HANGRY...a tale of reversing insulin resistance

I used to get so bitchy with hunger just a few hours after my last meal. I would get dizzy and have brain fog. It was so weird. I was always planning my day around having my meals timed right, having snacks with me everywhere and just constantly thinking about food. When I looked around me, I noticed this wasn’t the case for everyone. I could see there were plenty of people who could start their day and get caught up with work and projects having food be an afterthought. They never reached that danger zone where weakness and desperation would cause a sugar binge. I wondered what was happening with my physiology to cause this to happen to me but others were so stable. I noticed it was much more common in the women that I knew than men and it was much more common in those of us with a little extra weight. I knew something was off and we shouldn’t feel this way all the time. I remembered that I had to learn about insulin resistance, type 2 diabetes and metabolic dysfunction in grad school so I got back into my materials and read as much as I could. 

Looking back, I realized that most of my 20’s, I ate an extremely high carb diet mostly because I was vegan or plan based for much of that time and because carbs are delicious and potatoes are one of God's most beautiful gifts. I ate very little animal protein/fat for many years because I thought that was healthy. In my searching, I came across accounts of other people coming to a similar realization on this sort of plant based high carb diet-we had given ourselves insulin resistance. We were pre diabetic because of our food choices. This is very common for most Americans who are overweight and eating the Standard American Diet but I always thought I was untouchable because I wasn’t in the overweight category (...toeing the line) and my diet was higher quality than most, shopping at health food stores and making things homemade. I aimed for higher quality and didn’t eat Cheetos regularly but a cookie is a cookie and a chip is a chip. 

In the past, I had done experiments with fasting, grain free and lower carb. I love trying things and being my own lab rat. Fasting was helpful for blood sugar stability but was way too stressful for my body, messing with my cycles and causing fatigue so that was not a good solution for me and I do not recommend it for menstruating women. I remembered that when I tried a month of grain free, my feelings of blood sugar spikes and crashes were reduced. I remember feeling more stable hours after eating and the cravings were so much milder. I remembered a similar feeling when low carb but my energy levels were too low and I felt fatigued all the time. 

I decided to play around with a grain free style of eating and started to experiment with carb levels. I had seen a health guru on Instagram recommend finding your “carb tolerance” so I would try different amounts each day or each meal and journal about how I felt. I noticed that carbs and sugar (even fruit) at breakfast caused low energy and carb cravings the rest of the day. I saw similar effects from carb heavy lunch but a little milder. I realized that when I had grapes in my chicken salad at lunch, then by 3pm I was crashing and desperate for sugar or simple carbs. Being grain free was so helpful and eye opening but I was still only able to go 2 or 3 hours between meals/ snacks and still not totally feeling stable. 

A few times in the prior 6 months, keto had been mentioned to me by my health practitioner but I just assumed it was too extreme for me and not necessary. I didn’t want to be on a “fad diet” and I didn’t want to stop eating my sweet potatoes. But through these experiments and my reading I came to realize that this was a worthwhile experiment in itself. I read about how other people were reversing insulin resistance and that keto helps repair the metabolism. I started to lower my carbs really low and get used to the kinds of foods I would have to rely on. My energy was low, but blood sugar was stable most of the time. I still had carbs with dinner and wasn’t ready for keto yet so I did this for a month just kind of preparing. When the time was right I went all in. I ate up to 20 grams of net carbs per day at the most and felt pretty good for almost a week. Then the dreaded “keto flu” set in and I was a zombie. I read that it was something that happened due to lack of electrolytes so I salted the shit out of everything I ate and drank lots of water. It really didn’t help that much and I was tired and puffy. My eye bags were almost funny. But, it only lasted about a week and a half and then one day I woke up and it was like a veil was lifted. I had no brain fog! I had clear, efficient energy and motivation. I felt like I was in touch with this other version of myself that was too cloudy to come through before. It was so exciting! I was able to engage with others more, friendlier and more positive. My fatigue was gone. I didn’t have that afternoon dip where I wanted a nap and was incapable of getting anything done past 3pm every day. It felt like a miracle. 

I started to slowly be able to go longer between meals and not getting as hangry. For a couple of weeks I would be really good for three hours and then my hunger signals would come through but they felt quieter. A few times I tried to push past into five hours between meals and instead of feeling super ravenous the bitchy symptoms came back almost out of nowhere, so I realized I wasn’t fat adapted yet and this would take time. I read that it can take a few months to really adapt so I took off the pressure and let things regulate slowly. Being “fat adapted” was my goal. It meant that my brain would be able to easily run on fat but if given the opportunity switch into running on glucose and then back again. It meant that my body would use some of the fat stores for energy. It would mean that I wouldn’t have to stay at 20 grams of carbs every day and could have a little more wiggle room. 

After a few months I was celebrating the 5 or 6 hours between meals. The freedom to go to work or events without packing snacks, knowing I could worry about eating later. I felt so stable and even. I had no cravings for carbs or sugar. I could look at other people eating those things and feel completely fine. I took a few bites homemade apple pie and didn’t feel the need to have more even though it was amazing. I could tell there was a profound change in the way my metabolism worked. There was only very minimal weight loss and that was fine. I didn’t count calories and only very loosely counted carbs because I didn’t want to stress myself out focused on numbers. I was on this diet to heal. I noticed that the places my clothes were more loose was in my stomach, the bloat was gone. I observed that I likely had lowered my inflammation and visceral fat. Visceral fat is fat stored around organs and is the most toxic fat. Improving metabolic health is a great way to reduce visceral fat and improve longevity. This victory was enough for me to feel good about what I was doing. As the months go by, I realize that this way of eating may not need to be how I eat forever but that if I am committed and heal I can slowly start to be more flexible and experimenting with more carbs eventually. If any of the old symptoms creep back in, I have these strategies and can address them head on. 

If you are keto-curious and want support, reach out to see if holistic coaching with me would be a good fit for you!