The recent top post is about a layne norton podcast where he speaks about various things, intermittent fasting, energy balance, etc etc. He also speaks about carbohydrates, fat, protein and insulin.
In that post, a lot of people were making claims based on the Carbohydrate-Insulin Model, which i have heard has been thoroughly debunked by the Energy-Balance Model.
Coming from a place of ignorance, i would like to ask you, is it true that the carb-insulin model is basically misinformation? Studies and citations would be appreciated since i think that will help everyone including myself!
(I’m heading out to work, i won’t be able to reply for a while, but i will be reading any responses on my break!)
The CIM has been disproven for decades, it was disproven years before it was made popular again by the current wave of grifters.
Some studies disproving CIM
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33479499/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27385608/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4603544/
https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamainternalmedicine/fullarticle/2686143
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/7598063/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/11029975/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/3687822/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/7625338/
CIM is a hypothesis poorly supported by the evidence. Discussion here that references important studies. This is probably the most meaningful.
While CIM doesn’t actually break the 2nd law the explanations people make based on it often do as well. We expel very small amounts of glucose, some aminos that can’t be used for energy and fatty acids in our urine but these are an insignificant calorie wise. Similarly a very small amount of fatty acids are used in bile production by the liver. Otherwise all the excess calories we absorb we have to use later. Our metabolism is not under conscious control and is far more sensitive to activity level then diet, if you want to burn more calories while resting you need to have more tissue to feed.
The CIM model also doesn’t do well at all when looking at the 50% carb Japanese, Korean & Mediterranean diets. My view is that its trying to devise a simple rule for a complex system which is functionally impossible to do. Hormones certainly play a huge role in our metabolism but our ability to externally hack them to produce desired outcomes is fairly limited.
A much better explanation for the same effect people notice with low-carb diets is that eating fewer refined carbs increases satiation per calorie which makes it easier to loose weight and keep it off. Slower digesting sources of energy also tend to make people more active as they have energy throughout the day rather than following peaks & troughs. None of this suggests carbs are bad, it suggests refined carbs are not very satiating and if consumed should be done so sparingly. Nothing wrong with having some white rice/bread/whatever with your meal as long as its well balanced with complex carbs, healthy fats & protein.
I think there is a disconnect between what’s been established in these studies that “falsify” the CIM and the results that people receive in real life.
In large part, anyone I’ve spoken to or anyone that’s shared their experience with LC/keto is it improves several variables of health, including several biomarkers associated with metabolic dysfunction.
Either the model works, but not for the reasons people predict, or it shouldn’t be working and those who have adopted it shouldnt see any results.
It’s just your standard issue example of mechanistic speculation that doesn’t pan out when tested.
https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2673150/
Best explanation for weight gain/loss is still calories independent of whether those calories come mostly from carbohydrate or mostly from fat. Some people may have an easier job adhering to more or less carbohydrates or fat, but the notion that carbohydrates are uniquely fattening independent of calories doesn’t pan out.