Metabolic Health
Six Tips to Reverse Insulin Resistance, Lose Fat, and Stay Healthy
No matter what we do, unless we address insulin resistance, our waistlines will grow and lead to chronic health issues.
Here’s why I wrote this essential article.
Some health conditions are still not curable or reversible within our current capabilities, such as some autoimmune conditions or specific cancers. I hope one day, we will find a cure for those debilitating conditions.
Fortunately, insulin resistance is a condition that can be reversed with healthy lifestyle choices and support from qualified healthcare professionals, as I articulate in this article.
Unless we fix insulin resistance sustainably, fat loss can be challenging, and numerous metabolic and mental health disorders might emerge that can lower the quality of life and even shorten our lifespan.
I keep emphasizing this health condition in my health and well-being stories for good reasons. Overcommunicating the risks of insulin resistance and the importance of insulin sensitivity is impossible in this obesity epidemic.
For example, sadly, 70% of my regular readers over 50 years old mentioned that they were insulin resistant and they desired to reverse it.
I am not surprised by this bad news bleeding my heart, as 442 million people live with diabetes. And millions of people die from cardiovascular diseases.
This article introduces insulin resistance as a health risk and provides six practical tips to reverse it with healthy lifestyle choices and holistic health principles.
As I successfully achieved this goal and helped many friends and family members, and researched the topic intensely, I’d like to share my protocols in a summary format.
Each person used a different protocol as they had different dietary regimens, ages, fitness levels, medical histories, and lifestyles. However, they all used the same principles that I summarized under six headings.
What is insulin resistance, and why does it matter?
I wrote numerous articles highlighting the detrimental effects of insulin resistance on metabolic health and provided valuable perspectives from my research and experience.
Therefore, I will not repeat them. For example, a recent story summarizes seven metabolic issues. However, for new readers, I briefly explain insulin resistance and highlight why it matters.
First of all, insulin resistance is the primary root cause of visceral fat gain, obesity, fatty liver disease, metabolic syndrome, type II diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, some cancers, and neurodegenerative disorders. Therefore I call insulin resistance the elephant in the room that we need to address globally.
In summary, the bloodstream can handle small amounts of glucose at a given time. When the glucose volume passes the threshold, the pancreas quickly releases insulin hormone to distribute the glucose to various cells.
An adequate amount of sugar in the bloodstream is essential for survival, but too much glucose is toxic to the body. As the body perceives excessive glucose as toxic, it eliminates it quickly using the insulin hormone, which signals cells to receive glucose. This is a normal process, and nothing is wrong with it.
However, insulin resistance happens when cells cannot respond to signals of insulin hormone as they don’t need it anymore. The pancreas creates more and more insulin to cope with the excessive glucose in the bloodstream and the glycogen stores. Then the body experience hyperinsulinemia leading to insulin resistance.
In addition, when too much insulin is released, as it is a storage hormone, it dumps excessive glucose into our fat stores (mainly the abdominal area), turning it into visceral fat. Therefore, insulin-resistant people gain more fat. Excessive visceral fat accumulates toxins and breaks the balance of the body.
After this 30 thousand feet view of insulin resistance, I’d like to provide six proven steps to prevent or reverse insulin resistance based on healthy lifestyle choices and holistic health principles.
However, some people with underlying health conditions might need medical intervention and supervision to reverse insulin resistance, as it is a serious health matter.
1 — Start with restorative sleep and quality rest.
I particularly emphasize sleep as without addressing sleep deprivation or insomnia issues adhering to other items like diet and exercise can be highly challenging.
In addition, sleep deprivation or lack of restorative sleep is a root cause of insulin resistance, leading to metabolic disorders. The primary reason is chronic stress, which causes the elevation of stress hormones such as cortisol.
As I pointed out before, Unless We Beat the Cortisol Monster, Fat Loss Remains a Dream. Getting adequate and restorative sleep is essential to losing visceral fat. In addition, sleep is critical for many other health reasons.
Solving our sleep issues can be the best investment in our health and well-being. A practical approach is to find effective ways to address the root causes of stress and find practical ways to improve sleep quality.
In addition to lowering stress hormones, restorative sleep can also balance other hormones and significantly boost growth hormones giving us a better metabolic advantage.
A customized sleep regime and stress management approach might solve sleep issues and normalize cortisol without supplements or medications.
You may discuss this with your doctor and obtain a referral to a sleep specialist who can create an action plan.
As I had sleep issues in my younger years, I documented my solution and specific steps in an article titled Here’s How I Corrected My Sleep Issues in 7 Steps and Reaped Many Health Benefits.
2 — Personalize your diet.
Whether you are an herbivore, omnivore, or carnivore, it doesn’t matter to become insulin sensitive. I witnessed people from various different diet groups who reversed their insulin resistance and significantly improved their metabolic and mental health.
However, they all needed to customize their eating regimen with their set boundaries. I understand that a herbivore does not want to eat meat, and a carnivore does not want to eat vegetables. This is fine. The principles apply to both groups.
From my experience, omnivores are slightly in a better position. However, herbivores or carnivores can also create an advantage if they carefully design their diets within their limitations and supplement if they face nutritional deficiencies with support from professionals.
Regardless of diet type, there are three principles for all of them. The first one is eating whole food and refraining from junk food. Reducing processed foods as much as possible is a critical success factor.
The second principle is to lower refined carbs as much as possible and replace them with bioavailable protein and healthy fats. Increasing healthy fats and consuming moderate protein can put the body in a metabolically advantaged position.
The key mechanism for this is the ketosis process. Healthy fats are critical to entering ketosis, and they can be found both in plant and animal products.
In addition, lowering carbs and increasing healthy fats and proteins can also solve the leptin resistance issue, which is another root cause of insulin resistance.
Since I wrote several articles about ketosis, I will not repeat them. Interested readers can find the previous stories from the attached links.
How to Enter Ketosis in a Keto-Omnivore Diet Safely and Quickly
The third principle is to prevent food cravings. The first and second principles can address this issue, as I explained in a previous article titled Here’s Zayla’s Six-Step Process to End Food Cravings, Reverse Metabolic Syndrome, and Trim Her Body.
3 — Move your body with joy regularly.
Sedentary life is another root cause of insulin resistance and other metabolic disorders such as obesity, fatty liver disease, type II diabetes, and cardiovascular diseases.
I witnessed many people who reversed their insulin resistance, metabolic syndrome, and type II diabetes, mainly having a more active life.
Regular exercise can be beneficial in lowering glucose in the bloodstream. However, we can also stay active by using our work and daily chores. A combination might be better.
Some people enjoy cardio and some resistance training or weight lifting. All types of exercises contribute to insulin sensitivity as they burn glucose and have the potential to mobilize stored fat.
Intense exercises might produce better results for staying insulin-sensitive and consequently losing body fat. However, moderate exercising such as walking, swimming, calisthenics, or hopping on a trampoline can produce satisfactory results from my experience and observations.
Some people reversed their insulin resistance by simply walking around 10,000 steps a day at two to three intervals. A thirty-minute walk one hour after the main meals might produce excellent results as digestion happens for an hour, and the food turns into calories.
So before those calories go to our fat stores, exercise can eliminate them by activating muscles and using them as an energy source. People enjoy different types of workouts and sports. No one size fits all. Staring and exercise program also requires medical advice for some of us.
As exercise is an individual matter, we must choose whatever suits our needs, goals, and fitness levels. Age also plays a role in exercise. For example, a workout working for a 20-year-old person might not work for an 80-year-old person. They have different metabolism and maintenance needs.
For example, in my younger years, I used to do excessive cardio, such as long-distance running, which caused me issues. However, nowadays, I like resistance training in the form of calisthenics and moderate weight lifting.
Besides barefoot walking on the grass or beach, I also enjoy 30 minutes of fasted cardio on a trampoline each day joyfully.
4 — Recover timely and have fun.
Recovery and fun are essential for two critical reasons causing insulin resistance. They are oxidative stress and chronic inflammation.
As we know, both physical and mental exercises cause the body stress and create significant stress hormones.
During this process, our cells, mitochondria, and DNA are affected by biochemicals produced by stress. I explained how stress affects us at a genetic level in a previous story.
Therefore, we need to recover from the tears of previous workouts before starting the new ones. If we start new exercise sessions without recovering from the effects of previous ones, the body produces more stress hormones and inflammation, which keeps accumulating.
As mental stress also affects bodily functions, we need to rest and have fun. Taking breaks at work, stretching the body every hour or so, and having pleasant conversations with friends or family members can significantly lower mental stress and prevent the excessive release of cortisol.
5 — Challenge the body gradually to become fat-adapted.
So far, I have covered the most fundamental items: sleep, diet, exercise, and recovery. Even though they are critical to preventing insulin resistance, they might not be enough to reverse the condition.
Therefore, we need to challenge the body gradually and naturally to increase metabolic flexibility and make it fat-adapted
From my experience, the most effective way is time-restricted eating, also known as intermittent fasting. I wrote several articles about the benefits of fasting, so I will not go into details here.
In summary, the body becomes more insulin-sensitive when we consume our food in a specific window (e.g., 8 hours) and remain fasted for the rest of the day (16 hours).
When we don’t consume food, the pancreas does not create insulin, as our blood glucose will be based on the gluconeogenesis process.
In the absence of insulin for a while, the body can tap into fat stores easily to use fat molecules as energy and increase the chance of melting visceral fat.
Some people think that fasting is religious and complicated. We don’t have to be religious to perform fasting. We must refrain from food but drink water, stay hydrated, and consume essential electrolytes during the fast period.
Some of us, especially those who with underlying medical conditions, might need medical supervision to fast safely. Therefore, I always mention the importance of approval from our health consultant before starting any fasting regime, whether short-term or long-term.
In addition to fasting, we can also challenge the body with cold (cold showers or ice baths) and heat exposure (dry saunas). Particularly, cold exposure can significantly improve cellular and mitochondrial health.
Fasting, exercise, and thermogenesis together can significantly increase the autophagy and mitophagy processes, clearing the garbage from our cells and mitochondria. This natural detoxification can improve our metabolic and mental health.
6 — Improve your mood and relationships.
Mood disorders can significantly affect our metabolic health. Therefore, improving our mood is necessary to reverse insulin resistance or to stay insulin sensitive.
Our emotional profile determines our mood. Addressing emotional issues and traumas via guided therapy or using self-therapy, such as CBT, can enhance cognitive flexibility, regulate emotions, and improve the adversity quotient.
Our relationships with others can affect our mood. Better relationships with family members, friends, and colleagues can brighten our mood ad lower our stress. When we have less stress, we eat less, exercise more, and sleep better. So our mood indirectly affects our metabolic activities.
Therefore, improving our emotional maturity, fixing our relationship issues, and enhancing our social connections can boost our mood and increase the chance of adhering to fundamental requirements like sleep, nutrition, diet, exercise, and timely recovery.
From my experience, mindfulness practices such as meditation, journaling, expressive writing, self-talk, visualization, laughter yoga, and working in a flow state can significantly improve our mood as they calm down the amygdala (alert system) and strengthen the neocortex, the cognitive part of the brain.
Conclusions and Takeaways
By honoring the body’s fundamental needs, we can balance our hormones and keep our bodies insulin-sensitive. However, if our bodies are already insulin resistant, it is still not too late, as reversing insulin resistance with healthy lifestyle choices is possible.
I summarized key principles under six headings in this story with a few examples. However, the implementation of these protocols can vary from person to person.
As I mentioned, our diet and exercise must be personalized based on multiple factors. Copying the diet and exercise programs of others does not work. We need to personalize them based on our goals and needs.
These six points revolve around stress, which can significantly affect the delicate balance of the body. Insulin resistance indicates a broken balance, also known as homeostasis. Therefore, mending it with holistic health principles is critical.
Like thousands of others, I reversed my insulin resistance, prediabetes, and a dozen entangled health conditions, giving me better metabolic and mental health.
In addition, I shared multiple personal stories (75+), giving examples from other people’s lives. For example:
Eliza shed 30 pounds in six months and never gained it again.
Alberto melted his potbelly.
Maggie reversed her obesity.
Edward boosted his sluggish metabolism.
Jennifer healed her brain fog.
A mature couple reversed their diabetes.
Another mature couple stopped their alcohol addiction.
Malala reversed her childhood obesity.
I documented many more success stories in a collection titled Insightful Life Lessons from Personal Stories. They all had insulin resistance and some kind of metabolic disorders also affecting their mental health. I hope these stories inspire you and give you hope if you are insulin-resistant.
To conclude, none of our hormones, including insulin, is an enemy. On the contrary, despite the poor reputation of some hormones like insulin caused by ignorant people, I see them as friends.
All hormones and neurotransmitters have purposes for our survival but require balance and optimization. Nevertheless, an imbalance of our hormones can cause serious health issues, lowering the quality of life. Therefore, hormonal intelligence is essential to stay healthy and fit.
When we reverse insulin resistance, fat loss can be much easier as our body will do its best to utilize stored fat as an energy source efficiently, giving us pleasure and joy. We won’t need fad diets or expensive supplements after having an insulin-sensitive and leptin-signaling body.
Thank you for reading my perspectives. I wish you a healthy and happy life.
As a new reader, please check my holistic health and well-being stories reflecting my reviews, observations, and decades of experiments optimizing my hormones and neurotransmitters. I write about health as it matters. I believe health is all about homeostasis.
Petechiae, ALS, Metabolic Syndrome, Type II Diabetes, Fatty Liver Disease, Heart Disease, Strokes, Obesity, 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, Thyroid Disorders, Anemia, Dysautonomia, cardiac output, and urinary track disorders.
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Lutein/Zeaxanthin, Phosphatidylserine, 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.
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