The Fed and the Fasted State

Insulin is the key switch

Body fat is simply a store of calories. When we eat, insulin goes up, which tells our body to store calories (as body fat). When we don’t eat (fasting), insulin goes down, which tells our body to burn those stored calories (body fat) The human body exists in one of two states — the fed state (insulin high, storing calories) and the fasted state (insulin low, burning calories). The body is either storing food energy or burning stored food energy but not both.

Insulin inhibits lipolysis and glycogenolysis, which is a fancy way of saying that high insulin levels blocks the body from burning fat or sugar. High insulin also increases de novo lipogenesis (the creation of new fat stores) and glycogen synthesis (creation of new glycogen, or sugar stores). This makes sense. When we eat, insulin goes up to tell our body to store those calories as sugar or fat, and not to burn our stores of sugar and fat.

Conditioned Hunger

What happens if insulin levels are too high? That’s not hard to predict. Don’t overthink things.

· Insulin tells our body…