Insulin Resistance, Insulin Sensitivity & Fat Loss
Insulin Resistance and Insulin Sensitivity are important factors when it comes to Women’s Health, Weight Loss, and Fat Loss. You don’t have to be overweight to have internal health challenges either. I know some rather skinny women with Insulin resistance. I also know some women who are holding extra weight and can’t seem to shed a pound despite their now healthy lifestyle.
In this blog, we will discuss what insulin resistance is, what insulin sensitivity is, how one ‘get’s’ these, how does one know they have this, how it affects fitness and health, and how it affects Women’s Health. Let’s get into it!
What is Insulin Resistance?
Basically when you eat something, your body releases insulin to CLEAR the sugar out of the blood. Insulin is a blood sugar manager. Once the body senses sugar in the blood stream it will release insulin to bind to the sugar and help CLEAR it out. Insulin Resistance is when the insulin and glucose don’t bind. Therefore blood sugar stays high...cue diabetes, hyperglycemia, and the pancreas releases more insulin. Elevated insulin levels promotes fat storage, especially around the belly. The excess glucose in the bloodstream gets converted to fat. This is called fatty acid synthesis.
How does one become Insulin Resistant?
Insulin resistance is influenced by food choice, food timing, stress levels, alcohol intake, sleep, and metabolic rate. Are your meals balanced with protein, carbs, and fat? Do you eat at regular intervals? Even on weekends? Do you let your blood sugar levels fluctuate by missing meals? Do you get frequent cravings? Do you exercise moderately, regularly? Do you manage your stress levels and have rituals and routines? do you enter a rest and digest state? Do you drink alcohol often? Do you get enough quality sleep? Do you bandwagon on diets? All these questions will help you gain a deeper understanding into your body.
How Does Insulin Resistance relate to PCOS?
As we know, the body always wants to maintain homestasis. When one hormone fluctuates, other hormones will be affected. Similarly, when blood-Insulin levels are high, the ovaries increase production of androgens. The production of androgens also increases when adrenal activity is high.
What is Insulin Sensitivity?
Having high Insulin Sensitivity is desirable! This means that the insulin binds instantly to small amounts of glucose and clears it out of the blood and sends it to muscles to be used as stored energy. Much better.
How does one increase Insulin Sensitivity?
The answer to this is simple: Read everything listed in the above paragraphs and make a list. If it is high stress for you, what rituals can you incorporate? Perhaps you start a tea ritual, or a mid-day breathing ritual. For the women that come to me, most often them are already quite health-conscious but there are those 1 or 2 things that are causing their biochemistry to fall out of alignment. Sometimes it’s as simple as mindfulness around their meal-times, or remineralization so the system isn’t sluggish, or getting optimal sleep, or having rituals to allow your body to enter Rest and Digest (Parasympathetic mode). The answer to this is individual based on what your body needs. I do not blindly recommend supplements, or potions though I do have a list of recommended products in a previous blog you can check out.
How does one know they are Insulin Resistant?
Listen, you don’t have to run around getting a bunch of blood tests or wait for ‘the diagnosis.’ Often times, getting your blood sugar tested is a snapshot of one moment in time. Instead you can evaluate your current lifestyle habits, past lifestyle habits, and listen to your intuitive voice. Do you have access weight around your belly? This could be due to high insulin. It could also be due to high cortisol. Once you listen, you can get answers from your body as to what rituals you can implement to help support you. This is to avoid any crash dieting or excessive HIIT training.
How does Insulin Resistance affect Fat-burning and Fat loss?
As you have read, excess insulin in the blood stream due to Insulin Resistance gets converted into fatty acids. Please note this fatty acid synthesis can occur even if one is not (yet) Insulin Resistant but consumes too many carb-centric meals. Weight loss will feel extremely difficult as people may expect results quickly, not realizing the biochemistry and hormones have been deeply affected by past lifestyle choices.
How else does Insulin Resistance affect women?
It’s not even so much how does Insulin Resistance affect a women, it’s more so what led to the insulin resistance? Is it an imbalanced gut microbiome? Or is it one of the factors mentioned above. The issue with insulin resistance is that elevated Insulin triggers the ovaries to release more androgens. Elevated insulin also triggers more adrenal activity (cortisol). The formation of PCOS occurs over time. I say, whether with PCOS or not, making aligned shifts will serve your physical and mental health SO much.
In conclusion
The moral of the story is Women’s health and fitness is so much more than salads and workouts. Understanding your current and past lifestyle can greatly help you avoid bandwagoning, extreme dieting, excessive training, and ofcourse poor self-esteem. Rather, ladies let’s empower ourselves and empower each other by rewarding intention setting, ritualizing self-care. If going to the gym isn’t your thing, what is? How else can you exert your body in a way that you enjoy? Is it a job with your dog, followed by a nourishing stretch to promote that rest and digest? Is it a zumba class? Whatever it is, be kind to yourself, experiment, get curious, avoid medications as the big is much more powerful than just popping a pill.
If you are looking for ways to align and get help, feel free to check my offerings. It can be a challenging path to walk alone.
Asma Kassam, BHK, CSNA, CFST
Former Kinesiologist, Personal Trainer, Certified Sports Nutrition Advisor, Certified Fascial Stretch Therapist, turned Women’s Health & Fitness Coach & Educator
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