Fighting Obesity
First off, my new diet changes seem to be doing well. It's hard eating out and getting small or controlled portions but simple things like skipping the fries or only eating half can help. Buffets are death though and only from a mental point of view. The idea of a buffet is eat all you want and if you are eating half, you feel like you are not getting a bargain.I was doing some curious reading for which HowStuffWorks.com is great for. I was reading up on Diabetis. I'm pretty sure at my young age that I don't have it and there isn't any family history or it save one uncle on my father's side. What I was curious about insulin's affect on the body. In reading I read about a counter compound to insulin called glucagon. When the body is "starving" or has a lack of blood sugar this is released by the body and triggers the cells that hold the energy stores (namely fat cells) to release their glucogen to feed off that. Insulin does the same thing but affects the glucose in the body produced from food. In my understanding this means both acts as door knockers to cell to let them know it's time to eat. In insulin's case it's telling cells that supper is on the table while glucagon is telling cells that they are going to have to eat left overs. In the case of the disease diabetes the cell become resistant to insulin or there isn't enough produced. Basically insulin is ignored or isn't heard loud enough.
Where my interests lie is in the glucagon. If this is the chemical that is responsible for making your body release it's stores, then wouldn't it make sense that this is what should be targeted for weightloss. The body normally maintains about 100mg of blood-glucose per 100ml of blood. I wonder what would be the affect of having an obese person fast but during that fast maintain the blood-glucose levels with glucagon instead of insulin. Would the body not feel hungry if the blood-glucose level is maintained? What studies have been put to the affect of low glucagon levels versus high insulin levels since insulin is the hormone that tells the body to use the available glucose (including fat cells). I think it might be possible with a diet that consists of a multivitamin and a cup of milk (need fat and water for the vitamins to be soluable with) and boosters of glucagon that one could lose weight in a controlled and semi-healthy state.
Hunger, the desire to eat, is always an issue. Two pieces come into play of which the first is the physically feeling of being hungry or full which then plays into the second part of the psycological need to eat. Even if you eliminate the physical pain there is the breaking of the mental addiction. Since the addiction (like most) is reliant on a physical trigger, removing the trigger should help suppress the need but not always. If you have an emotional tie to eating similar to a smoker's or drinker's reliance for relaxation and stress reduction than removing the physical pain won't help without a mental/emotional support system to take its place.
Science is still unsure what exactly causes hunger pain but so far they believe a protein called ghrelin causes you to be hungry while an equal but opposite protein called obestatin gives you the full feeling. Which triggers the release of the proteins is unknown. If I was a betting man I would but 100 dollars on insulin levels. Low insulin levels would be from low blood-glucose levels (assuming the body isn't at good at releasing stored glucagen as it is using glucose from food) and higher glucagon levels. The glucagon could trigger the body to release the gheralin protein making you feel hungry and thus eat. Eat increase glucose which triggers insulin increase and shifting your body to stop using stored glucagen and start using glucose from the food. The increased insulin then triggers the obestatin protein which signals the "full" feeling. This coincides with slow eaters who eat less because they give their body time to produce the increase insulin and trigger the obestatin versus fast eaters who intake a greater amount before the insulin trigger can take place. The lingering "over-stuffed" feeling comes from the larger insulin spike and thus greater trigger effect due to the increased glucose intake.
Some times I wish i had a research lab to test my theories.
posted by Site Smith Scott @ 3:38 PM
2 Comments:
MSn had a good article on weight loss and what you should pay attention too.
http://health.msn.com/dietfitness/articlepage.aspx?cp-documentid=100140484>1=8307
The only one I'm not apply is eating breakfast which after doing some independant study is something I need to change.
After doing some more review and research on the body in its "starvation mode" and glucagon I found a descepancy associated with it. The chemical glucagon does trigger the body to release its store but that doesn't just trigger fat cells, it triggers all kind of cells most importantly muscle cells. You are losing proteins that are needed for those muscle cells to function and survive. So, to modify my idea you'd have to add in some dietary protein to prevent the muscle lose. You can get protein powders to boost that intact and are given to patients that have had those gastro-bypass or similar surgeries. The surgery works only in the regard that it kills hunger pains and it absolutely forces you to reduce your intake of food. But again, since it is calories that matter you still have the potential for a big intake with only a little amount.
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