Hi i have a question i have been wondering about. I am on the atkins and the main goal of it is to normalize insulin and all to get weight loss. Well since overwieght people usually have insulin ressistance so thier insulin is weaker thus in the process secreting more to handle the sugar it leads to my question. After a while on this diet with normalized blood sugar and all that stuff would your insulin become less resistant to sugar or in other words get your insulin stronger so that less will be needed to handle the sugars. Or will your insulin resistance stay the same the rest of your life? Please any help needed!

Hi there!

I think that it's quite possible that your insulin resistance would get better after a while. It's not that your insulin isn't strong enough; it's that your cells have become immune (or resistant) to it and therefore need more and more to get the same message as before that blood glucose needs removing from the bloodstream.
Having said that, don't kid yourself into thinking that after being on Atkins for a few months and/or reaching your goal weight you can go back to eating like you did before. If you did, your insulin resistance would be back before you knew it and with a vengeance. It's likely that those with insulin resistance will always have to be on some level of carb restriction.
The level of carbs you can eat once you reach your goal is going to depend on a lot of things. One important one being how much function your pancreas still has left and how much insulin resistance you still have.

Hi There,
As the Dr told me being on Atkin's or any predominately high protien diet my insulin levels will return to semi-normal levels.
If you lose the weight, and then start adding sugar back to your diet (even in small quantities) your glucose levels will go back up to diabetic ranges again.<BR>
I have found that I must adopt this as my new way of living, because the alternative is not an option for me.. Yes, I am addicted to carbs and sweets, but being dependent on oral medication or insulin is not worth it. <BR>
Good luck to you!

You can read my two year update above and get some info on my case. Incidentally, by BG was 599 when I figured it out.

So, ok. I have thought about that question you posed as well. I don't think we could ever "cure" ourselves, but here is an experiment I did during Christmas Dinner last year. Keep in mind that I wasn't on any meds.

Before Eating Glucose
93

2 slice pecan pie wiith cool whip
Turkey
Cornbread dressing
cranberry saucee
green bean cassarole

Ok, so I figure since the pecan pie is almost all karo syrup, I am thinking about 120 sugars, and the flour out of the cornbread, and I figured about 200 carbs total one meal.

1 hr BG: 205
2 hr BG: 170
3 hr BG: 130

The 2 hr BG is a bit off the 160 for the ADA recommendation. The 3 hour is pretty good.

So the answer, I don't know. Obviously, I am not as insulin resistance as I used to be. I seriously doubt I could eat like that very often. Gained 6 pounds that day :-)

Don't know what to make of those results, but here they are.

Tosh

Hi Eatdirt40, love your handle, lol. I wanted to tell you that I read an excellent article regarding Insulin Resistance. You can read that article on http://www.mercola.com/index.html just type in the word Insulin and it will come up. It is a bit lengthy but a great article. In fact it is what encouraged me to try a low carb diet. I really got serious about it yesterday, so today is my second day on lower carbs after the Atkins Diet. My goal is to loose about 50 pounds, lower my blood sugar to normal or near normal, and to get off insulin. I have been a diabetic for about 6 years, have run the gammit of medications, and am now finally, by the grace of God ready to take my diabetes seriously and use diet and excercise to help heal me. Would you mind if I include you in my prayers regarding your goals? Take care and God bless, Elaine25

According to the doctor who diagnosed my diabetes, I had just gotten too big for my body to produce enough insulin (to deal with the low-fat diet I had at the time). If I lose enough weight and don't destroy my insulin producers any more than I already have (with glipizide), eventually my own body should be able to handle its insulin needs on a low-carb diet. If, by then, I can manage a bit of carb now and then, great, but I don't plan to test often. I am really very happy on this WOL and don't see any reason to worsen my health again. I think I would have been helped by being on Glucophage sooner, and definitely by knowing about Low-Carbing sooner.