Intermittent Fasting: The Best Insulin Resistance Diet
The best way to increase your insulin sensitivity is through fasting. In an episode of the Bulletproof Radio podcast . Dr. Jason Fung explains how intermittent fasting drops your insulin levels, which alters your bodys demand for insulin in a good way.
If you become very insulin resistant, then your insulin levels are up all the time, your body is always trying to shove the energy into the fat cells, and then you feel cold and tired and lousy. Thats the real problem. Resistance really depends on two things. Its not simply the high levels, but its the persistence of those levels. What people have realized is that the insulin resistance, because it depends on those two things, a period of time where you can get your insulin levels very low is going to break that resistance because it breaks that persistence. Not simply the levels, but the persistence of those levels.
RELATED: Set yourself up for intermittent fasting success instantly download the Ultimate Intermittent Fasting Guide to get your quick-start guide, sample 3-day meal plan, and printable intermittent fasting journal
Intermittent fasting is the easiest, smartest, most consistent way to fast. In short, intermittent fasting means you eat all of the food youll eat in a day in a short window of time. People will fast anywhere from 12-20 hours per day, depending on goals. More on how to do it here.
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Cut Out Highly Glycemic Carbs
Shocker: the best way to reduce high insulin levels is to stop eating the crap that raises it!
The amount of times Ive seen someone with type 2 diabetes continue to eat carbohydrates is sickening. Youd think that this would be the obvious first step, but unfortunately it isnt because it can open doctors to lawsuits.
According to diabetes Dr. Bernstein, MDs prescribe a high-carb diet to their diabetic patients just so that they dont get sued. Even though this leads to blindness & amputation, it prevents hypoglycemia, the 1 thing they can be sued for .
Carbohydrates are one of the main reasons why insulin exists. Most are highly insulinogenic. And theyre non essential .
Theyre providing nothing for you other than satisfying your carb addiction. If youre insulin resistant you need to cut out carbs and fuel yourself from fat ASAP.
In this study, participants on Keto:
- Ate 30% fewer calories
- Lost 4 lbs in 14 days
- And most importantly.improved insulin sensitivity by 75%
This is in just 14 days!
The Ketogenic diet will reduce your insulin needs. It also will increase your metabolic rate, which frees up your fat cells to burn energy like theyre supposed to.
Subjects of this study burned more energy just by having lower insulin levels. Thats the magic of reducing insulin.
Lastly, carbohydrates cause oxidative stress, which worsen insulin resistance and inflame your entire body .
If you want to optimize your health, cut out these inflammatory, unnecessary carbs.
The Fattest People On Earth
The Pimas of Arizona are among the fattest groups of people in the world. The only populations more obese are people living on some isolated Pacific Islands. On the Gila River reservation in Arizona, children as young as six and seven are so obese they cannot run. They lumber across baseball fields, out of breath before they get to first base.
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What Is Insulin Sensitivity Exactly
Insulin sensitivity is the term that we use to describe how the cells in our body respond to insulin. The more insulin sensitive your cells are, the more responsive they will be to insulin, and vice versa.
To measure this phenomenon objectively, we need to figure out how much insulin your body needs to produce to deposit a certain amount of glucose . You are considered insulin sensitive if your body only needs to secrete a small amount of insulin to deposit glucose into the cells, and you are considered insulin resistant when you need a higher than normal dose of insulin for the cells to respond.
Insulin sensitivity has turned into a widespread phenomenon in the weight loss industry because of the strong correlation between insulin sensitivity and body fat percentage. The research literature suggests that increasing your insulin sensitivity will reduce your risk of heart disease, type 2 diabetes, obesity, and Alzheimers disease. In other words, if you want to lose fat and improve your overall health, it is probably best to optimize your insulin sensitivity.
What Causes Insulin Resistance
Nevertheless, increasing dosage seldom leads to a happy ending. Neither does it in our case. Increasing volume usually promotes resistance.
Thus, the more often a person consumes a particular drug, the lesser the effect. Similarly, the same is true for insulin.
Since insulinresistance shares the characteristics of common types of resistance, insulinitself is our primary candidate for the cause of insulin resistance.
If high insulin levels cause insulin resistance, the body needs to produce more insulin to ensure functionality. As a result, even more severe insulin resistance is developed.
And the vicious cycle fuels resistance over and over again.
For this reason, the 2011 Banting Medal Winner, Dr. Barbara Corkey, called her lecture, Hyperinsulinemia is the root cause of insulin resistance, obesity, and diabetes .
And for this insight, she received the American Diabetes Associations highest scientific award.
Likewise, heres what the path to type 2 diabetes looks like:
If insulincauses insulin resistance, we have to ask why the human body is aiming at developinginsulin resistance?
The answer is simple. Its a safety mechanism, since too high insulin levels can quickly lead to alarmingly low blood glucose levels.
As a result, hypoglycemia would most likely cause death.
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Add More Fruits Vegetables Herbs And Spices To Your Diet
Many studies have found that a diet rich in plant compounds from fruits and vegetables is linked to reduced insulin resistance. The healthiest plants tend to be low-carb fruits and vegetables like wild berries, leafy greens, and cruciferous vegetables.
Herbs and spices have also shown promising results for boosting insulin sensitivity. Some of the most effective are:
- Turmeric: This powerful herb contains a compound called curcumin, which has potent antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties. It can indirectly increase insulin sensitivity by reducing free fatty acids and sugar in the blood.
- Ginger: This popular spice is linked to increased insulin sensitivity as well. Studies have found that its active component, gingerol, makes muscle cells more receptive to sugar.
- Garlic: Garlic has antioxidant properties that may directly increase insulin sensitivity, according to animal studies.
- Cinnamon: This popular spice is well-known for its ability to reduce blood sugar and increase insulin sensitivity. One meta-analysis found that consuming 1/23 teaspoons of cinnamon daily can significantly reduce short- and long-term blood sugar levels.
Cellular Respiration Process : Conversion Of Glucose Into Energy
Most human body cells contain insulin receptors, but how do they work, and how does a cell take in sugar for energy? Whenever a person eats food, high on carbohydrates, the insulin is released from the pancreas into the bloodstream.
The insulin reaches the cell and insulin receptors responding, creates an opening for the cell to take in sugar and break it down for energy. Insulin and insulin receptors work in harmony to complete the process of storing blood carbs into cells and balancing blood sugar levels.
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Add Aerobic And Anaerobic Exercise To Your Weekly Schedule
Want to improve your insulin sensitivity as rapidly as possible? Start working out, right now.
Exercise draws upon our energy stores so much that many of the cells throughout our body have to make themselves sensitive to insulin to ensure that they will get the energy they need.
Fortunately, both aerobic and anaerobic exercise will reduce your insulin resistance in a variety of ways, so the type of exercise you do is entirely up to you.
Aerobic exercise involves any form of physical activity that requires you to exercise for a prolonged period of time without rest breaks. This includes jogging, swimming, or anything where youre moving your body at a steady state for 30 minutes or longer.
Anaerobic exercise, such as lifting weights, sprinting, and intense rowing/cycling, can also drastically improve your insulin sensitivity.
In general, it is best to aim for five hours of exercise per week. Research suggests that this is the sweet spot for significantly improving your insulin sensitivity.To get the best results, I recommend doing a combination of aerobic and anaerobic exercise throughout the week. Anaerobic exercise will help you build more muscle and burn through glycogen stores, which keeps your insulin sensitivity high, while aerobic exercise will ensure that your cells never have a chance to increase their insulin resistance to unhealthy levels.
What Are The Signs Of High And Low Blood Sugar
Change your medication with doctor supervision. according to the British Diabetes AssociationGet plenty of sleep.According to recommendations published March 2015 in Sleep Health, according to the Sleep FoundationManage stress well.cortisolstress hormoneaccording to Harvard Health Publishingaccording to the ADA
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How Does Exercise And Weight Affect Insulin Resistance
The good news is that even when diagnosed with insulin resistance, you can take steps to prevent or delay the development of type 2 diabetes. Research from the Diabetes Prevention Program showed that intensive lifestyle intervention that led to weight loss reduced the incidence of type 2 diabetes for overweight and obese adults with impaired glucose tolerance by 58% over three years.
Many other studies found that people who continued with the lifestyle changes were able to delay a type 2 diabetes diagnosis even longer if they continued following their new lifestyle.
Intermittent Fasting: 2x Eating/day
Intermittent fasting is a type of eating plan that involves a limited time period when caloric intake is restricted.
There are specific intermittent fasting protocols, such as those that restrict food intake after a specific time of day , to those that rotate between eating normally and restricting a certain number of calories during the day on fasting days.
I recommend 16 hours fasting window, with 8 hours eating window. Your fasting window is 8pm until 12 noon the next day. Your eating window will be 12 noon till 8pm. This is where you will be consuming your 1500kcal meal. Preferably spread into 2 meals.
The primary goal of intermittent fasting for weight loss is to get the insulin levels to decrease to a level where the body will begin to burn stored fat for energy.
During this process, the body runs out of glucose and switches to burning ketone bodies for fuel by breaking down stored fat.
According to recent research published in The New England Journal of Medicine, this metabolic switch from using glucose to using ketones for fuel also has some added benefits for the bodydecreased inflammation, improved glucose regulation, lowering insulin levels, detoxifying the body, and a more adaptive stress response.
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Favorite Resource For Diabetes Education
If insulin resistance has led you to be diagnosed with diabetes or you want to be educated if that day comes, enroll in a program led by Joslin Diabetes Center experts. The 12-week Why Wait program is designed to help you meet your weight goals, which could improve your bodys sensitivity to insulin.
So How Do You Do Hiit
HIIT on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Each HIIT session involves the following:
- 3 minutes of warm up
- 10 sprints lasting 30 seconds, alternated with 60s of recovery
- 2 minutes of cool down
Total time per workout session: 20 minutes, with 20 of those spent doing the HIIT protocol.
HIIT can be performed doing any exercise bike, running, lifting weights, swimming. The key is intensity its got to be hard.
Of course, exercise is just one element to the diabetes puzzle.
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Does Insulin Resistance Cause Weight Gain
As far as 35 years ago, scientists have already proven that hyperinsulinemia induced by insulin injection into healthy men leads to insulin resistance.
Although they only exposed subjects to high insulin levels for as little as 40 hours, researchers could conclude that hyperinsulinemia leads to insulin resistant states, such as obesity .
Additionally, science also provides evidence for similar cases without exogenous insulin injection.
Researchers from the Diabetes Division at the University of Texas Health Science Center found that stimulation of insulin secretion causes insulin resistance.
On top of that, they summed up that high insulin levels are not only a compensatory response to insulin resistance but also a self-reinforcing cause of the flawed insulin action .
Moreover, patients showing a rare form of tumor secreting excessively high amounts of insulin called insulinoma are known to develop insulin resistance .
In cases where the tumor was surgically removed, the procedure could reverse insulin resistance too .
And heres another fantastic example. Researchers from the Department of Medicine at the University of California at San Diego set patients on intensive insulin treatment.
Likewise, the prescription of large doses of insulin to type 2 diabetes patients isnt an unusual practice.
As a result, the scientists observed higher insulin resistance, more significant hyperinsulinemia, and progressive weight gain.
Mayo Clinic Q And A: How To Reverse Prediabetes
DEAR MAYO CLINIC: I’m a 36-year-old man recently diagnosed with prediabetes. Is there a way to reverse this, or am I destined to eventually get diabetes? My health care provider says I’ve likely been in the prediabetes stage for a year or more.
ANSWER: There are steps you can take to slow the progression of prediabetes to Type 2 diabetes. You may even be able to stop or reverse it. That’s important because once Type 2 diabetes develops, the disease can lead to complications that can cause serious, long-term health problems.
Diabetes occurs when the level of sugar in the blood is too high. That happens because of a problem with the hormone insulin, which is made in the pancreas. When you eat, the pancreas releases insulin into the bloodstream. This allows sugar to enter your cells, lowering the amount of sugar in your blood.
In Type 2 diabetes, the pancreas does not make enough insulin, and the body can’t use insulin as well as it should. That means sugar cannot move into the cells, and it builds up in the blood. Prediabetes is a condition in which blood sugar is higher than normal, but it’s not high enough to be considered Type 2 diabetes. People who have prediabetes are at high risk to develop Type 2 diabetes.
The good news is that there are ways to reverse this condition. Certain lifestyle changes can lower your blood sugar level and decrease your risk of developing diabetes.
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Glycogenesis: Helps To Store Glycogen
Not every time your body needs energy in the form of glucose. Most of the time when your body isnt needing energy right away, the insulin stores the extra blood sugar into muscle cells, fat cells, and liver for later use.
The energy which is stored in these cells is reserved in the form of glycogen which is a multi-branched polysaccharide of glucose.
Foods That Lower Insulin Resistance List
The severe impact of lean protein on insulin levels used to be a missing fact in low-carbohydrate diets, like the Atkins diet.
Consequently, substituting carbohydrates with lean cuts of meat, low-fat dairy, or even protein shakes and bars doomed them to fail.
So whatshould we eat to prevent and reverse insulin resistance naturally?
Fat, since substituting carbohydrates with all-natural dietary fat is a simple and natural treatment for insulin resistance .
Remember, fat is the macronutrient that affects insulin production the least. Hence, dietary fat can counteract hyperinsulinemia.
But whichare foods with healthy fats we should eat?
Therefore, heres a list of foods with healthy fats:
In contrast to conventional wisdom, saturated fat doesnt promote cardiovascular diseases, whereas carbohydrates do .
Moreover, various studies suggest that eating saturated fat protects against stroke .
Besidesfatty fish low in mercury like mackerels or sardines, flaxseed oil is anexcellent and plant-based source of omega-3 fatty acids.
Highly refined and industrially processed vegetable oils, on the other hand, are rich in omega-6 fatty acids, are inflammatory and support coronary heart disease as well as cardiovascular disease .
Those seed oils can release harmful chemicals aldehydes when heated.
For this reason, stay away from deep-fried foods and hydrogenated trans fats like margarine. Moreover, there are seed oils you should generally avoid:
- Canola
- Partiallyhydrogenated vegetable
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Symptoms Of Insulin Resistance
Originally, when your cells arent accepting insulin, the pancreas excretes more insulin to coup up with the rising blood glucose levels. Till this point, the body seems to be normal and doesnt show any symptoms of insulin resistance.
When time passes, cells resistance increases and the pancreas couldnt keep up with continuously releasing the bulk amount of insulin, then blood sugar level increases and the body starts to show symptoms. Starting with a high blood glucose level, an affected person starts to experience extreme thirst and hunger, recurrent urination, fatigue, and sometimes also tingling sensations in the hand or feet.
Tests Which Should Be Considered
Insulin resistance
There is no single test for IR, but the following are often tested…
- Blood pressure equal to or higher than 130/85 mmHg
- Fasting blood sugar equal to or higher than 100 mg/dL or 5.55 mmol/L
- Elevated insulin levels, the normal range is 2.0-20 IU/mL or 14-140 pmol/L
- Elevated CRP – a marker for inflammation
- Large waist circumference – 35 inches or 87.5cm or more
- Low HDL cholesterol – Under 50 mg/dL or 1.3 mmol/L
- Triglycerides equal to or higher than 150 mg/dL or 1.79 mmol/L
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