Hangry is not normal hunger. Normal hunger is usually brought about by smelling food. It’s…
The Energy Model of Insulin Resistance Cracks the Obesity Code
Why Everything You’ve Heard About Insulin Resistance Is Missing the Point
When I wanted to learn more about insulin resistance, I was taught that it was caused by weight gain—usually from eating too much and not exercising enough. Nutrition-wise, some folks blamed sugar and starchy carbs for spiking a fat-building hormone (insulin). Others focused on saturated fat. All these various explanations seem sensible at first glance.
But as I looked closer, especially in patients who were doing everything “right” and still not improving, it became clear that something was missing. Each model, the carbohydrate model, the saturated fat model, and the fat-first model, left out essential pieces of the puzzle. And when I started investigating what might be behind those gaps, I kept coming back to one overlooked ingredient: toxic seed oils (the Hateful Eight).
That journey led to the theory I present in my paper, “The Energy Model of Insulin Resistance.” In it, I propose that insulin resistance doesn’t start with sugar, saturated fat, or weight—it starts with an energy crisis at the cellular level. And it’s being driven by the most common source of fat in our modern diets: highly processed, oxidatively unstable seed oils.
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For the last month, I have really been reading all labels on everything. I have completely remove those 8 oils you talk about. I must tell you, I feel great! I have more energy and I am now 197 lbs (have always been around 205 to 210lbs). I eat potatoes with real butter, grass fed steak, pasta with the right toppings. I eat everything! I seem to crave less sugar. I love it!
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Dismantles the lie
Dr. Cate dismantles the lie that seed oils are healthy, which may the biggest lie about nutrition and health because it’s so insidious.
Ken D Berry, MD
Author of Lies My Doctor Told Me
She knows the chemistry
Dr. Cate alerts us to the harms of seed oils and she’s convincing because she knows the chemistry better than anyone.
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Dr. Cate has had the single greatest impact on how we talk to people about fueling for both performance or durability. While we all are a little unique, the foundational principles of human nutrition are immutable. If you are looking to create a more durable, resilient body, no one is better at communicating nutritional truth than Dr. Cate.
Dr. Kelly Starrett
Physiotherapist coach and New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestselling author
Highly recommend The Fatburn Fix
Dr. Shanahan has had a significant impact on my practice of medicine. I am known as a Low Carb Doctor, but I never really appreciated the negative effects of processed seed oils on the health of my patients. I highly recommend The Fatburn Fix to my patients and have a loaner copy in my waiting room. It is amazing how quickly blood sugars and overall health improves with cutting seed oils. It is not just about the carbs!
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CEO of LowCarbMD San Diego, co-host of Low Carb MD Podcast and host of Life's Best Medicine Podcast
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Dr. Cate reordered my diet when I was with the L.A. Lakers, and the benefits, for me personally, were felt immediately and have served me to this day. I’ve come to take real food so seriously I started a small family farm. I know of no M.D./nutritionist more respected in the sports world than Dr. Cate Shanahan.
Chris Kaman
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Cate brought the seed oil issue front and center. Healthy fats matter. So much so that I created an entire product line to swap out bad fats with good.
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Pull up a chair…
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Lauren Smith
Saved my life
I would like to thank you for literally saving my life. Back in February, I had to be hospitalized while on vacation in Phoenix with an A1C of 11% and had to start taking 2 types of insulin and 2 other meds. I read the Fatburn Fix in April, and followed the program to a tee, and I’m down by 15 pounds, 6.8 A1C, and only one once weekly diabetes medicine.
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Let me walk you through where the old models go wrong—and why it matters.
The Carbohydrate Model: Why Sugar Alone Isn’t to Blame
The carbohydrate model says that eating too many carbs raises blood sugar, which leads to high insulin. Over time, too much insulin eventually causes insulin resistance. Sort of how we develop tolerance to alcohol over time. Sounds logical. But if that were the full story, then why would low-carb diets cause diabetes in animals fed soy oils as the main source of fat?
More importantly, plenty of people with insulin resistance don’t eat excessive carbs at all. I’ve seen it in my practice.
The carbohydrate model ignores the fact that seed oils change our body fat from an energy source to something different. Healthy cells are supposed to burn body fat between meals. If they lose access to our body fat—because burning our body fat damages them—then sugar becomes the only fuel left. Blood sugar drops dramatically between meals, leading to hypoglycemia symptoms. Cravings go up. Energy crashes. We can even feel anxious or irritable–as in hangry. If your cells can’t burn your body fat without experiencing damaging oxidative stress, cutting carbs won’t fix that problem.
The Saturated Fat Model: A Dead-End Distraction
Mainstream advice also warns us to avoid saturated fat, claiming it causes insulin resistance by making cells “stiff” and inflamed. But this theory relies on outdated ideas about cholesterol and has no mechanistic explanation that stands up to scrutiny. It’s based on epidemiological correlations, not hard science.
Worse, it pushed us to replace natural fats like butter and coconut oil with “heart-healthy” seed oils—oils that are actually harming our mitochondria and blocking energy production. When we made that switch, beginning in the middle of the 20th century, metabolic disease exploded. Skipping saturated fat doesn’t solve insulin resistance. It supercharges it.
The Weight-First Model: Mistaking Symptom for Cause
Perhaps the most harmful myth is the idea that excess weight causes insulin resistance, and that losing weight will fix it. This belief dominates clinical guidelines and public health messaging. But in my experience, it’s backwards.
It’s not that gaining fat causes insulin resistance. It’s that by causing insulin resistance, seed oils build body fat that you can’t burn off. Once seed oils reach a crucial concentration in your diet, they poison your body fat. Poisoned body fat can not provide your cells with the clean energy they need between meals. Instead of getting energizing fuel, your cells suffer from harmful oxidative stress. To survive, your cells demand sugar. At the slightest sign of blood sugar dropping, your adrenals release cortisol so that your liver pumps out sugar. But it pumps out too much, raising sugar so high that now your pancreas has to pump out more insulin. And the spiral continues.
That’s why so many people struggle to lose weight despite dieting. Their metabolism isn’t slowing down with age—it’s being sabotaged from the inside.
Emotional Consequences of Misunderstanding Insulin Resistance
If you’ve ever felt hangry, needed snacks just to get through the day, or struggled to focus without constant fueling, that’s not normal. It’s a sign that your cells are already insulin resistant. And while your blood sugar numbers might still look “normal,” the energy deficit is already affecting your brain, your mood, and your ability to make healthy choices.
This hidden form of insulin resistance is incredibly common, but because doctors don’t routinely test for it—and are often trained not to take symptoms of falling blood sugar seriously—it goes undetected. And that has consequences far beyond diabetes.
As many as one in seven people with obesity suffer from episodes of binge eating, which often makes weight gain spiral out of control. And nearly half deal with emotional eating that destroys their self-esteem. The saddest part is, many affected people are treated for psychological problems with drugs that worsen their weight gain when the real problem is not in their heads. It’s in their body fat. They’re treated as if they’re mentally or emotionally broken, when in truth their trouble is mainly metabolic.
The Energy Model of Insulin Resistance: A Better Explanation, A Clearer Path Forward
In the Energy Model of Insulin Resistance, I propose that the root cause of insulin resistance is a failure of mitochondrial energy production, driven by the toxic byproducts of seed oils stored in body fat. It reframes insulin resistance not as a problem of sugar overload, but of cellular energy starvation.
This model helps explain:
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Why 39 percent of millennials need “snacks for function and to stay focused throughout the day.”
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Why even dramatic weight loss and bariatric surgery fail to put diabetes into full remission (58% become prediabetic, with the remainder staying diabetic).
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Why serious mental illnesses are on the rise (it’s not only the social factors!)
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Why eliminating seed oils—not just carbs or calories—can make a rapid difference in how you feel (and there are multiple reddit threads on this subject)
When you remove these oils and fuel your body with real, natural fats, your cells regain their ability to burn fat for energy. Hunger becomes manageable. Mood stabilizes. Mental clarity improves. And you begin to reclaim your metabolic health—starting at the cellular level.
If you’re ready to stop blaming saturated fat, weight, or yourself, the Energy Model is going to resonate with you. The science is clear. It’s time for our understanding of insulin resistance to evolve. Let’s stop chasing symptoms and start fixing the real problem.
Read the full publication and share with your doctor HERE.
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This Post Has 15 Comments
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Excellent article, once again. I’ve too have studied all your books. I’m in my senior years and have been avoiding seed oils and consuming the healthiest fats I can source in that portion of my diet. I see a correlation with seed oils with inflammatory disorders also. Otherwise healthy people in their 20’s having bouts of pleuresy, for example, is becoming common. The seed oils prevalent in their diet lead to excessive sugar consumption and inflammation rears it’s ugly head. All aspects of diet are important, but I’m convinced that eliminating seed oils and replacing them with well sourced healthy fats is the single most important dietary action people can take to improve their overall health, both long and short term.
Hi Dr Kate
Thank you for a great article. I’ve been following your work for years.
Is it possible to burn off toxic or damaged fat in our adipose tissue? If yes, should we expect any negative symptoms?
Absolutely you can burn it off. But you are in a bit of a “fix” because you need to burn it off to lose weight, but your body is trained to avoid burning fat. That’s why I called my 2020 book the FatBurn Fix! I teach you how to get out of the fix.
Aloha Dr Cate, thank you for this paper. Very happy you are published!
Our primordial Mitochondria, which I have been studying via Petro Dobromylskyj (Peter), at high-fat-nutrition dot blogspot dot com (synchronicity-and-origins-of-protons)
” … Understanding insulin signaling is impossible without appreciating that the system is intrinsically related to the actions of reactive oxygen species, as elegantly demonstrated by Czech back in 1974. … the role of the Randle cycle … Saturated fats limit insulin signaling to allow co-oxidation, in the same cell, of both glucose and lipid substrates … Linoleic acid’s low ROS signal (compared to stearate) allows excess insulin signaling to facilitate malonyl-CoA generation and the immediate inhibition of fat oxidation … What happens if you over distend an hepatocyte? That I don’t know but it is very clear that if you over distend an adipocyte the lipid droplet ruptures and releases free trigycerides in to the tissues, which provoke a massive inflammatory response, classically seen in the most insulin sensitive adipocytes, those in the visceral adipose tissue. I’m willing to bet the same happens in the liver. That we might call NAFLD converting to NASH …” It’s “Just Protons!”
Thank you for reading this far, no need to publish my comment if that would be awkward!
I became aware of your studies on seed oils from your Megan Kelly interview in October 2022. The same day I cut out all my seed oils. I talk about your work daily in my practice because this problem is an epidemic. I realized for 15 years that there had to be something wrong with our food which was making people sick but was unable to find an answer until I discovered you and your work. I grew up when there was very little obesity and watched America get sicker. Thank you for changing my life (and some) of my patient’s lives!
Not many of us notice that there was a gap to fill in our education, and I’m honored that my work has helped you. Thank you for your wonderful comment!
Hi dr. Kate
Thank you for all your work. I’ve been following you for years.
Is it possible to burn off body fat that is already damaged/poisoned by seed oils? If yes, are the toxins going to produce any negative symptoms?
Yes absolutely important question. See my reply to Joanna, above.
Enjoyed the reading, will indeed share.
One thing in addition on oils that I was blessed to start learning in 2012 – 13. From this free 70 page publication a gym put out (It was free when you download it. Cost money for the hardcopy).
Was also using the good oils properly.
Like what type of heat to use with them and which ones would just be good as salad dressings and so forth.
Also once people know the good oils and how to use them, they can get away from the seed oils.
I have a question Dr. Cate. Though using good oils at the wrong temp may not cause big problems, compared to seed oils. What problems can that cause?
You can abuse any oil if you really want to and reusing it over and over for days and days in a deep fryer is the easiest way to do that. But you’ll likely notice because it will taste bad.
Greetings, Dr. Cate, I have found your research to be both informative and helpful. My husband and I are retired, healthy, and only use olive oil at home. I only wish we could get the word out to restaurants. Since we travel a great deal, we eat out a lot. Anything you can do to spread the word to the restaurant industry would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you for the nice note. And yes I’m workin on that! I’m working with Joe Polish who inspired Iron Chef winner Mark Tarbell in AZ to go seed oil free in all his restaurants. We will be creating content around that topic. Follow seedoil.com to stay up to date as the project unfolds.
FYI to all: there is an app called “seed oil scout” that lists restaurants not using seed oils throughout the US. I’ve used it mostly when I have traveled.
Thanks for leading this movement, Dr. Cate!
Dr. Shanahan,
Another excellent post and , I think, your best explanation to date of the seed oil issue. I look forward to reading the journal article. I’ve read all your books and found them enlightening and informative. Thank you for taking time from your busy life to provide us all with this intelligence.
Thank you for a lovely message!