Low Carb Diet & Low Insulin Levels

A low-carb diet manipulates your body into using stored fat as energy. Your body primarily runs on the glucose inside of your blood. Following a low-carb diet limits the amount of blood sugar, forcing your body to rely on its storage of energy -- your fat. The interaction between the carbohydrates you eat, or don't eat, as well as pancreatic hormones, such as insulin, can help you successfully lose weight on a low-carb diet.

Low-carb Diet and Insulin

The carbohydrates you eat directly contribute to your levels of blood glucose. The more carbs you eat, the higher your blood glucose. As glucose enters into your bloodstream, your pancreas begins to secrete the hormone insulin. The amount of insulin that is put into your blood by the pancreas is proportionate to the amount of glucose. In other words, if you don't eat a large amount of carbs, there will not be a significant rise in blood glucose and a minimal amount of insulin will be secreted by the pancreas.

Insulin

Insulin is known as a storage hormone. It's job is to help the glucose inside the bloodstream move into the cells that need it. These cells either use the glucose or store it as glycogen for later use. The presence of insulin inside the blood also inhibits the use of fat for energy. When insulin is in your bloodstream, it signals to the rest of the body that energy is readily available so none of the fat you have stored is necessary for use. In fact, insulin may even increase the fat storage you have.

Glucagon

Glucagon is the opposing hormone to insulin. When blood glucose levels are low your pancreas releases glucagon. This hormone triggers the breakdown of stored fats for use as energy. When glucagon levels are high inside the bloodstream, fat is called upon for use. Your body breaks fat out of storage and places it into your blood for your cells to convert into energy. When you follow a low-carb diet, your glucagon levels may be higher than normal, which forces your body to use more fat for energy.

Proof

A study published in the "Annals of Internal Medicine" in 2004 compared the success of a low-carb diet against a traditional low fat diet. Overweight subjects were placed on a low-carb diet, consisting of less than 20 g of carbs per day or a low fat diet. Both dietary interventions included group meetings and exercise programs as well. After 24 weeks, the low-carb dieters lost more weight, 24 versus 6 percent and also experienced improvements in cardiovascular health, such as reduced cholesterol levels. In addition, the retention rate was higher in those participating in the low-carb program.