Strange weight gain and hindered weight loss.

[suntom]

Hi everyone. I want to run this by you all to see if there is something I may be overlooking with regards to weight loss. I can explain most things regarding weight gain or loss but my body seems to tell me something different.

Before I start. I've been tested for insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes and there is no sign of any of it. Actually I've been deemed completely fine on that front by several doctors now.

The problem I have is this. It is simply impossible for me to lose weight unless I only have very tiny meals. A larger meal of complex carbohydrates (and I've been confining myself to beans, carrots, broccoli and cauliflower ) seems to make me gain huge amounts of weight. I seem to gain it fast around my waist and upper abdomen which is very embarrassing. So yes, I have tried eating some meat or protein with every meal to slow digestion but if the meal is bigger than say 2/3 of a cup i start gaining weight again. I don't eat late at night and don't eat any sugar or drink coffee or alcohol. I know the metabolism slows down after 30 but this is just ridiculous. Really, I think I've had easy weight gain issues my whole life but always been a healthy eater. I don't eat any simple carbs at all. Never bread or pasta and I definitely cannot have rolled oats. They make me gain fat so fast that I barely have time to say boo.

It seems to be that my body is super reactive to any carbs at all. Meaning that my body releases too much insulin for a small amount of carbohydrate, even low GL carbs. Hence the weight gain. I run 55 km per week and regularly go to the gym and still get this massive ring of fat around my waist and chest fat if I don't eat only tiny meals. It seems impossibly to get rid of without this small meal regime.

I'm inclined to think I have a problem as this seems to have been a problem my whole life. Gaining weight very easily etc. I can't eat fruit at all as I become ridiculously obese very fast from fruit sugar content. I started having a banana a day after my runs recently and after a couple of weeks I had to stop because it was difficult to do my trousers up. It's pretty horrible.

As mentioned I have been tested for any form of insulin resistance or diabetes, even recently, and I've been deemed healthy so I can't think of why I gain so much weight so fast. Is there a condition where my body will release too much insulin too fast. Could it be a kidney problem? I'm stumped but was hoping to draw on anyone's experience out there who might be able to tell me what it is.

I'm a male and the chest fat is giving me horrible man boobs, awful. I often feel that when I run I have no energy at all which is another sign of high insulin release. Also, my muscles deteriorate fast, another priminant sign of high insulin release. I've tried using chromium too, but there's no way of telling whether this improves things at all. Impossible to cure. Please everyone, any thoughts at all?

The term for this kind of thing is Hyperinsulinemia, but in this case it's not caused by type2 diabetes or it's precursor Insulin Resistance.
I want to throw something out there. I am Gluten Intolerant and in order to heal that I have to stick to complex carbs which contain only sugars of Monosaccharide sugar types (single sugar molecules) to prevent further fermentation and damage around my gut villi. That means following the 'Specific Carbohydrate Diet' and a 'Low Fodmap Diet' as Fructose and starchy carbs give me bad brain fog and are hard to absorb. I am wondering if there is a link here as the rate at which I gain weight is unnatural. I'm not exaggerating.

Thanks so much.

 

[suntom]

Well, I would be surprised if anyone could answer this now. So many views but not a whisper. I've spent considerable time on this and think I have an answer and I've felt that this has always been the issue. There are some gaps in my knowledge but I have some explanations for them so please feel free to comment. I really want to know what others think about this.

I've long suspected that my unprecedented weight gain and very hindered weight loss is connected to my intolerance to Gluten. Now that I make the connection it seems that I'm not alone. When you are gluten intolerant or gluten sensitive (but non celiac), the gluten damages the villi in you stomach and this ultimately hinders absobtion of other carbohydrates and nutrients. I suppose you could say that someone with this condition will crave sugar because they aren't absorbing enough carb when they need it and therefore may resort to over-eating carbs which in turn causes them to gain weight. (I know the difference between simple carbs and complex carbs so please spare me on that one). But.... if you are not someone who overeats due to this condition and still gains weight then what could the problem be. Here's what I think it is.

Has anyone ever heard of 'Carbohydrate Loading'. One way of doing this is to fast for 12 hours and then eat a large amount of carbohydrate to fill your muscle glycogen stores in your body. This fasting primes your body to take in more carbohydrate than it normally would. It primes your body for a larger insulin response to sugars moving into your bloodstream and to some extent your body will be primed to absorb more glucose than normal. Not even the athletes get this right. It's not uncommon to see athletes get a hint of a belly when they are seriously training for a big event. It is this priming action I've just explained I think is linked to my problem....

If due to gluten intolerance somebody can't get in the correct amount of carbohydrate and this goes on for long enough (in this case my whole life), then is is plausible to say that my body is being primed for a greater insulin rush when I do absorb carbohydrate? Hence the symptoms of 'Reactive Hypoglycemia'. This is where your body releases too much insulin for a small amount of sugar in your bloodstream. I've had this problem my whole life.. Since I was a child. I always had swathes of fat around my upper legs, and torso and especially around my waist. I refrained from drinking over the years, also didn't go out because I was worried about the horrid weight gain which follows from eating or drinking anything which will make me gain more weight. You're constantly tired, depressed,,. I've felt this way my whole life and have never known why but have slowly put this together and think this very well could be the answer. I really want to get to the bottom of the problem rather than eat tiny meals my whole life.

I went through a stage a few years ago where I just ate tiny meals. Only small meals and was exercising allot at that time. For the first time in my life I lost 10 kg. Fat that had been with me since I was a child. I also noticed that I was building muscle faster and I felt very light on my feet. Is this what it means to have full glycogen stores? Could it be that the small meals actually prevented an insulin spike and therefore I absorbed more than I had in the past. I thought clearly and felt more positive around that time. I suppose I haven't done it again because I thought it is just too unrealistic to eat such tiny meals all the time. If I want to go out with friends and eat, every meal is larger than my body will take. Don't want to lock myself up for the rest of my life. Just want to get to the bottom of the problem... I'm wondering about one thing.. Read on..

If for an extended period of time I managed to keep up my glycogen stores by eating small meals, my body would in fact lose that primed state and my insulin reaction to sugar in my bloodstream would go back to normal. Does that sound plausible? I noticed the last time I went through this very tiny meal regime, the weight didn't go on as easily as normal after I lost weight. But at some stage it accelerated and I started to gain rapidly. I think this may have been because I didn't address the gluten intolerance problem first. I really didn't know that's what I had then. I now follow the Specific Carbohydrate Diet and the Low Fodmap Diet to address that and it's working wonders in terms of my mental clarity but still this energy issue, muscle wastage and weight gain exists. I think my explanation above explains that.
Is there anyone who would like to comment on this. Please do if you wish. I can't talk to family or allot of so called experts out there on this as I always get a venomous reaction implying that I'm talking rubbish, when really, I'm just desperate for someone to understand what I've discovered and at least provide some feedback. I truly believe I'm correct on my assumptions above.