Interesting to hear, I’m also type 1 since age 12 , 37 now and over the past 2-3 months have been hitting a weight training program pretty hard in an effort to gain muscle mass and weight . I have always been super slim and very high metabolism. 6′ 4” 177.8 pounds last checked . It seems for me in my experience so far that my body is requiring much much more insulin on a daily basis of regular and an increase in 24 hour insulin as well . It is true that i eat more while training but not to the level i have been taking , it’s almost like as soon as i take fast acting insulin it gets used up by my muscles leaving me needing more ? IDK kinda weird You would think it would be opposite . Also i do take creatine and BCAA’s along with Protein for muscle gain . Mabye that could have something to do with the level of inulin needs , and yes i monitor levels like 8-10 times daily during this time . Cheers 🙂

Hey Darren,

Thank you for the nice words and sharing your experience.

Keep in mind that carbohydrates and insulin are not the same thing. Insulin release, is only one of the metabolic effects of carbohydrates. So carbohydrates may be anabolic, but that does not mean insulin is. The anabolic (and/or anti-catabolic) effects of carbs may be mediated via the energy in carbs, effects of glycogen etc.

Kind regards,
Jorn

Yes, type 1 diabetics are continiously tracking their carbohydrate intake, glucose levels, and insulin levels, and it’s still quite hard to keep everything in the healthy range.

Bodybuilders don’t have that experience, and often use much higher doses of insulin, making it quite dangerous.

Ketones limit VO2 max to about 70%… without glycogen you can NEVER perform at maximum capacity. Your red blood cells and some brain cells require glucose/glycogen and can not fuel at all with ketones. When you approach zero dietary carbs, your body just converts protein to fill the gap…

Hey Doug,

Thank you for sharing your experience. If insulin is disproportionately increased in a local compartment (e.g. thighs), it can indeed stimulate muscle protein synthesis in that compartment. This happens, because the local increase in insulin results in increased vasodilation and increased blood flow in that compartment. The muscle of that compartment can then take up more amino acids. But realize this is at the expense of amino acids availability elsewhere, you’re not increasing whole-body anabolism, you are just shifting more of it to the injected compartment.

When insulin is systemically elevated, it does not lower amino acid levels by making cells absorb those amino acids. It does so mainly by making cells release fewer amino acids.

Carbs are to b replaced with fat not protiens. Fat us a better source of energy than carbs. Heart works well from the energy from ketones as compared to Energy from Glucose. Carbs are non essential macros. They have no exclusive function. Insulin has more adverse effects than good ones bcoz it’s easy to go over board with insulin as carbs are everywhere around us. Which is y people don’t loose weight