I think this is the right thread for this.
I recently had my fasting insulin measured and it was 9.59 mIU/L. My HbA1c is 36.
To me, that means 3 things
- As a T2, I am still producing insulin, so my pancreas is OK
- As someone on a keto diet, I am producing too much insulin
- With too much insulin in my system, any spare fat will end up being stored as body fat
I think that explains my current situation, where everything is tightly locked down, but any diversion and I put on weight.
The following charts show what happens with my weight, fbs and ketones.
View attachment 24113
You can line up all the peaks and troughs and see that when my weight goes up, my fbs goes up and the ketones go down, Cause and effect are not clear, but it could be that all three stem from a deviation of diet, ie too much fat, carbs or protein. Perhaps I need to be keto and low calorie?
On a separate note, how do I reduce fasting insulin? Is it a matter of staying keto for a longer time?
Thanks for this its a great job of showing what is happening and when.
I have long held the belief that ketones hold the key to weight loss. from the very first research, and whilst my data isn't as well organised as your is, I have noticed the same phenomenon.
During the early days of my diet my insulin levels were well beyond 20, so whatever I did actually getting into ketosis of more than 0.5 was just about impossible and even a slight increase in food intake put me right into a stall where it stayed for months.
it is only now that my weight has decisively moved to a new range after 10 days of one meal a day. My ketones have also moved upto circa 3 on this regime.
My take would be as follows ;
I do think fasting insulin will come down over time -purely with an LCHF/ keto diet, it is a long slow process though. ( 2-5 years) I think the primary reason its a long slow process is that each time you eat anything your body reacts to produce insulin which then prevents as much fasting insulin leaving your body as simply not eating would.
I am also concluding ( based on my tiny carrot slip up) and my friend's 5 g of candied ginger spike, that where we go wrong on diets is that we think that changes in proportions will make a big difference - i.e 3 small portions must do lot more good in terms of glucose control than three large one's even using a ketogenic diet .
We think of both insulin and glucose as quantity dependent. I no longer think that is so. Instead its ingestion dependent - hence why in a normal person a tiny snack can produce a similar result as an OGTT , for me a third of a carrot can produce a 2mml increase that lasts for hours and for those on the Newcastle Diet they experience an increase in glucose levels out of all proportion to the actual quantity of food eaten.
This would also explain why I ( and others who have posted here) have been incredibly pleased that the special occasion big meal they succumbed too, did not have quite a disastrous effect as we were expecting indeed sometimes quite the reverse.
This then leads to a dietary recommendations of " fasting" to get rid of the stall. fasting is hugely hard. I understand entirely from supporters of fasting that once properly ketotic hunger is no longer an issue and I can well believe that. The problem with it is that its counter to a natural way of life and socialising.
Having now being doing the One Meal a Day Insulin lowering diet for 10 days , I think that is a very good middle ground. The 23 hours fasting allows insulin to come down, The one meal feast seems to cause ketones to shoot up and that also means your metabolic rate goes up and the ketones start burning fat like mad. Most of all it also allows a totally " normal " life whilst feasting in company ( of LCHF foods) and no-one else will even notice you are dieting, just eating extraordinary amounts. ( and hopefully getting even thinner ... )
That is the only way I can rationalise what happened to me this week. I can't promise the weight loss will last for long, but for me this diet has been a total game changer in terms of how I think about food, how luxurious it is and how long I might be able to keep it up. My problem today has been eating enough food not too little. I will post separately on that.
Given all of the above I think my answer to your question would be, stick with the volume of keto food you are currently eating but make that once per day instead and see what that does to your ketones and thus weight. (make sure you eat enough omega 3 's - so cod liver oil if necessary )
I will be fascinated to see the result !