It’s frustrating right?  Especially because high quality sleep is VITAL to good health—to repairing your cells and regulating your metabolism.

Unfortunately poor sleep is a more common problem than you might think. In fact, research shows that 1 in 3 of us aren’t getting enough sleep on a regular basis, and that is likely having a huge impact on your health and well-being.

Because the truth is that if you’re not sleeping well, it’s not just your energy levels that are suffering. It’s not just that you’re a little bit tired. It’s not just that you need a little pick-me-up in the morning.

It’s that your ability to function and feel your best is being severely compromised. It’s that your mental clarity and focus are suffering. It’s that your emotional health is being affected. It’s that your weight loss efforts are being derailed. It’s that your risk for chronic disease is going way up.

So that’s why I want to spend today talking about exactly that—about sleep, and the impact it has on our health, and the simple changes you can make to make sure you’re getting the best sleep possible.

Because the reality is that if you’re on a health journey, and especially if you’re trying to lose weight, then you need to know that sleep and weight loss are connected. They’re inextricably linked. You can’t really address one without the other. And trying to lose weight without also focusing on improving the quality of your sleep is pretty much a recipe for disaster.

So let’s dive in, and talk about why exactly sleep is so important, and what you can do to make sure you’re getting enough of the right kind of sleep every night.

Why Sleep Matters

So first things first—why exactly does sleep matter so much?

Well, it turns out that sleep is a lot more than just a way for our bodies to recharge. In fact, there are a whole host of things that happen to our bodies when we sleep that simply don’t happen when we’re awake, or that are severely impeded when we don’t get enough sleep.

For one, sleep is when our bodies are able to repair and regenerate. It’s when our cells are able to do the work of healing, and our hormones are able to re-balance. It’s also when our bodies are able to flush out toxins and other waste products—which is why a lack of sleep is often linked to higher risk of chronic disease, including heart disease, stroke, and cancer.

Sleep is also when our brains are able to process and store memories, and when we’re able to go through our day and make sense of all the things that have happened to us. It’s when our brains are able to do all the important work of organizing and sorting, so that we can function at our best when we’re awake.

And finally, sleep is also when our bodies are able to regulate our blood sugar levels and our metabolism. In fact, a lack of sleep or poor quality sleep is often linked to insulin resistance and weight gain, because it throws off our hormones and makes it harder for our bodies to properly regulate energy.

So as you can see, sleep is pretty important. In fact, it’s SO important that the National Sleep Foundation actually calls it the “third pillar of good health,” along with diet and exercise.

And yet, it’s the one pillar that we all too often neglect.

The Consequences of Poor Sleep

So what are some of the consequences of not getting enough sleep or not getting good quality sleep?

Well, for one, it can have a big impact on our energy levels and our ability to function. If you’ve ever had a night of tossing and turning and then had to try to get through a full day of work or taking care of the kids, then you know just how debilitating that can be. And if this is something that happens to you on a regular basis, then you’re probably dealing with chronic fatigue, which can affect every area of your life.

A lack of sleep can also affect your mental health, leading to increased anxiety, depression, and cognitive impairment. It can also make it harder for you to concentrate and remember things.

And as I mentioned earlier, poor sleep is also linked to a higher risk of chronic diseases like heart disease, stroke, and cancer. It’s also been linked to weight gain and obesity, because it throws off our hormones and makes it harder for our bodies to properly regulate energy. And if you’re on a weight loss journey, this is obviously a big deal.

So as you can see, the consequences of poor sleep are pretty significant. It affects every area of our lives, from our physical and mental health to our weight and risk of disease.

And that’s why if you’re serious about transforming your health and losing weight, then you need to start taking your sleep seriously.

Because the reality is that sleep and weight loss are inextricably linked. You can’t really address one without the other. And trying to lose weight without also focusing on improving the quality of your sleep is basically a recipe for disaster.

Because if you’re not sleeping well, then you’re making it a whole lot harder for yourself to actually lose weight. And you’re also missing out on all the other amazing benefits that come from getting good quality sleep.

So let’s talk about what you can actually DO to start improving your sleep, and why it matters so much for your health and well-being.

How to Improve Your Sleep

The good news is that there are a lot of simple changes you can start making to improve the quality of your sleep. And while it might not always be easy to break old habits, the benefits of better sleep are definitely worth it.

So here are 5 super simple changes you can make almost immediately—literally today—to start improving the duration and quality of your sleep.

1. Start taking a magnesium supplement. Magnesium is an incredibly important mineral that plays a role in over 300 biochemical reactions in the body, including regulating sleep, and because of the changes in our modern diet, most people are now magnesium deficient. Just this one change can be a game-changer for your sleep. I recommend taking a highly absorbable form of magnesium, like magnesium glycinate, and taking it about an hour before bedtime.

2. Avoid caffeine and alcohol close to bedtime. Caffeine can stay in your system for up to 8 hours, so if you’re having trouble falling asleep, it’s best to avoid caffeine after lunchtime. And while alcohol might make you feel sleepy at first, it actually disrupts the quality of your sleep and can lead to frequent awakenings during the night. It’s best to limit alcohol consumption before bed or avoid it altogether.

3. Create a bedtime wind-down routine. Just like kids benefit from having a consistent bedtime routine, adults can also benefit from this. Set aside some time before bed to do some relaxing activities like reading, meditating, or taking a warm bath. This will signal to your brain that it’s time to wind down and get ready for sleep. A mineral bath with magnesium salts can be especially effective because you’re getting the added benefit of more magnesium to help with relaxation.

4. Avoid screens before bed. This is a big one but sometimes SO hard in our screen-obsessed culture. But it’s important to try, and here’s why: the blue light emitted from screens can suppress the production of melatonin, which is a hormone that helps regulate our sleep-wake cycle. So try to avoid using screens at least an hour before bedtime, or invest in blue light blocking glasses if you absolutely need to use screens close to bedtime.

5. Create a sleep-friendly environment. In the short term, this means making sure your bedroom is as dark, cool, and quiet as possible. But longer term, it might mean actually giving your bedroom a sleep-focused makeover by installing blackout curtains or an extra air conditioner to keep the temperature around 65 degrees Fahrenheit year round, or even getting a white noise machines. Oddly enough, research has also shown that sleeping in all white bedding can also improve the quality of your sleep. Pay attention also to the quality of your mattress, pillows, sheets and comforter. Considering that nearly a third of our time is spent in bed, it’s worth investing in the good stuff.

And while those are all changes you can make relatively quickly that could potentially have a big impact on the quality of your sleep, longer term you’ll also want to consider implementing some stress management techniques, getting regular exercise (but not too close to bedtime), sticking to a consistent sleep schedule, and changing your diet to avoid foods that can disrupt sleep.

Final Thoughts

In the end, sleep plays a crucial role in our overall health and well-being. And in today’s fast-paced, technology-driven world, it can be easy to neglect this aspect of our lives. But by making small changes and prioritizing good sleep habits, we can reap the many benefits that come from getting quality rest. So let’s start taking our sleep seriously and make it a priority in our lives for better health, weight loss, and overall happiness.

Sweet dreams! 

The post 5 Simple Changes You Can Make Right Now to Sleep Better Tonight appeared first on Thinlicious.

What day is it?

Did I answer that text?

What did I just go upstairs to get?

Why do I feel so groggy?

I can’t believe I forgot to get gas again! Now I’m gonna be late…

Thoughts cascading on top of each other, overwhelming and confusing you—there’s a name for that. Brain fog. And it happens to all of us.

And we all try different things to fix it, too.

Maybe you head to the drive-through for a jumbo iced coffee when it strikes. Or you reach for an energy drink or a sugary snack. Or maybe, when those things don’t work, you give in and just take a nap.

And yet when you wake up, you never quite feel refreshed.

But fighting brain fog with caffeine, sugar and processed foods is like taking a pill to cure your headache when you’re dehydrated—it may make the symptoms go away in the short term, but it won’t solve the real, root cause of the problem.

There’s a better (and healthier) way to clear that fog and have more energy—and it all has to do with what you’re eating. (Yes, it really is that simple!)

If you’re a little skeptical, keep reading. We’ll look closer at what causes brain fog and how the food we eat can make it worse (but can also get rid of it completely!). Because chances are, if you are struggling with brain fog, your diet has something to do with it.

What Is Brain Fog?

Brain fog is a term for what happens when you experience a decrease in cognitive performance.

Yup, your brain feels foggy and can’t think as clearly because it isn’t working at full capacity.

When this happens, you might feel tired, lethargic and have trouble finding the right words to describe something. It shows up differently for each person. But the common symptom that everyone experiences is a lack of clarity in their thoughts.

The term brain fog is so accurate. It really does feel like your thoughts are floating in a haze.

It’s very frustrating, especially when other people depend on you.

What causes brain fog?

Now that we know what brain fog is, let’s chat about why you have it in the first place. There are many common causes for this condition including menopause, pregnancy, certain medications and disease.

But, there’s another extremely common reason why your brain isn’t working as well as you’d like: diet.

We hate to tell you, but it is likely as simple as ingesting too much sugar (or foods that turn into sugar).

How to Ditch Carbs and Get Rid of Brain Fog

Carbs and sugar are the biggest culprits of brain fog, and it’s all because of the spikes and crashes they cause.

Have you ever seen the movie Paul Blart: Mall Cop? It’s an exaggerated example of spikes and crashes from blood sugar. When Paul’s blood sugar drops too low, he can’t think; he can barely move. He just wants to sleep. But as soon as he eats candy or Pixie sticks (basically pure sugar), he has so much energy he can tackle the bad guys.

Yeah, it’s like that. But sugar isn’t the superpower in this story; it’s more like the villain.

When we eat food with a lot of sugar in it, our bodies experience a surge of energy. This is especially true when we eat high-glycemic-index carbohydrates from refined sugars and flours.

But then what goes UP must come DOWN, and it inevitably leads to a blood sugar crash that leaves the brain more starved for energy than before.

BAM. Brain fog.

Our bodies need a steady source of energy. Constantly overwhelming it with spikes (and crashes) from sugar will eventually lead to insulin resistance. When that happens, brain fog will be just one of a host of other health issues.

So, what should we eat to avoid (and get rid of) brain fog? Well, you’re in luck because our entire program will change this for you, for good!

Foods to Eat to Eliminate Brain Fog

Ready to banish brain fog? It’s as simple as this:

Eat More Protein and Healthy Fats, aka the Thinlicious™ way!

If you’re feeling low in energy and foggy lately, it’s time to change what you eat!

It may not seem like it would do much, but the benefit is incredible. This can be a great way to give your body and brain some much-needed energy by stabilizing blood sugar levels.

Eating low-carb and high-protein food will help you stop the craving cycle thanks to eliminating the swinging blood sugar levels that lead to quick crashes in energy.

By resetting your metabolism with low-carb food options, you can finally have that focused, energized feeling backed by rock-solid stability.

Protein and healthy fats are essential macronutrients that your body needs in order to function properly.

When you become Thin Adapted, your body will start burning fat for energy instead of carbs. This is why it’s so important to eat enough fat. Your body needs enough fat to carry out basic functions (like thinking clearly).

Protein is important too. It delivers amino acids that build muscle and also provides a longer-lasting source of energy.

How much protein and fat should I eat?

That depends on what phase of your low-carb lifestyle you’re in.

If you are just starting out and learning all the things (or maybe you’re already doing the 28 Day Metabolism Reset), we recommend a macro breakdown of 70%-75% from fat, 20-25% protein and 5-10% carbs.

And lucky for you, we have tons of high-fat and high-protein recipes to help you out!

4 Brain Fog-Bashing Recipes From Thinlicious

Check out the collection of easy recipes in the recipe index. Here are a few of our favorite high-fat and high-protein recipes you should make.

1. Magic High-Protein Bread

Thanks to the egg whites and egg white protein powder, the Thinlicious Magic Bread is a delicious source of protein that you can eat just like sandwich bread.

There are 6.7 grams of protein in each slice, giving you steady energy that won’t make you crash (like white bread does).

2. Sausage Cream Cheese Pinwheels

Enjoy these tasty little pinwheels for breakfast, lunch or even with your dinner. The main ingredients are cream cheese, almond flour and breakfast sausage. It’s a mess-free alternative to biscuits and gravy.

And it fits with your macros too! Each pinwheel has 31 grams of protein and 18 grams of fat.

3. White Florentine Chicken-Crust Pizza

Indulge in pizza without the sugar crash! The white florentine chicken-crust pizza is a low-carb alternative to a cheesy pizza pie. The crust is basically all protein, made with chicken breast, eggs, spices and two types of cheese.

Then, it’s topped with high-fat cheese and your favorite low-carb veggies. There’s a shocking 29.8 grams of protein and 22.6 grams of fat in each slice! One slice will definitely fill you up.

4. Sweet and Savory Breakfast Casserole

Making brunch? This is the perfect breakfast dish to serve to friends and family. Even if they are indulging in carbs, they’ll never guess that this is a low-carb meal!

With 14 grams of fiber, this casserole will keep you fed and full for hours.

Final Thoughts

There you have it! Brain fog might be something almost everyone experiences, but you don’t have to keep suffering from it. Change how you eat and fuel your body with enough protein and healthy fats to clear away murky feelings and leave you with more energy than ever before!

Changing how you eat can be tough, so join the Thinlicious Facebook Community and get the encouragement you need while learning how others are making Thinlicious work for their busy lives. We look forward to seeing you there and hearing your success story next!

Brain Fog Resources

Want to learn even more about brain fog from trusted professionals? Give these resources a try; we highly recommend them.

• Dr. Ryan Lowery, What The Fat Podcast, Episode #129 “Brain Gains”
• The Grain Brain By: Dr. David Perlmutter and Kristin Loberg
• Dr. Danielle Hamilton, Unlock The Sugar Shackles Podcast

Get More Energy!

You can banish brain fog and feel better today! We recommend introducing your body to low-carb eating through the Thinlicious 28 Day Metabolism Reset. This 4-week program is designed to introduce you to the Thin Adapted System and help you retrain how your body burns fuel. Get it HERE.

PIN FOR LATER

The post Banish Brain Fog With What You Eat appeared first on Thinlicious.

So you’re finally ready to get serious about getting healthy and losing weight. Maybe it was seeing yourself in that last family photo. Maybe it’s no longer fitting into your favorite pair of jeans. Or maybe you just don’t feel good a lot of the time. You’re tired. Your joints ache. Your skin is dull.

You know there has to be a better way.

But every time you turn around, it feels like some so-called diet expert is saying something different. One minute you’re hearing about the dangers of fat, the next you’re being told to eat more fat. One day it’s popular to count calories, the next you’re hearing how there are things called “empty calories.”  Eat plant based. No, eat like a carnivore. Whole grains are heart healthy. No, stay away from gluten! Add more fiber. No, just focus on protein!

Let’s be honest; if there is one space that feels almost impossible to navigate safely, it’s the diet space.

And to top it off, everything you’ve heard about things like keto and paleo and low-carb diets seems to be even more contradictory, with some people claiming that carbs are the root cause of everything from Type 2 diabetes and autoimmune disease to cancer and infertility, while others argue that eating a steady diet of nothing but bacon and butter can’t possibly be good for you.

So it begs the question, doesn’t it?

Are low-carb and ketogenic diets safe, especially long term?

Is cutting out sugar and carbohydrates really the magic bullet that so many people claim, or are there hidden dangers that need to be factored in?

And will a low-carb diet work for everyone?

You’re smart to question things, and we’re glad your search brought you here. Because here at Thinlicious™, we believe in using science and real research from well-documented, double-blind studies to make our decisions, and that is what our program is based on.

But as you search and wonder, let’s just start with the short answer. 

Low-carb eating is completely healthy and safe, especially if you do it the right way. 

Keep reading, and we’ll look at the most common safety questions about low-carb eating and how to eat low carb, high fat food that supports your health and could even help you live longer. 

Are Low-Carb Diets Safe?

The short answer is that, yes, eating low carb is completely safe. So why is there so much anxiety around it?

The fear around the safety of low-carb, ketogenic-style diets is largely due to a study published in Poland, so let’s look at that study and see what they found.

In 2018, Professor Maciej Banach, of the Medical University of Lodz, Poland, conducted a study on the risks associated with eating a low-carb diet long term. His team stated that “people who consumed a low-carbohydrate diet were at greater risk of premature death.”

Woah. Those are scary words. Greater risk of premature death? Why?

Well, Professor Banach clarified his findings by saying, “Low-carbohydrate diets might be useful in the short term to lose weight, lower blood pressure and improve blood glucose control, but our study suggests that in the long term they are linked with an increased risk of death from any cause.”

See? All that misinformation was over one statement from his study, without considering how he clarified it. Low-carb diets lower blood pressure and improve blood glucose control—two essential things to reducing your risk for diabetes and heart disease (which are killing older adults).

It’s also important to note that if you look closely at his team’s study, you’ll realize it doesn’t reflect today’s updated and safer low-carb diets. Their survey only included participants from 1999-2010.

This is why the Thin Adapted System™ happens in three phases. First, your body needs to adapt to burning fat for energy instead of carbs. But you aren’t supposed to stay in Phase 1 forever. You’ll move on to Phase 2 (when the most fat burning happens) and eventually to Phase 3, when you maintain a healthy lifestyle and can even incorporate some of those low-glycemic carbs you’ve been abstaining from for a while.

If you adjust the food you eat as you go through each of the phases, a low-carb, high-fat, high-protein diet helps you eliminate obesity, prevent insulin resistance and actually lower your risk for heart disease.

Eating low carb is completely safe, but you still have to monitor your body and adjust as the needs arise.

That’s why you should listen to your body and make changes if you notice any funky health reactions you might be feeling.

Those funky health reactions are the dangers we’ll discuss next.

6 Things To Watch Out For On Low Carb

As you move through the three phases in our Thin Adapted System, your body will undergo all sorts of changes, and in our curriculum, we share, week by week, what to monitor and how to adjust your eating habits if you notice any warning signs. If you haven’t joined our program, get started with the 28 Day Metabolism Reset!

Everyone’s body is completely unique. Remember, please contact your doctor if you have any specific health concerns. This guide is more of an overview of things you should know before you begin. It’s not meant to diagnose or treat anything and is not medical advice.

Since this is a general overview, it will cover some common issues that some people have experienced during the various phases of their low-carb journey.

That said, most of these issues are very rare, so do not be concerned that this is what you are facing as you switch to a low-carb lifestyle.

Keto Flu

Have you heard of the keto flu? No matter what the name implies, it has nothing to do with actual influenza.

The keto flu actually describes how some people can feel sick when they start eating low carb. This happens because the body is changing how it burns fuel for energy. Some people might have a headache, feel tired or have trouble sleeping. You don’t need to worry, though—it is temporary, and the solution is to just drink lots of fluids and eat foods with salt.

Yup, if you’re feeling lethargic, your probably need to drink more electrolytes—which leads to the next thing some people experience.

Dehydration

When you change the way you eat, it’s easier for your body to become dehydrated, so drink lots of water!

Here’s another fun side effect of your body producing ketones. Not only do these little ketones eat up fat for energy, but they act like a diuretic, too. This means you’ll pee more often, which naturally leads to fewer fluids in your body.

Not only that, but the liver also releases glycogen, which also exits the body through urine. This is why some people refer to the weight they lose in Phase 1 as “water weight.”

Losing all that water weight comes with the potential consequence of dehydration , so drink up as much water as you can.

A very common symptom of dehydration is constipation too, and when you’re eating a lot of dairy, getting stopped up could happen.

Constipation

Eating right should make you feel better. Constipation is the opposite of feeling better. Take a peek at some typical keto meal plans and you might think, “Wow, that is a LOT of cheese. Are they even pooping?” HA!

Constipation is something else some people experience when they follow a low-carb plan. Thankfully, this one is really easy to prevent! All you have to do is eat low-carb, high-fiber foods.

This includes things like low-carb veggies (asparagus, cauliflower, broccoli) and high-fiber seeds like chia seeds.

When you follow the macros correctly in the Thin Adapted System, you won’t have a problem with constipation.

Constipation can be painful, but not as painful as the next (rare) thing.

Kidney Stones

Just like with constipation, you’re more likely to get kidney stones if you aren’t eating the correct amount of fiber and fat. Some people who don’t eat the correct ratio of macronutrients could get kidney stones.

As healthy as animal protein is for you, (and as much as we enjoy a protein fast day or two), you can’t live forever on just animal protein all the time. Studies show that too much of it can cause your urine to become too acidic, which leads to more calcium in it. And that calcium is exactly where kidney stones come from.

Your body needs a balance of nutrients to function properly.

Even though it’s unlikely that eating low carb will give you kidney stones, it’s a good reminder to track your macros and prevent them from even possibly happening. They are PAINFUL!

Nutrient Deficiencies

Another thing to watch out for when you eat low carb is getting all your nutrients, vitamins and minerals. Whenever you eliminate an entire food group, you risk losing out on all those wonderful health benefits—unless you replace them with something else.

With low carb, people worry that if they cut out whole grains, they will miss out on that fiber. Even though that’s partly true, it’s more of a reminder and motivation to eat more low-carb vegetables.

You don’t need to get fiber from whole grains. But you do need to remember to get it from somewhere, so make some roasted cauliflower or beef and broccoli. Your body needs it.

Ketoacidosis – What even is that?!!

Finally, some people worry that eating low carb could lead to something called ketoacidosis. But it’s rare, and really only happens to people who have Type 1 diabetes.

Diabetic ketoacidosis is a serious complication of diabetes, but people often confuse it with ketosis, which is completely different and actually a good thing!

Diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA) happens when someone’s body can’t produce enough insulin. In this state, the body begins to produce too many blood acids.

Ketoacidosis is not a metabolic process (and ketosis is). It’s a complication that happens in the body when it has too many ketones and glucose. This often happens because the body isn’t producing insulin, which is why it’s a complication of diabetes, usually Type 1.

This is not the same thing as ketosis. Ketosis is a metabolic state the body goes into when it doesn’t have enough glycogen from carbohydrates to burn as energy, producing ketones that burn fat for energy.

Ketosis lowers high insulin levels, which then adjusts all the other hormones in your body at the same time. This is one of the best (and safest) things you can do for your health. We go into a lot more detail about this in our guide that explains how Thinlicious compares to a keto diet.

Is Low-Carb Safe If You Have Autoimmune Disorders?

Here’s the thing. If you have a serious health concern, you need to speak with your doctor before changing how you eat.

Generally speaking, (and that’s as close as we’ll get when it comes to medical stuff), eating low carb can help your body reduce inflammation. Many (but not all) autoimmune disorders start to show fewer symptoms when the body isn’t as inflamed.

Definitely schedule a chat with your physician and ask how safe it is for you and your exact health disorder.

Alzheimer’s & Keto

On the other hand, there are a lot of studies out there showing not only the safety of keto on Alzheimer’s Disease (AD), but that it could either help prevent it or reduce the symptoms.

One study showed improved daily function in adults with AD. Another study showed improved cognitive performance in adults with AD, especially pre-symptomatic (before they start showing obvious signs of AD). Even though this study concludes that more research should be done, it also found that a keto diet lowers the risk of depression and anxiety in adults with AD too.

AD is continuing to be studied and researched, so new information is constantly being released. That’s why it’s important to talk to your doctor if you want to use a diet change in conjunction with other treatment plans.

How To Monitor Your Ketones

Whether you’re doing it to reduce inflammation, prevent AD, lose weight or just feel better, the most accurate way to eat low carb is to monitor how your body responds to being Thin Adapted.

And you do this by tracking your ketone levels. There are devices that will do this for you in seconds. There are strips you pee on, machines you breathe into and devices that test your blood. In fact, we have an entire guide to keto and glucose testing.

We recommend using Keto Mojo. This little device tracks both your blood glucose and your ketone levels, so you scientifically see how your body is responding to the food you’re eating

The Keto Mojo works just like other diabetic blood glucose tests. You prick a finger with the lancet and use the kit and strips to see your levels. It even syncs via Bluetooth to an app on your phone so you can keep track of your body’s reactions.

Their blog has a lot of informational articles explaining how to use their products and how to interpret the results. Browse their website and get a ketone tracker ; it takes the guesswork out of how your body responds to Thinlicious.

Keep Reading

Here at Thinlicious, we believe you should constantly learn about how your body works and how it affects weight loss. Here are some books that we recommend that will tell you even more about the safety of eating low carb.

• The Obesity Code By: Dr. Jason Fung, MD
• The Keto Code By: Dr. Steven R. Gundry
• The Grain Brain By: David Perlmutter

Final Thoughts

See, eating low carb is safe and even good for you. Just like everything else in life, for it to be safe, you have to do it correctly. Eat enough of the important micronutrients, track your ketones and listen to your body when it isn’t responding very well. We know you can finally look and feel better…without feeling crummy.

Get Started

Are you ready to take control of your health and feel better for good? Then start with our Thinlicious 28 Day Metabolism Reset, designed to introduce you to the Thin Adapted System and help you retrain how your body burns fuel in just four weeks. Get it HERE.

PIN FOR LATER

The post Are Low-Carb and Keto Diets Safe? Here’s What You Need To Know appeared first on Thinlicious.

For most of us, in our teens and twenties, and even into our early thirties, maintaining our ideal weight wasn’t all that hard. Oh sure, we might have gained a few pounds here or there, especially during the holidays or on vacation, or times of high stress (freshman 15, anyone?).

But it always came right back off. A fad diet here, cutting back a little there or maybe just working out a little harder at the gym, and it was all good. And even if you weren’t one of those annoying “lucky girls” who could eat whatever they wanted, you still felt like you had some control over the whole thing.

Of course that was then. This is now.

And if you’ve felt like since you’ve reached a certain age it has gotten harder and harder to keep your weight in check, rest assured that you’re not imagining it. It’s no longer just a matter of “calories in and calories out,” or “eat less and exercise more.”

It’s all about your hormones, baby.

And the sad reality for women is that as we get older, our hormones start working against us and essentially begin telling our body to do the opposite of what we’d like it to do.

But that doesn’t mean all hope is lost.

It just means you’ll need to change your approach. Because once you realize that it isn’t you, it’s the hormones that are making it hard to lose weight, it’s like a lightbulb lights up the room, illuminating the dark corners and brightening a path ahead that’s easy to follow (finally!).

Understanding how the food you eat affects your hormones truly is the key to sustainable weight loss. In fact, for many people, it can make losing those once-stubborn pounds feel effortless. And all it takes is adjusting a few easy things; then, your body does all the work for you.

What. A. RELIEF!

All of a sudden, everything makes sense. You don’t have to feel miserable, work out till you drop in a heap of exhaustion or give up your favorite foods to lose weight.

When you get your hormones under control, ALL the other pieces naturally fall into place, like a happy little puzzle that puts itself together.

Since we love digging into the science here at Thinlicious™, let’s look closer at what hormones are and how exactly they affect your weight loss.

What Are Hormones and What Do They Do?

Hormones are special chemicals that control different things in the body. They work together to help the body grow and stay healthy (among other things).

Let’s get more specific.

Hormones are chemical messengers. Each type drives a different process. For example, estrogen regulates a woman’s menstrual cycle, and insulin regulates how your body uses energy.

There are also growth hormones (GH), cortisol and thyroid hormones. All of them affect your body’s shape and overall health in different ways. Here’s a quick glance at what they do:

• GH plays an important role in regulating tissue growth, cell regeneration and metabolism throughout the body.
• Cortisol helps regulate blood pressure and is released when the body needs to respond to stress or fear (it’s known as the “stress hormone”).
• Insulin helps keep blood sugar levels stable after eating carbohydrates—too little insulin can lead to diabetes, and too much can cause weight gain.
• Thyroid hormones control metabolic rate, affecting energy levels—low levels can cause fatigue, while high levels can cause anxiety or restlessness.

See? These hormones do more than make us moody (but that’s what they’re definitely known for). All of them affect your weight, too.

How Hormones Affect Weight

This is the fun part because everything will make more sense once you see how these hormones affect weight.

Three hormones are majorly responsible for weight gain and weight loss: ghrelin, leptin and insulin.

You know that feeling of “I’m so hungry”? Hormones are the messengers that signal the brain and tell it to make you feel that way. They also give your brain the “woah, stop, I’m full” signal, too. Ghrelin is the hungry hormone; leptin is the full one.

When either one is outta whack, you’ll either feel hungry all the time or never really know when you’re full and need to stop eating. Either one leads to eating too much.

Insulin is another big player in weight gain. Insulin is a hormone that basically tells your body what to do with the fuel you give it for energy. If you eat lots of sugar and carbs, it will act like a traffic director, telling your body to funnel some of it to cells to use as energy, and all the extra to be sent to storage in….you guessed it…fat cells.

Yes, insulin is what signals fat cells to grow. But if you eat more protein than sugar/carbs, then it will send the extra protein to your muscles to grow muscle mass and then use that fat storage for energy.

When your insulin levels are low, your brain is more sensitive to ghrelin and leptin, so you know exactly when you’re hungry and feel it immediately when you’re full.

The obvious answer to hormones and weight loss is to eat in such a way that the insulin stops telling your body to store fat, and instead uses your fat for energy…and that, my friend, is called ketosis.

Ketosis and Hormones

When you become Thin Adapted, your body will lower the amount of insulin it has, which helps all your other hormones become more balanced and at the safest levels.

It’s like reverse aging. You’ll feel like your younger self again.

Your body will go into ketosis when it becomes Thin Adapted. And when you’re Thin Adapted, your insulin levels drop, fat decreases and all the other hormones fall in line and become more balanced.

This is because hormones affect hormones. They are all directly related. When you have too much insulin, your other hormones will also be out of whack too.

It lowers cortisol hormones (the ones that tell your body, “I’m stressed out! Save some fat on the belly area just in case!”), uses thyroid hormones more efficiently and even balances estrogen and progesterone, too!

We all know about the struggle to lose weight when we get close to menopause. But do you know why it’s so hard? Let’s look closer.

Menopause/Pre-menopause

Oh, estrogen and progesterone. Two tiny hormones that cause a bunch of health effects in women—especially women over 40. In fact, we have another article explaining why it’s harder for women over 40 to lose weight.

As women age, they naturally begin to produce less progesterone. This leads to what people call “estrogen dominance.” Basically, it means the estrogen levels are allowed to increase too much, and it leads to common mid-life weight issues like less muscle mass, more fat storage (especially around the midsection) and a slower metabolism.

How do we get our healthy levels back if abnormal estrogen and progesterone levels cause that? It all goes back to insulin.

Look at it this way. We overproduce insulin when we eat too many carbs and sugary foods over a long period. Then, our body stops responding to insulin at all (this is called insulin resistance). It disrupts fat metabolism and contributes to estrogen dominance, which causes perimenopausal symptoms.

This is what estrogen dominance looks (and feels) like:

• Dysmenorrhea (no periods)
• Headaches
• PMS
• Decreased Sex Drive
• Bloating
• Mood Swings
• Weight Gain
• Endometriosis
• Depression/Anxiety

The Thin Adapted System reduces insulin levels which reduces belly fat. Then, this creates a synthesis of healthy hormones, including a balance of progesterone and estrogen.

Another wonderful side effect? Regular periods again! (As much as we might not like that time of the month, it’s unfortunately necessary).

Some women who started to experience perimenopause before eating low carb regained regular periods after eating fewer carbs.

As un-fun as periods are, it’s better to have them as long as possible because that indicates that your hormones are correctly balanced.

What about hormone supplements? If you’re already working with a doctor, reach out to them about your new eating habits and discuss the possibility of decreasing (or even eliminating) your medications if you can naturally adjust your hormone levels with what you eat.

So many menopausal symptoms—even night sweats and slow weight loss— will naturally work themselves out when your hormones are at the correct levels. So, start with insulin. Eat plenty of healthy fats, protein and fiber-rich vegetables. That’s the first place to start.

Since hormones affect hormones, insulin also affects thyroid hormones too.

Thyroid Issues/Relationship between Hormones and Fat

Before we get into how minimizing insulin can help your thyroid, let’s make sure we understand what the thyroid is and what it does.

Your thyroid is a gland that produces hormones that regulate metabolism and energy production. These hormones control how quickly your body processes food into energy and regulate essential bodily functions like heart rate, temperature and even mood.

Have you heard the term “hypothyroidism?” It refers to a condition when these thyroid hormones aren’t produced adequately. It’s also called an underactive thyroid.

People with hypothyroidism might experience a slower metabolism, feel tired more often, gain weight and even feel depressed.

On the other hand, when the thyroid gland produces too many of these hormones— a condition called hyperthyroidism—it can cause heart palpitations, weight loss, anxiety and insomnia.

Both of these conditions also affect where people carry their fat.

An underactive thyroid can lead to higher levels of abdominal fat due to decreased fat-burning capacity. But an overactive thyroid can increase fat that sits around or on top of vital organs.

You might think that tracking your thyroid hormones and making sure you have enough of them is what’s important, but that’s not the whole picture.

Here’s the truth. As you lose weight and your metabolism adjusts to the fat loss, you will see some decrease in thyroid hormone levels. That’s ok because your cells will become more sensitive to the present thyroid hormones. You don’t need as many of them as you once did.

It’s all about efficiency. When you decrease insulin, your body will naturally be able to use fewer thyroid hormones more easily and quickly. When your body uses thyroid hormones better, it leads to higher metabolism and even feeling less depressed and anxious. A low-carb lifestyle doesn’t impact thyroid function.

Depression & Anxiety

A lot of things contribute to depression and anxiety—job, family, brain chemicals—but we’re talking about hormones. So, let’s focus on the neurotransmitter serotonin.

Even though it’s not technically a hormone, it acts just like one. And when your body doesn’t produce enough of it, people feel more gloomy and worried.

The funny thing is that most people think of serotonin as being in the brain, but we actually produce it in our gut! That’s why having a healthy gut microbiome is so important (and how it affects depression and moods).

What does this have to do with being Thin Adapted? When you eat low carb, you improve insulin sensitivity and gut health at the same time. This acts like a domino effect that also releases more serotonin.

It makes sense! When your gut isn’t inflamed, it works better, makes more serotonin and it improves your mood.

Side note: If you’re being treated medically for depression and/or anxiety, do NOT try to go off your medications without the oversight of a doctor. Please speak to your doctor about what you’re learning and whether this can work for you. Getting off your medications can be a victoriously freeing experience, but do it the right way, so you minimize any side effects.

Since serotonin is made in the gut, you need to focus on eating whole, nutritious foods. Those quick, processed snacks are handy, but your body needs whole vegetables, meat and healthy fats. You also need to get plenty of sleep and drink lots of water. It all works together.

Hormones Work Together

Is it making a bit more sense? Hormones (specifically insulin) are probably one of the main reasons you struggled to lose weight before. When your body overproduces insulin, all the other hormones are thrown off balance. Start with regulating insulin and everything else will fall into place.

Keep Reading

Want to learn more about hormones and weight loss? Here are some books that we recommend.

• Why We Get Sick By: Dr. Benjamin Bikman
• The Case For Keto By: Gary Taubes
• Why We Get Fat By: Gary Taubes

Feel Better Today!

You can regulate your insulin and feel better today! We recommend introducing your body to low-carb eating through the Thinlicious 28 Day Metabolism Reset. This 4-week program is designed to introduce you to the Thin Adapted System and help you retrain how your body burns fuel. Get it HERE.

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The post Are Your Hormones Making You Fat? Here’s How to Know! appeared first on Thinlicious.

In fact, “heart-healthy” is a marketing term that seems to be slapped on almost everything these days—cereal, fruit, vegetables, whole grain bread, even frozen dinners.

And yet, as a society we’re unhealthier than we’ve ever been.

The statistics are sobering.

For one, heart disease is the number one cause of death in the United States, accounting for more than 610,000 deaths per year.

And in the U.S., women are more likely than men to die from heart disease. In fact, one in every three deaths among women is caused by heart disease and stroke.

These facts alone should be enough to make any woman take notice of her own heart health and take preventive action.

Suffice it to say everything can’t possibly be good for your heart, or you wouldn’t be searching for ways to get healthier, and heart disease wouldn’t be the number one cause of death in our country.

Someone (or maybe even many someones) has to be lying.

So rather than just trusting what we are told, here at Thinlicious™ we’re committed to digging into the science behind health claims, to find out from reliable sources what we truly need to worry about (or not!). Because the truth is that when it comes to heart health, there’s a whole lot of misinformation and misunderstanding floating around, especially when it comes to low-carb, ketogenic diets and how those actually affect our heart.

So, let’s dig in! We are going to cover what heart health means, why it’s so important, how to protect your heart from deadly diseases, and what kind of impact going low carb can have on your heart in the long term.

What Is Heart Disease?

Did you know that heart disease is the number one killer of adults in the United States? According to the latest fact sheet from the American Heart Association, “Coronary Heart Disease accounted for approximately 13% of deaths in the US in 2018, causing 365,744 deaths.” That’s a scary statistic, sure, but what does that even mean?

Heart disease is an umbrella term used to describe many conditions that affect the heart and blood vessels, including but not limited to:

• Coronary artery disease
• Congestive heart failure
• Heart valve disorders
• Congenital heart defects
• Cardiomyopathy
• Arrhythmia or abnormal heart rhythms
• Stroke

Sounds like a lot of different things all lumped under one simplified term. But the truth is, it isn’t simple. It’s rather complex, and some of these issues matter a whole lot more than others. Out of all the heart diseases, Coronary Heart Disease is the deadliest. This happens when the heart’s arteries can’t deliver enough oxygen-rich blood to the heart.

Coronary artery disease is also deadly. It’s caused by a buildup of plaque in the arteries that lead to the heart. This buildup can block blood flow and deprive the heart muscle of oxygen and other necessary nutrients causing a host of serious problems such as chest pain and angina. And you know what the scariest part is? There are a few things that are correlated with this disease but interestingly there is a huge connection between coronary heart disease and (drumroll, please)…insulin resistance.

You know what causes insulin resistance?

One of the main causes is eating a diet high in sugar )or lots of carbohydrates that convert to sugar).

That’s right…according to research, one of the main drivers of coronary heart disease is our diet and specifically a high-carb/high-sugar diet. Oof.

Congestive Heart Failure (CHF), another big scary, is when the body’s tissues do not receive enough oxygenated blood because of weakened or damaged cardiac muscle. This can cause fluid to build up in the lungs and other organs leading to shortness of breath, fatigue, confusion and even death if not treated promptly. This can be directly caused by coronary heart disease. Do you see the rippling effects?

Genetics Play A Role

While obesity and diet/lifestyle choices play a huge role in increasing the risk of heart disease, so do genetics.

What that means is that this matters a whole lot more for some of us than others. But how will you know if you are someone who needs to worry?

It is especially important for women, and especially those over 45 years old who have had a family history of cardiovascular issues, to understand their risk.

If your family has a history of heart disease—including high cholesterol or hypertension (high blood pressure)—you are at a higher risk of developing heart disease.

It’s important for you to speak with your physicians about your personal risks for developing any type of cardiovascular disorder so your doctor can develop an effective plan for managing them before any damage has been done! But it’s also important to understand that regardless of what damage has been done, knowledge is power, and you don’t know what you don’t know until you know!

What Is Blood Pressure Anyway?

Blood pressure is the amount of pressure that blood puts on the walls of your arteries as it moves through your body. If you have high blood pressure, that means there might be serious issues that are causing your heart to have to work harder in order to pump the same amount of blood.

Low blood pressure means your heart isn’t using enough pressure. Think of it like a vacuum. When there is a clock in the vacuum hose, pressure builds up and you hear the vacuum’s engine get louder. When there’s a leak in the hose, it won’t suck up the dirt.

Safe Blood Pressure Numbers

Blood pressure is measured with two numbers—systolic and diastolic.

• Systolic is the pressure that is currently in your arteries when your heart beats.
• Diastolic is the pressure in your arteries when your heart rests in between beats.

A normal blood pressure level is less than 120 (systolic)/80 (diastolic) mmHg.

Your blood pressure and heart function are related; when one is out of whack it affects the other. And another factor is what is present in your blood, like cholesterol.

Difference Between Good and Bad Cholesterol

Cholesterol is a type of fat that is found in your blood. There are two types of cholesterol—”good” and “bad.” The good kind helps your body by doing things like keeping your heart healthy. The bad sort can cause problems like heart disease. Doctors often mention cholesterol numbers when they talk about heart health because having too much of the “bad” type can clog arteries, increasing your risk for heart disease. This is because the “bad” cholesterol sticks to your heart, meaning your body doesn’t digest it or get rid of it.

Let’s look closer at the two types from a more science-based perspective.

High-Density Lipoprotein (HDL) Cholesterol (Good)

HDL cholesterol is the good kind of cholesterol. We need these healthy fats in our system to carry out normal functions. It effectively absorbs cholesterol from your blood and carries it back to the liver. Then, the liver flushes it out of your body.

The best sources of HDL cholesterol are olive oil, fatty fish, chia seeds and high-fiber, low-sugar fruits.

Low-Density Lipoprotein (LDL) Cholesterol

LDL cholesterol is the bad kind of cholesterol. Since your body doesn’t flush it out, this kind of cholesterol blocks arteries and increases the risk of high blood pressure, which can lead to things like inflammation.

Inflammation and Blood Pressure

Inflammation is another buzzword that people throw around to describe heart health.

This word basically describes the body’s response to injury, infection or irritation. It is a process that involves white blood cells and chemicals such as cytokines to fight off any foreign invaders and repair the damage caused by them.

When inflammation occurs in the arteries, it can narrow their diameter and increase resistance to blood flow. This can lead to higher blood pressure readings. Long-term (or chronic) inflammation, which is often linked to autoimmune conditions, can also contribute to high blood pressure readings that are difficult to control with medication alone.

Other things like smoking, lack of exercise and unhealthy eating can cause inflammation in the body.

Thankfully, there are things you can do to reduce inflammation and your overall risk for heart disease—and it all starts with how you eat.

How Eating Low Carb Protects Your Heart

Eating low-carb food is a good way to protect your heart. When you eat lots of healthy fats from fatty fish and avocados, etc., your body will naturally have less LDL (bad) cholesterol, and your HDL levels will be higher.

Since eating low-carb diets—like the Thinlicious™ lifestyle—means reducing the sugar and starches you consume, that also means low-carb diets can help you lose weight. Since weight and obesity are precursors to heart disease, achieving a healthy weight makes you less at risk for heart disease.

The type of food you eat plays a big role in how your body functions. Eating whole food—real protein like fresh or frozen salmon, pork or chicken, and low-carb vegetables is better for you.

Food that has been overly processed will have less nutrition and isn’t as good for you. That’s why we always suggest you make your own snacks and desserts instead of relying on packaged foods that are labeled as “keto friendly.”

Summary

Your cholesterol levels and blood pressure are essential markers to follow in order to monitor how healthy your heart is. Your heart is responsible for pumping blood to your body, so it’s pretty important!

The best way to protect your heart and put yourself at lower risk for heart disease is to get up, get moving and eat a diet that is low in carbs and higher in healthy fats.

Start Today

Are you ready to lose weight and protect your heart health? Start with the 28 Day Metabolism Reset! This easy 4-week program will retrain your body to burn fat for energy instead of carbs and sugar. With meal plans and helpful videos, it’s the one place to start when you’re ready to feel energetic and healthy without depriving yourself of the food you love. Get started today!

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The post Heart Health and the Low-Carb Lifestyle: How it All Works Together appeared first on Thinlicious.

This isn’t a lame dad joke; it’s science.

And the answer is blood sugar.

Blood sugar is the missing link that connects all the dots, answering that big question of why just restricting calories isn’t helping you lose weight.

It also answers other questions too. Why do you feel hungry? Why are you tired by noon? Why is your body gaining weight no matter what you do?

Blood sugar!

Believe it or not, blood sugar is a major player when it comes to shedding pounds. In this guide, we will discuss what blood sugar is, how it affects your weight and how you can regulate it using a low-carb diet. So read on to learn everything you need to know about blood sugar and weight loss!

What is Blood Sugar?

Blood sugar, more properly known as blood glucose, is a type of sugar that circulates in your bloodstream. When you consume foods and drinks with carbohydrates (starches and sugars), they are broken down into different types of simple sugars like glucose, fructose and galactose. These simple sugars then enter the bloodstream, raising your blood glucose levels.

Is Blood Sugar The Same As Insulin?

Before we go any further, let’s clear something up. Blood sugar and insulin are related, but they are not the same thing. Some people accidentally use the two words interchangeably, but they are different.

Blood sugar refers to the sugars that circulate in your bloodstream.

Insulin is a hormone that regulates how your body responds to blood sugar. Insulin is secreted by the pancreas after you eat. As you eat more sugar, your body releases more insulin. The insulin signals the cells to burn that glucose for energy. The sugar your cells don’t use for energy then gets stored as glycogen.

Insulin is also responsible for storing fat. When your insulin levels are high, your body is in fat-storing mode. (Weight gain, anyone?)

So, when we talk about how blood sugar affects weight loss, we are looking at how blood sugar affects insulin levels in your body. Because that hormone is what signals to your body how to respond to fat (burning or storing it).

How Blood Sugar Affects Weight Loss

Remember, when your insulin levels are high, your body becomes a fat-storing machine. It holds onto sugar, turning and storing it as fat.

So, the opposite is true too! When your insulin levels are low, it tells your body to burn the fat as energy, not store it.

How do you keep insulin levels low? You do this by regulating your blood sugar. When glucose comes into your body (from eating carbs and sugar), it tells your pancreas, “Oh! Glucose is here! Time to make more insulin so we can burn that glucose for energy!” It does this over and over again. The more sugar and carbs you eat, the more insulin your body will produce.

So to keep that insulin level low and stop storing fat, you have to eat fewer carbs and less sugar. When you do that, your body will actually start burning fat for energy (hello, weight loss!).

A Quick Note About Insulin Resistance

Insulin resistance is a dangerous thing that happens when someone’s body doesn’t react to insulin properly because the insulin receptors are so desensitized from its overproduction.

Insulin resistance is always accompanied by hyperinsulinemia—a state of there being more insulin in the body than is considered normal or healthy.

It can lead to obesity, Type 2 diabetes, heart disease and various other diseases. It’s so important to understand insulin resistance that we wrote an entire guide about it. Read more about how insulin resistance makes you sick. It’s shocking!

Healthy Blood Sugar Levels

One of the best things you can do for your health and weight loss efforts is to maintain healthy blood sugar levels. The definition of healthy blood sugar levels isn’t cut and dried. It depends on your age and how you tested it. It also depends on whether you already have diabetes or pre-diabetes. Discuss your safe blood sugar levels with your doctor.

If you measure your blood glucose at home with Keto Mojo, we recommend reading their guide, so you understand what it’s testing and how to tell when your blood glucose levels are too high or too low.

To start, here’s how the American Diabetes Association (ADA) classifies diabetes risk for “fasting blood glucose (FBG) and HbA1c”:

• Normal: FBG under 100 mg/dl (5.6 mmol/L), HbA1c under 5.7%
• Prediabetes: FBG from 100 to 125 mg/dl (5.6 to 6.9 mmol/L), HbA1c from 5.7%-6.5 %
• Diabetes: FBG over 125 mg/dl (6.9 mmol/L), HbA1c 6.5 % or above

Symptoms of High and Low Blood Sugar

When you flood your body with glucose from eating a bunch of carbs or sugar at once, you could experience both a blood sugar spike and crash, and both have very different physical symptoms.

Hyperglycemia (high blood sugar) mainly affects people with diabetes (Types 1 and 2). When someone with diabetes has high blood sugar, they will often feel thirsty with a dry mouth, tiredness, blurred vision and need to urinate frequently.

It usually happens when someone with diabetes eats too much sugar, doesn’t exercise enough, becomes dehydrated or misses an insulin dose.

Hypoglycemia is the opposite. It happens when your body’s blood sugar levels are too low. This can happen from fasting or if someone with diabetes takes too much insulin. Symptoms of low blood sugar include:

• Tiredness
• Shakiness
• Weakness
• Confusion

In really extreme cases, hypoglycemia can lead to seizures.

These are both medical things that you should discuss with your physician.

How Eating Low-Carb Affects Blood Sugar

High blood sugar levels mean higher insulin levels, which turns your body into a fat-storing machine. So, it also means that if you want to do the opposite and burn fat, you need to eat less sugar and fewer carbs.

What you eat creates a chain reaction that tells your body whether to burn or store fat. If you want to keep your blood sugar levels regulated, you need to follow a low-carb eating plan.

This means eating fewer grains (even whole grains), less sugar and more protein, fat and fiber. These are called macronutrients, and we have an entire guide that explains what macronutrients are and how much you should eat if you want to lose weight. Read the macronutrients guide to learn more.

Eat Better and Lose Weight

It all comes back to what you eat.

So if you’re looking to lose weight, then understanding how your blood sugar works is key. By regulating your blood sugar levels with a low-carb diet, you can reduce your risk of storing fat and achieve long-term weight loss success.

The best way to do that is to start with our 28 Day Metabolism Reset.

It’s a four-week plan designed to introduce you to this new way of eating and help you change how your body burns fuel forever. In just four short weeks, you’ll be shocked at how radically different you feel – try it today!

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The post Blood Sugar and Weight Loss: The Truth About How They’re Connected appeared first on Thinlicious.

Chances are good that if you stumbled upon this website, you’re interested in improving your health, fixing your metabolism, losing weight, or all of the above.

You want to look better, feel better, and have more energy.

But whether your ultimate goal is one or all of those three objectives, what you might not realize is that nearly all issues weight gain, a slowing metabolism, and nearly every modern health issue facing our society comes back to one single root cause—insulin resistance.

And while not many of us have even heard of it, this is not a rare condition.

In fact, Dr. Benjamin Bickman, one of the leading experts in insulin resistance, insulin sensitivity, and Type II diabetes says that insulin resistance may affect as many as 80% of Americans in some way or another. Not only that, insulin resistance can be directly tied to nearly every major health issue we face today including obesity, diabetes, heart disease, PCOS, cancer, autoimmune conditions, Alzheimer’s and a whole lot more.

So, insulin resistance is making a lot of us sick and fat. But what exactly is it? And more importantly, what can we do about it?

What Is Insulin?

Before we get into what insulin resistance is, we really need to understand what insulin is.

At the most basic level, insulin is a hormone that helps your body use glucose for energy. Glucose is a type of sugar that comes from the food you eat. When you eat, your blood sugar levels rise. Insulin helps move the sugar from your blood into your cells, which can be used for energy.

In other words, insulin controls how your body uses the fuel you feed it.

Some of the most common functions of insulin include:

• Tells the cells whether to store or use energy
• Instructs some cells to make proteins or lipids for hormones

You can think of insulin as a growth hormone because it is active in telling cells how to use energy to build and grow. It can tell fat cells to grow (storing energy for later) or protein cells to grow (building muscle mass). It all depends on the type of fuel you put into your body.

If you eat mostly sugar and carbs, your insulin will tell your fat cells to grow and store energy for future use. On the flip side, if you eat a low-carb diet that is high in protein, insulin will tell your muscle mass to grow, which burns fat for energy.

What Is Insulin Resistance?

So with that in mind, what exactly is insulin resistance?

Insulin resistance happens when the insulin receptors in your cells become desensitized to insulin. In other words, insulin can no longer do its job properly.

Glucose comes from the food you eat and is the main source of energy for your body. When you eat, your blood sugar levels rise. Normally, insulin helps move the sugar from your blood into your cells, where it can be used for energy.

But if you have insulin resistance, this process does not work properly. The sugar stays in your blood instead of being moved into the cells. As a result, over time, too much sugar in the blood can damage organs such as the heart, kidneys, and eyes. It can also lead to stroke and memory problems.

Insulin resistance is always accompanied by hyperinsulinemia – a state of there being more insulin in the body than is considered normal or healthy.

When you eat a high-carb diet, your body produces more insulin to balance your blood sugar levels.

Over time, this leads to insulin resistance and can eventually lead to metabolic syndrome.

Metabolic syndrome is a collection of different conditions—like high blood pressure and insulin resistance—that increases your risk for heart disease, stroke, and diabetes.

Causes of Insulin Resistance:

So what exactly causes our body to become resistant to insulin, and to cease processing glucose correctly? There are a few different things that can cause insulin resistance.

One of the most common is a diet high in sugar and carbs. When you eat these foods, your body has to produce more insulin to process all the sugar.

Over time, this can lead to insulin resistance and eventually metabolic syndrome.

Other common causes include:

• being overweight or obese
• a sedentary lifestyle
• genetics
• age
• high blood pressure
• high cholesterol levels
• PCOS (polycystic ovarian syndrome)—a hormonal disorder that can cause insulin resistance pregnancy.

In addition, are a few other things that can make you more prone to experiencing insulin resistance:

• Stress – cortisol is the stress hormone. When it is elevated, the body becomes insulin resistant rapidly.
• Inflammation – the body becomes insulin resistant when inflammation is up.
• Hyperinsulinemia – consuming high loads of refined carbs and sugars floods the body with glucose, which elevates insulin.
• Consuming Linoleic Acid – Fats from soybean, corn, or canola oil contains high levels of linoleic acid. This acid makes fat cells insulin-resistant, which spills into other cells.

Does A Low-Carb Diet Cause Insulin Resistance?

No, a low-carb diet does not cause insulin resistance. There is a bit of misinformation out there that says eating low-carb could cause your body to respond less to insulin, but that just isn’t true; here’s why.

You can’t have insulin resistance without hyperinsulinemia (too much insulin in the body). When you eat high-protein and low-carb, your body won’t have the extra insulin in it to go into the state of hyperinsulinemia.

After you are fully Thin Adapted in Phase 2 – IGNITE, you are eating mostly healthy fats, protein, and a few carbs from vegetables and a few fruits. Your body will naturally produce less insulin because it won’t receive rushes of sugar into the bloodstream. When you follow a plan like the Thin Adapted System, your body naturally regulates energy efficiently. You won’t experience insulin resistance from the food you eat.

How Insulin Resistance Effects The Body:

Insulin resistance can cause a variety of health problems. It is a major cause of type II diabetes, which occurs when blood sugar levels become too high.

When too much insulin is in the body, it can’t do a good job breaking down glucose for energy. This is what leads to a lot of diet-related health issues.

Type II diabetes is just one of many health issues that insulin resistance affects. It can also lead to:

• High Blood Pressure
• Cancer
• Neurodegenerative Disease
• Higher Blood Glucose Levels
• Prediabetes

How To Fight Insulin Resistance:

If you are at risk for insulin resistance, there are things you can do to prevent it from developing or to reverse it if you already have it.

Each of these steps will help your body keep your insulin levels low so that you don’t experience insulin resistance.

1. Eat a low-carb, ketogenic-style diet

A ketogenic eating plan is a low-carb, high-fat diet that has been shown to treat and prevent insulin resistance. This is the idea behind the Thin Adapted System (TAS). All the foods and recipes in TAS are high-protein, high-fat, and low-carb.

When you follow the TAS, your body will become Thin Adapted, which means that it starts using fat for energy instead of glucose. This can help to reduce blood sugar levels and improve insulin sensitivity.

The Thin Adapted System walks you through this process step by step. The best place to start is with the 28-Day Metabolism Reset, which guides you through the process of becoming Thin Adapted. Your blood sugars will become more regulated, and you won’t experience the rushes and crashes of badly regulated blood sugar levels.

2. Prioritize Animal Protein

The type of protein you eat while becoming Thin Adapted is extremely important, and you need to ensure you are eating plenty of meat.

As Dr. Ben Bikman has said before, “the food we eat is either the culprit or the cure.” When you eat more animal protein, you can actually reduce the amount of insulin in your body.

Plant protein just doesn’t cut it. It doesn’t have the full spectrum of amino acids our bodies need—and meat does. Plus, animal protein helps us feel full for longer. With plant proteins, you’ll feel hungrier sooner.

Plant proteins also have anti-nutrients. These are things that inhibit our bodies from using their proteins. So even if you eat them for the proteins, we can’t use them to build lean muscle mass.

Our bodies need animal proteins to thrive and work at their best, so make sure you are eating enough of them.

3. Improve Your Sleep

Getting enough sleep is another way to prevent or even reverse the harmful effects of insulin resistance.

Here’s how that works.

When we don’t get enough sleep, our bodies produce cortisol, which triggers more insulin production. Getting enough sleep is essential for getting into and staying in ketosis (when your body burns fat for energy instead of carbs).

We need restful sleep—this is the time when our bodies repair and heal from the damage we caused it during the day.

Learn about your body. What is causing sleep interruptions?

For some people, refusing to eat or drink three hours before bed gives them a more restful night’s sleep. In fact, if your body is digesting food while you sleep, it raises your body temperature, which in turn could make it more difficult to rest.

For others, not getting enough exercise during the day makes them feel restless at night. Add some High Intensity Interval Training to your workouts. It’s a fantastic way to burn fat and you can fit it in, even when you don’t have much time.

4. Eat Low-Carb Fruits and Vegetables

To prevent or reverse insulin resistance, you need to make sure that the carbs you are eating come from low-carb fruits and veggies.

This is because both fruits and vegetables contain soluble fiber, which lowers the amount of insulin in your body. Several studies—like this one—show a link between eating more high soluble fiber and increased insulin sensitivity.

As you try to lose weight, remember to track how many carbs you eat from fruits and vegetables. When you are Thin Adapted, your body will stay in a fat-burning state if it doesn’t receive too much sugar from carbs—even carbs like berries.

Here are some Thinlicious™ recipes that have low amounts of healthy carbs:

• Strawberry Low-Carb Pie
• Magic Low-Carb Avocado Toast
• Blueberry Cream Cheese Low-Carb Muffins

5. Cut The High-Sugar Carbs

Finally, avoid those highly processed foods that are filled with sugar and carbs. This is another super-easy way to avoid and even reverse insulin resistance.

These types of food don’t just flood your body with glucose, they also make you feel hungry sooner. Then, you end up eating more frequently, consuming more calories and potentially more carbs. It’s a chain reaction that floods your body with insulin.

If you want to lower the amount of insulin in your body, don’t eat sugary food that will make you hungry an hour later.

Cutting back on carbs will lower how much sugar your body releases into your bloodstream. This will make your body more sensitive to insulin when your pancreas releases it.

You can still enjoy dessert; just be careful with what’s in it. Sweet foods should also have lots of fiber in them. For example, Thinlicious Magic Bars are made with animal protein (collagen powder), healthy fats (coconut oil), and plant protein (pecans and walnuts).

Final Thoughts

Now that you know how to stop insulin resistance, what are you waiting for? There is no time like today! You can actually reverse it and feel healthier than ever before—all by changing how and what you eat.

Ready to get started with the low-carb lifestyle? We recommend starting with our Thinlicious 28-Day Metabolism Reset, which is designed to introduce you to the Thin-Adapted System and help you retrain the way your body burns fuel in just four weeks. Get it HERE.

PIN FOR LATER

The post How Insulin Resistance Is Making You Sick And Fat (And 5 Things You Can Do To Fight It.) appeared first on Thinlicious.

Well, as it turns out, your doctor may not actually be the best source of information after all. In fact, they may be withholding some critical information from you, although probably not intentionally, because it goes against conventional wisdom and commonly accepted medical advice.

The truth is that medical doctors don’t actually get that much training on weight loss and nutrition while in medical school—on average only 23.9 hours—according to the National Library of Medicine.

That means that when it comes to losing weight after 40, there’s a good chance the advice your doctor is giving you is not only wrong, but actually completely counterproductive.

Here are seven things that your doctor probably won’t tell you about losing weight that might just make a big difference in your own weight loss journey.

1. Most of their patients struggle to lose weight

If you’re trying to lose weight and your doctor is supportive, that’s great. But it’s important to keep in mind that most doctors are not actually all that successful when it comes to helping their patients lose weight. In fact, a study published in the Annals of Family Medicine found that only about one-third of patients were able to lose weight with their doctor’s help.

Most doctors continue prescribing the same, outdated advice about cutting calories, exercising more and reducing fat, even after it’s been shown, time and time again, to not actually work.

Suffice it to say, if your doctor is having trouble helping all their other patients lose weight, what makes you think they’ll be able to help you?

2. More exercise won’t help

If you’re trying to lose weight and your doctor tells you to “just exercise more,” you might want to get a second opinion.

That’s because, as it turns out, exercising more is not an effective strategy for losing weight, at least not on its own. In fact, a comprehensive review of the research on exercise and weight loss found that, while exercise can help to prevent weight gain and can also help improve your cardiovascular health, it has very little effect on actual weight loss.

The reality is that until the fitness craze of the 1970’s, exercise wasn’t even considered to be good for you. It was only after the research started coming out linking exercise to health benefits that it became widely accepted.

But even now, most people still don’t realize that when it comes to weight loss, diet is much more important than exercise. In fact, one study found that diet accounts for about 90% of the variation in body fatness between individuals, while exercise accounts for only about 10%.

The bottom line is that if your doctor tells you that the key to losing weight is to just exercise more, they’re wrong.

3. Cutting calories doesn’t work

If your doctor tells you to cut calories in order to lose weight, they’re giving you some very outdated advice.

The truth is that cutting calories is not an effective weight loss strategy and can actually lead to weight gain in the long term. In fact, a study published in the journal Obesity found that people who dieted and restricted their calories actually ended up gaining more weight than those who didn’t diet.

One reason for this is that when you cut calories, your body goes into starvation mode and starts to hold on to fat stores, making it harder for you to lose weight. But another big reason is that when it comes to losing weight, the equation isn’t quite as simple as “calories in, calories out,” because not all calories are created equal.

Different foods have different effects on your hormones and metabolism, and some foods can actually increase your hunger levels and make you more likely to overeat.

So if your doctor tells you that the key to losing weight is to just eat fewer calories, they’re wrong.

You can’t outrun a bad diet.

4. Whole grains aren’t the answer

The USDA’s dietary guidelines have been telling us to eat more whole grains for years, driving into our psyche the now commonly accepted “fact” that whole grains are heart healthy. This is one of the most insidious lies we’ve been told over the past 50 years, and probably the lie that has most contributed to our current obesity epidemic.

The reality is that grains in general just aren’t all that good for you, and while high-fiber whole grains are certainly preferable to highly-refined and processed grains like the ones found in white flour, nearly ALL grains contain carbohydrates that cause our insulin levels to spike, which in turn causes us to gain weight.

If you’re serious about losing weight, you need to cut out grains entirely, or at the very least drastically reduce your intake. And contrary to what the USDA would have us believe, this won’t kill you—in fact, it might just save your life.

The bottom line is that if you want to lose weight and keep it off, you need to dramatically reduce your grain intake. Period.

5. You shouldn’t avoid red meat

Another piece of advice that doctors often give their patients who are trying to lose weight is to avoid red meat. The thinking behind this is that red meat is high in saturated fat, which has been erroneously linked to heart disease.

However, what most people don’t realize is that the link between saturated fat and heart disease is far from conclusive. In fact, there are plenty of studies that show no link whatsoever between saturated fat and heart disease.

On the flip side, red meat is packed with protein, iron and other essential nutrients while also being completely free of carbohydrates. In essence, it is everything your body needs, and nothing it doesn’t, which makes it a powerhouse food when it comes to losing weight.

6. You don’t need to eat more fruit

“An apple a day keeps the doctor away.” For years, we’ve been told by doctors and nutritionists to eat more fruit. This advice is based on the fact that fruits are packed with vitamins, minerals and fiber while being relatively low in calories.

However, what most people don’t realize is that fruits are also packed with sugar. In fact, a single apple can contain up to 24 grams of sugar, which is more than the recommended daily limit for most people. Moreover, the TYPE of sugar that is contained in fruit—fructose—is known to dramatically spike your blood sugar and raise your insulin levels, which slows your metabolism and causes your body to hang on to fat.

While there are a few minor health benefits to eating fruit, if you’re trying to lose weight, you need to be aware of the sugar content and consume accordingly. For most people, this means limiting themselves to one or two servings of low-sugar fruit or berries per day.

7. Ketosis is good for you

If you’ve ever tried a low-carbohydrate diet, chances are your doctor told you that you were putting your health at risk by going into “ketosis.”

Ketosis is a natural metabolic state in which your body burns fat for fuel rather than carbohydrates. When you eat a diet that is very low in carbs, your body has no choice but to burn fat for energy, and this process produces a byproduct called “ketones.”

While it is true that ketones can be toxic in large amounts, the reality is that your body is designed to handle small amounts of ketones on a regular basis. In fact, ketosis has been shown to have numerous health benefits, including improved mental clarity, increased energy levels and reduced inflammation.

If you’re trying to lose weight, there is no reason to be afraid of ketosis. In fact, it is almost certainly the key to successful weight loss.

For women, losing weight after 40 can feel like an uphill battle, and the reality is that it’s not all in in your head. It’s hard to lose weight after 40 because the body has a harder time burning fat due to a decrease in hormones and muscle mass, but also because most of the “experts” have likely been giving you advice that is flat out WRONG.

But it also means that a diet is not going to cut it anymore. Instead, a true lifestyle change is necessary to retrain your metabolism. And while change can be hard, the benefits are worth it!

So what’s the best way to get started?

We recommend starting with our Thinlicious™ 28 Day Metabolism Reset, which is designed to introduce you to the Thin Adapted System and help you retrain the way your body burns fuel in just four weeks. Get it HERE.

The post 7 Important Things Your Doctor Won’t Tell You About Losing Weight After 40 appeared first on Thinlicious.

The reality is that even though the keto flu is a passing experience, it doesn’t change the fact that it can be a distraction. When you’re trying to live a low-carb lifestyle, it’s often just as much a mental game as a physical one. Whether your desire is to lose weight or just get healthier, suffering through the symptoms of keto flu can make you wonder if it’s all worth it (hint: it is!).

So what exactly is the keto flu? What should you expect? How do you remedy it? In this blog post, we will discuss the six most common keto flu symptoms and how to remedy them quickly so you can keep yourself motivated and on track with your lifestyle.

What is keto flu?

First thing’s first, “keto flu” is not really a type of flu. So what is it then? Really it’s just a catch-all phrase for the myriad of symptoms associated with your body going into ketosis.

Though it depends on the person, mild symptoms are not uncommon when the body moves into ketosis—especially when that person is coming from a historically high-carb diet.

When you reduce your carbohydrate intake, such as going to a low-carb or keto diet, your brain won’t be able to anticipate the resulting drop in what it’s used to utilizing as a fuel source: blood glucose. These lower glucose levels can cause headaches, low energy, and sometimes cravings.

The good news is that this situation is just temporary. Usually within a few days, the body starts producing ketones to switch the brain’s primary energy source from glucose to ketones. Once your body makes this switch and things normalize, symptoms will normally subside.

What are the symptoms of keto flu?

There are several symptoms that you may experience as your body begins the process of switching from glucose to fat as a primary fuel source. The 6 most common symptoms of keto flu are:

• Headaches(s)
• Low energy and fatigue
• Insomnia
• Irritability
• Digestive issues
• Muscle cramps

These issues are common as your body starts the process of switching to fat from glucose for fuel. This is actually a pretty big change for your body, especially if you’re coming from a high-carb diet. Think of it as a firmware update. Your body is adjusting to new blood sugar levels and making updates to its metabolic processes. It takes a few days to make those adjustments, and keto flu symptoms should be expected (thankfully, they’re short-lived).

How To Remedy Keto Flu Symptoms

As we stated earlier, these symptoms should be temporary, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t annoying or distracting. Nothing kills your motivation to stick with an overall healthy lifestyle change like feeling lousy.

If you’re starting to experience keto flu symptoms, try these tips to help lessen them:

Drink lots of fluids

When you reduce your carb intake, you also lose water weight. This can lead to dehydration, which can then intensify symptoms like fatigue, headaches, and muscle cramps. So make sure you’re drinking plenty of water and fluids throughout the day (which you should always do anyway).

Get enough electrolytes

Along with dehydration, you may also be at risk for electrolyte imbalances when starting a low-carb diet. Sodium, potassium, and magnesium are all electrolytes that are crucial for proper hydration and can help reduce keto flu symptoms.

We recommend incorporating our very own electrolyte drink recipe into your diet. It will give you the electrolytes your body needs to run optimally during ketosis. Another great option is real bone broth!

Increase your fat intake

When you’re in ketosis, your body is burning fat for energy. So make sure you’re consuming enough healthy fats to support this process. This will help reduce symptoms of fatigue and low energy. Aim for healthy (unsaturated) fats from the likes of fish, nuts, and avocados.

Get plenty of sleep

A lack of sleep can intensify keto flu symptoms like irritability and low energy. So make sure you’re getting enough rest—aim for at least seven to eight hours per night. Not only is this good for fighting off keto flu symptoms, getting plenty of sleep (along with drinking lots of water) is a healthy practice no matter what diet you’re on.

Start slowly

If you jump into a low-carb or keto diet too quickly, it might be more likely that you’ll experience keto flu symptoms. So take things slow at first, and gradually reduce your carb intake over the course of a few weeks. Remember, progress over perfection!

These are just a few tips to help lessen keto flu symptoms and get you through the initial adjustment period of starting a low-carb diet. If you find that your symptoms are severe or not improving, it’s always a good idea to consult with your doctor or a registered dietitian to make sure you’re on the right track.

Have you ever experienced keto flu symptoms? What tips do you have for dealing with them? Share in the comments below!

Ready to get started with the low-carb lifestyle? We recommend starting with our Thinlicious™ 28-Day Metabolism Reset, which is designed to introduce you to the Thin-Adapted System and help you retrain the way your body burns fuel in just four weeks. Get it HERE.

The post Keto Flu: 6 Symptoms and How to Remedy Them Fast appeared first on Thinlicious.

Have you heard of insulin resistance, but aren’t sure what it actually is? Are you gaining weight no matter what you try? Are you prediabetic or been diagnosed as a diabetic (T1D or T2D)? Has your appetite always been out of control?

This fabulous TEDx talk by Dr. Sarah Hallberg and see how insulin resistance can be playing a part in all the above conditions.

Medical Disclaimer -Before embarking on any change in diet, lifestyle or activity, you may need to be under the supervision and care of your primary healthcare provider. This article should not be construed as medical advice, nor should it be substituted for medical advice from your healthcare provider. By continuing to read this article, you assume all responsibilities and risks for instituting lifestyle management.

Gingerbread man image credits: Dr Catherine Crofts, what is insulin resistance and hyperinsulinemia.

What is insulin?

Insulin is a hormone produced in the pancreas. Insulin helps regulate blood glucose (blood sugar) levels. It helps facilitate the movement of glucose out of the blood and into the cells.

When your blood sugars rise after a meal, snack, or drink, insulin is required to reduce the blood glucose in your body to the normal healthy range.

What is insulin resistance?

Insulin resistance is when the insulin receptors in your body become resistant to the effect of insulin and can’t utilise the glucose from your blood for energy.

What causes insulin resistance?

Most people who live on a high-carb diet generally have chronic raised blood sugars. These raised blood sugars require high levels of insulin to attempt to lower the blood sugar to within the normal range. The insulin receptors become resistant to the effect of the high levels of circulating insulin. 

What is hyperinsulinemia?

If you are insulin resistant, chances are, your pancreas will have to make more insulin to lower blood sugars. This is called hyperinsulinemia.

Hyperinsulinemia affects nearly every area of your body.

If you require insulin to be injected, you may also suffer from insulin resistance. It’s the high circulating levels of insulin that starts this cascade.

What is prediabetes?

Prediabetes is when your blood glucose is higher than the normal range but not high enough to be diagnosed as diabetic.

Insulin resistance is a risk factor for developing type two diabetes (T2D). Physicians may refer to this stage as prediabetes. You may be able to reverse it with diet and even avoid type two diabetes entirely.

Insulin resistance may be present years before a prediabetic diagnosis is made. You may continue to have normal blood glucose results but your body is increasingly requiring more insulin “behind the scenes” to bring your blood sugars under control.

In addition, insulin resistance may also occur with type one diabetics. If high levels of insulin injections are required, the insulin receptors may also become resistant, and hence more insulin is required to bring blood sugars to within the normal range.

What are the benefits of cutting carbs?

Everyone can benefit from cutting carbs. Especially processed junk carbs.

Reducing your carbs helps reduce your risk of developing T2 diabetes, obesity, reduced cardiovascular risk factors and more importantly, your inflammatory markers are also reduced.

Should diabetics cut carbs?

When you cut back on sugar and carbs, you will improve your blood sugar control. You will also improve your lipid profile, blood glucose stability, and a reduction in medication. Substantial weight loss can also be achieved.

So many diabetics have discovered low-carb and ketogenic nutrition has enabled them to achieve normal blood sugars. Dr. Bernstein and TypeOneGrit are great supporters and role models if you wish to learn more.

Why are the guidelines still recommending that those with diabetes (T1 or T2) to consume such vast quantities of carbohydrates when they are intolerant to them? The message for so long has been “eat whatever you want, then medicate for it”.

None of us should be eating so many carbs, especially processed carbs. Let alone those with T1 or T2 diabetes.

We may have the beginnings of insulin resistance for years, even decades, before we are classed as prediabetic or T2 diabetic.

Read more: How to eat for diabetes

Should you ignore the guidelines?

Having such high circulating levels of insulin is the problem. High insulin levels lead to insulin resistance. Our cells start to require more and more insulin to function. And it’s the resulting hyperinsulinemia that affects almost every area of the body.

So should you ignore the guidelines?

Dr Sarah Hallberg says yes.

What are the worst foods to eat on an insulin resistance diet?

The worst foods to eat if you are insulin resistant are sugar and carbohydrates. All absorbable carbohydrates are turned into glucose in the body, as you can see from the graphic above.

It doesn’t matter if it is a wholegrain organic sandwich, wild rice, frozen peas or an apple. They all are converted into sugar.

Once you discover how everyday carbs affect blood sugars, you can begin to make better choices. Sometimes, it’s just a matter of simple swaps such as:

• Instead of rice, why not try cauliflower rice?
• Try zoodles instead of spaghetti.
• How about almond flour bread instead of your regular morning toast?

Read more: Top Low-Carb Swaps And Cheat Sheet

How many carbs can I eat on an insulin resistance diet?

There isn’t one set amount of carbs that you can eat because each person’s body is different and so is their response to sugar and insulin. You should talk to your health care professional about how to create a meal plan that is made for your body and your carb tolerance.

You must also be under the strict supervision of your health care practitioner who can monitor your progress and help adjust your medications accordingly.

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Summary

Insulin is your fat storing hormone.

Remember that again, insulin is your fat-storing hormone. So whilst your blood sugars may remain in the healthy range, your body will become accustomed to the high levels of circulating insulin. Therefore, you will require more insulin to be produced over time to lower your blood glucose.

At this point, you will become insulin resistant. Your cells will no longer respond to insulin, so more must be produced. You may also have hyperinsulinemia.

References:

• Image credits: Dr Catherine Crofts. What is insulin resistance and hyperinsulinemia?
• Insulin causes insulin resistance – hormonal obesity: Intensive Dietary Management
• Insulin resistance and prediabetes – National Diabetes Information Clearinghouse (NDIC)
• 24,000 diabetic deaths a year could be avoided – Zoe Harcombe
• Comparison of low- and high-carbohydrate diets for type 2 diabetes management: a randomized trial
• Reversing Diabetes 101 with Dr Sarah Hallberg: The Truth About Carbs, Blood Sugar and Reversing Type 2 Diabetes
• A low-carbohydrate, ketogenic diet to treat type 2 diabetes

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