Insulin resistance is one of the major contributing factors to excess body fat.
And unfortunately having insulin resistance makes it more challenging to lose weight.
But there are several easy things you can do to lose weight if you have insulin resistance.
What is Insulin Resistance?
Insulin is an incredibly important hormone in your body.
It is the hormone that signals glucose to be stored in your muscle and liver.
However, when you are insulin resistant, your body has an impaired ability to respond to insulin.
And if your body has an impaired ability to respond to insulin, anytime you consume glucose your serum blood sugar levels will remain elevated after a meal.
So if you have been told that you have high blood sugar by your doctor, by definition you are insulin resistant.
Insulin Resistance & Exercise
The majority of my clients come to me being somewhere on the spectrum of mildly insulin resistant to full blown type 2 diabetic.
And the first strategy we employ is to begin an exercise program.
Research from world renowned diabetologist Gerald Shulman has shown that a single bout of exercise can reverse the abnormal pattern of carbohydrate storage in insulin resistant individuals.
The take away from this study is that exercise causes a glucose transporter in your body called GLUT 4 to clear circulating glucose from your blood and store it where it belongs – in the muscle as glycogen.
This groundbreaking finding suggests that exercise can actually bypass the need for insulin as a glucose transporting molecule and thus allow you to reverse insulin resistance.
If you can reverse insulin resistance you will ultimately lose weight!
Best Exercise for Insulin Resistance
In order to effectively lose weight with insulin resistance, you need to implement the right exercise strategy.
The first type of exercise I prescribe to my clients is a low intensity aerobic exercise called Zone 2 Training.
I wrote a whole article about it here which you can read but I’ll sum it up briefly.
Zone 2 Training
Zone 2 training is a purely aerobic form of exercise whereby you are burning fat as your primary fuel source.
It has the benefit of directly burning stored fat and also improving insulin sensitivity at the same time by enhancing insulin independent glucose clearance.
Your body relies on the hormone insulin to transport glucose and if you are insulin resistant, it has an impaired ability to recognize the signal of insulin.
Zone 2 training allows you to clear glucose WITHOUT the need for insulin via the GLUT 4 transporter.
Remember the study I talked about above from Gerald Shulman?
The study showed that exercise allows you to get glucose into the muscle cell without the need of insulin.
And this is precisely why Zone 2 Training is so effective.
Insulin Resistance Diet
Aside from implementing a tailored exercise strategy, the other critical step I take when working with my clients is to implement a specific diet for insulin resistance.
If you want to lose weight with insulin resistance, you need an approach that targets not only fat loss but also insulin sensitivity.
If you can become more insulin sensitive, you will lose fat at a faster rate and of course reverse your insulin resistance.
Which Foods Not to Eat
Your body needs to become sensitive to insulin again so that it can properly dispose of glucose.
Therefore, you need to stop bombarding your body with the foods causing insulin resistance in the first place.
These foods are specifically high glycemic foods.
High Glycemic Foods
The Glycemic Index is simply a system of measuring how much certain foods raise your blood sugar.
Foods that are higher on the glycemic index scale will spike your insulin and raise your blood sugar.
Some examples of high glycemic foods include:
-Refined Carbohydrates (white rice, white bread, pasta)
-Sweets
-Sugar Sweetened Beverages
-Dried Fruit
You can check out a whole list of high glycemic foods here.
Next Steps: Hire a Coach
Excess body fat and insulin resistance are the catalysts for atherosclerotic disease, cancer, and dementia.
If you need help losing weight with insulin resistance, take a look at my coaching options.
My speciality is providing movement and diet solutions for people noticing changes to their metabolic health.
Losing weight and reversing insulin resistance are requisites for optimal metabolic health and living a long healthy life.
I have helped hundreds of individuals lose body fat and reverse insulin resistance.
I take my client relationships very seriously and will work closely with you to build a personalized plan of attack and guide you each step of the way.
I look forward to hearing from you!
jakob@rozefit.com