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Increased insulin reduced risk of weight gain??

Please tell me there is something deeply flawed about this study.

http://jcem.endojournals.org/cgi/co...tract/80/5/1571

Either that or I've entered into an alternate universe?? :help:

I can't put my finger on what it is, but something isn't right with it.

They're studying a population that already has an incredibly high rate of obesity and T2D, for one. I know most research focuses on the extremes, but it doesn't seem reasonable to study the effects of insulin levels on a population that is already, by and large, insulin-resistant. If you're fully-insulin resistant, of course you won't gain weight. Your cells won't respond to the call to pack away the pounds.

This study [PDF] notes that hyperinsulemia causes weight gain in the young, but weight stall/loss in the aged. This sounds logical and it would be interesting to see some form of analysis on the relationship between insulin secretion, weight and insulin resistance.

Quote:

Indeed, there is prospective evidence from studies on adult Pima Indians [2,3] and Hispanic and Caucasian subjects [4–8] that insulin resistance and hyperinsulinemia are associated with lower rates of weight gain in non-diabetic individuals. On the contrary, higher levels of insulin predicted a gain in body weight and obesity in Pima Indian children [9] and in U.S. black and white young adults [12]. It has been suggested that hyperinsulinemia promotes weight gain in children and young adults, and that subsequent increase in insulin resistance and compensatory hyperinsulinemia then limits further weight gain in adults [9, 27].

The concluding paragraph of the study was what I found to be most interesting.

Quote:

In conclusion, even moderate overall and abdominal obesity and weight gain during adulthood were independently associated with increased risk of developing hyperinsulinemia in non-diabetic middle-aged men. These prospective population-based data emphasize the importance of avoiding obesity and weight gain during adulthood to prevent hyperinsulinemia and, eventually, type 2 diabetes.

So, independent of weight, excessive insulin levels are precursors to T2D. Anyone who knows someone diagnosed with T2D knows the diabetic lost significant amounts of weight (my father, for example, lost nearly 60 pounds over 2 to 3 months). Is that weight-loss a good trade off for the resulting diabetes?

Here is a link to download the full article:
http://jcem.endojournals.org/cgi/co...pe2=tf_ipsecsha

Strange results. I could have accepted no correlation between insulin levels and obesity, but an inverse correlation? Wow. :help:

Link doesn't work, Mirrorball. Scribd, mebbe?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Altari

Link doesn't work, Mirrorball. Scribd, mebbe?

http://www.scribd.com/doc/26436846/...ody-weight-gain

There is a section in GCBC where he explains some early research on insulin and blood sugar that helped convince all the diabetologists that everyone should be high carb.

The study went something like: if you constantly snack on carby food, insulin can be relatively lower and blood sugar can be stable without BS highs or crashes - but at the expense of storing fat the whole time. (Note the use of "relative" in the study.)

These researchers are coming from the point of view that fat comes first and then diabetes and insulin resistance follows, and are interpreting the data from that light.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mirrorball

http://www.scribd.com/doc/26436846/...ody-weight-gain

Thanks! :)

Quote:

Originally Posted by Seejay

These researchers are coming from the point of view that fat comes first and then diabetes and insulin resistance follows, and are interpreting the data from that light.

It's not their interpretation that surprised us, it's their results. They found that MORE insulin secreted after a meal or glucose intake meant LESS weight gain in this group of Pima Indians. But from what I could gather, high fasting insulin levels were positively associated with body fat ('Fasting plasma IRI levels were highly correlated to initial fat mass (r = 0.70; P < 0.001)', IRI = immunoreactive insulin). So maybe high insulin is bad only when it's high all the time.

Hmm, you could be on to something there mirrorball, sort of like the difference between physiological insulin resistance and clinical insulin resistance.

I just saw this referenced in another paper and had to follow the trail to see if it backed up the point. In light of your analysis it really doesn't :)

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mirrorball

...So maybe high insulin is bad only when it's high all the time.

It is indeed the case. Higher insulin after a meal is normal. It's the fasting insulin that is a marker.

Patrick

I thought that excessive post-meal blood glucose levels were also a marker for T2D. If higher insulin in expectable after a meal, then who decides "how high" is normal? There are traditional and home-made glucose tolerance tests, and *somebody* determines a normal range for post-prandial blood glucose levels. My concern is that these ranges are based on a population absolutely besotted with carbs as a dietary mainstay, and are too high.

It gets better. These authors have published another study on Pima Indians. The conclusion this time? Insulin resistance protects against weight gain. Yep.

Quote:

Insulin resistance is commonly associated with obesity and noninsulin-dependent diabetes. Whereas it predicts the development of diabetes, its effect on body weight change is unknown. We measured glucose disposal rates at submaximally- and maximally-stimulating insulin concentrations in 192 nondiabetic Pima Indians and followed their weight change over 3.5 +/- 1.8 y (mean +/- SD). Results: (a) Insulin-resistant subjects gained less weight than insulin-sensitive subjects (3.1 vs. 7.6 kg, P less than 0.0001). (b) The percent weight change per year correlated with glucose disposal at submaximally-(r = 0.19, P less than 0.01) and maximally-stimulating (r = 0.34, P less than 0.0001) insulin concentrations independent of sex, age, initial weight, and 24-h energy expenditure; the correlations were stronger for glucose oxidation than for glucose storage. (c) Weight gain was associated with an increase in insulin resistance more than four times that predicted from the cross-sectional data. We conclude that insulin resistance is associated with a reduced risk of weight gain in nondiabetic Pima Indians.

Source: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/art...report=abstract

I have downloaded the full article. If anyone wants to read it and can't download it, just ask and I'll upload it do Scribd.

I think I'm beginning to understand why these results may be valid. Doesn't insulin resistance hinder glucose-burning and favour fat-burning in muscle cells?

That actually makes sense. Maybe becoming insulin resistant will slow down weight gain. In the same way as when someone becomes T2D, they stop gaining so much weight too, or is that incorrect?

Wow.

Yes, insulin resistance does protect against weight-gain. Severe insulin resistance (T2D), is even known to cause dramatic weight loss.

If all we're going for is weight stability or lowering, then insulin resistance is the way to go.

If, however, we'd also like to live for a bit while thing (and keep our toes and kidneys), it might be a good idea to ignore that insulin resistance can induce weight loss. Some things that cause weight loss aren't really good for us, like...oh, say...cancer?