You are in luck, another blog entry after my previous two ;)
(Well, in luck if you care. Haha.)
While i wish i had the time to devote to researching this entry with resources, I dont. Instead, i will let reason (and hilarity) do the talking and you can decide (+research) for yourself. Everything I write regarding wt reduction/relative leptin insufficiency, starvation, energy conservation / metabolic depression -> insulin supersensitivity is indeed fact. If you wish to validate that , the information is freely available on the internet.
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So where to begin.
Jimmy's latest spate of desperation over his inability to maintain a sane low carb diet, thus his body weight has spiraled into a new, certainly ill fated gimmick. He has now issued a commitment to "therapeutic" prolonged starvation in hopes of rapid weight loss, which he is inappropriately describing as "IR healing fasts". Jimmy is under direction of "Dr" Jason Fung, starvation quack guru extraordinaire. Recently Jimmy committed to a 30 day fast, which surprise to no one who is a human being was "paused" (read: terminated indefinitely + rebound wild binging) at day 12.
First, let me just say, I tend to vacillate between anger and pity when dealing with Jimmy Moore. His most recent video however merely evoked one strong, overflowing empathetic compassion for what he is doing to himself. There was no anger, it was just sad TBH. Big hopeless fat guy.
Jimmy, man. Jimmy is as if you had a junkie relative; you might one instance be enraged with his behavior "how fucking dare you, you stole $1000 from my bank account" then the next minute they're so pathetic, in the hospital after an OD and its more like, just sad and depressing. This IMO describes my relationship to Jimmy speaking as a fatass as well as a ketard. Though he is a purveyor of a lot of bad info and barely understands neuroendocrine regulatory controls of body weight himself, I cant stop feeling bad for him and i wish he would get it together. JIMMY: JUST DO A RELATIVELY BLAND , PROTEIN BASED LOW CARB DIET, jesus god. That works best for food addicted obese people; this quackery is ill fated and doomed to fail!
I empathize, I do. From one fatass to another, I know how bio it is, I KNOW how the thin (and the e-thin who shall remain nameless) will judge, criticize, do not understand just how bad the body can suck and work like shit, etc. He's also so so so infuriating though, with his podunk understanding of nervous + endocrine system, his gimmicky nonsense which is COMPLETELY invalid if one is even remotely educated.
OH where do i even begin this rant. So many things. *Rubs temples*
Jimmy insists he is fasting "to repair IR". Has he even VALIDATED that he is IR? It seems another thing he does not understand about obesity: it is a NORMAL AND EXPECTED observation of weight reduced patients to have crap metabolism secondary to insulin supersenstivity. Low levels of postprandial insulin can and will : depress FFA , fat oxidation (+ketogenesis) and facilitate greater storage of fat, within the weight reduced. The weight reduced are not insulin resistant, they are pathologically insulin supersensitive, specifically at the adipocyte. Jimmy's ongoing / years long insistence that he is "severely insulin resistant" is likely completely untrue, based in a total ignorance of the physiology , the neuroendocrine regulation of body weight. The post obese and weight reduced have an abnormal sensitivity to insulin, not a resistance. The primary defect is leptin signalling thus fat oxidation and sympathetic deficits.
If JM really is "insulin resistant" where are the numbers to support this? Hyperglycemia and crappy ketones only suggest a really terrible metabolism (or: cheating/eating way too many carbs, such as randomly eating a sweet potato, WTF). If metabolic rate is trash, blood sugar may linger in blood, ketones will be poor secondary to even low levels of insulin suppressing adipocyte lipolysis (again, a totally normal finding in the post obese). Jimmy is still fat, but all that matters is relative weight shifts of weight. Considering his size and body weight I have no doubt he is very insulin sensitive relative to other men his size, with hyper low fasting insulin levels (a sensitive indicator of FFA/IR).
On a related note/rant, I would like to offer a comment about the inverse reasoning regarding this observation. Certain dopes may be inclined to offer foolish + inappropriate logic exercises to "invalidate" the insulin "hypothesis" from this known information how how insulin manifests in weight reduced patients. Their argument goes: "weight reduced people resist loss; weight reduced people have low insulin; therefore insulin does not influence the development of obesity". This is rather like saying patients with leukemia are ill, and patients with leukemia have high white cells, therefore white count is not related to resistance to infection. Literally, Stephan's argument is exactly this mind numbingly stupid to anyone who is educated enough to know that. Insulin does not exist in a vaccuum.
Insulin is highly important, if not point blank the *cause* responsible for the pathogenesis of obesity. Equally as obvious, there exists a litany of factors hierarchical to insulin, that profoundly alter how insulin manifests and functions within the body, and within individual bodies. You can NOT just take an insulin level and call it a day; how insulin behaves, on what TISSUES it behaves upon, is an excruciatingly complex neurohormonal interaction. Other than frank hyperinsulinemia, which is frankly pathological and yes very likely initiates obesity in prone individuals, you cannot deduce body weight or tissue changes from insulin level alone. For years now I have been writing that the oversimplified CIH , or even the insulin hypothesis is obviously wrong, apparently I must continue to do this.
Example: The cocktail of neurohormonal drugs body builders use , including insulin, results in depleted body fat and hypertophy of the muscle tissue. Insulin, when found in context of major sympathetic stimulants that counter act its natural adipogenic pressure, psychostimulants that BOOST 5ht/NE/Da which are profound metaboilc/endocrine regulators, injected IGF1 + GH, high doses of androgens , plus estrogen blockers? The super lean, super muscular body builder physique results. Insulin is actually injected to enhance this muscle anabolic effect, because it is *silenced* from acting on the adipocyte via drugs.
Now, consider that same level of insulin, within the framework of a totally *different* neuroendocrine milieu: your common couch potato prone to obesity. This patient has specific SNS/beta adrenergic deficits of the WAT, low free testosterone + high estrogen (if male) or high test + low estrogen (if female). This patient may also have: deficient CNS MOR, deficient / hypoactive D2 receptors (no, this is not caused by "food addiction" you tards), 5ht2c receptors that are sluggish and kaput via genes or lifestyle (inappropriate daytime blue light), et cetera. The patient will be a big giant diabetic fatass, at insulin levels that are *lower* than the previous example of a drug addled body builder.
Insulin is crucial, but it is under direction of the total neuroendocrine state of the patient. To argue insulin is irrelevant because the framework of our physiology influences its behavior, is rather like saying automobile travel has no relationship to cars, 'bcuz road conditions. Without an automobile, there is no AUTO TRAVEL at all, you fool. Insulin is exactly that *crucial* to fat storage, which is why the sole lack of insulin will cause failure for WAT to develop prentally, failure to store nutrition within the WAT postnatally, and emaciation + death from acidosis secondary to uncontrolled fat metabolism in a total deficit of insulin. A sports car traveling at 20 miles an hour because of a traffic jam, a rainstorm, and poor sleep / driver fatigue, does not disprove or offer any evidence against the fact cars and auto engineering is responsible for 100% of automobile travel.
Only a moron or an ignorant considers these types of examples to be EVIDENCE against the insulin "hypothesis" of obesity. This is as much a "paradox" or "contrary evidence" as getting a math problem WRONG is a "paradox" or "evidence against arrhythmic" . You're either a stupid person, or ignorant of the totality of information. Your perception of surprise , or disbelief, or not comprehending how this info fits into the known data is only evidence of YOUR PERSONAL DEFICITS, and how woefully unequipped you are to research obesity at all.
Another issue particularly relevant to JM's long track record of failure, his irrational love of paleo quackery. Because of his hippie retard "natural" bias, by default he will shun useful medicines, even ordinary nutritional supplements (which an 85% fat diet nutter absolutely should be taking, no questions). He refuses to research human nutritional needs, preferring i instead to take the advice of a litany of online paleo/naturopath/CAM quacks. Surprise to no one, he ends up pale, anemic, and T deficient. JIMMY: take vitamins and minerals. After *years* of crash dieting, and extreme eating (or extreme not eating) gimmicks, its entirely possible some selenium and zinc might be all you need.
FWIW, JM looks less like he is on deaths door lately. His skin color is darker, suggesting his anemia is corrected. TBH I think he is back on hormone replacement/ TRT. He's growing a beard and his piglet face is not so soft. Personally, I suspect he went back on TRT so he wouldn't lose absurd amounts of lean tissue during his anticipated starvation ventures. Unfortunately, sharing his experiences with TRT is one way he might actually *help* some of his followers: educating of the need for hormone replacement therapy in some men. No, instead he chooses to squander the 1 chance he has to productively share useful information. He prefers to keep this a secret due to his hippie appeal to nature paleotard religion. I don't know why he even bothers, the paleo hipsters just mock him in spite of all his efforts to sit at their lunch table. (Jamie Scott: really trying to best LeCorre for biggest douche in the paleo religion)
Whew, rants and tangents 'o plenty!
Basically: all evidence we know supports the idea that the weight reduced have a relative leptin insufficiency. This abnormal leptin from adipocyte hypotrophy impairs basal fat oxidation and adipocyte IR, which allows for exaggerated insulin sensitivity at the site of the adipocyte (not healthy tissues like liver and muscle, which continue to respond poorly to insulin, and hypersecrete glucagon). This explains the very low insulin demonstrated by weight loss patients (which guyenet *irrationally* uses to make a case against insulin as pathophysiologically significant in obesity) . This known phenomenon also explains EVERYTHING Jimmy has experienced: trivially easy weight gain when cheating slightly on his VLC diet, very poor ketones after a typical MAD type meal, et cetera.
JIMMY: You are NOT pathologically insulin resistant. You are a massive weight loss patient, thus insulin supersensitive specifically at the WAT. Fasting is just about the *worst* thing you could possibly do, because fasting induces these energy conservation endocrine changes MORE exaggeratedly. The proper protocol for jimmy would be to address his nutritional deficits (we know he was iron deficient/anemic, fake jesus only knows how many more micronutrients are in the crapper) combined with intelligent therapy to address his weight loss induced WAT deficits. Jimmy does not need MORE insulin sensitivity, he needs more insulin RESISTANCE in his fat tissue by correcting the metabolic deficits induced by weight loss. Some drugs he won't consider because they are evil/not "paleo" include biguanides (metformin) to help with CNS leptin deficits, mu opioid agonists or perhaps very low dose naltrexone (MOR are an essential metabolic regulator), triple reuptake or NE drugs to improve his SNS, very low dose T3 , TRT to correct his long standing hypogonadism (I suspect he is already on this) and more. ANY NUMBER of these logical interventions would be more effective than "fasting to cure his IR". Face PALM. 1) You're not IR, and 2) fasting just helps people who are on an ad lib diet mimic a weight reduced metabolism: it will depress glucose and insulin need via gimped fat oxidation / metabolic rate.
I also think there is a FAIR measure of denial and cheating going on, but I do believe him when he says normal atkins food leaves him with crappo ketones. I experienced the same thing until i started taking metformin, which helped somewhat. This is all par for course in post weight loss patients: the metabolism sucks relative to regular individuals. The cure is not to starve MORE, to become even MORE gimpy. Hello.
Next, lets move on to Jimmy's idea that he will "heal himself" with starvation. Oh man the BIGGEST eye roll is required for this, and it segues into my next rant: FUNG must be held accountable and stopped.
First, can we cut the crapola? We know JM is fasting primarily as a rapid weight loss hack. Stop with this "fasting to heal my severe IR" silliness. Surely at least SOME of his motivation is quickly dropping the weight he packed on via cheating constantly via being severely IR that his ketones were low. Or something. SERIOUSLY: He cant even avoid cheating when the whole world is watching: sweet potato fries after "promising" strict keto? You expected ketones > 0.7 after eating a whole damn sweet potato as part of a hypercaloric binge? Are you serious right now bro?
I do think JM believes he is "IR" and fasting may cure him, unfortunately he is ignorant and has absolutely no insight into why long term starvation lowers blood sugar: long term starvation worsens energy conservation. Thats right, starvation induces a similar type of energy conservation we see in weight reduced people, except with minimal or no body fat loss (long term body fat increases...). This is the same pathological energy conservation he ALREADY has as a weight loss patient: starvation and binge cycles, long term only makes that even more extreme + intractable. It is totally possible to starve and binge yourself to obesity. There are fat women all over the western world who got that way by starving, and then rebound binging into adipocyte hyperplasia in precisely this fashion.
This is where I really hold FUNG accountable. I refuse to believe a MD with a 130+ IQ and a preoccupation with reading fasting literature has never discovered the following facts:
Starvation is associated with rapid regain of lost weight upon refeeding, with EXTRA fat, that may sometimes be permanent.
The primary mechanism of starvation induced insulin sensitivity is redundant with energy conservation itself: T3 drops in the toilet, the SNS tanks, fat oxidation slows to a crawl. This promotes superior insulin response/sensitivity. Using cyclical/repeat episodes to lower blood sugar? Might as well take PTU, and a TZD drug. Gimping your metabolism is not a solution to diabetes.
T3 inhibits insulin and raises basal fat oxidation. T3 , like any fat burning SNS stimulant, RAISES blood sugar. High blood sugar is a natural reaction to fat oxidation, a high metabolism, and feeling alive and well.
Pathologically high blood sugar may signify insulin deficiency or resistance, but using "starvation" to fix that (which depresses the metabolism like death) is the dumbest thing I HAVE EVER HEARD.
A normal metabolic rate is no more the cause of diabetes as carbohydrate is (it merely *unmasks* an illness that exists...) Unfortunately, using starvation so as to intentionally induce upon onesself permanent, chronic metabolic conservation and hypoinflammation/hyperplasia of WAT, sucks a WHOLE lot more than eating chocolate walnut avocado brownies I reckon.
To emphasize: starvation is associated with WEIGHT GAIN. Starvation does not induce WEIGHT LOSS unless there is a way to sustain the low body mass after starvation ends. This is almost never the case. It is much more commonly observed people certainly regain more weight than they originally lost, following a bout of starvation, assuming access to ad libitum food intake.
The above only describes the energy/fat gain consequences of fasting. It doesn't even address mental stability, developing disordered behaviors, and literally becoming INSANE from it. Our mind is our most energy intensive and important organ. Starvation is a profound stressor, a HPA axis inducing insult, and a few of the flock in any population will not be able to handle that assuming the wrong set of dormant genes. Please see the Minnesotta Starvation Experiment for more info on "starvation neurosis". No, you do not have to be underweight to go insane from starvation. The cause of mental illness from starvation is the same as any stressor: endorphin deficiency, cortisol excess. Malnutrition of CNS nutrients may figure in, but it is entirely expected that +cortisol and -betaendorphin -> complete mental nutjob town, for a certain % of people with not so stable mental health genes.
I've written about this quite a bit last year. This IMO is why ketogenic diets as applied for epilepsy are not really appropriate for bipolar and schizophrenic or MDD patients. Special care must be taken to maintain "stability" of nutrition, sleep, and other factors which can quite easily destabilize these patients via +cortisol -endorphin insults.
I dont BELIEVE Fung is ignorant of any of this, as i describe above. I DO believe he is covering up all his trainwreck failures, he's on this third reich like mission to purify the world of disease with starvation, fasting uber alles, like a true crazy zealot.
I am SURE there are a litany of devout acolytes just being dragged through the ringer under directions of his preaching... and failing terribly, binging out, developing emotional complications which they then blame THEMSELVES for. The actual evidence supports the poor outcomes, not the good ones, but you'll never hear that from Fung. The good outcomes are actually unexpected. The expected result is long term failure and numerous complications , which may be permanent, such as higher body fat and psychological problems.
One of my followers shared her experience with this guru: she notified Fung that she was experiencing exaggerated hunger about a month after attempting to starve herself for many days, in accordance with his toxic advice. How did Fung advise her? Did he educate her that prolonged hyperphagia and even binging is an entirely natural reaction to self starvation? NOPE! FUNG had the gall and audacity to tell her it was "psychological". Really now. Psychological....
During the refeeding stage of the experiment (3 months), in which the participants were divided into four groups, each receiving a diet of a different energy level and specific protein and vitamin levels, many of the men lost control of their appetites and ate ‘more or less continuously’. Those who did lose control in this way reported feelings of self-deprecation, disgust, and self-criticism for having done so. After about eight months of refeeding, most men reported that their eating habits had normalised, although binge-eating continued to be a problem for a few. Participants did not, after the end of the study, eat and eat until they were obese: in general, participants regained their original weight plus about 10% in the rehabilitation phase, and their weight then gradually declined towards the pre-experiment levels during the the follow-up period.
There is NO WAY this guy hasnt come across ample medical literature that persistent hyperphagia is a well defined symptom of recovery from starvation. He is basically, then, a liar and a fraud. He lied to my reader, telling her this was a psychological fixation, when the research is quite clear that profound hyperphagia manifests in proportion to degree of starvation (1) and that symptoms do not abate until weight has been restored plus more body fat in addition to previous body fat level (2)
I intended for this to be a quick entry, surmising the tragedy that is the entire Jimmy Moore, and the menace that is this new quack guru "Jason Fung". It's gone on too long, so I'll end things here.
I know I'm a few minutes away from being inundated with angry comments from people who enjoy and benefit from some form of the practice of "intermittent fasting". IF in no way shape or form is as disasterous as these starvation escapades Fung /Moore are now inflicting on hapless trusting people. This is ineffective to long term reduce body weight, has an irrationally great risk for side effects, and generally only improves blood sugar in proportion to its success at inducing metabolic conservation.
IF is a practice I don't particularly support, but I do think it can work for certain people. This train wreck is not even in the same spectrum as IF. This is at best, a completely ill fated quick fix fad diet, or an eating disorder flying under the radar at worst.
TL;DR.
Jimmy is sad.
Fung is a menace who needs to be stopped. Sadly, people in paleo/ketard circles only intervene when you crack out with psychotic grandiosity and claim to have injected yourself with MRSA because god told you to. Otherwise, anyone who isn't on the brink of psychotic mania gets the A+ approval and is invited to speak at AHS .
No, starving is not the cure for any disease. Depressing the metabolism is not an answer to the symptom of hyperglycemia, unless you enjoy feeling like a cold icecube of death crap.
No, starving does not make you lose weight permanently.. This is diametrically opposite of what the evidence supports.
Did I mention starving is not the cure for ANY DISEASE except living?