Glycogen Storage Disorder
I didn't know where to put this so... GSD is a very serious genetic disease. I know I don't have it because I did 23 and me. Basically people with it are born without an enzyme that allows them to break down glycogen to use as energy. So glycogen just keeps getting stored in the liver. It is usually caught early because the liver swells up and kids get sick quickly.
There are apparently like 14 different types.. some more serious than other. Some adults do come down with it when they didn't have it before. Some symptoms include being over weight and wanting to eat sugar all the time because you're not getting enough energy - being tired all the time and lower blood sugar. You may but not necessarily have fatty liver or high liver enzymes.
But this got me thinking what if people who struggle to lose weight have a mild form of this. Say me, eats 1500 cals a day and my friend Sara eats the same. I eat more carbs than her and I put say 300 calories away in my liver... while she puts 200. I am slower to be able to convert that glycogen to energy. Sara burns all her glycogen off by 12 am each day and has 4 hours or so of fat loss at night. While I just have burned off my glycogen stores by the time I eat breakfast the next day so I never get to the fat. It doesn't change the calories in calories out situation... I still have the same calories.. I just can't access them as well due to enzymes.
Now if I change something.. like eat less carbs, do more exercise or eat less in general... I will be able to burn off more glycogen and thus get at least some time burning fat. But I still probably won't burn like Sara and I will have to eat a whole lot less than is expected for me to be able to lose weight. For instance my TDEE is 2000 calories but only seem to lose when I eat 1200 calories. By body is calling for the energy and just not getting it -- chronically.
But this seems like an alternate reason why low carbing, keto or fasting might work -- even if you are not insulin resistant, which I am not.
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