Insulin

Oy, it's been a minute since I blogged. I'm going to try to make up for lost time today and do a blogging spree! First order of the day is to discuss the roll insulin plays in our body and how it pertains to weight loss and gain.

I really don't think I can sum it up better than this article, so I'm going to copy and paste here:

Insulin and Weight Loss

• The master weight loss hormone is insulin
• Insulin removes sugar from your blood
• Insulin resistance occurs when your cells don't use insulin properly

EVERTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT INSULIN AND WEIGHT LOSS
The master weight loss hormone is insulin. Master insulin control and you will master your weight. Understand how insulin works and you will understand all the keys to weight loss
What Insulin Does

• Lowers blood sugar

• Stores energy in the liver as glycogen

• Moves sugar (glucose) from the blood to the cells

Think of insulin as a traffic light. Insulin basically functions as a signalling molecule. Special enzyme receptors made from tyrosine are embedded in the cell membrane. These receptors are activated when insulin is present in your blood. The action of insulin on these tyrosine enzyme receptors signals a "green light" to move sugar from your blood into the cells where it can be converted to energy.
When insulin is not present this acts as a "red light". Sugar does not move from the blood to your cells without a signal from insulin.


The actual work of transporting sugar into the cells is reserved for special proteins in the cell wall called Glut 4 proteins, but without the signal from insulin on specialized receptors, these proteins can't do their work.


The Problem of Insulin Resistance

1. Too much insulin damages cells

2. Insulin resistance makes you fat

3. insulin resistance has a snowball effect on your weight

Continuing on with the traffic light analogy, if you were color blind and could not tell red from green, you would not know when to move from a stop light. This is a very loose analogy, but it helps us to understand how insulin resistance works. When the tyrosine receptors in the cell wall stop responding to the signal given from the presence of insulin, the become 'resistant' to insulin.
How insulin Resistance Damages Cells
The problem with insulin resistance is that when cells become resistant to insulin, your body starts to make more and more insulin to solve the problem. This makes the problem of insulin resistance worse. Your body has a special class of proteins, called Heat Shock Proteins. Heat Shock Proteins serve to reduce inflammation brought on by overheating. Insulin resistance disrupts the action of heat shock proteins, which leads to damage to cells. Additionally, too much insulin damages the delicate balance cells require to function. For example, insulin acts as an important signal for calcium and magnesium influx into the cell. This becomes compromised by insulin resistance.
How insulin Resistance Makes You Fat

When your cells become insulin resistant, your body has no choice but to store the sugar in your blood as fat. When you eat foods that quickly raise blood sugar, or require a lot of insulin such as a lot of processed carbohydrates at once (like a glass of orange juice) the excess blood sugar gets stored as fat.

How insulin Resistance Promotes belly fat
The key thing to understand about insulin resistance is that it affects different types of cells differently. What this means is that insulin resistance can often be localized to certain areas and types of cells!
Fat cells in the midsection are often a prime culprit with insulin resistance. These cells become damaged. New research shows these cells suffer from hypoxia (lack of oxygen) resulting from inflammation and restricted blood flow. The fat cells in this region become insulin resistant and tend to store fat more readily. People who struggle with belly fat in reality struggle with damaged fat cells in the stomach region.

END ARTICLE

Right so what this all means, if you were having any trouble, is that when you eat something with lots of sugar in it, it causes a spike in insulin levels in your blood to remove it from your blood stream. When this happens too often or lots more sugar is ingested than can be removed from your blood stream by insulin, you store it as fat, usually belly fat. It can also lead to insulin resistance which, as stated above, has a cascading effect and makes everything worse and worse.

What can we do? Stick to slow digesting carbohydrates, ones that digest  more slowly and do not cause such spikes in your insulin levels. Stay away from simple carbs that spike your insulin levels over and over and over again. Here is a list to help you out!
SLOW DIGESTING CARBS

• Oatmeal - I have oatmeal (high fiber) for breakfast every morning. Love it with some fruit in it.
• Steel Cut Oats
• Fruit - All fruits are great but some are better than others for different reasons. Blueberries are at the top of the list for antioxidants and bananas are great for post-workout carbs. The majority of them digest faster than complex carbs so they are best used in the AM or pre and post workout.
• Vegetables - You really can't go wrong when you eat veggies. Veggies are a great source of fiber. Try to have some in every meal.
• Sweet Potatoes/Yams (without gobs of brown sugar on them!)
• Brown Rice
• White Rice - Faster digesting carb, not as good as brown rice.
• Whole Wheat Bread
• Seeds/Nuts (just don't go too crazy with these as they are high in calories, but VERY healthy!)

FAST DIGESTING CARBS

Cereal - Most cereals are loaded with sugar. Oatmeal is a much better option.

Candy

Chips

Ice Cream

Soda

Most Juices (read your labels!)

High Fructose Corn Syrup (eek! do not eat!)

Until next time!
Cassandra Wyzik
ACSM Certified Personal Trainer
www.FitToYouBrevard.com