How Does Insulin Work
As insulin gets more and more play in the health and fitness world, I am getting more and more questions like how does insulin work and what does insulin do. Plain and simple, insulin’s job is to move the nutrients your eat through your body.
The moment you begin to digest food, your body begins to turn the food you just ate into glucose. Insulin, when released, causes the liver, muscle, and fat cells to absorb this glucose. Insulin also signals your body to slow down and even stop burning fat for fuel, all depending on how much insulin is released, which depends on how much glucose and the type of food you just ate.
When insulin levels are low glucose, it is no longer taken up by the body and the body begins to use fat for fuel. Thus the craze for low insulin releasing diets. The lower you keep your insulin levels, as well as steady, the longer you will burn off fat.
However, as I’m sure many of you have heard, being resistant and sensitive to insulin, also plays and important part as to where your body decides to store the incoming nutrients. When people talk about being resistant or sensitive they are usually talking about your muscle cells. Resistant of course will send the glucose to your fat cells, whereas sensitive will cause the muscle to absorb it. I will discuss later how to become more sensitive to insulin since that’s what looking good naked is all about.
Anyway, certain foods also determine how much insulin is released. Simple sugars and simple carbohydrates are the worst because they cause your insulin levels to spike. Now this is OK if your are extremely sensitive to insulin, thus sending all the glucose to your muscle cells. This is why people who have just worked out are usually coached into eating higher insulin releasing food and shakes.
Now if you are resistant to insulin, simple check, look at your belly, then this is bad news. Now all the food you just ate goes to your fat cells. One of the more interesting things to note is that healthier foods do not cause high insulin spikes and keep insulin levels steady. Thus they burn more fat and lose weight.
Hopefully by now you have a faily good understand of just how insulin works and what insluin is capable of doing. Insulin, at times, can be rather confusing so if you have any question pleaes feel free to ask.