Insulin causes weight gain. (Split from Anorexia/extreme thinnness vs Being fat)

[EasyTarget]

How?does insulin cause you to eat more than your daily caloric intake requires?There are fat people who are fat and eat like pigs who are not diabetic.

Well, here's a link (http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/insulin/AN01300) but it doesn't say much. Insulin pulls glucose from the blood to the cells, and then it can get stuck into fat cells, I guess. It's pretty difficult to get a stable blood sugar.

Here's (http://health.yahoo.com/experts/diabetesmckinney/988/you-can-avoid-insulin-weight-gain) a bit more, and it says:

Insulin itself causes weight gain. Insulin has been shown to have anabolic effects, meaning it can build both fat and muscle mass. Another theory states that insulin may also affect the central nervous system and cause people to eat more. The reasons for this are not entirely understood. People who take less insulin may experience less weight gain, so a healthy diet and planned exercise can help you keep your insulin dose as low as low as possible.

(emphasis added)

BF had to run himself ragged and be under-dosed on his insulin in order to be thin. Like 12 to 16-hour days, rarely sitting still, and average blood sugar was about 300. He's a mechanic, not a desk jockey, and his hobby is remodelling his house. He's strong enough to carry a 6-foot-long couch by himself, or a fridge. So it isn't lack of exercise for him! But he's now 200 pounds instead of 175 (he's maybe 5'8" if he stands tall) since he raised his insulin dose.

[proudliberal]

Insulin itself causes weight gain.

I dont know about that because every human alive on this earth has insulin and there are still thin people.

But he's now 200 pounds instead of 175 (he's maybe 5'8" if he stands tall) since he raised his insulin dose.

He definately must have ate more,than his body burned off.Fat comes from somewhere,your body doesnt create it from nowhere,your body just stores what is doesnt use.Obesity and diabetes is a terrible combination.

[EasyTarget]

I give up. You know everything. Medical doctors know nothing, and write lies on informational sites.

[CelticChic]

How?does insulin cause you to eat more than your daily caloric intake requires?There are fat people who are fat and eat like pigs who are not diabetic.

Basically when your insulin levels spike (as they would with insulin-dependent diabetes after taking insulin) your body actually converts more of the glycose (what most everything you eat will have been converted into eventually) into fat. A person whose body makes insulin (and isn't insulin-resistant) can keep from spiking their blood sugar by eating small amounts of good food (ie not candy bars) throughout the day, but insulin-dependent diabetics do not have that option. However, this is one reason that people wishing to lose weight are encouraged to eat multiple small meals throughout the day. It helps keep your insulin levels stable rather than dropping way down and spiking when you eat. It won't matter if you eat only 1000 calories per day if you eat it all at once.

Also note that there is a disease, I believe it's congentical (I don't recall what it's called right now) that causes your body to gain weight even on a super-restricted (900 calories) diet. Weight is not always a simple thing.

[CelticChic]

I dont know about that because every human alive on this earth has insulin and there are still thin people.

He definately must have ate more,than his body burned off.Fat comes from somewhere,your body doesnt create it from nowhere,your body just stores what is doesnt use.Obesity and diabetes is a terrible combination.

Maybe you should do a bit of reading on this before asserting that you know it all? Diabetes is a complicated disease and as with all diseases and all medications there are side-effects.

[BriAnna]

Maybe you should do a bit of reading on this before asserting that you know it all? Diabetes is a complicated disease and as with all diseases and all medications there are side-effects.

i've studied it a bit in my nursing patho classes.

it is A LOT complicated.

though back on topic, it really depends on what the severity is and why the person is over eating.

anorexia is a mental disorder where people SEE themselves as fat.

obesity really presents this way but we eat for emotional reasons.

[Yggdrasill]

This topic was split off from Anorexia/extreme thinness vs Being Fat (http://www.iidb.org/vbb/showthread.php?t=206888). Also moving to S&S.

Yggdrasill - MD Moderator

[dismal]

The laws of physics apply to the human body:

Calories digested - calories burned = excess weight.

Diabetics cheat this equation somewhat because all calories eaten are not necessarily absorbed. If you are running high blood sugars, it means a portion of the calories eaten are staying in the bloodstream due to insufficient insulin. Your body eventually processes the sugar out of the blood and it exits in the urine.

If you are eating the same, and up your dose of insulin, more of the energy you are eating is going to be absorbed by the body.

[dancer_rnb]

What I find is it is easy to gain weight, but hard to take it off.
You just have to eat a little too much to gain, but you have to juggle exercise, food intake,
and medication levels to lose weight. I've swam or danced the last four days, so I cut back from 58 to 50 units of Lantus, and have still been waking up at night because of low blood sugars. Not pleasant at all.

Add Fine tuned insulin/sugar control is no longer working.