# how do people on low carb diets get fat/protein/carbs into their cells
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-people-on-low-carb-diets-get-fat-protein-carbs-into-their-cells/248833
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [June 5, 2004, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-people-on-low-carb-diets-get-fat-protein-carbs-into-their-cells/248833 "2004-06-05T17:37:14Z")
**Posts on this page:** 10
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)
#### Post date: [June 5, 2004, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-people-on-low-carb-diets-get-fat-protein-carbs-into-their-cells/248833/1 "2004-06-05T17:37:14Z")
I thought insulin was the gatekeeper, without it fats, carbs and proteins could not get into cells. So how do people on these diets manage to avoid this?
I remember before insulin was invented that people would starve to death since their cells couldn’t use the material that was floating around in their blood. How do low carbers avoid this fate? Or is that exactly what they want, so their body has to break down fat for energy? Even if the body did break down fat for energy, how would it get it into the cells without insulin?
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### Author:  [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)
#### Post date: [June 5, 2004, 5:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-people-on-low-carb-diets-get-fat-protein-carbs-into-their-cells/248833/2 "2004-06-05T17:47:42Z")
**Wesley** , the pancreas manufactures insulin. They continue to manufacture insulin no matter what diet they’re on.
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### Author:  [@istara](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/istara)
#### Post date: [June 5, 2004, 6:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-people-on-low-carb-diets-get-fat-protein-carbs-into-their-cells/248833/3 "2004-06-05T18:00:34Z")
Low-carbers still eat carbs - they are advised that it’s critical that they do. Except in the stricter, early stages of low carb diets (eg South Beach, or Atkins) carb content can be relatively normal. It’s possible for a non-dieter to eat the same day’s menu as a low-carber, without reaslising.
Eg imagine you had eggs and bacon for breakfast, a chicken caesar salad for lunch, and steak and steamed vegetables for dinner, followed by a hunk of cheese. Perhaps you didn’t bother to have any bread or snacks that particular day, and just didn’t get round to cooking a starch, but still ate fully and well. You effectively just low-carbed. A very normal, natural diet can be low carb.
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### Author:  [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)
#### Post date: [June 5, 2004, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-people-on-low-carb-diets-get-fat-protein-carbs-into-their-cells/248833/4 "2004-06-05T18:10:01Z")
> [@Wesley Clark](#):
>
> I remember before insulin was invented that people would starve to death since their cells couldn’t use the material that was floating around in their blood.
I am guessing that by “people” you mean “people with type 1 diabetes”. In type 1 diabetes, the immune system mistakenly attacks the pancreas and destroys the beta cells of the pancreas to the point where they can no longer produce sufficient amounts of the hormone insulin.
Obesity is associated with abnormal responses of insulin to glucose. Insulin resistance is very common in obese persons. A 2001 [study on insulin secretion and obesity](http://atkins.com/Archive/2002/1/11-197268.html) found, “As BMI [body mass index] and waist circumference increased, the pancreas was not able to regulate insulin secretion sufficiently. Results demonstrated that central obesity appears to be related to higher insulin secretion and lower output of insulin by the pancreas, even in individuals who do not have diabetes.”
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### Author:  [@Smeghead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smeghead)
#### Post date: [June 5, 2004, 6:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-people-on-low-carb-diets-get-fat-protein-carbs-into-their-cells/248833/5 "2004-06-05T18:15:48Z")
> [@Wesley Clark](#):
>
> I remember before insulin was invented…
And by the way, I, for one, think it’s a shame that the guy who invented insulin never got a Nobel Prize.
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### Author:  [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)
#### Post date: [June 5, 2004, 6:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-people-on-low-carb-diets-get-fat-protein-carbs-into-their-cells/248833/6 "2004-06-05T18:30:19Z")
Insulin was discovered, not invented. [Banting and Macleod](http://www.nobel.se/medicine/laureates/1923/index.html) won the 1923 Nobel Prize for Physiology and Medicine for the discovery and isolation of insulin.
The first successful insulin preparations came from cows, and later pigs.
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### Author:  [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)
#### Post date: [June 5, 2004, 10:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-people-on-low-carb-diets-get-fat-protein-carbs-into-their-cells/248833/7 "2004-06-05T22:33:51Z")
Obviously insulin was discovered and not invented. By invented i was referring to using genetically modified bacteria to produce insulin.
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### Author:  [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)
#### Post date: [June 5, 2004, 10:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-people-on-low-carb-diets-get-fat-protein-carbs-into-their-cells/248833/8 "2004-06-05T22:45:37Z")
so back to my question, how do fats/carbohydrates/proteins get into cells then on a low carbohydrate diet? To my knowledge insulin is both necessary for this and response to glucose and if there isn’t glucose in the diet wouldn’t there be excessively low insulin levels?
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### Author:  [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)
#### Post date: [June 5, 2004, 11:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-people-on-low-carb-diets-get-fat-protein-carbs-into-their-cells/248833/9 "2004-06-05T23:23:22Z")
Your metabolism has a heierarchy when it comes to converting food into glucose. First it will convert the carbohydrates you consume. When it exhausts those, it will convert the fat you consume. Past that, it will convert your bodyfat. This is how Atkins works.
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### Author:  [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)
#### Post date: [June 6, 2004, 3:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-people-on-low-carb-diets-get-fat-protein-carbs-into-their-cells/248833/10 "2004-06-06T03:51:09Z")
> [@Wesley Clark](#):
>
> insulin is both necessary for this and response to glucose and if there isn’t glucose in the diet wouldn’t there be excessively low insulin levels?
No. As **Walloon** points out, the body secretes insulin in response to glucose in the bloodstreadm. If the body has no carbs to turn into glucose, it turns fat into glucose. And if the body has no carbs or fats to turn into glucose, it turns protein into glucose. And if the body has no carbs or fats or proteins to turn into glucose, well then the body starves.