Metabolic Health

3 Tips to Prevent Diabetes and Burn Visceral Fat While Retaining Muscles

With a flexible and well-functioning metabolism, the insulin-sensitive body can utilize stored energy more efficiently, preventing metabolic disorders such as type II diabetes.

Type II diabetes is a chronic condition that the body cannot regulate blood sugar properly due to the ineffective function of the insulin hormone. At later stages, the situation might cause heart disease, kidney failure, nerve damage, and other complications if not treated timely.

Even though we have known the root causes of type II diabetes for a long time and thousands of healthcare professionals have worked hard to treat it and educate the public to prevent it, unfortunately, 442 million people live with it.

In addition, millions of undiagnosed people are believed to have prediabetes, which can lead to full diabetes. The significant triggers and aggravators of the condition being so widespread are metabolic syndrome, insulin resistance, and increasing obesity globally, which have become an epidemic and tripled since 1975, as informed by the World Health Organization.

I wrote a lot about metabolic disorders highlighting the importance of lifestyle factors. Even though type II diabetes has a genetic connection, lifestyle factors are the primary cause for most people. Thus, it can be preventable for most of us when we make necessary changes timely.

For example, I’m genetically disadvantaged, as type II diabetes is common in my family. Even worse, I was at the onset of diabetes in my mid-20s due to dietary problems and stress. However, I reversed the condition and lowered the risk substantially with lifestyle modifications, to the surprise of my healthcare professionals and friends.

In addition, I met many people who prevented metabolic disorders and even reversed insulin resistance, metabolic syndrome, fatty liver disease, and type II diabetes, as documented in my previous posts.

In this article, I summarize the key points to prevent type II diabetes via healthy lifestyle choices based on my reviews, observations, and decades of experience in metabolic health. I simplify the points as much as possible with practical tips highlighting holistic health principles.

Although some protocols might not apply to everyone, the principles behind these methods can be customized by anyone unless there are underlying conditions beyond lifestyle factors.

Those disadvantaged people need special attention, intervention, medical supervision, and timely support from qualified healthcare professionals.

In the following sections, I summarize the critical points of three principles that can lower the risks of type II diabetes and prevent its manifestation. Some people can even reverse the condition if these principles are followed stringently with support from qualified healthcare professionals.

1 — Create a flexible metabolism.

A flexible metabolism refers to our ability to adapt to different metabolic conditions for energy utilization in our cells.

Our bodies create energy primarily from two sources. They are glucose and fat molecules. Both glucose and fat molecules are essential in adequate amounts for various metabolic activities in the body.

Some organs cannot survive without sugar. Some organs, such as the brain and heart, can use both glucose and fat molecules as energy sources. As glucose is essential for the body, it has a built-in capability to create sugar even without eating any sugary food.

This process is called gluconeogenesis. It means that without food, the body can produce necessary glucose from amino acids and even fat molecules unless the person has underlying health conditions and genetic defects.

Unfortunately, some people only depend on glucose as their energy source, and their bodies hardly get any chance to utilize fat molecules for energy. So a flexible metabolism allows the utilization of glucose and fat simultaneously or in different ratios as needed.

One of the best ways to create a flexible metabolism is time-restricted eating. This means that we might consume our food in a specific window and not eat anything for the rest of the day. The fasted window allows the body to utilize stored fat as an energy source.

In addition, the body becomes more insulin sensitive during the fasting period, as I explain in the next section.

2 — Make the body more insulin sensitive.

Three significant factors cause insulin resistance. They are consuming excessive calories, living sedentary, and experiencing chronic stress.

Combining these three factors for a prolonged time can make the body insulin-resistant and leptin-resistant, preventing the necessary function of glucagon. So the solution is to address these three risks by leveraging healthy lifestyle choices. You can learn more about hormonal balance in this story.

The most crucial factor for insulin is our food intake. All macronutrients impact insulin release to some extent when consumed in large amounts. However, the most effective macronutrient spiking insulin is refined carbs which can quickly turn to sugar and increase blood glucose.

Therefore a low-hanging fruit is to lower or cut refined carbs as much as possible. However, the best practice is to consume only adequate calories from macronutrients in a balanced way that our bodies can burn daily.

If we consume more calories than our metabolic rate, then the next solution is to burn them via exercise. Therefore, movement is vital to keeping the body insulin sensitive.

As stress also causes insulin resistance via elevated cortisol, which affects sugar metabolism, lowering oxidative stress by getting restorative sleep, timely rest, meditation, fun, and quality relationships can be helpful.

3 — Burn fat while retaining lean muscles.

Entirely preventing fat accumulation is impossible when we eat food as the body will always store excess calories quickly for future use. This is human nature as part of our evolution and serves the purpose of survival.

However, utilizing and burning stored fat when needed is possible. Therefore I touched on metabolic flexibility and insulin sensitivity in the previous chapters.

So the critical points to burning body fat effectively are to gain metabolic flexibility and make the body insulin sensitive. These two capabilities can put us in a metabolically advantaged position to burn fat efficiently when required.

Our bodies should be able to utilize stored fat and maintain muscle mass simultaneously to have a well-functioning metabolism. The muscle is a critical organ for our survival. Besides its function to enable movement, we also need muscles to burn calories to keep metabolism functional.

So a person with more muscles can burn more calories. Therefore, having and retaining adequate muscle mass is crucial to have a well-functioning metabolism.

Fat burning is catabolic, but muscle retention is an anabolic process. Even though the two process conflicts, it is possible to create a catabolic and anabolic effect at the same with minor tweaks in our eating, exercise, and sleep regimen.

The fundamental metabolic principle to understand is activating mTOR for muscle retention and initiating fat burning by mobilizing and utilizing stored fats. mTOR is a unique protein signaling the body to grow cells. It also plays a role in synthesizing proteins and regulating metabolism.

The good news is that exercise, especially resistance training, can activate mTOR and initiate fat burning by allowing the muscles to utilize more glucose and consume glycogen stores that enable the liver to create ketone bodies as alternative energy.

By the way, excessive ketones for type II diabetes, especially consuming too much alcohol, can be detrimental, leading to a condition called ketoacidosis.

While ketosis burns stored fat efficiently, it can also prevent muscle loss by consuming adequate protein and healthy fats. Therefore some people use ketogenic diets as a prevention method. However, they might not work for everyone and might be risky for some women.

The second critical point is consuming enough bioavailable proteins to activate mTOR. So when we consume adequate carbohydrates, fats, and proteins, we can prime the body to retain muscles, prevent fat accumulations, and burn some stored fat with exercise.

The third crucial point is restorative sleep, as muscle retention and fat burning are also related to our hormones. For example, growth hormone, which is anabolic for muscles and catabolic for fat, can be produced during restorative sleep.

Sleep also affects the cortisol hormone, which is catabolic for muscles and anabolic for fat cells. Therefore, elevated cortisol for a prolonged time might lead to muscle loss and visceral fat gain. Restorative sleep can optimize cortisol and growth hormone for better functions.

As a bonus, growth hormone also spikes when fasting, which protects muscles and allows the body to burn visceral fat. So, time-restricted eating with adequate calorie consumption can contribute to fat-burning and muscle retention.

Conclusions and Takeaways

Type II diabetes is a severe metabolic health condition that might lead to even more complicated conditions such as cardiovascular disease, kidney problems, neurodegenerative disorders, and some cancers.

As most of the risk factors revolve around lifestyle factors related to excessive sugar consumption, disproportionate calories, sedentary life, and oxidative stress, I believe that type II diabetes is preventable and even reversible with personal responsibility and support from qualified healthcare professionals.

Here are ten key takeaway points from this story

1 — Consume enough calories from nutrient-dense foods.

2 — Refrain from empty calories in junk foods and lower refined carbs.

3 — Consume adequate bioavailable proteins and healthy fats.

4 — Keep the body active and consume excess calories with exercise.

5 — Consider resistance training to maintain muscle mass.

6 — Make the body insulin sensitive by controlling sugar via diet, exercise, and restorative sleep.

7 — Consider time-restricted eating or skipping a meal when you consume too many calories in previous meals.

8 — Lower the stress with mindfulness activities such as meditation, visualization, self-talk, expressive writing, laughter yoga, hobbies, and working in a flow state.

9 — Get checked for sugar and insulin levels regularly. In addition, use doable and affordable home tests for glucose. Here are seven tests you can do at home.

10 — Lower metabolic syndrome risks or address the issues timely.

Our bodies and minds have healing power if we can activate them intentionally. Our thoughts, feelings, and behavior determine our success. Thus, we must create habits that balance the body and mind based on holistic health principles.

We cannot change our genes. However, by controlling our stress, having healthy habits, and obtaining timely support, we might create epigenetic effects that can prevent or reverse our conditions.

Thus, living mindfully, being aware of risk factors, accepting and communicating our conditions, taking necessary actions, and seeking timely support from qualified healthcare professionals and loved ones when needed can be invaluable to live a healthy and happy life.

I’d like to conclude this post by sharing the link to an inspiring story titled Here’s How a Mature-Age Couple Reversed Diabetes and Trimmed Their Bodies with Lifestyle Habits.

Thank you for reading my perspectives. I wish you a healthy and happy life.

As a new reader, you might check my holistic health and well-being stories reflecting on my reviews, observations, and decades of sensible experiments. I write about health as it matters. I believe health is all about homeostasis.

Metabolic Syndrome, Obesity, Type II Diabetes, Fatty Liver Disease, Heart Disease and Strokes, Liver Cancer, Autoimmune Disorders, Homocysteine, Lungs Health, Pancreas Health, Kidneys Health, NCDs, Infectious Diseases, Brain Health, Dementia, Depression, Brain Atrophy, Neonatal Disorders, Skin Health, Dental Health, Bone Health, Leaky Gut, Leaky Brain, Brain Fog, Chronic Inflammation, Insulin Resistance, Elevated Cortisol, Leptin Resistance, Anabolic Resistance, Cholesterol, High Triglycerides, Metabolic Disorders, Gastrointestinal Disorders, and Major Diseases.

I also wrote about valuable nutrients. Here are the links for easy access:

Boron, Urolithin, taurine, citrulline malate, biotin, lithium orotate, alpha-lipoic acid, n-acetyl-cysteine, acetyl-l-carnitine, CoQ10, PQQ, NADH, TMG, creatine, choline, digestive enzymes, magnesium, zinc, hydrolyzed collagen, nootropics, pure nicotine, activated charcoal, Vitamin B12, Vitamin B1, Vitamin D, Vitamin K2, Omega-3 Fatty Acids, N-Acetyl L-Tyrosine, and other nutrients to improve metabolism and mental health.

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