05-24-2016, 05:51 PM
(05-24-2016, 04:35 PM)~Axis~ Wrote: I know that organ question was a bit confusing, but i asked that because i read an article that claimed that our organs couldnt use glucose for energy if insulin is not present in the blood.
Ah, I think I get the confusion, that would technically be true but it's not exclusive, your body just needs insulin to be able to process glucose, all the work is essentially done by your liver.
If you'd like a bit more of a breakdown, because I don't think I was totally clear in my post, your liver is the organ doing the magic here. In a non-diabetic body, when there are high levels of glucose in your blood your pancreas produces insulin, it's fairly complex biology, but in simple terms without insulin your liver breaks down fats into ketones as an alternative energy source.
What I wasn't totally clear about is that these two sources of energy aren't 100% one-or-the-other, for example, while the liver is what breaks down fat into ketones to provide energy, it will always use glycogen as an energy source, similarly your brain can use ketones as an energy source, but will always default to using glycogen. (This is an interesting one and there's lots of discussion around ketogenic diets and their seemingly positive effects on the brain, but this is why a blood-sugar crash or low insulin levels can cause confusion and make it hard to concentrate. Also, without any glycogen at all your brain will just die, and I'm assuming you probably don't want that to happen)
I also didn't mention that organs and muscles store a certain amount of glycogen to keep them working, but these are relatively small amounts so it's simplest to just think of your blood-sugar and insulin levels as a general indicator of how much glucose is in your system.
But basically you've got it right, the biology is naturally way more complicated than I can explain outright, (also taking into account that I don't know all of it myself), but so long as you keep your blood-sugar levels within safe margins your metabolism will work the same as anyone else, so by exercising and eating an appropriate diet you can lose weight and put on muscle, just never as fast as everyone would like.