If you are struggling to lose 5lb to 200lb you may want to read this article all the way. There is not doubt in my mind that because of the COVID people start checking to see where they are at in terms of health. What stands out the most is being overweight. Regardless of how much weight you will need to lose, you will need to understand why you have gained weight and not being able to lose it from physiological standpoint first. Without proper understanding, calorie counting, macro nutrients splits, and special diet won’t make any sense to you and hopping from one plan to the another then get frustrated.
Understanding Insulin Resistance
Reason why many people are struggling with weight or fat loss is because of condition called insulin resistance. Insulin is secreted by pancreas and its role is to send nutrients from food to the cells. Every cell, muscle, heart, blood vessels, skin and brain have an insulin receptor, which bind with insulin to receive those nutrients. To activate insulin, easiest way is to consume carbohydrates.
However, issue happens when the consumption of carbohydrates is too frequent and too much, and pancreas is pumping insulin all the time which also means that insulin receptors in cells must be active all the time. When this process continues, over time the insulin receptors will resist binding with insulin because the capacity to receive the nutrients has past the limit. This condition is called insulin resistance.
During the initial phase of insulin resistance, you may see in your blood profile to have normal blood sugar levels because the insulin can still send nutrients, especially sugar to fat cells. If you are exercising on regular basis, you may be able to utilize those sugar before the body send to the fat and avoid the fat gains. However, majority of times this race between exercise to lose fat and excess insulin and sugar accumulation won’t last very long.
Even during this time, in your blood profile, you may be able to observe your HbA1C in your blood profile to start elevating because of resisted insulin free floating in your bloodstream.
While the insulin resistance is happening, pancreas still secretes insulin as we consume any food source that has carbohydrates in it, even consuming healthier carbohydrates like fruits and starchy type of vegetables. Because of the cells are still resisting insulin, bloodstream is filled with sugar and insulin. Since the body has no where else to place those sugar, the body will constantly send them to fat.
Currently, when the fasted blood sugar level is below 99 mg/dL is considered normal and for HbA1C 4-5.6% to be normal range. Keep in mind that normal in medical field is safe zone meaning you won’t get sick. To lose fat or improve on your metabolic profile you need to get them to optimal range where the blood sugar level that you should strive for is between 70-85 mg/dL and HbA1C to be around 5.
When you are struggling to lose fat even when you are restricting calories and exercising, most likely you are insulin resistant and condition, most likely will get worst. Way to find out for sure is to get a blood testing done and look at your fasted blood sugar level and HbA1C. Even with blood sugar levels being low but the HbA1C is high, no matter what you do, fat loss will be almost impossible.
Lower The Insulin
Name of the game in fat loss is to take control over your insulin and lower the insulin in your blood stream. This process may take longer depending on your current condition, however, when insulin level is not lowered, then fat loss will be extremely difficult. To lower the insulin level few things need to happen. 1.) Need to cut down the eating frequency. 2.) Limit the carbohydrate intake 3.) Exercise regularly. 4.) Improve sleep and 5.) Manage stress.
1. Minimize Eating Frequency
I do realize that eating small meals a day more frequently is a trend. Problem is when you eat insulin level will spike and you are conditioning your body to become hungry more frequently. This is a best way to make you fat and feeling miserable. Start off with eating 3 meals per day including snack and latte. Anything that will spike your insulin level must be minimized.
If you get hungry between those 3 meals, stay away from kitchen and shopping. Hunger is not the sign of starvation and will not kill you. You will need to retrain your body to get hungry at certain time of the day rather than random time.
Once you are comfortable with limited eating frequency, you will need to train your body to utilize fat as energy source. Best practice is intermittent fasting. Although there are so many ways to practice intermittent fasting but start off with your comfort level. Initial stage is dinner to lunch or about 16 hours fasting. Which means you are skipping breakfast. This fasting is not so strenuous and can be practiced several days per week. If you are practicing longer fasting, it is better to be practice 1 or 2 times per week to start.
2. Limiting the carbohydrate intake
Purpose for limiting carbohydrate intake is to minimize the secretion of insulin. Remember, if you are insulin resistance or struggling to lose weight, chances are the blood is filled with insulin and need to somehow utilize it.
Type of carbohydrates food source to watch is sugar, flours, fruits, and starchy vegetables. Although I say food, but this also goes to beverages like smoothies and lattes. Some of the food sources that can be included in the categories listed above might be healthy, but it can still stimulate insulin.
3. Exercise Regularly
One of the issues I’ve explained earlier about insulin resistance is limited capacity in cells receiving insulin and nutrients. Muscle loss plays huge role in insulin resistance. If you have sedentary lifestyle and losing muscles, doesn’t matter how little you eat, the capacity of the body that can handle insulin and nutrients is limited.
Same 200lb person with 10% body fat and 30% body fat, the muscle mass is 180lb for 10% body fat and 140lb for 30% individual. If these two people are eating same amount of food without any restriction, person with 30% body fat will be most likely to gain more fat easier than 10% person because of the capacity.
Although aerobic exercises, such as walking, biking, swimming and so on are great exercises to teach the body to use fat as energy source, if you are practicing 1 and 2, but building muscle to increase the capacity for insulin to be accepted will also become vital factor. Have at least 2 times per week of strength training and make sure to get sore.
4. Improve Sleep
Sleep probably is the most under appreciated daily habits, which is understandable. It is understandable because with day being 24 hours, work, social activities, and personal time can be challenging to fit in unless sleep hour is compromised. However, from studies, we know that compromised sleep (less than 7 hours) has negative impact on cardiovascular system, physical performance, reproductive organs, memory, and learning.
Sleep is a habit. If you have been out of synch with your sleep, it does take some time to reset your sleep habit. Set a waking and sleeping schedule and stick with it. Lowering the room temperature to below 65 degrees Fahrenheit along with reducing your screen time can also help fall asleep faster.
If you are insulin resistance, chance of waking up to go to bathroom is higher than those who are not insulin resistant. Therefore, avoid consuming high sugar food source prior to your bedtime. Alcohol and usage of marijuana may seem to have positive impact towards sleep, however, they both interferes with REM cycle.
5. Manage Stress
This might be the hardest one of all. Managing stress. Reason why this is difficult is because of the cause of stress. The cause may be work, relationship, medication, environment and so on. Some of the stress factors may not be able to change like work or environment. Easiest thing that we can all manage is food intake and daily habits like sleep. That is why majority of time, we suggest making a change in nutrition, exercise, and sleep, so you have more capacity to handle other stress factors that are difficult to make a change.
Things That Do Not Help
Calorie Restriction
Calorie restriction may not help while you are under insulin resistance. Calorie restriction has its own place in weight loss but in initial phase of regulating insulin, more than reducing calories, you should focus on how you can manage insulin. Reason why calorie restriction may not work is due to reducing overall food consumption including protein. Reducing protein during fat loss process can not only reduce muscle mass but also lower the metabolic rate. Protein itself does not have energy component for our body unless we are in true starvation, which majority of us don’t have to worry about. Calorie restriction also has tendency to minimize fat intake. Fat does have energy component for our body; however, insulin response is significantly low. Only restriction you should have in regulating insulin phase is reducing the carbohydrate intake. If you have large amount of weight to lose you may want to set your protein intake to 1g per lb of ideal bodyweight.
Smoothies
I do realize that people make and drink smoothies to keep them healthy. I have no issue with that. However, for people who are insulin resistant and working on fat loss, smoothies may not be suitable because of amount of sugar that can have. It may only contain fruits and vegetables; however, they do contain sugar. Although their nutritional value may be high, high sugar content will spike insulin a lot more than we want. If you want more vegetables and fruits in your diet, eat them rather than drink them.
Cheat Meals
While the insulin level is high you want to avoid cheat meals as much as possible to avoid accumulation of insulin in your bloodstream. You will need to deserve cheat meal and may need to avoid it for several months if you are serious about fat loss.
Avoiding Weigh-ins
Majority of times people want to avoid weigh-ins because of not wanting to see the reality. Usually, they use the excuse like "oh, the scale is not accurate". One weigh-in cannot determine the accuracy of the equipment. You will need multiple assessment to see the trend. Everyday our body will go through changes, especially when you are changing your habits to lose fat. It is ideal to weigh-in everyday at same condition for at least 3 months. Just like a stock market, you will see uptrend or downtrend as you chart your weigh-ins.
When you are weighing-in, use the device that will monitor your weight and fat percentage. There are affordable scales that are very useful and informative. Make sure to weigh-in with same condition. For example, for me, I weigh-in first thing in a morning. This way, the data is consistent.
If the weigh-in is downtrend, you are on the right track. If the weigh-in is uptrend, even after few weeks, it means something is not working right so you can go back and check what might be missing.
Conclusion
Basics to fat loss is not so much in how less you eat but what not to eat to manage your hormone, insulin. Insulin is primarily secreted in a presence of carbohydrate. However, stress and poor sleeping habit can force the insulin level to elevate.
It is a lifestyle change. Although it is a very simple process, yet it does take time. However, consequence of having high body fat and elevated insulin level has shown in current COVID-19 pandemic.
Weight loss always has been a number one New Years resolution, but this year people may need to take it seriously and start the process right.
Kota Shimada
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