general question about insulin

[bigstve12]

insulin is anabolic. Creatine comes with lots of sugar to get that insulin spike, to push the creatine into the cells, i understand the physiology behind this. Insulin also causes fat storage. Can someone explain then, why do we as athletes view insulin as a good thing? Personally i dont want to be storing any extra fat.

 

[spatts]

I may be worng here, but I don't think insulin causes fat storage. I think that insulin creates an environment wherein the wrong carbs in the wrong quatities are more easily stored as fat if not used...but this is tertiary, secondary at best.

Like I said, correct me if I'm wrong.

 

[jeremys]

insulin is anabolic. Creatine comes with lots of sugar to get that insulin spike, to push the creatine into the cells, i understand the physiology behind this. Insulin also causes fat storage. Can someone explain then, why do we as athletes view insulin as a good thing? Personally i dont want to be storing any extra fat.

might get better results posting this on the anabolic board

if you're talking about injecting insulin, you would want to use a fast-acting slin that peaks quickly, allowing you to get the right nutrition and is also more predictable, preventing hypoglycemia. you would want carbs and protein but no fat in that alotted time period in which it peaks.

 

[jeremys]

yes, that's why eating dietary fat on slin is a no-no

 

[spatts]

Also, you do not need slin post workout because the body is more receptive to insulin-independant glucose uptake. This is the main reason that intense exercise is even MORE important for the insulin resistant. There are ways to get glucose into muscles besides loading with insulin when non-receptive, though the best anabolic situation wll be created by high insulin, good insulin sensitivity, high blood glucose AND good insulin independant glucose uptake.

 

[pillsbury]

slin is a double edged sword; it transports nutrients to cells (both muscle and fat) making it the most anabolic substance.... you are essentially "perging" your cells with the goodies to grow; the problem is that fat cells want food too, so they grow as well...the less fat you have to begin with, the less those cells will eat!

 

[Bulldog_10]

Insulin is a trigger for the body to use carbs (the carbs that have just been ingested) as a fuel, instead of fat. So if you eat carbs and fat, the carbs will be burnt and the fat will be stored. It's not THAT simple, but that's the basic idea.

 

[Mike_Rojas]

It's actually a bit more complicated than that. Any carbohydrates not immediately used by the body will be stored in the form of glycogen (a long string of glucose molecules linked together).

The body has two storage sites for glycogen: the liver and the muscles. The glycogen stored in the muscles is inaccessible to the brain. Only the glycogen stored in the liver can be broken down and sent back to the bloodstream so as to maintain adequate blood sugar levels for proper brain function.

The liver's capacity to store carbohydrates in the form of glycogen is very limited and can be easily depleted within ten to twelve hours. So the liver's glycogen reserves must be maintained on a continual basis. That's why we eat carbohydrates.

The question no one has bothered to ask until now is this: what happens when you eat too much carbohydrate? Here's the answer: whether it's being stored in the liver or the muscles, the total storage capacity of the body for carbohydrate is really quite limited.

If you're an average person, you can store about three hundred to four hundred grams of carbohydrate in your muscles. In the liver, where carbohydrates are accessible for glucose conversion, you can store only about sixty to ninety grams.

This is equivalent to about two cups of cooked pasta or three typical candy bars, and it represents your total reserve capacity to keep the brain working properly.

Once the glycogen levels are filled in both the liver and the muscles, excess carbohydrates have just one fate: to be converted into fat and stored in the adipose, that is, fatty, tissue.

In a nutshell, even though carbohydrates themselves are fat-free, excess carbohydrates ends up as excess fat. That's not the worst of it. Any meal or snack high in carbohydrates will generate a rapid rise in blood glucose. To adjust for this rapid rise, the pancreas secretes the hormone insulin into the bloodstream. Insulin then lowers the levels of blood glucose.

The problem is that insulin is essentially a storage hormone, evolved to put aside excess carbohydrate calories in the form of fat in case of future famine. So the insulin that's stimulated by excess carbohydrates aggressively promotes the accumulation of body fat.

In other words, when we eat too much carbohydrate, we're essentially sending a hormonal message, via insulin, to the body. The message: "Store fat."

Hold on; it gets even worse. Not only do increased insulin levels tell the body to store carbohydrates as fat, they also tell it not to release any stored fat. This makes it impossible for you to use your own stored body fat for energy.

So the excess carbohydrates in your diet not only make you fat, they make sure you stay fat. It's a double whammy, and it can be lethal.

 

[spatts]

That article, originally published here, pertains mostly to dietary insulin to promote low carb dieting. There can be a change of circumstances when used by a bodybuilder as a supplement.

 

[pillsbury]

you got busted homie!

 

[Mike_Rojas]

I didn't mean to imply I wrote that myself.. I just thought it answered bigsteve's question.

 

[spatts]

Oh hell no, people. I'm not calling anyone out. I was just stating that this version is going to be biased toward the author's intent, which was to prevent chronic illness by promoting a low carb diet.

Insulin use, timing, supplementation, etc...for a bodybuilder is a different, and far more complex, game.

Rojas...not calling you out at all. It's a very informative article, thanks for posting it.

 

[Mike_Rojas]

Oh good, I thought I was in trouble . I had a bad problem with hypoglycemia which I corrected by lowering my percentage of carbs in my diet. Actually I got the article here

 

[pillsbury]

sorry mike; im a smart ass...

 

[IronLion]

and a dumbass....I still let you hang though...lol

hey about your post on the cell purging...it doesn't make sense to me b/c I always thought that the number of fat cells a person had was predetermined and did not change, unless certain drugs or surgeries were invoked....so is this wrong...fat cells stay constant but the fullness of said cells changes?

 

[pillsbury]

and a dumbass....I still let you hang though...lol

hey about your post on the cell purging...it doesn't make sense to me b/c I always thought that the number of fat cells a person had was predetermined and did not change, unless certain drugs or surgeries were invoked....so is this wrong...fat cells stay constant but the fullness of said cells changes?

i think the fat cell thing is debateable...even so, you can still feed it; it will grow

 

[spatts]

I thought it increased and decreased fat receptors, which affects the existing distribution of fat cells and their size.

 

[pillsbury]

see, i agree with spatts, however, if you take 10 different nurtition books, half will say you are born with a certain amount, the other half say they can multiply..

 

[spatts]

I think they can multiply up until adolescence, but then after that, they tend to increase in mass, not quantity.

 

[pillsbury]

agree

 

[Bulldog_10]

see, i agree with spatts, however, if you take 10 different nurtition books, half will say you are born with a certain amount, the other half say they can multiply..

Exactly...I've seen both. In one of my anatomy classes, my professor said you're born with a certain amount, never changes. Then last year my clinical exercise physiology professor showed us a graph that says that the number of cells and the size of the cells can increase. I forget the terms for each one, but I'll try to find them.

 

[bigstve12]

I made this post b/c i am confused on why insulin would be a good thing for a weight lifter. Im still confused. I didnt post on anabolics board b/c my intentions arent to start taking insulin.

I was always under the impression that insulin causes fat storage, along with other things. I guess a more specific question would be, do the anabolic effects of insulin outweigh the possibility of fat storage?

 

[Thaibox]

I made this post b/c i am confused on why insulin would be a good thing for a weight lifter. Im still confused. I didnt post on anabolics board b/c my intentions arent to start taking insulin.

I was always under the impression that insulin causes fat storage, along with other things. I guess a more specific question would be, do the anabolic effects of insulin outweigh the possibility of fat storage?

To simplify this thread...yes.(in my opinion and experience anyway) Due to the sensitive nature of slin, if you are extremely conscious of your nutrient intake during usage, fat storage is not a problem.

 

[pillsbury]

I made this post b/c i am confused on why insulin would be a good thing for a weight lifter. Im still confused. I didnt post on anabolics board b/c my intentions arent to start taking insulin.

I was always under the impression that insulin causes fat storage, along with other things. I guess a more specific question would be, do the anabolic effects of insulin outweigh the possibility of fat storage?

depends on the individual...it is super anabolic, and yes it can make you fat at the same time. you have to decide if it is worth it or not; taking gh with it will dramatically cut fat accumulation

 

[IronLion]

without it you wouldn't grow much (look at people on keto diets) they aren't packing on the mass, it doesn't have to mean fat storage if you are aware of the macro profile of your diet and the effects it has on insulin levels