Blood sugar/glucose is monitored in a fasting state. This means the body has had at least 8 hours to get the blood sugar down to normal levels. What most doctors do not check, is fasting insulin, or better yet 2 hour post-prandial insulin.
What is Insulin? and What does it do?
Insulin is the hormone secreted by the pancreas who's job is to knock on the cells door and let the glucose into the cells. If we eat a meal with carbohydrates, the insulin should secrete and have our sugars normal within 2 hours.
How do things go wrong?
High insulin happens when we eat more carbohydrates than we need, and do so often. The b
ody can have no more than 1 teaspoon of sugar in the entire blood stream at one time.
The pancreas will produce more and more insulin to keep the sugars normal. Eventually, the pancreas will produce a constant stream of insulin, and so insulin FASTING levels will rise.
The other problem is at the cellular level. The cell becomes resistant to the call of insulin, and this further complicates things.
So, what is the problem with having high insulin?
Insulin is also a chemical messenger. When insulin is high, the body will create more free fatty acids and STORE FAT. It is very difficult, if not impossible to burn fat when insulin is high. Eventually, this can lead to diabetes.
What can I do about it?
Ask your doctor to test fasting and post-prandial insulin in your blood
If fasting insulin is above 7, it is considered sub-optimal (range is 2-25). To reverse this, you need to be rather strict with the diet and exercise. It can take up to a year to bring the fasting insulin back to optimal levels. When your levels come down, so will the weight! When insulin is normalized, the body can burn fat easily again, and the diet can become more flexible.
To do this you need to do the following.
Limit carbs to 50-150 per day
Exercise daily including lifting weights, or burst training 3x/week
Fast 12 hours per day
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