@Daibell, thanks for the reminder about how too much insulin in combination with carbohydrates, not fat, results in the building up of fat stores in individuals with insulin resistance, pre-diabetes, and type 2 diabetes.
@tiguano I don't have the book here that reviews the study that explain this, but here goes... Diabetes is on a continuum: type 2 diabetes is preceded by pre-diabetes which is preceded by insulin resistance
by one or more decades.
Researchers looked at non-diabetic and pre-diabetic family members of individuals with type 2 diabetes and learned that
insulin resistance preceded the weight gain. In other words, insulin resistance leads to weight gain, not the other way around. (The book is either Blood Sugar 101 or Diet 101 by Jenny Ruhl. In both books the author reviews research studies and reports the results).
There is no one diet that works for everyone, but type 2 diabetes is increasingly referred to as a "carbohydrate intolerance". For many with type 2 diabetes, reducing carbohydrate intake and increasing healthy fat intake brings both insulin and glucose levels down to manageable levels, which leads to improved health.
Why increase fat intake? For the purpose of this discussion, to replace the calories lost when carbohydrate intake is greatly reduced.
There are three macro nutrients: carbohydrate, protein, and fat. We need enough protein throughout the day to build and repair tissues. But there's a window. We need enough protein but not too much because when we eat more protein than we need during a meal or snack, the excess is converted to glucose, which is then converted to fat. Not what we want.
So to get adequate calories, we have to replace the carbohydrates with something. If not protein, that leaves...fat.
But it's not enough to just eat fat, it's important to eat fats that are healthy. Examples of healthy fats are butter from grass fed cows - (clarified butter or ghee if sensitive to dairy) - extra virgin olive oil, unrefined, virgin coconut oil, avocado oil, and nut oils like macadamia nut oil.
Raw nuts and avocados are good sources of protein and fat too.
Butter, avocado oil and macadamia nut oil are best for low heat cooking. Extra virgin olive oil and coconut oil should only be used at the end of cooking processes (to avoid damaging these more fragile oils). Increasingly, I'm coming to the opinion that eating foods fried in with oil at high temperatures is unhealthy, so I sauté and/or steam meat and vegetables now. I use 2 parts extra virgin olive oil and 1 part vinegar or freshly squeezed lemon juice to put on my salads. Sometimes I add herbs and spices to it. Coconut oil can be used on vegetables at the end of the cooking process, also for baking (which uses different ingredients when eating low carb).
Other good sources of fat are free-range, grass fed beef, free range, organic poultry and eggs, and wild seafood.
Interestingly, by significantly reducing carbohydrates and adding more healthy fats to the diet, we begin shedding excess weight and our health markers begin improving as confirmed with lab testing.
Another important benefit of eating healthy fats is that it satisfies the appetite, and gets us off the blood sugar roller coaster. Before I started the LCHF diet, when I wasn't eating carbs, I was thinking about what carbs I was going to eat next. It was hard to not eat carbs every two hours in the form of a meal or snack. I felt like I was thinking about food all the time.
When we're not well, we need ongoing support and encouragement. To read 100+ stories of how people use the low carb high fat diet to lose weight, go here...
http://www.dietdoctor.com/how-to-lose-weight
