subject: Weight Loss - How Insulin Levels Affect Your Metabolism [print this page] You know that person that is effortlessly thin despite not being on a diet or exercise program while you have been on every diet and weight loss program out there. You have tried every workout and diet regimen to no avail. You are still struggling with those excess pounds. This article discusses how insulin affects your metabolism which ultimately affects the rate that calories are burned per day.
What is Metabolism?
We hear terms such someone has low metabolism which is why they are overweight or someone else has a fast metabolism which accounts for why they are thin. We know what it does, but we do not know what it is.
Metabolism is a combination of all the hormones, molecules and brain/gut/fat cell messenger chemicals that determine the rate at which you burn calories per day.
The important thing to keep in mind is just a few changes in your lifestyle including your diet and habits can have a major impact on your metabolism and the natural ability of your body to build muscle and burn fat.
You can give your body the food that it understands which will support your hormones so that they perform the tasks they were meant to perform in order to make your metabolism work for you in your quest to lose weight and manage your weight.
The Insulin Hormone
Problems with insulin causes chronic diseases such as sugar diabetes therefore our insulin levels need to be properly managed. Once you manage the ups and downs of insulin levels, you will go a long way to restoring the body's hormone power and be able to successfully experience weight loss.
The pancreas produces the hormone insulin and its sole purpose is to lower the level of blood sugar. Diabetics have malfunctioning insulin or their bodies do not produce any insulin which leads to the accumulation of glucose in the blood which leads to diabetes complications such as heart and kidney disease.
After eating, the body converts the sugars and carbohydrates into glucose which is the simplest form of sugars and the glucose is released into the blood stream. Insulin is then produced by the pancreas and distributes the glucose to the cells that need it for energy which lowers the glucose levels in the blood.
Insulin also assists in turning glucose into fatty acids that are sent and stored as fuel in the fat cells which also lowers the blood sugar levels.
High levels of glucose lead to the increased production of insulin while low levels of insulin lead to a lower production of insulin. When you maintain low levels of insulin, it allows the body to tap into the stored fat for fuel. When you properly manage the insulin released by your body through your diet, exercise and lifestyle changes, you will keep your weight under control.
Weight problems and susceptibility to chronic diseases related to insulin arise when the body produces too much insulin as a response to the levels of glucose in the blood. This can happen when you eat too much of the wrong carbohydrates, refined foods such as white bread and pasta, etc, which increase blood sugar levels.
The insulin then overreacts as it tries to clean up the blood which leads to a significant drop in blood sugar which causes you to feel hungry again for more of the bad carbs and the vicious cycle continues until the body's cells start to ignore the insulin which is known as insulin resistance leaving glucose to accumulate in the blood with nowhere to go leading to diabetes/diabetes complications and other chronic diseases or death.
The better you learn to manage your insulin hormone through proper lifestyle changes the better for you. You need to have the proper balance of hormones so that you burn fat and build muscle and manage your metabolism so that it burns more calories per day.
