Why is your fasting blood sugar high even when you're eating clean, training consistently, cutting sugar, or even following a low-carb diet?
That's what I'm breaking down in Part 3 of this series.
I've dealt with this myself.
There was a period where I was eating low carb, doing intermittent fasting, training fasted, and still waking up with fasting glucose in the 90s and sometimes higher.
At first glance, that doesn't make much sense.
But once I started looking deeper into glucagon, cortisol, adrenaline, liver glucose production, and what happens when your cells aren't producing enough ATP, the picture changed.
Your fasting blood sugar isn't just about what you ate the night before.
Your liver is making glucose all night long, and hormones like glucagon, cortisol, and adrenaline help control how much gets released into the bloodstream.
In this episode, I break down:
- Why low ATP can create a stress response
- How adrenaline raises blood sugar and free fatty acids
- How cortisol can keep gluconeogenesis running
- Why glucagon may be one of the most overlooked hormones in metabolic health
- How insulin and glucagon are supposed to regulate each other
- Why fasting glucose can stay elevated even on a low-carb diet
- How the Randle cycle can interfere with glucose oxidation
- Why simply cutting more carbs may lower the number without fixing the underlying issue
- The labs I look at beyond fasting glucose alone
This connects directly back to Parts 1 and 2, where I explained how mitochondrial dysfunction can reduce ATP production even when enough calories are coming in.
When that energy deficit keeps happening, your body responds like there's an emergency.
And over time, that hormonal response can start showing up in your labs.
If you haven't watched the first two episodes yet, go back and start there. It'll make this one much easier to follow.
In Part 4, I'm going to zoom out and show how this same underlying metabolic dysfunction can show up as several different problems across the body.
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Stay Healthy AF,
Zane
Episode Timestamps:
- 0:00 The Overlooked Hormone Behind Fasting Blood Sugar
- 0:45 Zane's Own Experience With Elevated Fasting Glucose
- 2:00 When You're "Doing Everything Right" But Glucose Is Still High
- 3:00 How Seed Oils & Mitochondrial Dysfunction Fit Into the Story
- 5:00 Adrenaline: The First Stress Response
- 6:20 How Adrenaline Raises Fat & Glucose in the Blood
- 8:00 Why Stored Linoleic Acid Matters
- 8:45 Cortisol Takes Over When the Stress Doesn't Stop
- 10:00 Gluconeogenesis & Chronically Elevated Cortisol
- 12:00 Cortisol, PGC-1α & Mitochondrial Repair
- 13:00 Glucagon: The Overlooked Hormone
- 14:00 Why Low ATP Can Drive Glucagon Higher
- 15:00 When Insulin & Glucagon Stop Regulating Each Other
- 16:00 Why Your Liver Makes Glucose Overnight
- 17:30 The Randle Cycle Explained
- 19:00 Why Glucose Can Back Up in the Bloodstream
- 20:00 Why Cutting More Carbs May Not Fix the Problem
- 21:00 What Your Fasting Glucose Number Doesn't Tell You
- 21:40 Labs Zane Looks At
- 22:40 What's Coming in Part 4
- 23:20 Looking at the Whole Metabolic Pattern
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Research Referenced in This Series
Hulbert et al. (2007) — Membrane Composition & Lifespan — https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/17928583/
Seebacher et al. (2010) — Oxidative Metabolism & Proton Leak — https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/20586603/
Paradies et al. (2009) — Cardiolipin & Mitochondrial Dysfunction — https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/19368971/
Chicco & Sparagna (2007) — Cardiolipin Alterations — https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/16899548/
Stanley et al. (2012) — Dietary Fat & Mitochondrial Function — https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4067133/
Khairallah et al. (2012) — Membrane Fatty Acids & Mitochondrial Function — https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3316678/
Penzo et al. (2002) — Fatty Acids & Mitochondria — https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/12206909/
Hulbert et al. (2006) — Peroxidation-Resistant Membranes & Longevity — https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/16620917/
Pamplona et al. (2004) — Fatty Acids & Mitochondrial DNA Damage — https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/15130667/
Porter, Hulbert & Brand (1996) — Mitochondrial Proton Leak — https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/8997352/
