Insulin Resistance and Weight Loss

Insulin Resistance and Weight Loss Relationship

Is there a connection between insulin resistance and weight loss?  Let’s talk about that. For people with insulin resistance, weight loss can be difficult. If you’re doing everything right and you can’t lose any significant amount of weight, it could be insulin resistance that’s thwarting your best efforts. That’s frustrating to say the least!

Interestingly, insulin resistance does not cause obesity. But if you have insulin resistance, it’s likely you are overweight. However, plenty of thin people get insulin resistance too.  So, the relationship between insulin resistance and weight loss doesn’t have a pattern that correlates one to the other with any consistency.

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A Quick Refresher on Insulin Resistance 

In case you’re not familiar with insulin resistance, I’ll give you a quick lesson. Insulin resistance is what happens when the hormone insulin is no longer able to move blood glucose out of the blood and into cells to be used for energy. The cells have become unresponsive and no longer get the message that there’s incoming glucose. And that’s not a very healthy thing to be going on in your body. Why?  I’ve written a very detailed article on insulin resistance to explain that which you can read by Clicking or Tapping here.

If you have extra glucose (sugar) in your blood, it means more insulin must be released by the pancreas to move that sugar out of your blood and try and get things back in balance. But, if the cells refuse to accept the glucose, there’s nowhere to shove the glucose to be used for energy.  As a result, the glucose is converted to fat and gets stored in other parts of your body. And, of course, that leads to weight gain and a lot of that fat goes around your belly. Here’s a little something… just for your information... insulin is also known as “the fat storage hormone”.  So ideally, you keep your blood glucose from spiking so there’s less insulin being put to work and doing what it does best... storing fat.

Low Carb To the Rescue!

So how do you keep your blood glucose levels steady? You follow a diet that is low in sugar and low in carbohydrates… possibly a keto diet.  The less your blood sugar rises, the less insulin you’ll require. The sugar (glucose) will be burned for energy and will be used so very little will be stored as fat. Lower insulin levels also means there’s less demand on the cell receptors which means the cells will remain sensitive and allow the glucose to enter… so no insulin resistance.

If you have insulin resistance and the cells are locked, over time, with less sugar, and therefore less insulin, there’s a reduction in insulin resistance. Less sugar also means your body can start tapping into the fat that’s been held in storage and use it up for energy. That’s when you experience fat loss, and you begin to weigh less. We can agree, this is a very good thing!

Not only does your insulin resistance improve, but you can go a long way to avoid metabolic syndrome, as well as all the diseases associated with metabolic syndrome, including type 2 diabetes, heart disease, stroke and more!

Are You Safe If You're Slim?

For someone who is slim, insulin resistance and weight loss may not be on their insulin resistance radar at all. But here’s the deal.  A person may not be exempt from insulin resistance just because they don’t appear to need to lose body fat. A person can be very skinny but still carry a lot of visceral fat around their organs. These people are thin on the outside but fat on the inside and are referred to as TOFI. And of course having excess visceral fat around your organs is a huge health risk.

Unfortunately, this health risk is often overlooked and missed. Many doctors assume the patient is healthy if they are an acceptable size or weight.  And that can have serious consequences. Being a TOFI means that fat is stored in the spaces around the heart, liver, intestines, and other organs. It’s invisible to the naked eye, but it can be deadly.

If you’re wondering if you have insulin resistance, you can find more information on insulin resistance symptoms by Clicking or Tapping here.

What About Exercise?

Where does exercise fit into this discussion?  Exercise has a place and can be a very helpful thing to do in addition to reducing your carbohydrate intake. So, is exercise good because it helps you lose weight by burning calories?  Many people believe it’s all about “calories in calories out”, right?  Wrong! It doesn’t help in that way at all. Actually, exercise makes you hungry… so it could be counterproductive. But let’s stay with the topic at hand.

When you go for a walk with a spring in your step or you lift heavy stuff on a regular basis you use your muscles.  Turns out your muscles use a lot of energy.  It uses the energy that’s coming in as-well-as energy that’s been stored. It also makes the insulin receptors on the cells more sensitive. Basically, the more active you are the more insulin sensitive you are. So, if you choose to exercise more, you are playing an active role in reducing insulin resistance. The receptors on the cells start firing off again and balance is restored. Bravo you!

So, although it’s a challenge, reducing insulin resistance and weight loss are possible.  But it will take time, dedication, and determination. It calls for a lifestyle overhaul and a way of eating that is not the typical Standard American diet. And that’s a big deal.

Work with A Professional Coach

I know for a fact that it’s not easy to make these necessary changes. It’s painful to take things out of a diet that you enjoy and you are used to. You wonder how you’ll ever manage to cope with it all. But I also know that the journey to better health and a right size body is attainable and sustainable with a low carb diet and with the help of a professionally trained coach.

I have worked with men and women who to this day continue to reap the benefits of a controlled carbohydrate diet. Do they all look like models? No! Not necessarily. They’re like you and me. Regular people from a variety of backgrounds who just wanted to get better. They’ve lost body fat, gained muscle mass and generally feel way better than they ever have.

If this makes sense for you, I am available to help you too!  You can learn more about my services here.

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