, our insulin level will also stay low enough for us to remain metabolically healthy. It certainly works that way for me.

(Michael - When reality fails to meet expectations, the problem is not reality.) #7

@PaulL Bang on! @c90666d9756f957dec40 If you could sustain it long enough I think you experience protein deficiency first in the form muscle wasting. There are essential amino acids whose absence leads to bad news in fairly short order. Kwashiakor comes to mind. Sorry I’m on my iPod at work and can’t confirm the spelling. But too little or no protein is not a good place to be.

(mole person) #8

A week should be fine. People do week long water fasts all the time. Your losses will be considerably slower though.

(Jane) #9

Exactly. That was why I asked how long they were considering it.

But thanks @PaulL for the explanation of why they shouldn’t do it longer than a week at a time and they should refeed with lots of protein in between.

(Karen) #10

I think you could probably do this for about a week, or maybe like a fat fast you could do it for three days