Insulin spikes?

[xfile384]

Can someone properly explain this to me? I understand you get them from having high carb meals? Or, maybe having a soda, juice, something like that?

How much carbs/sugar does it take for you to have an insulin spike?

How long does the spike last?

Are they a bad thing?

Can they promote weight gain?

Can they help muscle gain?

Also, if your happy with your size/weight and workout 5 days a week, is it ok to go out and have ice cream on occasion, or eat pizza, etc? I don't eat fast food, but every now and then having ice cream with a date or something...I mean, as long as i stay within my maintenance calories, I'm not going to get fat by eating unhealthy food, right?

 

[danzik17]

You don't get fat by eating pizza or ice cream occasionally. In fact, it's been shown to be beneficial to cheat (not necessarily the foods themselves, but the higher calories for a day or two). And you don't get fat from any particular food, you get fat from eating more calories than you burn.

Insulin shuttles blood glucose either into fat or into muscle, so to answer your question on weight gain it's a yes to both.

They can be both a good thing and a bad thing, it depends on what you're trying to do. Immediately after a workout an insulin spike is desirable since glucose uptake into the muscles would be greater than normal.

 

[xfile384]

What about trans fat and thing made with hydrogenated oils? If you eat things like this on occasion, but keep it within your calorie maintenance, will you gain weight?