Let’s look at how insulin resistance leads to weight gain. It starts because the cells are “resistant” to the insulin your body produces. Your pancreas (aware of the increased levels of blood sugar) continues to pump out even more insulin to help drive the glucose into your cells. It tries to overcome the body’s weak response to insulin by producing more. It wants to get the dangerous sugar out of your bloodstream. After a while, the beta cells in your pancreas (where insulin is produced) can’t keep up with the high demand for more insulin. This results in excess glucose building up in your blood. As a result, people can end up with insulin resistance for years before they actually realize they even have it.
How do we end up becoming insensitive to our insulin or insulin resistant?
High levels of insulin in your blood, high levels of inflammation in your body and excess fat stored in your pancreas and liver (also known as visceral fat) are indicators of developing this condition.
Insulin resistance is increased greatly by being overweight or obese, eating a high-sugar, high-carbohydrate diet or even by an overconsumption of food in general.
Other factors leading to insulin resistance include a sedentary lifestyle, chronic stress, smoking, high blood pressure, sleep issues, using high doses of steroids for an extended period, and polycystic ovarian disease (or Cushing’s disease) from high cortisol levels.
Ways to improve insulin insensitivity/insulin resistance.
Change Eating: We need to eat an anti-inflammatory diet to help stabilize blood sugar and reduce insulin resistance. The nutrient-dense foods on our plan are rich in anti-oxidants, which are very effective in fighting inflammation and damaging free-radicals.
Decrease Stress: Stress releases a stress hormone, called cortisol. Increased cortisol from excessive and chronic stress can increase your blood sugar. Find ways to reduce stress, whether that be relaxation exercises, stretching, journaling, hobbies, prayer, walking in nature, etc.
Improve Sleep Quality: Being well-rested is very important in stabilizing blood sugar. The CDC says 7-9 hours of sleep is needed to repair each night; decreasing our risk of a variety of health issues – including insulin insensitivity.
Regular Exercise: Not only will exercise help with weight loss and metabolism, but it’s also is good for the heart, sleep and mental health. The right exercise can help your muscle cells take up more glucose to be used for energy and tissue repair.
Optimize your Vitamin D: It is essential for overall health and helps to stabilize blood sugar. If we aren’t outdoors much, don’t have enough skin exposed, or wear sunscreen, we won’t be making much Vitamin D. That’s why supplementation with a high-quality Vitamin D3 is important.
Improve your Gut Condition: Nutrient dense foods are very important to gut health. Get rid of all inflammatory foods (which are fats like vegetable oils, canola, corn and soy, etc.) and those that contain artificial ingredients – aka toxins. A good digestive enzyme can also be helpful for many who struggle with digestion and absorption of their nutrients.
Consider Probiotics: They can be quite helpful. Quality, once again, is so important. It is necessary to rotate your probiotics and not take the same ones over and over again. Fermented foods contain natural probiotics, as well. Foods like raw sauerkraut (not cooked), kimchi and kombucha can be very beneficial to add in a wider variety of probiotics.
Insulin resistance is quite prevalent, and it has direct implications for difficult weight loss and many other diseases and health conditions.
So, let’s do all we can to fight it!