So Why Would Insulin Resistance be Important?
Insulin resistance means that your body doesn’t respond to the signals of insulin like it should. This increases your risk of developing diabetes and heart disease.
Insulin is a hormone secreted by your pancreas to help regulate your blood sugar levels. After you eat, food is broken down into glucose, the simple sugar that is the main source of energy for the body’s cells.
But your cells cannot use glucose without insulin, a hormone produced by the pancreas.
Insulin helps transport glucose into the body’s cells for use as energy. If you have insulin resistance, your muscle, fat and liver cells do not use insulin properly. This means that you could feel tired instead of energetic. (You know how we associate sugar with energy!) The extra glucose in the bloodstream means that more insulin is needed and so the pancreas tries to keep up with this demand by producing more.
When blood glucose (sugar) levels rise, insulin is released to store that excess sugar as glycogen. Unfortunately, our body can only store a little glycogen at any one time. Once you have filled up your glycogen stores, any leftover sugar will be stored as fat.
Insulin also blocks the breakdown of existing body fat. So, it becomes virtually impossible to lose fat if you have raised insulin levels.
This is the reason why we need to address insulin resistance if you are to lose weight efficiently.
High levels of dietary carbohydrates, also known as high glycaemic load foods (e.g. sugars, like our very favourite chocolates and lollies, starchy foods, such as bread, rice, pasta, and potatoes) increase your production of insulin to ‘switch off’ fat burning and increase fat gain. If you have constantly high levels of insulin, you can develop a condition known as insulin resistance. Insulin resistance causes excess weight and obesity.
If you would like to improve your blood sugar control and improve your long-term health, ring us on (03) 9879 9596 or message us today. Take the step toward a healthier you!
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