On Thu, 18 May 2000, Ken Stuart wrote:

> This "insulin builds muscles" thing doesn't make much sense to
> me, so I am going to research it further.

It's true that insulin is an anabolic hormone; you need it to
build muscles.  Glucagon is catabolic.  This is why it can be
difficult to add muscle and shed fat *at the same time*, as body
builders know.  Thus, many do cycles of "bulking" and "cutting".
It's hard to build muscle without gaining at least some fat, and
hard to lose fat without losing at least some muscle.

Even so, protein is itself a moderate stimulator of insulin, so
if one is getting lots of protein for muscle-building, there
should be enough insulin to get the job done.  For the "cutting"
phase of one's plan, I suppose it would be a good idea to eat
little protein and lots of fat, keeping insulin to a bare
minimum.  This would be consistent to a somewhat lower-intensity
higher-rep lifting pattern, since high-intensity lifting requires
glucose.

Todd Moody
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