R U Insulin Resistant? Please help me! page

[LittleNappingLion]

I need some good solid scientific advice...here's the situation. Bear with me, but all these details are important.

I have a friend that started primal/paleo after some of his friends & I paved the way & proved that he wouldn't die from lack of whole wheat pasta post-workout. In fact, we felt awesome So about 3 months ago he started paleo with occasional cheat days where he'd eat crackers, wine etc. I also checked in, his daily carb load was about 150g, which he was loathe to drop b/c he said he couldn't perform well lower than that. Turns out he hasn't lost enough weight...he just mentioned that he's Insulin Resistant & he's trying to remove the body fat around his middle. He's putting pressure on himself to get down due to a competition (trust me, I've tried tellin him to RELAX & heal his body for god's sake). But there are some folks at his gym he's spoken to that are on the zone & they apparently look like "anatomy charts".
So NOW he's thinkin of quitting paleo & swapping to zone..which'd be fine except he's thinking he'll go NON-PRIMAL zone.

Wouldn't paleo-zone be the best way to go? Or does insulin resistance have a different learning curve? Sounded to me like his carbs were still too high & that maybe a month of under 100g would be beneficial to levelling out his insulin resistance...can you heal resistance??

Any info so I can help save him from himself would be mucho appreciated!! Thank you!

[Grol]

Insulin resistance may or may not be reversible. It appears to be a case by case basis. Being primal and intermittent fasting has increased my insulin sensitivity. While reversing all indications of metabolic syndrome has been incredibly good news for me, controlling the symptoms is even more important for those with more difficult or stubborn conditions.

Insulin resistance is the key health marker for diabetes. Anyone diagnosed with it should read Dr. Bernstein.

Here's research that should help.
LCD = Low Carb Diet

The weight gain in animals fed LCD may be related to their greater caloric intake, lower levels of glucagon-like peptide-1, and higher protein consumption. The adoption of LCD promotes a unique metabolic state that prevents insulin resistance, even in guinea pigs that gained more weight. The association between weight gain and insulin resistance seems to be dependent on high carbohydrate intake.

Another one:

... a low-carbohydrate diet followed for 2 weeks resulted in spontaneous reduction in energy intake to a level appropriate to their height; weight loss that was completely accounted for by reduced caloric intake; much improved 24-hour blood glucose profiles, insulin sensitivity...

There's even more encouraging results with intermittent fasting. I've combined both and had better results than I could have hoped for.

[cillakat]

Insulin resistance is the key health marker for diabetes. Anyone diagnosed with it should read Dr. Bernstein.

2nd.

Eating low carb will reduce blood sugar dramatically though and for that reason alone it's worth dramatically reducing carb intake (≤50g carb/day).

My dad's is a type II diabetic and has been for 30 years. He's 5'8 or 5'9, probably 220. Occasionally he'll loose some weight but overall he maintains a very high BMI and doesn't make much of an attempt to control his blood sugar.

Here are his stats:

Pre-Primal (before 8 July, 2010.....he's had fairly uncontrolled T2 diabetes for 30something years)
pre-prandial are 280-320
Fasting am 250-350

After 5 days Primal
Pre-prandial ......103 before dinner (down from 280-320)
Fasting am 190......(down from 250-350)

After 11 days Primal
Pre-prandial.........76 before dinner tonight. Totally normal non-diabetic levels
Fasting am..........106 (down from highs of 350 just a couple of weeks ago, to 190 a week ago). It's still in the 'diabetic' range but is getting close.

IOW, fasting blood sugar over the course of 2 weeks did this: 350 (for 30 years)->190->106
Pre-prandial did this: 320->103->76

Pretty powerful stuff. That never happened with his 'good carb'/ADA/zone experiments.

[Grol]

Pretty powerful stuff. That never happened with his 'good carb'/ADA/zone experiments.

Stunning results. Reading those numbers put a huge smile on my face.

[cillakat]

Stunning results. Reading those numbers put a huge smile on my face.

Me too....through the tears. Seriously. I was at the mall shopping for new, smaller clothes and was crying as he told me that I was the catalyst for his changes and that I saved his life.

*is teary all over again*

[LittleNappingLion]

That's absolutely amazing!! And in such a short time too! Congratulations

Im showing my friend all this info, and I hope it does the trick. Fantastic numbers like thaose are NOT to be ignored! THANK YOU!!