Cast Your Nets! The Fiber Net is More Important Than You Think.

Chasing Function in a Society of Shame

Ready to Fish?

Yesterday, I revealed my favorite “weight-loss” hack: creating a metaphorical fiber net in the stomach prior to eating food. I like to think of the net as a fisherman’s tightly-woven net, tossed out into a sea of stomach acid. This fisherman’s net is good at one major thing: slowing down the absorption of glucose.

Basically, if I were to eat a slice of chocolate cake after casting my net then my glucose would not immediately escalate (a.k.a. “the sugar rush!”).
It would be a much slower (and blunted) climb.

This is important for a few reasons:

(1) A big factor of metabolic health is STEADYING.

…Steadyng the glucose spikes and subsequent dips. Imagine yourself in an ocean, swimming with waves. Would you prefer those waves to be 20 foot high before dipping back down and preparing for another large swell? Or would you prefer them to be consistent, steady, predictable bobbing so you can keep your head above water at all times? That’s what steadying glucose spikes feels like to the body. Large swells inevitably happen (a.k.a. sugary refined drink followed by refined cookies). When those large swells happen, the hormone insulin comes in to save the day… until…

(2) One key trouble with obesity is insulin resistance.

Insulin is released in EVERYONE when carbs (eventually translated into simple sugars by the digestive system) are present. Insulin is a hormone that sweeps sugar inside of cells. Imagine your family member coming to your door, knocking. If the knocking happens three times in one day, you’d answer each time and greet them. That’s insulin. It answers the call of the body: carbs are present, help me digest them! Now… imagine that same family member (insulin) knocking on your door 24/7. You’d still answer a few times. But now imagine it continuing, and continuing, and continuing! Eventually, you’d tune it out. You’d literally ignore the incessant door knocking, for preservation of your sanity. This is what happens with insulin resistance and obesity. At one point, the body was flooded with so much insulin that it was floating in a type of insulin bath, so to speak, and tuned down the receptive signals.

(3) Modern life is filled with refined carbs.

This is a relatively NEW experience for the human body. Refined carbs are not found in nature, that is why they are literally called “refined”. Refinement equates to processing, or the “stripping down of”. It isolates the carb from its natural partner in crime: fiber. Fiber is a natural blunting force for blood-sugar rushes (hence allowing a reasonable amount of insulin to come in with digestive aid). When fiber is stripped, and a refined carb is produced, then blood sugar escalates rapidly (a.k.a. a huge 20-foot wave comes at you) and more insulin is released to save the day. IF THIS HAPPENS ENOUGH TIMES YOU HAVE… insulin resistance (the overly friendly perpetually knocking family member!).

REFRAMING WEIGHT-LOSS:

When we look at excess weight from a hormonal perspective, it becomes clear: a chaos loop forms that is difficult to get out of, especially when the person-in-question indiscriminately lowers their calories and is operating under the assumptions of the calories-in, calories-out (CICO) model. This WILL work, but only until a certain moment in time. A whopping 80-95% of people regain their lost weight within three years. Everyone assumes it’s because “they lost control of their diet again.”

But what if I told you it’s far more hormonally coded?

This is exactly why I spend so much time writing about shame (if you’re new here, check out this article, and this article).

The hormonal chaos that IS obesity should not be subjected to raised eyebrows and shouts of society to “stop eating”. This further subjugates the person into shame spirals.

Abandoning shame would look like: understanding the FOUNDATION of the chaos, and the methodology for organizing that chaos into function once more.

Now THAT would be powerful.

The body is not to blame here. The body is extremely wise, and the goal of the body is to KEEP YOU ALIVE. When these deeper mechanisms are understood (and we will gradually shift through them as the months go on) then it becomes clear WHY the body does what it does. The tools for clearing the chaos also become clear, when this understanding is reached.

Part of my work is re-coding YOU to view the body as your best friend (and not some enemy you must control that is working against you). The logic we have been fed by the weight-loss mafia (the new champs in town being Ozempic handlers) is just deeply flawed. A quick read of the Minnesota Starvation Experiment (1944!) will show the reader exactly this: low-calorie diets only plunge us into further chaos.

A big step in recognizing the chaos, and straightening, is understanding the mechanism of insulin resistance in the overweight body. So, congratulations reader, we’re one step closer.

This is why creating that Fiber Net is so important. It effectively aids the body in not only reducing the waves of glucose swells, but in reducing the need for excess insulin surges, hence bettering the state of insulin resistance. When you’re out fishing for your next meal… don’t forget it.

Let’s Chase Function.

Until next time reader,
xo
Y