How to Lose Weight With Insulin Resistance

By Regina Paul

Insulin is a hormone that is secreted by the pancreas when you eat. It transports the sugars out of your blood and sends them to your liver, muscle and fat cells where it is either changed into energy or stored as fat. When you are insulin resistant, this means that your body has a difficult time getting the sugar from your blood to your cells, and in fact the process is defective, thus requiring the body to produce more and more insulin in order to get the sugars in the blood into your cells. These higher levels of insulin in turn can cause weight gain, increased risk of heart disease, increased risk of clotting, and can increase your chances of getting diabetes by the age of 40 by 40%. Because of the fact that your body has to produce more and more insulin, this makes it more difficult to lose weight, but it's not impossible. Here is how to lose weight when you are insulin resistant.

Instructions

1. • 1
     Exercise for 30 minutes every day as often as possible. Keep in mind you can even split this up into 10 minutes of exercise at a time until you reach your 30 minutes.
   • 2
     Eat five or six smaller healthy meals rather than three larger ones. This helps to keep you satisfied, but also will help to keep you from overeating, and from having a huge spike in your blood sugar levels causing your insulin levels to spike in order to handle it.
   • 3
     Only eat carbohydrates with other foods such as proteins or fats, and space them out during the day. This will help to keep the rise in blood sugar down, as well as, keep your insulin from peaking. Also, eat whole carbohydrates such as whole grain breads, and whole fruits and vegetables. Avoid foods containing overly processed grains such as white bread, for example, as they turn to sugar much faster.
   • 4
     Select foods that contain a lower glycemic index. What this means is that these foods don't turn to sugar in the blood as fast as some others which can help in keeping insulin levels down and thus help with your insulin resistance. You can find a list of foods and their glycemic index at lowglycemicdiet.com/gifoodlist.html
   • 5
     Add cinnamon to your diet. One study conducted in Pakistan and reported on in the journal, Diabetes Care, found that adding between 1/2 to 2 teaspoons of cinnamon to your diet can decrease blood sugar levels, increase natural production of insulin, and lower blood cholesterol.

     
     

     Tips & Warnings

     • If you have a difficult time with switching to five or six small meals from the larger three meals schedule, consider setting an alarm for two or three hours later after every time you eat. This will help to remind you to stop what you are doing and eat. Watch your portions. Remember when you are eating more meals in a day, you want to scale down your portions appropriately because you will be eating again in just a few hours. If you've decided to add cinnamon to your diet and you like to drink tea, consider buying cinnamon sticks and then using them to stir and flavor your tea. Purchase a pedometer and keep track of how many steps you are taking each day. This will help you to keep track of how much you're exercising and chances are it may be more than you think.
     • If you are already suffering from diabetes or high cholesterol then you will want to talk to your doctor before adding cinnamon in large quantities to your diet. Also, if you are already taking diabetes medication you will want to talk to your doctor before beginning to use cinnamon medicinally since it can affect blood sugar levels.