billruse's Journal, 02 Jun 15

Yet almost all everyday health advise says you should try to avoid insulin spikes. 

suppose it depends on whether you are at all insulin resistant and the fact that it is only 2 spikes in a week rather than a spike at every meal. i used to eat cereal for breaky, a sandwich for lunch and dinner usually involved pasta/rice/spuds thats 3 spikes a day!! 

it also relies on you being ultra low carb the rest of the time, so under 30gs carbs the rest of week 

@Drullae, low-gi foods with starchy and fibrous carbs such as cereal, bread, and rice, tend not to give you an insulin spike per se. Yes they may raise your insulin slowly, but its the refined sugars, that give you a spike. The only time you might deliberately want carbs from sugar is just before an athletic event, or just after. The idea of having a spike just before bed is the worst, it will encourage your body to stop burning fat and store fat instead. That's what the insulin hormone does! 

i know what insulin does Giles, but regardless of that fact the carb nite way of eating is a very successful diet if done correctly and is especially popular with body builders. now as you are fond of pointing out we are all physiologically the same so there must be something in this regime which makes it successful, i suspect it is the ultra low carb aspect of the diet. as i understand it replenishing the glycogen once or twice a week means that there is no muscle wastage from the body going to muscle for energy, which also plays a part and a re-balance in hormone levels means a more efficient energy burn. thats the theory anyway 

@Drullae, It may well be popular with body builders. They are pretty in tune with what their body needs anyway, they are more disciplined and have experience of knowing how many calories to consume so can add one off these 'tweaks' to their regime, and have success. The question is whether they would have had success on a normal diet, or not. Going ultra low carb if done right is possibly a good short term tool for a body builder trying to get extra lean, before a competition. For most people who try it, they will probably be putting their health at risk if they achieve ketosis, or if they don't they will have little to no success with it because they are always starving to eat too much of the fat that isn't particularly good for you. 

nothing unhealthy about ketosis, ketoacidosis yes that is very dangerous but not ketosis. this explains the science http://tinyurl.com/pk65nzj 

@Drullae, the clue is in the name. By medical definition the Latin suffix -osis means diseased or abnormal condition. You may have heard of the disease Tuberculosis, for example which shares the same suffix. 

The spikes I'm after take place after the body, starved of carbs for a period, ceases to make the enzymes which turn blood glucose into fat. Ketosis, incidentally, is not what CN is about, it's in no way any kind of prerequisite. It's ULC, ultra low carbs, that's the prerequisite.  

-osis meaning production or increase as in ketone production 

osis is also greek for infestation but it doesn't mean that either! 

@Drullae, Yes in terms of increased production it is describing a condition where there's a lot of something that shouldn't be there or, simply, that a disease is present.  

Unless you are an advanced body-builder, you would be much better off avoiding spikes. Just my opinion though.