Heads up - It's a longer, more science based email today so save this read for when you can grab your cub of tea, take a seat and be ready to learn and challenge your brain a little…

 

 Hi First name / reader, you didn't hear from me last week as I was in “study mode”, attending a full day training run by two of my favorite leading naturopaths, Dr Lara Briden (Author or Period Repair manual) and Kira Sutherland.

 

It was on metabolic dysfunction, specifically “Insulin Resistance” or perhaps better defined as “High insulin".

 

 

Many women I work with come to me feeling confused about what they should be eating for their body. They have tried different diets but struggled to stick to them due to hunger and cravings, and low energy.

 

There could be two women who are eating and exercising the same, but don't get the same shifts in body composition, and it feels harder for one than it does the other. The women struggling feel bad about themselves… with the thoughts: “I'm not disciplined enough, I must be doing something wrong”.

 

But it's not the case. The reason it feels harder is that they fall into the category of “Metabolic Dysfunction” AKA “ High Insulin”. 

 

 

Advice online from fitness professionals and weight loss coaches are often tailored to EITHER a metabolically health body (e.g. Body builder type diets), OR someone with Insulin Resistance ( Low carb diets).

 

This lack of personalization causes women to adopt a way of eating that goes AGAINST their physiology, rather than working with it. 

 

 

Metabolic Health is about your ability to access and use fuel for the production of energy.

 

 

There are three potential “fuel” sources that your body can draw from.

 

 

All of which can be obtained through food ingested, or from “storage” sites in your body.  

 

 

We store a relatively small amount of carbohydrates in our muscle and we call this “glycogen”. (~60-80g in the liver, and ~200-300g in our muscle). All up, that equates to around 1000-1200 calories total.

 

We burn carbohydrates from these “glycogen" stores when we do higher intensity type training. (e.g. Strength training, HIIT, running up hills).

 

We can store carbohydrates from food up to it's maximum capacity to “top up the stores" if they are depleted, after ingesting carbohydrates. (Or from converting fat or protein to carbohydrates via a process called gluconeogenesis). (Yes, the body can do this - cool right?).

 

 

Yes and no, you could say we also “store” a tiny amount of carbohydrate in our blood, but this has to be tightly controlled between around 3.9-5.6mmol/L. Higher levels maintained over a long period of time can damage our nerves, and blood vessels.

 

This is why we need insulin. The hormone that helps move additional glucose OUT of blood where it is not safe, and IN to places where it is safe. Such as the glycogen or fat storage. 

 

 

In small amounts yes. It is essential. But if insulin remains elevated, we have a problem….

 

 

A woman with healthy metabolic function is able to regulate her weight more easily because she possesses one secret superpower.

 

 

When she is sitting down resting, when she is doing steady state activity, when she needs energy to keep warm, her body can easily tap into her body fat stores and convert them into fuel that is burned to create energy. She can switch from carbohydrate burning, to fat burning efficiently. 

 

Her body can do this because she has a NORMAL insulin response to food.

. Food eaten → insulin released → body responds → insulin returns to normal.  

 

The woman with metabolic dysfunction  struggles to burn body fat as fuel because she has an ABNORMAL insulin response. 

 

Food eaten -→ Insulin released -→ body doesn't respond --→ Insulin remains high.

 

  What happens when insulin is high? She is stuck in a “carb burning” state.

 

Her body will choose other methods of finding fuel or preserving energy such as triggering more carb cravings, or reduce energy expenditure (slowing metabolism), in order to remain in energy balance. Instead of drawing on body fat reserves. 

 

 

 

High HBA1C and TG in a blood test

High waist to hip ratio (central body fat distribution)

High Visceral fat 

Difficultly losing weight (even with healthy diet & exercise)

Always hungry

Always thinking about food ("Food Noise")

Light headedness/low blood sugar after trainings 

 

 

 

 

There is an evolutionary mismatch between our biology and environment when it comes to our ability to stay metabolically healthy. 

 

Before the agricultural evolution, when humans ate seasonally, it would be normal to gain weight in the summer (say 3-5kg) when the animals were well fed, and the sweet fruits were abundant, and temperatures were warm. We would then lose the 5kg in the winter when the animals were hibernating and much leaner, food was scarce, and we used more energy to keep our body temperature warm in the winter. 

 

Overall, weight would remain stable over an adult life time. 

 

 

Now that we don't have to rely on seasonable produce, and humans have mastered the art of mass food production, we have constant access to food. So we can stay in the “summer” of sugar and food abundance all year around.

 

This phenomenon, paired with a genetic predisposition to insulin resistance, is what leads to this “high insulin” issue. It becomes a vicious cycle for women who are stuck in the “summer” season.  As weight gain comes on, and her insulin becomes more elevated, she gets hungrier, and is more triggered by high carbohydrate foods. It becomes this cycle of carbohydrate cravings, more carbohydrate intake, increase in body fat storage, higher insulin, more carb cravings, and the cycle continues…

 

 

The calorie deficit control method that is recommended for weight loss by the diet industry is basically turning on “winter” mode with no summer in sight. A low fat, low calorie diet translates in our brain as “winter famine is here!”.  Women with metabolic dysfunction who struggle to burn body fat, can really suffer with this approach because they need fats in their diet to help them switch over to fat burning. 

 

Metabolically healthy women ALSO suffer but in a different way.  They can become very underweight, exhausted, losing their menstrual cycle, and falling to dangerously low levels of body fat and muscle mass. (Anorexia is an extreme case of this). 

 

 

We then have the case of  “binge-restrict” cycles, or “yoyo-dieting”. Where women will cycle between both extremes. This sometimes creates a net weight stable effect if the season changes happen over a short period (e.g. 5 days restriction, 2 days binge-eating). Or if seasons are held for longer it results in a weight loss, weight gain cycle (e.g. 3 months restriction, 3 months “refeeding”). 

 Because of the way the body stores fat more easily after a severe restriction period, women can find their weight actually increases, rather than decreases over time when they are stuck in this binge-restrict cycle. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2. Are you currently eating in a way that matches your current metabolic health, or are you following something that isn't actually right for you?

e.g. Normal insulin following too low carb VS High Insulin following high carb low fat. 

 

If you would like personalized help with this, I can help you. I work with women on both ends of the spectrum, who want to ditch the diets, nourish themselves confidently, and just find a healthy stable weight they can maintain long term. 

 

Just book in a free 1-1 strategy session and we can go from there. 

 

Your friend and coach

Kim xx