Insulin is a building hormone, so it’s no wonder it steals the show when talking about losing weight. You can think of it as making fat more fat.
Sugar, flour, white potatoes and white rice turn into glucose, which needs insulin act like a key to allow it to enter cells to be utilised and stored. If we overindulge in glucose, this leads to insulin resistance. The cells hear the knock at the door, but are slow to answer, so we make more and more insulin to make the knock louder. However, muscles can be choosy, they have a special door that allows them to completely ignore the call to invite in glucose. The liver doesn’t have the luxury of ignoring the call and takes the brunt of it.
The best way to combat this early is through testing with an oral glucose tolerance test. Make sure when you order it to ask for insulin AND glucose levels throughout, or else you are missing out on 50% of the information you need.
I know it’s annoying to be told to exercise when we want to lose weight. Why can’t the layers just jump off by itself? The first week is the worst, but the yummy endorphins will make it easy to continue once you get in the hang of things. I always recommend starting off with something simple to build the habit, like 20 minutes of light yoga every day. Then build up to 45 minutes of aerobic exercis. This boosts insulin sensitivity (not resistance, sensitivity) and glucose clearance.
Fasting is another great treatment. It helps to reset insulin, increase lipid disposal in the cell and increase insulin resistance in the liver. Depending on severity, limiting eating in an 8 hour window can help. Then picking a day out of the week to do a 24 hour fast. The benefits are numerous, but plan out longer fasts or review negative symptoms with your practitioner.