Dr. Ben Bikman

So I want to be careful in answering this because I'm an insulin guy, but I'm not a muscle cell guy.

But...

Because I'm familiar with insulin, I'm comfortable enough answering this question.

So there was a group, in fact, I think it was the same guy I mentioned earlier, Sri Nair, N-A-I-R, at Minnesota at the time.

They published a paper finding that insulin wasn't necessary for muscle protein synthesis.

So here we have the muscle and we have the protein formed, giving the bulk of the muscle.

You have to look at both the stimulus building it and the signals that are breaking it down.

They documented that insulin was not necessary for muscle protein synthesis, but it was very helpful for inhibiting the breakdown.

So they suggested that insulin's main effect of muscle is an anti-proteolytic effect.

rather than a stimulating effect.

So my general view is that that's where insulin is going to be favorable, but it also didn't take a lot of insulin to inhibit the proteolysis.

So I do not think it's at all justified to take insulin as an intervention to try to promote muscle growth.

And in fact, just as a very unscientific observer, when I compared the physiques of Arnold and Lou from the old 1980s bodybuilders to the modern day bodybuilders and the almost bizarre phenotype of this bubble belly.

You know what I'm talking about?

Anyone listening probably knows what I'm talking about.

But I want to be polite.

These are real guys.

But we can all agree that there's an odd physique, you know, whereas Arnold and Lou were extremely tapered.

Very, very narrow waist.

Modern bodybuilders, yes, they're more jacked, but they're also oddly distended with their abdomen.