By Dr Claude Chauchard
Almost everyone knows that insulin is an injectable hormone used by diabetics.
It controls the level of sugar or carbohydrates in our blood, keeping our blood sugar level at around 1g per litre. What a lot of people are unaware of, however, is the important role this hormone plays in weight control.
In fact, putting on weight is nothing more than storing fat and, more specifi cally, storing fat in the form of triglyce-rides. In fact, when you pinch the skin on your waist, you are actually pinching triglycerides. And the more you can pinch, the more excess weight you are carrying. The question is, how did these extra kilos get to be stored in these particular parts of our body?
What is lipogenesis?
Let me explain how we gain weight, which is called lipogenesis. It all starts with an unbalanced diet that is too rich in sugar or carbohydrates. It is important to know that the only foodstuff that makes us gain weight is glucose (or sugar). Sugar or carbohydrates are present in all sweet food and drinks, pastries, jam, fruit, carbs (potatoes, pasta, rice, bread, etc.).
We absorb around 300 to 400g of these foods every day. In order for the body to absorb these foods, the pancreas must secrete insulin. This insulin enables the cells to open up sugar channels, kind of entrances for the glucose to get into our cells and produce energy for our body. If we consume too much of these kinds of foods (carbohydrates), the pancreas must secrete more and more insulin, until this insulin becomes less effective and less able to trigger our cell receptors, which makes it harder for the sugar to get into our cells. This excess sugar then circulates in our blood and reaches the liver. The liver can store around 4 days of excess sugar.
Previously, to make it easier to store this sugar, the liver would transform the sugar molecules into a form that is better adapted to the liver and muscles, called glycogen. The liver acts as a kind of energy store, with the muscles as a back-up because they can store twice as much glycogen as the liver. When these two organs become saturated, insulin acts inside the liver by transforming these carbohydrates or sugars into circulating fats or free fatty acids.
These fats circulate in the blood, looking for somewhere to “park”. They settle in the adipose cells, which are special fat storage cells. But this storage is, once again, triggered by insulin, which transforms these free fatty acids into a molecule that is ea-sier to store, called triglycerides. These molecules penetrate the adipocytes (a bit like when we put a packet of butter in the fridge) thanks to insulin, and the insulin then imprisons these triglycerides inside the adipose cells, stopping them from leaving (imagine we put a lock on the fridge so that the packet of butter is unable to get out).
This is what happens to the sugar in our blood, and is how the sugar is then turned into fat. This is how insulin controls our weight, if our diet contains too many carbohydrates.
How to lose weight permanently with Keto Nutrition
Keto Nutrition radically attacks insulin retention. We ask our patients to reduce their carbohydrate intake by 90%. This means that there is much less sugar to transform into energy, and insulin secretion quickly plum-mets. If this secretion plummets, the “lock” placed on the adipocyte receptors gives way and the imprisoned fat is released in the form of triglycerides.
These molecules circulate in the blood in the form of free fatty acids. The muscles love this energy source and use it in great quantities to function. The remai-ning free fatty acids travel to the liver, which quickly transforms these molecules into an energy form that resembles glucose, which acts the same way inside the cells. This en-ergy form is called ketone bodies, which are highly active in terms of energy.
The sugar is replaced by these ketone bodies, which come from our adipose tissue. This is how Keto Nu-trition guarantees permanent weight loss. The body fat is gradually eliminated from wherever it is stored. All of our “fat stores” explode and release the energy locked inside our tissues.Keto Nutrition primarily involves drastically reducing your sugar intake, which causes insulin secretion to plummet and this stored fat to be released, causing you to lose weight quickly and permanently.
We therefore block the lipogenic activity (which causes weight gain) of insulin which really controls our weight. Fat is lost from the places where it is usually stored, and without requiring you to go hungry!
The fact that you do not go hungry is vital, because using up these ketone bodies reduces your appetite and sugar cra-vings. And also because Keto Nutrition requires you to eat good fats: oily fish, meat, good oils, cheese, peanuts, etc. Because of this, you never feel hungry when you follow the Keto diet. It is the ideal weight loss programme and is irrefu-table, both intellectually and metabolically-speaking.
To find out more, read my book “Maigrir à vue d’oeil” (Slim down visibly) from TREDANEL Editions.
A renowned specialist in nutrition, weight control and Medicine for Age Prevention.
More than a million copies of 14 books sold in more than 5 languages. Founder of the Anti-Aging clinic concept La Clinique De Paris, established in China, Taiwan, Japan and Korea since 1992.
Assistant professor at the universities of SEOUL and PEKING. Creator of the online Chrono Geno Nutrition method.
