I see. I didn't intend it to be rude. My apology nonetheless.

thank you for the reply, i think its clear now.

Is insulin the only hormone that makes us hungry?

If I eat a ton of protein, I'll often get a pretty big blood sugar reading the next day. It's weird.

We could say that insulin makes us hungry but that would be incomplete. When we eat protein, insulin goes up as well yet eating protein doesn't make us hungry. On the contrary, it satisfies us more than carbohydrate. So it's not insulin that makes us hungry.

As insulin goes up, nutrients in the bloodstream go down. Cells sense this and call for more. That's what makes us hungry. Which hormone communicates this hunger to our brain? I don't know but some think it's leptin or ghrelin or both. If we eat protein, everything's alright. If it's not protein, i.e. carbohydrate, things go wrong and we continue to grow hungry. We eat more until we're full physically but we could still be hungry if all we eat is carbohydrate.

If it's fat, insulin goes up but it's barely perceptible. This means nutrient flow to the cells is uninterrupted and hunger is barely affected. However, when we feel hungry in the gut and to satisfy this hunger, fat is the most effective. Fat also slows down digestion so that the insulin hit from protein and carbs is less acute. That's why ice cream is low on the glycemic index even though it's full of sugar.

Having said all that, if we eat only protein, we could eat as much as we wanted until we're bursting as the seams and still be hungry. The reasons for this are complex but the point is that protein is insufficient on its own to satisfy hunger completely. We must eat fat, or carbohydrate, in conjunction with protein to completely satisfy hunger. Obviously for myself, I prefer to eat fat.

Nancy - I don't think it's weird at all. Instead, it may well be an indicator that you are one of the people who carry too many Branched-Chain Amino Acids (BCAAs), which means that for you, an excess consumption of protein while consuming a high fat diet (typical of a LC WOE for a lot of folks here, usually with good results) is causing even more insulin resistance, rather than less.

That is certainly the case with me, which is why severely limiting protein while upping fat, as per Dr. Kwasniewski's Optimal Diet plan broke a 2-year scale weight stall. I'm not diabetic and don't measure my BS, but I have felt so much physically better in the last month since starting this, I have no doubt my BS would indicate this as well.

See: http://www.sciencedaily.com/release...90407130905.htm

Lisa

Thanks martin,

I was eating mainly pork yesterday, really fatty stuff, but I constantly had cravings for more, I dont know why.