Tag Archives: insulin

Insulin Is The Secret To Weight Loss

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InsulinIn this article I’ll explain why insulin is the secret to weight loss, and how using a post workout recovery shake will greatly improve your weight loss results. This applies to type 0′s, type-1′s, type-2′s, and type-3′s.  Translation = It applies to everyone, and has nothing to do with diabetes.

What makes you gain weight, . . . is insulin.  (Don’t even get me started about a low fat diet to lose weight.  What an evil joke!)  Without insulin, fat cannot be stored, and muscle cannot be built.  Insulin is anabolic, meaning it’s a growth hormone.  Insulin has a sister hormone called glucagon.  Glucagon is catabolic, meaning it’s a release hormone.  Insulin stores fat, glucagon releases it.  Only 1 can exist in the blood stream at a time.  If insulin is present, glucagon is not.  Both hormones do much more that store and release fat, but for now, we’ll focus on that.

Everybody has heard of aerobic exercise, but do you know what it means?  It means “with oxygen”.  It’s when you exercise, but you’re not out of breath.  Your muscles have ample oxygen.  To burn fat, your body must have oxygen.  If you’re workout leaves you out of breath, and your muscles do not have oxygen, then you burn glycogen from within the muscle cells, instead of fat.  This is called anaerobic exercise.  It means “without oxygen”.  So, to translate, walking, running, or eliptical, will burn fat.  Programs like Les Mills Combat, Insanity, P90X, or any form of strength training or High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT), will burn glycogen, leaving the gas tank in the muscle empty.  Now it’s not exactly that clear and simple, but with aerobic you’ll burn more fat than glycogen, and with anaerobic you’ll burn more glycogen than fat.  Plus there’s no defined percentage of how much of each is burned, but in general, this is how it works.

Anaerobic exercise produces the best results for weight loss.  So that means exercise that leaves you out of breath.  Here’s why.  Anaerobic exercise causes a metabolic change in your body that reduces your need for insulin for hours.  Aerobic exercise does not do this.  When insulin isn’t present, glucagon is.  Glucagon is what releases fat, so it can be used as fuel.

Results and RecoveryNow to tie it all together, and show you the secret to using insulin for weight loss.  If you wanna burn the most fat DURING your workout, then make sure your blood stream is full of glucagon when you start.  How do you do this?  Don’t eat carbs for at least 3 hours before your workout.  No carbs = no insulin.  You may run out of energy, but you’ll be burning fat like crazy.  Just keep pushing.  T H E N . . . after your workout, when you don’t need as much insulin to absorb carbs (remember, less insulin is good for fat loss), suck down a post workout recovery shake that includes both fast acting carbs and protein.  You want it to be in liquid form so it will digest faster.  The faster you consume it, the better.  General consensus is within 45 minutes of finishing your workout.  The carbs produce an insulin spike, but one that’s not as big because you did an anaerobic workout.  The insulin spike shuttles the carbs and the protein into the muscle cells.  The carbs fill up the empty gas tank, and in this state, they even make the gas tank grow, so it can hold more glycogen.  The protein is used to rebuild muscle, and the insulin helps get into the muscle faster.  This is one reason that having more muscle means you store less fat.  If you can store more in muscle, you won’t store as much in fat.  You fed your hungry muscles with less insulin, and your muscles continue to need less insulin for hours.  You have more glucagon in your body, so you’re burning fat longer throughout the day, or while you sleep depending on when you workout.

On Bodybuilding.com they recommend a recovery shake that has a carb to protein ratio of 2/1, however, if you’re just trying to lose weight, and not sculpt a physique, a ratio of 4/1 would be fine.  The shake I drink mixes 2 products.  Beachbody’s P90X Results and Recovery Formula, with 40g dextrose and 10g protein, and their Body Beast Hardcore Base Shake with 10g dextrose and 18g protein.  After a workout, it’s like drinking candy crack juice.  It’s makes me feel like a bad diabetic.

Protein Base ShakeNow, if you’re a type 1 diabetic reading this, it’s not quite as easy for us, for obvious reasons.  Here are some tips for type 1 diabetics.  We can still “try” to do the no carbs for 3 hours before a workout to limit insulin in the blood stream, as long as we don’t go hypoglycemic.  When “I” do this, my blood sugar is usually within range of 80 – 120 before sweatabetes.  My workout causes a hypo, so I actually sip my shake throughout my workout, without insulin, and then bolus after my workout.  This prevents my hypo during the workout.  Anyway, this little trick works for me.  After the workout, you may have to reduce how much bolus you use for your shake, compared to normal.  I know I do.  You may also need to reduce your basal for hours after your workout.  I have different basal profiles in my pump.  After my workout I switch it, and when I wake up, I switch it back.  As type 1′s we have to experiment to see what works.

So . . . . . clear as mud?  Well, I hope it’s clearer than mud at least.  If you need to, bookmark this page, so you can come back and re-read it.  So you can Google more info about what I said.  If you’d like to try the products I use, just click the links above.  You’ll help me out if you do.  Thanks!

 

********** Now ya know, and knowing is half the battle.  Go Joe!!! **********

If you found this article helpful, please give it a LIKE and share it with others who might benefit from it.  Thanks for paying it forward!  If you’d like to connect with me, you’ll find my social networking profiles to the right:  ————————>

Have you ever had a diabetic seizure?

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diabetic seizureI’ve been diabetic for 42 years.  I left home for college at 17.  I haven’t owned a glucagon shot since then.  I see a lot of people post blogs, videos, tweets, about having a glucagon shot in their diabetes bag, but I’ve never had one as an adult.  My parents kept them when I was a kid, and used them a few times, but I’ve never kept one as an adult.  I wondered if I was the only one who didn’t keep one, so I tweeted about it, and got tons of responses immediately from other type 1′s who don’t have them either.  So I guess I’m not alone.

What is glucagon?  Why does a diabetic keep a shot of it?  What does it do?  Well it comes in a shot because it’s for those times when you’re blood sugar is so low that you’re unconscious, or sleepy, or otherwise unable to eat carbs.  So it kinda needs someone else around to give you the shot.  If you live alone like me, what’s the point, right?  So back to what it does.  I’ll bet you know what insulin is?  Glucagon is the opposite of insulin.  It’s insulin’s sister hormone.  Insulin is a builder, and glucagon breaks things down.  The 2 can’t co-exist in the blood stream at the same time.  What glucagon does for a diabetic when it’s injected, is it places a high concentration of glucagon into the blood stream which quickly forces the liver to start converting (breaking down) glycogen into glucose, or converting protein (amino acids) into glucose via gluconeogenesis.    This quickly raises blood sugar so you can recover from your hypoglycemia.  So glucagon is for when you’re unable to help yourself out of hypoglycemia.

I can remember . . . VIVIDLY . . . when I was a kid, having seizures in my sleep from low blood sugar, and mom and dad trying to force different forms of sugar down my throat while I was seizing.  When I say vividly, I mean I can still see mom and dads faces hovering over me while seizing and I can see the bright light of the hallway behind them, shadowing their heads.  I can hear them yelling, urging me to eat what they were trying to force down my throat.  Honey, sugar cubes, juice, etc.  They didn’t believe me, but I was FULLY CONSCIOUS while I was seizing, and I always got furiously mad at them for trying to force that food my throat instead of letting me try to eat it myself.  A few times they used a glucagon shot to bring me out of those seizures, but when I saw them coming with that shot, I’d get the strength of bigfoot and I’d fight them.  (I used to have nightmares of bigfoot as a kid.)  They never believed I’d be ok, unless they did these things.  It’s ok mom and dad, I understand, BUT I WAS RIGHT!!!  LOL!!!

When I went away to college, I was lucky that I never had a seizure with roommates in the apartment.  Or did I?  Crap!  I don’t remember now.  John, Mike, do you remember if I did?  Anyway, after college, living alone, I did have seizures now and then.  Mom and dad never understood until I moved away, that I would come out of those seizures on my own, and I could then get glucose into my system on my own.  I was always 100% conscious, and aware of what was wrong, and what I needed, while seizing.  There’s one night in particular that I remember like it was yesterday.  It was probably 18 or so years ago.  I was seizing in my waterbed, which is a horrifying experience by the way, because as you’re seizing you’re arms and legs are outstretched trying to stop you from falling every couple of seconds, even though you’re not falling, and the bed moves.  *shivers*  Yeah, horrifying.  Anyway, as I was seizing, I was able to roll myself out of bed and onto the floor after many minutes.  I then seized my way about 20 feet into my kitchen over who knows how many minutes.  I knew I needed to get to the kitchen where the sugar was.  When the seizure stopped.  I calmly stood up, stepped over to the sugar container, took out the 1 cup scoop and started swallowing raw sugar.  I knew I’d be fine, but the experience was definitely not fun.  Now I keep glucose tabs on my nightstand.

Now, here’s the kicker.  When I went on the pump, the seizures stopped.  Haven’t had a seizure in over 6 years.  It’s that damn long acting insulin dumping in the bloodstream all at once!  All my life I had been on either NPH or Lantus, along with Regular, until I went on the pump when I changed to Humalog.  I still have low blood sugars in my sleep, but they come on so slow, that I ALWAYS wake up.  When I get any low blood sugar, it comes on way slower on fast acting insulin.  Explain that?!   I think I’m hypo right now actually, so I’m gonna sign off and get some glucose tabs.

********** Now ya know, and knowing is half the battle.  Go Joe!!! **********

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What Causes Diabetic Ketoacidosis (DKA)

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300Diabetic ketoacidosis.  Diabetics everywhere know this term, . . . I hope.  What is diabetic ketoacidosis?  How is it different than ketosis?

I’ll start by explaining ketosis, and try to keep the sciencey (Yes it’s a word.  It’s MY word.) stuff to a minimum.  Ketosis is a natural body process that occurs when your muscles require fuel, but there’s none in your system.  That fuel starts out as carbs.  If you don’t get enough carbs, your body will naturally enter ketosis when your body starts to break down your fat, thus producing ketone bodies which it can use as fuel.  Your brain and your heart actually run more efficiently on ketones, than they do on glucose.  Our bodies were built to do this, to survive when there was no game to hunt, no plants to forage, no food nearby.  This is NOT dangerous, . . . it’s natural, unless you’re diabetic.  Why is it only dangerous for diabetics?

Because ketone bodies are acidic, and when they reach a certain level, a non-diabetic will secrete insulin, which reduces the ketones just like it does blood glucose.  We of course don’t have this mechanism.  When a diabetic gets ketones, and their blood glucose is above 250, this is the formula for diabetic ketoacidosis.  I know what you’re thinking.  I still haven’t told you what causes it.  Well, here we go.

What causes it is simply a lack of insulin or fuel.  A lack of insulin caused by a faulty infusion set, simply not taking your insulin, being sick and dehydrated, or not eating enough carbs.  The reason your body would enter ketosis is that it doesn’t have enough fuel in the form of carbs, OR . . . it has plenty of fuel, but not enough insulin to get it into the muscle cells.  If the body cannot process or does not have fuel, it will create it by breaking down fat.  This is ketosis.  NOW, your body can’t use the carbs you’ve eaten due to lack of insulin, AND ketones are rising because of lack of insulin.  Rising ketones turn your blood acidic.  This is what can kill you.  If you’re sick and you’re vomiting or have diarrhea, it’s even worse because that creates dehydration which causes insulin resistance!  Ever had ketones while you’re sick, and wonder why in the heck you have to take 3 times the insulin to bring down your blood sugar and ketones?  You need insulin for the blood sugar, for the ketones, and to compensate for the insulin resistance.  Now I can see the wheels turning in your head.

When you go to the hospital, they’re going to treat you with a saline IV, an insulin drip, and electrolytes.  These treat all of the symptoms of DKA all at once, and bring you back to normal.  Your dehydration, your high blood sugar, your high ketones, and your low electrolytes.  So . . . clear as mud now?  Well, I hope it’s clearer than mud for you.

 

********** Now ya know, and knowing is half the battle.  Go Joe!!! **********

If you found this article helpful, please give it a LIKE and share it with others who might benefit from it.  Thanks for paying it forward!  If you’d like to connect with me, you’ll find my social networking profiles to the right:  ————————>

Dehydration and Diabetes

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Did you know that if you have diabetes and a high blood sugar, it can cause dehydration, which causes a high blood sugar AND temporary insulin resistance, causing an even higher blood sugar?  Yeah, neither did I for the longest time.  When I was a kid, my mom used to tell me that dark urine meant my sugar was high.  That’s true.  The urine is dark because my kidneys are trying to reduce my blood sugar by filtering it out in the urine, which can lead to dehydration.

When you have a high blood sugar, the body tries to correct this naturally, by removing the  glucose from the blood stream, filtering it through the kidneys, and out of the body when you urinate.  This is what causes your urine to become dark.  If you become dehydrated as a result of this, your network of blood vessels can’t deliver nutrients or INSULIN as well, so your insulin won’t work the way it should (temporary insulin resistance).  Now you bolus, but your blood sugar won’t go down.  Sound familiar?

Have you ever noticed that when your blood sugar is high, you have to pee a lot?  When you’re peeing, you’re helping, and making it worse at the same time.  You’re getting the glucose out of your system, and you’re making the insulin resistance worse.  It’s a catch 22, right?  Wait, it gets worse!

The next thing the frequent urination causes, is an electrolyte imbalance.  Some common symptoms of the imbalance are muscle cramps, trembling, mental confusion, and many more.   Do these symptoms sound familiar?  Common electrolytes are sodium, potassium, magnesium, calcium, and chloride.  I use Real Salt and Himalayan Salt in my house, and eat avocados almost every day to keep my electrolyte levels up all the time.  Electrolytes are needed for most of your bodies functions, including the beating of the heart and other muscle action.  Without them, we die.  (Check out my guest blog about the diabetic superfood, the avocado on Diabetes Daily.)

So now we have a recipe that causes that dreaded 3 letter abbreviation we all know.  DKA (Diabetic Ketoacidosis)  DKA happens because the body can’t utilize the insulin you’re injecting, so it turns to burning fatty acids which don’t require insulin.  The body starts to break down fat cells into fatty acids, which releases ketone bodies, both of which can be used for fuel.  Insulin is what brings down the level of ketone bodies in your blood, just like glucose.  Since insulin isn’t working at this point, your ketones rise to dangerous levels, making your blood pH acidic, and you can end up in the emergency room.

When you go to the hospital, they treat you with an IV of saline (salt water), insulin, and electrolytes.  This is the combination to correct dehydration, and thus DKA.  To prevent dehydration, and DKA, my advice is to always drink lots of water, eat avocados, and use a good quality sea or himalayan salt.  When your blood sugar is a little high, put a pinch of salt in a bottle or glass of water and drink up.  Problem averted.

Symptoms of dehydration include frequent urination, dry mouth, weakness, lightheadedness, muscle cramps, sweating stops, and more.  Easy ways to check for dehydration are the color of the urine, and the skin test in the picture to the right ———->

Oh, by the way, caffeine makes dehydration worse because it makes you pee.  So don’t think your soda, coffee, or tea will help in preventing dehydration.    Drink water, . . . just plain water, in a dehydration scenario.

********** Now ya know, and knowing is half the battle.  Go Joe!!! **********

If you found this article helpful, please give it a LIKE and share it with others who might benefit from it.  Thanks for paying it forward!  If you’d like to connect with me, you’ll find my social networking profiles to the right:  ————————>

Weight Gain With Insulin Pump Therapy

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A couple of days ago, a young diabetic Twitter friend from Baghdad asked me if insulin can make you fat.  The quick answer is yes, absolutely.  I thought that would make a good blog article, so here goes.

I don’t remember exactly when I started my insulin pump therapy, but I think it was 6 or 7 years ago.  When I started asking around about it before getting my first pump, everybody told me that I should expect to gain about 20lbs.  I said “WHAT?!!!”  There was no way I was going to get a pump if that was a side effect.  Well, when I checked into it, many people do gain weight, but it’s because using a pump is so much easier than shots, that people just start gorging their pie holes with carbs like they’re no longer diabetic.  More carbs + more insulin = more fat.  I was working out like a bodybuilder at the time, in the gym 4 days a week, lifting seriously, and I knew I could avoid this pitfall.  So I went ahead and got my pump, . . . and never gained a pound.

You see insulin is an anabolic hormone.  That’s a fancy scientific word that means it’s a growth hormone.  When you eat carbs, first they are turned to glucose for transport in the bloodstream, and then they are stored in your muscle cells and liver as glycogen.  When the muscle cells and liver are full, the rest of the glucose is stored as fat.  Insulin is the key to this process.  Without insulin, muscles won’t grow, and neither will fat cells.  So if you’re body can only store 20 carbs per meal (just as an example) in muscle and liver, but you’re eating 60 carbs per meal, and you’re bolusing for 60, then 40 carbs per meal will be stored as fat.  That ratio of what you store in muscle vs. what you store as fat, is different for everyone.  So I’m afraid I can’t give you a magic formula to help you lose weight.  What I can tell you, is that when you start insulin pump therapy, don’t go crazy eating whatever you want just because you don’t have to take shots anymore, and you should do fine.

If you’ve recently become diabetic, and you’re not on a pump yet, like my friend from Baghdad, a different scenario applies.  You see, if you’ve recently been diagnosed as type 1 diabetic, then you’ve not had the right amounts of insulin for a while.  This means limited muscle growth, and limited fat storage.  This is what causes the symptom of sudden, un-explainable, and rapid weight loss before you’re diagnosis, which is a telltale marker of un-diagnosed type 1 diabetes.  So now you get diagnosed, you start taking insulin, and now your body has what it needs to store the glycogen and fat properly.  So you start to gain weight again.

The key for everyone, diabetic or not, is that to control your weight, you have to control your insulin.  To control your insulin, you have to control your carbs.  Low fat diets won’t make you lose weight, and they won’t reduce your cholesterol.  A lower carb diet will (not necessarily low carb, just less carbs), and there’s science to explain why it will.  It’s not calories in, calories out, like so many trainers, doctors, nurses, and dieticians will tell you.  Insulin control is the key to weight loss.  For an amazing book that can teach you about insulin, that’s disguised as a simple diet book, read “Protien Power“.

********** Now ya know, and knowing is half the battle.  Go Joe!!! **********

If you found this article helpful, please give it a LIKE and share it with others who might benefit from it.  Thanks for paying it forward!  If you’d like to connect with me, you’ll find my social networking profiles to the right:  ————————>

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