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Blood sugar levels?


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  • 4 weeks later...
On 11/18/2019 at 4:21 AM, Fernando Gabriel said:

If two people are 5% fat and 6 feet tall but one is 180 lbs and another 110 lbs,both are maintaining weight and do the same exercise and eat the same food in different amounts which one would have the highest blood sugar level?

The 180 lbs. guy at 5% fat would have to have far more muscle mass than the 110 lbs. person at 5% fat, and excess glucose is stored as glycogen in muscle, so its possible the muscular person would have the better blood sugar level, especially if muscle glycogen levels are depleted by exercise.  This doesn't necessarily mean better health or longevity though.  Plus there are things you can do to improve blood sugar besides gaining muscle mass (like cold exposure, eating lower glycemic index foods, exercise optimizations, maybe even taking metformin, etc)

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Gordo,

This is part of the reason why I try to stay lean, and maintain as much muscle mass as I can on a natural CRON(ish) TRF (18-6ish)  Mostly Plant-based diet 😉

Dr.Peter Attia discusses this in a couple of his youtbe videos but essentially he likens muscle mass as acting as a 'glucose-sink' acting as (my words here) an overflow reservoir for glucose spikes.

My understanding is that circulating blood glucose:

  • first, tops up glycogen stores in the liver 
  • secondly, tops up glycogen in the muscles 
  • lastly stored as body fat

Clinton

Edited by Clinton
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2 hours ago, Clinton said:

My understanding is that circulating blood glucose:

  • first, tops up glycogen stores in muscle tissue
  • secondly, tops up glycogen in the liver
  • lastly stored as body fat

I believe most digested glucose first goes to the liver by way of the hepatic portal vein.  Only if the liver doesn't use it to replete glycogen does it go on to general circulation where skeletal muscle and adipose can get it.  Skeletal muscle and adipose tissue use the same insulin sensitive glucose transporter GLUT4 and take up glucose together in response to rising insulin.  But each tissue regulates how aggressively they use GLUT4 and in healthy people skeletal muscle will be taking up glucose at many times the rate of adipose until glycogen is replete.

 

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More muscles mean more GLUT-4 mediated uptake, but more muscles need to be maintained or grown with greater amounts of calories and probably more carbs. Also, the greater the volume  of training, the  higher the calories needed. Many of which are typically carbs.

In my n=1 case fasting BG tends to be the same, but with a higher variability. My latests measurements: 87, 97, 82 mg/dL.

A typical bodybuilding diet is based on carbs, with little fats and many proteins.

 

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