After a normal meal, insulin release by the pancreas sends a signal for the shutdown of fatty acid release from adipose tissue (fat tissue), by this way increasing the fatty acid absorption.

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One of the most common explanations about why we gain weight is having high insulin levels, due to it’s involvement in “fat storage”. That’s where the argument about a low carb diet being m0re efficient for fat loss comes from. Supposedly, because of the insulin response they provoke, carbohydrates make you fat, despite their energetic contribution through the calories they contain.

Supposedly, it doesn’t matter how much we eat, as long as we avoid carbohydrates, we’re going to lose fat. Despite these claims being very imprecise, they are one of the great myths within the nutrition world, and they make many people do low carb diets, where due to the drastic drop in ingested calories, people actually lose a lot of weight.

Another growing dogma in the fitness world is that we better restrict our intake of foods that contain carbohydrates, when we are about to train, due to the fear of the carbohydrate’s effect on insulin, and the fear that because of that body fat won’t be burned during exercise. Once again, some representatives of the “low-carb” diets state that carbohydrates are what really matters in fat loss, due to their action over insulin, leaving exercise as a backup plan as a means to burn energy and control our weight. So where does all the extra energy come from when we consume protein and fats in excess? What are the effects of the very own protein on insulin stimulation, or insulin’s role in promoting satiety? These questions are forgotten many times and aren’t considered by those who defend that insulin is a fat storing hormone.

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In reality, it’s better if we consider insulin like a “traffic cop”, meaning that it signals where the nutrients should go. It’s also the main hormone that tells the body what to do with the energy that came from the food ingested. For example, when carbohydrates or protein are ingested, insulin tells the body to burn carbohydrates or protein instead of using fat. Specially when we ingest fat, the lack of a response of insulin orients the body to burn the fat we just consumed.

To sum things up, we burn what we eat. Only after this process will we burn the body fat we have stored. At the end of the day, the equation for the amount of fat mass that goes in and out of our cells in 24h doesn’t depend on insulin spikes.

References:

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2. Belza A, et al. Contribution of gastroenteropancreatic appetite hormones to protein-induced satiety. Am J Clin Nutr. 2013 doi: 10.3945 / ajcn.112.047563
3. Henson et al. Associations of objectively measured sedentary behaviour and physical activity with markers of cardiometabolic health. Diabetologia. doi: 10.1007/s00125-013-2845-9.
4. Saltiel AR, Kahn CR. Insulin signalling and the regulation of glucose and lipid metabolism. Nature. 2001. doi:10.1038/414799a
5. Soenen S, et al. Normal Protein Intake Is Required for Body Weight Loss and Weight Maintenance, and Elevated Protein Intake for Additional Preservation of Resting Energy Expenditure and Fat Free Mass. J Nutr. 2013. doi:10.3945 / jn.112.167593
6. Westerterp-Plantenga MS, et al. Dietary protein – its role in satiety, energetics, weight loss and health. Br J Nutr.2012 Aug;108 Suppl 2:S105-12. doi: 10.1017/S0007114512002589.
7. Wolfe R. The underappreciated role of muscle in health and disease. Am J Clin Nutr. 2006;84:475-82.