Insulin – Friend or Foe?

Insulin – Friend or Foe?

This month I wanted to look at the second of the most important hormones in our bodies and that is INSULIN.

This bad boy, Like Leptin (See Here) is a master control hormone.

Insulin is something everyone should be familiar with because if our bodies cannot produce it by itself then diabetes ensues. Type 1 diabetes occurs from birth and is why type 1 diabetics have to take and manage insulin injections. However, Type 2 diabetes is completely preventable if you eat correctly and completely reversed if you stop eating junk food and bad food choices.

Is Insulin Bad?

Insulin gets a bad rap these days as it is also commonly labelled as a fat storage hormone by many.

Whilst this is partially true, it ain’t the whole story. A better label would be that it is a storage hormone and it depends on not only what you eat but when you eat whether it stores fat or nutrients in your cells.

Insulin is an anabolic hormone that is essential for life. If you do not have adequate insulin levels and receptor uptake your cells die. So as you can see, this can become a serious condition very quickly.

The reason why insulin is so important, not only for life but for sports performance is because insulin is what drives glucose (energy) into the liver, muscles, and cells.

Quite vital don’t you think?

From a training perspective, it is madness not to have an understanding about how your body provides the fuel for you to train and compete, so let’s delve in a little further.

How Insulin Affects Performance

Now let’s look at how we can maximise our performance by understanding how insulin works…

When we eat, the carbohydrates in our food get broken down into simple sugars (e.g. glucose), which are then transported into the bloodstream. When that happens the body releases insulin to take the glucose out of the blood to where it is needed namely into our cells to be stored as fuel. If insulin didn’t do its job the result would be the starvation of energy for our cells resulting in us feeling tired and hungry as well as our metabolism taking a dive.  Alternatively, if you constantly eat lots of carbohydrates, any that you do not need are stored as fat.

It is too easy these days to supply sugar to your body, there is in fact an overabundance from energy drinks to chocolate bars and sweets, crisps and pasta. There is so much around the list is never ending. However this can really screw you over.

Why?

Although your body is amazing at adapting, poor food and drink choices come at a cost. Using this type of crap to fuel your body is madness and will lead to mood swings and energy crashes leaving you burnt out over time. Your body works best with a constant supply of good carbohydrates and doesn’t need the yo yo effect that comes with eating garbage foods. Your energy levels will fluctuate as your body struggles to maintain balance of its blood sugar level, this can leave you feeling lethargic and irritable.

Constant abuse will lead to insulin resistance and insulin storing all this rubbish as fat!

The resulting effect wreaks havoc on our bodies and insulin in particular. Despite what you may hear, read or watch, you DO NOT need this stuff to perform at your best. There are far better strategies!

Insulin Resistance

When you put too much sugar/energy drinks etc constantly into your body you can become insulin resistant.

Insulin resistance is a condition in which Insulin becomes less effective at driving glucose into the liver, muscle, and cells. Insulin receptors in your cells (how insulin actually gets into the cells) are worn out and are no longer sensitive to the effects of insulin. As a result a large insulin response occurs in order to force insulin uptake by the worn out receptors.

High levels of insulin increase inflammation, which increases the likelihood of heart disease and a variety of serious health issues. A high insulin response to a meal will also drive down blood sugar and make you hungry soon after. When insulin is high you are no longer in a fat burning state.

In addition insulin has an inverse relationship with growth hormone. When insulin is high, growth hormone is low. Not what you want for sports performance.

Insulin sensitivity

To get the best out of your training and your health, you need to aim to get your body efficient at utilising and transporting glucose to your cells. This is called improving your insulin sensitivity.

Insulin sensitivity is directly related to how well your cells respond to insulin. People that are highly insulin sensitive require very little insulin to store carbohydrates. By reason then, people that are insulin resistant (type II diabetics), need larger amounts of insulin to shuttle those carbohydrates around to your cells.

What this means is that when you have high insulin sensitivity, you are able to eat carbohydrates without such a large rise in insulin. When insulin is kept low enough, fatty acids can still be released for energy. However, once insulin gets too high, fat loss comes to a halt.

People that have bombarded their bodies with high-glycemic index (GI) carbohydrates and processed foods over their lifetimes have become somewhat resistant to the effects of insulin. Therefore, when they eat carbohydrates, it causes a larger release of insulin. This inhibits the release of fatty acids.

Higher insulin levels = more fat storage

Maximising Insulin for Performance

Muscle cells are very sensitive to insulin after training. If glucose and amino acids are available, insulin will shuttle these into the cells to increase the synthesis of muscle proteins and muscle glycogen at a very rapid rate.

The post workout window is THE time that insulin serves you best. The best and quickest way to get these nutrients down and utilise insulin is to take a HIGH quality protein/carbohydrate shake.

One thing to keep in mind. When training intensely, you have got around 45 minutes of training time (excluding warm ups) before conditions change.

When Insulin is high cortisol (our stress hormone) is low and vice a versa.

If you train too long (greater than 45mins to the max of an hour) Cortisol rises, which can have a detrimental effect on your muscles as they start to breakdown for energy. By ending your training session in the time mentioned and getting in a post workout shake, you are deliberately releasing insulin by taking carbohydrates on board, this stops the cortisol in its tracks and kick starts your body into recovery mode.

Steps to increase Insulin Sensitivity

It may sound complicated, but it isn’t. to increase insulin sensitivity, try to ulitise as much of the following list as possible

1. Avoid high glycaemic meals and high carbohydrate intake (more than 50% of calories)

2. Have a balance of protein, fat, and low glycaemic carbs at each meal (clean carbs e.g. Veg)

3. Have Longer stretches in between each meal, it takes 4-6 hours to digest a meal.

4. Use Intermittent fasting as it improves insulin sensitivity.

5. Avoid excessive amounts of caffeine as caffeine stimulates insulin production. 1-2 cups per day is fine if you don’t have adrenaline resistance, otherwise keep off it.

6. Engage in high intensity training like sprinting, kettlebell training or add high intensity interval conditioning at the end of a martial arts session. Training in this manor scoops up glucose out of the blood steam and increases uptake into the cells, muscles, liver.

7. Coconut Oil: The Medium Chain Fatty Acid’s (MCFA’s) in coconut oil nourish the cells without the need of Insulin. In other words insulin is not needed to transport the MCFA’s to the cells. The fat in coconut oil also helps block insulin spikes, which can lead to insulin resistance over time. Coconut oil lowers the glycaemic index of a meal (due to the fat). I would aim at 1 tablespoon 2-4 times per day. Helps reduce sugar cravings as well.

8. Supplements that help

• Magnesium: Magnesium is necessary for the production, function, and transport of insulin. Magnesium is necessary for insulin to open cell membranes for glucose. The rule of thumb for men and women is around 600-900mg of magnesium per day for a 200lb man. Hard training athletes will be at the higher end of the scale (900mg for the example of a 200lb man and 400-680mg for the example of a 150lb woman). The most absorbable form of magnesium is transdermal magnesium oil.

• Apple Cider Vinegar: A study by Dr. Carol Johnston showed that 2 tablespoons before a high carb meal cut blood sugar surge in insulin resistance group by 50%.

• Carnitine : (acetyl L-carnitine or carnitine tartrate) has been shown to increase cells fuel burning activities and improve glucose tolerance. Carnitine helps fatty acids get burned to be used as fuel by the cells. Carntine helps move excess fuel from the cells to organs that may need it. 1-2 grams 2-3 times per day. Stacks well with R-lipoic acid.

• Cinnamon: Has insulin like activity, which helps to lower blood glucose levels. Cinnamon has been proven to lower blood glucose levels, triglycerides and LDL cholesterol levels. 1 teaspoon per day works well.

• R-lipoic Acid : acts as an insulin mimicker and increases glucose metabolism (usage of glucose so not as much gets stored as fat) 1 x 100mg cap with meals 3x per day.

• Vitamin D: low vitamin D leads to insulin resistance and beta cell dysfunction. Most clinical studies in a variety of health areas point toward a blood level of vitamin D is 60 to 80 ng/ml, for preventive health. 2000iu to 5000iu works well to get Vitamin D in the optimal range.

• Omega 3 Oil: Essential fatty acids (EFAs) cannot be manufactured by the body, so they need to be ingested through your diet. They also affect inflammation, hormones, mood, metabolism, behaviour, and cellular signalling. Omega 3 and omega 6 fatty acids are the two fatty acids that are essential. A diet supplemented with omega 3 fatty acids improves insulin sensitivity and lowers triglyceride levels.

The problem with modern nutrition is that the ratio of omega 6 to 3 in our diets has been skewed over time. Western diets have a ratio of 20:1 (or more) in favour of omega 6. You really want that number closer to 1:1. That means you need to be eating more foods that are higher in omega 3 fatty acids. Foods like salmon, tuna, flax seed, walnuts, and omega 3 eggs will all help bring that ratio into line. You could also supplement with fish oil.

Omega 3 Fish oils containing DHA/EPA (600-1000 mg) a day improves insulin sensitivity.

Understanding Insulin is key to reducing your overall size and increasing your sports performance. As you allow your body to better utilise quality carbohydrates for energy, it becomes more efficient at controlling its fuel, you will reap the benefits, by becoming fitter and leaner, which can only help how you perform when you train and compete.

To your strength and Health

Dean Coulson