Rises above one full point in energy state are a ‘spike’.
Everybody (and every body) is different, so blanket rules are difficult, but generally Limbo treats rises in energy state above one full point as a ‘spike’.
There are two types of spike:
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Food related spike — eating something with any type of carbohydrate/sugar. It’s quickly absorbed and pushes blood glucose quickly upwards.
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Non-food spike – Other stresses that that surprise the body and triggers our ‘fight or flight’ response. It can be physical like an ice bath; or it can be from stress.
The blood glucose rise requires your body fat to fuel it — a process called ‘gluconeogenesis’, or ‘making new glucose’
In the case of food spikes, this means that your body switches track — it turns off the process of ketosis – using body fat to create fuel – and instead uses the energy just eaten. When ketosis stops, so does fat breakdown — and weight loss.
Remember: the only way you can reduce body fat is through ketosis.
All food-related spikes in blood glucose put weight loss on pause. And larger spikes don’t just pause the process — they stop fat breakdown instantly and shift you towards the opposite direction: fat storage (ie weight gain). The more spikes you have, the slower will be your progress towards your weight goal.
How about spikes vs rolling hills?
If you think of a spike as a rapid rise, then a crash, like a mountain and a valley, how about smaller changes, when your Limbo line goes gently up and down, like a rolling hill. It’s not a ‘spike’ but it’s also not flat. Is that OK?
The body is very sensitive to glucose levels, and it is very efficient. Our BG level works a bit like a ‘thermostat’ in a house, but instead of reacting to temperature, our BG level regulates all energy in the body by responding to levels, whether high or low.
When BG goes too low the body flags this low level: “aha, BG is low — need to get it up again”.
Your body has different options, such as signalling hunger to the brain (”eat now, eat now”). Alternatively, when you’re in the fasted state – sleeping, or awake but without food — the body will start breaking down existing body fat, to ‘top up’ the glucose in the bloodstream back to the target level, i.e. ketosis.
When BG goes too high the body quickly shuts off its own glucose production. Why break down fat to make more glucose because it has much easier energy it can avail of instead?
The key with weight loss is nudging the body to more time in ketosis, and less time ‘direct-burning’ fuel (ie food). So even a fairly small undulating hill, which is often from eating food with some (but not a lot of) sugar or carbohydrates, can mean your body’s ketosis gets put on hold.
Hills have less impact than spikes, but will still slow progress
The rolling hills are better for you than the big mountains and valleys – but they will still delay your weight loss progress.
Trying to ‘game’ the body using smaller but more frequent portions of sugar or carbohydrates will avoid some of the negative effects of big spikes — like the big crashes — and mitigate other downsides. But rolling hills have a cost, just like spikes do: they will delay weight loss progress.
Limbo is not designed to lay down a strict diet and say “thou shalt” or “thou shalt not”, but we’re aiming to empower members to understand their metabolism. There are still choices and trade-offs to make — but they can be more informed ones.
They’re your choices and your tradeoffs, that progress you toward your goal.