[kaplods]

I have to admit that detailed chemistry and physiology has never been my strong suite. Not only did I have to take physiology, embryonology, and chemistry courses to get my degrees, at least one third of my psychology classes also included biology, biochemistry, and brain physiology components, and I even had to teach much of it when I was teaching entry-level college courses - and I still can't explain most of what I've learned, because I forgot it the minute I didn't need it any more (I even had to re-study those subjects before teaching them).

For example, I remember the mnemonic acronym for the cranial nerves (On Old Olympus' Towering Top, A Finn And German Viewed Some Hops), but I only can ever remember the Olfactory nerve, the Occular nerve, the Trigeminal nerve and the Vagus nerve.

I can understand a lot of the medical terminology, and can read medical journal articles without too much trouble, but remembering it or understanding it well enough to explain it.... not so much.

What I do find astonishing is that there are some rather significant ways in which people can differ on even basic physiological processes though.

I saw an extreme example on a television show about the genetic factors in both obesity and slimness. Featured on the show was a little boy who doctors believed had a genetic condition similar to the dogs and cows shown on this page:

http://www.environmentalgraffiti.com...ws-ripped/2780

The conditon makes it easier for him to build muscle and very difficult for him to store fat.

In the program, they discussed the possibility of developing a drug that could mimic this disorder as a means for treating muscle wasting diseases and obesity by producing the myostatin deficiency that results in the extraordinary muscle development.

There is another genetic condition and other illnesses that prevent a person from gaining fat. They can eat 20,000 calories a day, and still not be able to gain weight.

Even though these conditions (at least those in the extremes) are incredibly rare, it's still amazing to me that they exist at all... that there can be so much variability in the metabolic process from one person to another.

[jendiet]

what kaplods described as "insulin hunger" is what you people who experience hunger 2 hours after eating are experiencing. You have an insulin spike which is driving down your blood sugar, causing real hunger, and it becomes a spike. If you are frequently experiencing this, you may be or be becoming insulin resistant. The best thing to do in that case is to stop eating carbs except at ONE meal that lasts ONE hour. If you extend it past one hour, you will get another insulin spike leading to more hunger.

There is alot more physiology, but people have learned to cope with this by doing

a)intermittent fasting. ONLY eat within a certain 5-7 hr time frame. Clinically proven to resensitize your body to insulin with little carb restrictions (you naturally want less).
b)some form of low carb with an induction period (sensitizes your body to insulin during the NO CARB period.)
c)carbohydrate addicts diet. works around the insulin issue.

for those with this problem, it is impossible to eat small amounts of carb snacks (meals) 6x day. The drive to eat overpowers. It is also impossible to eat low carb if you have a severe addiction.

Insulin resistance works like this:
1 gram of carb eaten by a normal person = 1 g insulin to uptake sugar into cells.
1 gram of carb in ABNORMAL person = 10 g insulin to uptake sugar into cells.

you are hungry because the sugar (energy) is there but it is USELESS to you because your body will not uptake it into the cells for energy. Only way to overcome is by resensitizing your body to insulin--if you are not already severely diabetic.

[kaplods]

I just started re-reading the book "Living the Low Carb Life," and it explains insulin's role in hunger and weight gain very well. It's also well annotated, so you can go directly to the original sources the author is quoting or using as source material.