Tips For Losing Weight With Insulin Resistance
As you can imagine, traditional weight loss strategies dont work here, because your weight gain is not a result of overeating and undereating. A crash diet or over-exercising will not work here. In truth, you need to treat your insulin resistance to start shedding those pounds, and also prevent the risk of serious health conditions like diabetes, PCOS and heart disease. Thankfully, with the right combination of diet, exercise and lifestyle changes, you can lose weight and reverse insulin resistance for good.
Stage : Type 2 Diabetes
T2D occurs when the body resists the effects of insulin and cannot make enough insulin to maintain blood glucose levels within the target range. This leads to high blood glucose levels. Left unchecked, high blood glucose wrecks havoc on blood vessels with the eyes, heart, liver, kidneys and extremities at risk of damage. Not to mention many other negative metabolic ripple effects. Lifestyle modifications such as exercise, low glycaemic eating and weight loss can manage this condition, many end up on injectable or oral medications, which can last the rest of their life.
Understanding Type A Insulin Resistance Syndrome
Type A insulin resistance syndrome is a rare disease that causes your body to not process blood sugar well. Your insulin cant be used normally by your bodys cells. The condition also causes other problems. These include skin changes and cysts on the ovaries. It can also lead to ongoing high blood sugar .
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Raising Awareness To Save Lives
Itâs my mission to stop people from progressing to diabetes, and to help people lower their level of insulin resistance. Thatâs why I want to help people find out about insulin resistance at the beginning stages. In the early stages of insulin resistance, or in pre-diabetes, itâs possible that glucose tests will be normal but insulin tests are not normal.
How Does Insulin Resistance Develop
When youre constantly putting sugar into your body and the pancreas is pumping out insulin to manage the influx, your cell receptors become less responsive to insulins message. The weakened response doesnt allow sugar to effectively get out of your bloodstream and into your cells. This process is known as insulin resistance.
When you become insulin resistant, the pancreas pumps out even more insulin to compensate for the cellular resistance. Eventually, over time, the pancreas gets exhausted. This is when your blood sugar surges to a point you can no longer control, and you can get diabetes.
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Insulin Resistance In The Bipoc Community
according to a March 2019 study in Diabetes and Vascular Disease Research.according to a systematic review and meta-analysis in Diabetes Care.
- 5 percent of non-Hispanic whites
- 2 percent of Asian Americans
- 7 percent of non-Hispanic blacks
- 5 percent of Hispanics
- 7 percent of American Indians/Alaskan Natives
More on Health Disparities Affecting BIPOC Individuals
How Do I Know If Im Insulin Resistant
Hereâs the problem. Most people who have insulin resistance donât know they have it.
One third of Americans have insulin resistance, according to the Centers for Disease Control . But four out of five people who have insulin resistance donât know they have it. While insulin resistance may cause symptoms in the early stages, such as low energy, many people will not notice symptoms. But that doesnât mean insulin resistance isnât causing damage in the body. The only way to know if you have insulin resistance is to test for it.
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I Stands For Ideal Bodyweight
Being overweight elevates your risk for most chronic diseases, and is caused by the accumulation of fat in your adipose tissue as well as in tissues that are not designed to store fat, like your muscles and liver.
You can monitor your bodyweight on an inexpensive bathroom scale to measure your progress at achieving your ideal bodyweight and reversing insulin resistance. Here is how you calculate your ideal weight:
How to Calculate Your Ideal Bodyweight for Women
Measure your height in inches. The first 5 feet of height is equal to 105 pounds, and every inch thereafter is equal to approximately 4 pounds.
Symptoms Of Type A Insulin Resistance Syndrome
Women often have more symptoms. These can include:
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Skin in body folds that turns dark, thicker, and velvety
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Extra body hair on face, chest, and back
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Acne
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Cysts and more scar tissue on the ovaries
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Problems with fertility
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High levels of the hormone testosterone
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Low blood sugar after eating
Men have fewer symptoms. These can include:
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Acanthosis nigricans
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Low blood sugar after eating
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Adult-onset diabetes
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Do Freckles Need To Be Treated
Since freckles are almost always harmless, there is no need to treat them. As with many skin conditions, it’s best to avoid the sun as much as possible, or use a broad-spectrum sunscreen with SPF 30. This is especially important because people who freckle easily are more likely to develop skin cancer.
If you feel that your freckles are a problem or you don’t like the way they look, you can cover them up with makeup or consider certain types of laser treatment, liquid nitrogen treatment or chemical peels.
Signs Of Insulin Resistance
Most people think about diabetics when they see the word insulin, but problems with insulin can occur in a number of different conditions, in people with normal blood sugar. You have probably heard of insulin resistance it is a significant health problem because it’s associated with an increased risk of obesity, heart attacks, polycystic ovarian syndrome, cancer and other serious conditions. People with insulin resistance usually have excessively high levels of this hormone, because it doesn’t work properly. We are seeing an increasing number of patients who have been diagnosed with insulin resistance by their own doctor, yet they don’t fully understand what this term means.
How would you know if your insulin level is too high?
There is a blood test that can measure your fasting insulin, but it isn’t always reliable and many doctors are not willing to order this test. This is a shame because elevated insulin is bad for your health and shortens your lifespan.
Insulin has many important roles in your body. People with too much insulin in their bloodstream are said to have insulin resistance, syndrome X, metabolic syndrome or pre-diabetes. They are all interchangeable terms.
Knowing whether or not you have too high insulin is important because it can allow you to make some changes and avoid some serious health problems in the future. Luckily there are several tell tale signs or clues that your body gives you, alerting you to this problem.
The role of insulin in your body
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Cut Out Vegetable Antinutrients
Vegetables arent here for human survival. They dont want to be eaten.
Turns out those innocent and healthy veggies are quite devious after all. To prevent predators from eating them, vegetables all have chemical weapons and booby traps set.
Theyre all like Kevin McAllister in Home Alone. Innocent looking, but destructive. Dont judge a book by its cover
One of those groups of anti nutrients are lectins. Theyre found primarily in grains, nuts, legumes and nightshades.
And they wreak absolute havoc on your body, especially in high doses. This study found that when lectins they reach the bloodstream, they can bind insulin receptors and thereby interfere with insulins action
Just one more reason to cut out vegetables and eat meat like were made to.
How Does Insulin Resistance Become Diabetes
In a person with prediabetes, the pancreas works increasingly hard to release enough insulin to overcome the bodys resistance and keep blood sugar levels down.
Over time, the pancreas ability to release insulin begins to decrease, which leads to the development of type 2 diabetes.
Insulin resistance remains a major feature of type 2 diabetes.
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Signs You Might Be Insulin Resistant
Losing Weight With Insulin Resistance: Why Is It So Hard
All carbohydrates break down into simple sugars upon digestion. Insulin is necessary to push sugars we ingest through diet into our cells to be used up for energy. When the body is unable to use this insulin efficiently, as is the case with insulin resistance, blood sugar levels spike. With nowhere to go, the body converts these extra sugars into fat and stores it to be used up later. Most of this fat is concentrated around the abdomen.
In a nutshell, losing weight with insulin resistance is difficult because cells are starved of fuel when theyre unable to absorb sugar and nutrients from the blood. This leads to metabolic changes and disturbed appetite regulation, which only adds to your weight loss woes. Ghrelin is a hunger hormone that stimulates appetite, increases food intake and promotes fat storage. Research has found that insulin resistance is linked to decreased plasma levels of active ghrelin and increased belly fat.
Scientists from University of Pittsburgh found that insulin resistance causes triglyceride accumulation in skeletal muscle, leading to obesity. Their findings suggest that the underlying cause was reduced capacity for fat oxidation and not fatty acid uptake. It has also been found that abdominal fat has a significantly stronger relationship with insulin sensitivity than fat gained anywhere else on the body.
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Fasting Blood Glucose Test
A fasting blood glucose test will show your fasting blood sugar level. Youd have this test done after not eating or drinking for at least 8 hours.
A high level may require a second test a few days later to confirm the reading. If both tests show elevated levels of blood glucose, your doctor may diagnose you with prediabetes or diabetes.
- Fasting blood sugar levels under 100 milligrams/deciliter are considered normal.
- Levels between 100 and 125 mg/dL indicate prediabetes.
- Levels equal to or greater than 126 mg/dL are diagnostic for diabetes.
Depending on the lab, these numbers could vary up to 3 mg/dL points in the cutoff numbers.
Hyperinsulinemia & Insulin Resistance Causes More Death Than Ww1 And Ww2 Combined
When youre more insulin resistant, your body requires MORE insulin from your pancreas to push glucose and energy into cells.
High insulin may not cause all chronic disease. But at the very least it exacerbates them. Having persistently high fasting insulin levels is called hyperinsulinemia. It usually goes hand in hand with insulin resistance.
If you have insulin resistance, youre at risk for chronic disease. Theres no chronic disease thats not related to insulin resistance:
- Heart disease
- A waist larger than 35 for women or 40 for men
- A fasting insulin level above 5
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No Drugs For Insulin Resistance
At this stage, there is no pill you can swallow to fix insulin resistance.
For the most part, you have to wait until something gives.. then, a whole host of medical interventions are used, to manage the problem.
Unfortunately, the odds that something GIVES, if you are insulin resistant, is rather high.
Refined Sugarand Added Sugars
Refined sugar is from sugar cane and it is processed to extract the sugar. Refined and added sugars are used to sweeten food like cakes, cookies, cereal, beverages, yogurts, crackers, sauces, etc.
Why are refined and added sugars bad for you?
They have no nutritional value and they are calorie heavy. Studies show that added sugars are linked to chronic diseases like obesity, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease.
When you eat foods high in refined or added sugars you have an immediate and rapid spike in blood sugar levels. That is what you want to avoid if you are insulin resistant.
There are various kinds of refined sugars. Try to avoid food with granulated sugar, powdered sugar, high fructose corn syrup, white sugar, brown sugar, corn syrup, sucrose, dextrose, and fructose, malt sugar, invert sugar, and fruit juice concentrates.
Try natural sweeteners like stevia and monk fruit instead. You can also use dates, figs, and prunes, pure maple syrup, or raw unfiltered honey. Just be careful with these options especially maple syrup and honey. It is best to use them in small amounts. If you are insulin resistant, you still want to be careful with these alternatives. Everything in moderation.
Want help getting your insulin resistance under control? This plan will help you stabilize blood sugars and help you lose weight.
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> Checklist For Insulin Resistance And Metabolic Syndrome
Insulin resistance is associated with a condition called Metabolic Syndrome. This is a constellation of symptoms including higher blood sugar, excess body fat around the abdomen, elevated cholesterol and high blood pressure. Here is a simple quiz to identify if you could possibly have it.
The presence of 3 of the following 5 criteria means you have Metabolic Syndrome and are likely insulin resistant:
- Systolic blood pressure greater than 130 or diastolic blood pressure > 85 or on treatment for hypertension.
- Central Obesity .
- Excess fat in the abdominal area can be dangerous compared to the fat on your hips, thighs and butt. This is because abdominal fat accumulates not only subcutaneously but also in internal organs such as the heart, pancreas, and liver, and in skeletal muscles , thus affecting their function. This fat releases active, hormone-like chemicals into the circulation. The majority of these are carried to the liver and contribute to fatty liver and insulin resistance.
- Fasting blood sugar greater than 100 mg/dl or on treatment for elevated blood sugar.
- Triglycerides > 150 mg/dl or on treatment for elevated triglycerides.
- HDL cholesterol levels below 40 mg/dl for men or 50 for women.
The Ketogenic Diet Is Also Great For Weight Loss
People with type 2 diabetics and poorly controlled blood sugar levels are normally not physically active.
Obesity and diabetes have a very strong connection, with one improving another or worsening another.
For example, if you gained 25 pounds, chances are you will lose control of your blood sugar level too.
As a matter of fact, obesity is a major determining factor for developing metabolic syndrome, also known as insulin resistance syndrome. When this happens, not only will you have poor blood sugar control but also various ailments of the heart and circulatory system.
On the other hand, if you make an effort to lose some weight you can significantly reduce insulin resistance. This can be achieved by following the standard ketogenic diet.
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What Are The Symptoms Of Insulin Resistance And Prediabetes
Insulin resistance and prediabetes usually have no symptoms. Some people with prediabetes may have darkened skin in the armpit or on the back and sides of the neck, a condition called acanthosis nigricans. Many small skin growths called skin tags often appear in these same areas.
Even though blood glucose levels are not high enough to cause symptoms for most people, a few research studies have shown that some people with prediabetes may already have early changes in their eyes that can lead to retinopathy. This problem more often occurs in people with diabetes.
You Crave Carbs And Sugar
Do you love a sweet treat? Or maybe you love those salty junk foods?
These cravings are fueled by insulin resistance. The more you eat them, the more your body wants them.
Your body becomes accustomed to craving more sugar and it becomes an addiction.
Is there such a thing as sugar addition? YES!!!
In fact, there are studies that use fMRI scans to conclude that sugar activates the same brain regions that are activated when a person consumes drugs like cocaine.
That is why breaking a sugar addiction is straight-up hard. Sugar is that bad boy that we lust for but in the end, will only end up breaking your heart.
Unfortunately, this vicious cycle can mess with your hormones and waistline. Leaving you with extra unwanted pounds and unbalanced hormones that cause you to feel like you are on an emotional roller coaster.
Constantly craving these types of carbohydrates is not normal. Make sure you read this article for more detailed information on insulin resistant foods to avoid.
To reduce cravings, try insulin resistance supplements like Ovasitol which promotes insulin sensitivity. Ovasitol has been shown to reduce sugar cravings and promote normal hormone levels. To learn more about how Ovasitol can help PCOS and insulin resistance, check out this review on Ovasitol for PCOS.
OVASITOL is a 100% pure inositol supplement to promote menstrual regularity, normal ovarian function, and insulin sensitivity. Inositols are one of the best supplements for insulin resistance.
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