I really like this article and refer back to it often. I apologise if this is semi off-topic yet wanted to ask your opinion about something in relation to insulin, which is leptin.

While I understand it’s not the topic for discussion here directly, I am currently studying post-graduate nutrition and I recently asked a lecturer of mine about leptin, which I have looked into quite a bit and (with many thanks to following you) felt I had a reasonably good idea of it (even though it seems to do so many things and it gets so horribly tedious looking at all it’s minutiae). However following his response earlier today it had me head scratching again.

I had basically asked him about leptin and it’s use in dieters/dieting and his response was (basically to paraphrase, so as to not plagiarise): Leptin was something very exciting in the mid 90’s upon discovery but since then it has not been a key hormone to utilise and attempt to modulate in weight loss…

My understanding from papers, texts and your work is that it is basically the key hormone with regards to centralising weight regulation as it acts in so many areas and interacts with so many other hormones and compounds. I’m aware that resistance is an issue (be it obese folks or those more genetically unfortunate) but when it’s serum concentrations are low, I was sure that when it was (or perhaps still is) given, it does some pretty amazing things?

Thanks for all of your great work Lyle, would be great to see you lecture in person one day.

Do I need a refeed?

I lost a lot on keto but despite being on 2000kcal (2500kcal before) my set point/weight doesnt change a bit… what gives? what else can I do?

I also tried nutritional ketosis and high protein low fat…

Or should I try PMSF?

Might an oxidation analysis (carbs/fat) be usefull (also for kcal amount)?

Does insulin sensitivity play a role in building lean mass vs fat mass? I’m wondering if there’s any truth behind the idea that getting down to a low body fat percentage before trying to build muscle would lead to more easily making leaner gains.

(And at what body fat percentage does insulin sensitivity tend to be best, if so?)

My best,
Shane

At THIS stage, that effect is more of an issue (now that I’m finally starting to lose weight). But, I would occasionally hear that concern, during the first 2 months where I was only gaining weight….and completely baffled. So, it just didn’t ring true for me, then. I mean, most of my adult life, I weighed 97lbs. For about 8 years, I weighed 120-125lbs. Then, suddenly, I began gaining weight, up to a high of 167lbs in just 5-6 years. Still, in my mind, that’s 50-60lbs too much. (I don’t have a specific weight goal. …Just how I look and feel.)

I couldn’t wrap my brain around ANY scenario where eating so little and exercising that hard would lead to (albeit minor) weight gain. It just doesn’t work like that, right???

But here it is. Eating and exercising the same as I was, and just adding cinnamon, and suddenly my “normal” daily weight is in the 150s. (I even had a caloric “blow out” yesterday, with no obvious penalty today. i.e. no weight gain. I had a filling breakfast, lunch with 27g of fat and, for dinner, a veggie sub sandwich – with cheese…on white bread – plus dessert!) If the trend continues, next month, my “normal” weight will be in the 140s, and so on. (knock wood) If I plateau, then I’ll start trying other things, like adding more calories, changing my workout, etc. But, so far, my weight chart is a steady, gradual, downward trend. (I currently do several different workouts, including treadmill, weights, ballet, yoga, and Pilates. I try to incorporate HIIT, and plyometrics, when I can.)

I just wish I could get even more weight off faster. I’ve never had to lose weight before, and it’s still a bit of a surprise that it’s such a slow process. I hear stories of people losing 10lbs or more in their first week. I know that’s probably mostly water weight but… Man! If I could just lose 10lbs one week, that would be hugely motivating.

I’m looking forward to the point where just eating and working out is a normal part of my life, and I’m not so concerned about tenths of a pound. I suspect that won’t happen ’til I’m in the 120s, though. It’s so strange being a fat person on the outside, but mentally a very thin one…if you know what I mean.

I haven’t been taking cinnamon supplements for very long. However, so far, it’s doing the trick. Having gone a few months with zero weight loss (despite eating next to nothing, and working out strenuously every day), I’m now finally losing weight. I’d say that, on average, once starting the cinnamon regimen, I’m losing about 2.5lbs/week. At least, at this early stage, the results speak for themselves. I’ve not changed anything; only added the cinnamon. I’m eating so little, I couldn’t really eat less (and be sustainable), and my workouts are already almost too strenuous, so I wasn’t really interested in doing more. The difference (at least in this short period so far), has been solely the cinnamon.

Thank goodness for the Internet, and those who took the time to share this kind of information, I first learned about the PCOS/cinnamon link via an online message board, then researched it further. Until that point, I’d just been told I was lying about how much I was eating or exercising. You will always lose weight in caloric deficit, right? Well, my case shows that with the same diet and exercise, I was gaining/mantaing without cinnamon, and have been losing weight (for the first time since I inexplicably began gaining weight 5-6 years ago) with cinnamon.

I’m currently taking 3g/day. But if/when I reach a sustainable weight, I hope to reduce that down to 1g, or eliminate the daily supplement entirely, if possible. With at least 40 more lbs to go, at this rate it’ll be at least another 4 months to get there, though. I hope the cinnamon effect continues, because diet and exercise, alone, sure didn’t do the trick.

You might want to look into the effects of a severe caloric restriction, too much exercise in general and in the presence of a severe caloric restriction, exercise duration and stress response, overtraining etc.

Basically if you do a lot while eating very little the energy expenditure create such an extreme negative balance that your body does a number of things which you really don’t want it to do when trying to lose fat. So moderation and consistency are key rather then trying to do everything at once. And yes i speak from experience, 2 months of p90x on a 1000 calories deficit completely wiped me out, and while the weight was flying off initially towards the tail end of the first month progress slowed and by half way through the second if i was losing anything it was my mind lol.

You see, about 2 months ago, I decided I had to do something about the 30-35 lbs I gained in the last 5 years. I’m almost 50, 5’4″, and from age 16-30 I weighed 97lbs, no matter what I ate or did. (…And, like many young people, probably would have pompously told my future self to just eat less and exercise more, even though I wasn’t doing jack to maintain my own weight.) I gained about 20-25 lbs rather quickly, upon entering my 30s. But then maintained it naturally, no matter what I ate or did. By age 38 or 39, with no significant lifestyle changes, the weight started to pile on. I tried my very first “diet” (Thurman’s 6 Week Body Makeover) at around age 40. (I was “perfect on plan” as the devotees say, yet didn’t lose even a pound at the end of 6 weeks.) So, that’s proof positive simply cutting dietary calories and expending more calories won’t automatically lead to weight loss. I started thinking my metabolism was slowing to match the level of caloric deficit.

Skip ahead to 2 months ago. I cut my calories in half (easily) and began working out (strenuously) every day, for 1-2 hours. I don’t have a pre-determined “off” day, because there always seems to be one day a week where at least the morning exercise routine is not possible. But my intention is to workout every day.

Yet, despite consuming A LOT fewer calories per day, never eating at night, and being A LOT more physically active, I’ve not only not lost weight, but I usually have a net gain. For example, when I began, I weighed an embarrassing 160.7. That was with eating whatever I wanted and never exercising. This morning, with a lot of daily exercise under my belt and eating a very healthy, mostly low GI, diet for the past few months, I weighed 161.8. Yesterday, I weighed 164.1, and 162.7 the day before that. In short, in the past 2 months of measurable caloric deficit, I went below my stating weight just once (159.6), for less than 24 hrs.

I do have POS, about which I only recently learned one of the common side-effects is weight gain and/or inability to lose weight, due to the condition’s effect on insulin production and/or sensitivity. Hence the reason I’m trying to learn more about insulin. Weight loss being said to be 80% diet, I can always exercise more, but can’t eat any less (and be healthy). My food diary shows my common meals/snacks are things like celery sticks (GI rating 0) and hummus (GI rating 6). I have 1 tiny cup of clear or lentil soup, or 5-10 nuts, or a half glass of low sodium tomato juice, for example. That’s fine for me, since I don’t really care about food. But I am aware how little I’m eating. It’s been a humbling experience to see the scale not move, and even go up, in the face of all this.

Nearly all the women in my family were thin as young women, and then ballooned in their 40s and 50s. I would say I was generally the thinnest, longest, although my 2-years-older sister was also very thin, until her death from breast cancer, a few years ago. My oldest sister, 62, is a healthy weight, if not on the slightly plump side. My 3-years-older sister was always a bit fatter than the rest if us UNTIL her 40s, when she lost weight and has managed to keep it off through some combination of diet, exercise, and a stressful life.

I, myself, have lost weight recently, without trying. Chalk it up to stress or other environmental factors. But in 2008, starting at around maybe 140-145lbs, I know I bought a pair of size 4 jeans in November of that year. (I rarely weighed myself, so I don’t know how much I actually weighed when I fit into this pants. I wasn’t trying to lose weight. Looking back, I was just very busy with various things.) I will say I typically wear size 10 jeans now, with some clothes needing to be up to size 13. I was also very ill a few years ago, and didn’t eat for a week, with the following three days consuming just a few crackers and tea. I didn’t lose weight then, either, so… …If I didn’t lose a measurable amount of weight not eating anything and vomiting for 7 days, I don’t know what will work.

Hence the reason I’m scouring the ‘net, not just for diet and exercise tips and motivation, but specifically trying to decipher what is happening to me. I’m not lying about either my diet or my activity level, so it’s clearly not a simple matter of calories in/calories out. If that were the case, I’d have lost 10lbs by now…or more!

What I can say is, there is a coincidental (but maybe more?) relationship between the days I consume more fat and SLIGHTLY lower readings on the scale. …Still no net loss, but even that one time I weighed 159.6 came after I ate some fatty food the day before, as a bit of a treat. Yesterday, I weighed 164.7 and had some bruschetta my husband asked me to make for dinner, with too much olive oil and some Parmesan cheese. This morning I weighed the least I have in a week (161.8). Yet, there are other days where I’ve had something arguably fatty, and weighed more, the next morning. Either way, 2 months of diet and exercise and I weigh more than when I started.

I’m still searching for some formula that will help me. I’m hoping that by learning more about insulin sensitivity and production, I can use that information to my advantage…or at least take it out of the equation. My body is behaving nothing like it did in my 20s and 30s, and nothing like my (younger) husband’s.

Of course, increasing dietary fat and reducing carbohyrate consumption is the best as you describe. On that note, are there easy ways to manage the percentages of fat, protein and carbohydrate? Besides weighing food or measuring it to some degree? Having a little trouble on that side.

Thanks for the great post!

Mark