Discussion Are fats the direct cause of insulin resistance?

Worked very well for me. I was fat, I lost 4 1/2 stone, and my insulin resistance is greatly improved.
I think the amount of muscle increase helped, as it was an overall improvement, rather than targeted to one area.
In my case treadmill, rowing, resistance, weights, and swimming.

I can tolerate a lot more carbs, and I've reduced my meds as well.

I don't really understand why.. But I have been lean and muscly pretty much all my 51 years.

Pretty much all that time I have had limited fat... Limited carbs.. Not intentionally.

Since significany eating more fat my leg and thigh pain has gone. (I believe from statin damage). My muscle tone in my leg is improved as well, although it has always been good-now it's even better!!

As for my insulin requirements. I did need more initially when increasing the fats. However, i have just majorly lowered all my basal rates (on pump). Whether this is due to a new box of sets, and the others that I sent back as faulty-were actually faulty.. I do not know. However to lower all rates by 15% in one go for a whole 24 hours is a lot!!

I have now added more fat in to my diet for 6 months and feel best I done for 50+ years. I have not done anything to my carbs. Someone told me to eat breakfast tears ago....Bread or porridge... Worst mistake. Best thing that eating 1/2 a ramekin of mixed blue/raspberries n cherrie with full fat cream or greek yogurt without a bolus in the morning keeps me superbly fantastic for my job of gardening....

Fat.. Been really good for wellbeing.. Insulin resistance... Very hard to measure really, as all sorts of things can affect our resistance...

Thanks for the link EPhamtom, particularly the 2nd one.
I was always a skinny kid. Low birth weight which apparently correlates to poor ability to add muscle as an adult. Put a bit of weight on as a student but never more than BMI<=25. Lost the weight and got super fit for 20yrs as an endurance cyclist. BMI=22 Stopped cycling regulary, got a bit of weight gain, again BRI<25. and by my mid 40's I was pronounced diabetic. Weight loss (-10kg) , diet control (low carb) and a return to lots of exercise (running) is now keeping the meds away.

Kind of funny since my endocrinologist thought I was IR until we cut out gluten and my insulin need dropped like a stone (cut in half lantus wise and going down still and meal time well I can now get away with little to 0 insulin with a meal, just having the lantus on board is enough - been T1 for 11 years).

I think this is what is considered an important early paper in the formation of what is sometimes called lipid burden hypothesis
Lovely title
What If Minkowski Had Been Ageusic? An Alternative Angle on Diabetes 1992, J Denis Mc Garry.

His Banting lecture on the same subject is here http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/424459_2

SInce then the thesis seems to have developed to suggest that if you are thin but also insulin resistant, this is because you have less elastic or smaller or fewer fat cells . Once full they overspill and fat has to go elsewhere. In contrast, those who become very obese but don't become insulin resistant are those that have more elastic , bigger or more fat cells so the fat stays where it should be.

You might be interested in this study which looked at this hypothesis from a genetic point of view and concluded

Genetic predisposition for Type 2 diabetes, but not obesity, is associated with an impaired ability to recruit new adipose cells to store excess lipids in the subcutaneous adipose tissue, thereby promoting ectopic lipid deposition

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http://www.plosone.org/article/fetc....1371/journal.pone.0018284&representation=PDF

EPhantom said:

I meant body fat but this is still very relative to the subject. Donnelly, it appears you may have redistributed the fat content in your body! The article I linked talks about lean people like you and me having more inter-muscle fat. Sounds like you got rid of that and made a fat deposit just under the skin.

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I think the muscle in my legs has just had some fat make it improve. Think my arm muscles were used a lot and took the little fat from semi skimmed milk before, because of the usage my arms get. Now, I think my body has just been able to put some fat to my legs and enabled the muscles to use it! Tone probably looks better because the muscles are better and not feeling as if they were shrinking all the time... Now without the shrinking feeling my thighs,hips and upper legs they can concentrate on building better muscles. I'm positive it's due to fat.

@EPhantom, are you aware of the Newcastle diet hypothesis that T2D is caused by excess liver fat (hepatic fat), and that this is a reversible process?

Yes. "Controlled by diet and exercise" used to be a non controversial statement about T2D. :-/

I lost 52 lbs and didn't make a bit of difference in my insulin resistance. What made it way worse is diabetes drugs that just raised my insulin levels, making my insulin resistance way worse. Ever wonder why doctors don't check insulin levels? Because they are only making them worse.

robertconroy said:

I lost 52 lbs and didn't make a bit of difference in my insulin resistance. What made it way worse is diabetes drugs that just raised my insulin levels, making my insulin resistance way worse. Ever wonder why doctors don't check insulin levels? Because they are only making them worse.

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Well maybe you didn't reduce your liver fat (hepatic fat).

How did you measure your insulin resistance?

What diabetes drugs raised your insulin levels and made your insulin resistance worse?