How to Improve Insulin Sensitivity

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In this article:

• Do you have insulin resistance?
• Ways to Increase Insulin Sensitivity
• Tip #1: Get Regular Exercise
• Is strength training good for insulin resistance?
• Tip #2: Eat Slow Carbs
• Tip #3: Explore Supplements & Medications
• The Most Important Action You Can Take

Do you have insulin resistance?

Explore some actionable, easy steps you can take to help combat insulin resistance and encourage your body to become more sensitive to insulin.

Monica Moore:

Hi everyone. On this edition of Ask Monica, we're talking about insulin resistance and what to do about it. Insulin resistance is a condition that many of us have (I have it myself), especially if you have polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) or a tendency towards gestational diabetes. 

Ways to Increase Insulin Sensitivity

While we can't magically cure insulin resistance, we can manage it (and work to reverse it) by making our bodies more sensitive to insulin. There are a couple of ways to do this:

Tip #1: Get Regular Exercise 

In my opinion, the main way to increase insulin sensitivity is exercise.

Why? Exercise utilizes large muscles (skeletal muscles) that will pull glucose from out of the bloodstream, which is where we don't want it to be and bring it into the cells. By using our skeletal muscles often, we're able to get glucose where it needs to be: in those cells.

In terms of what to do for exercise, I always tell people that low and slow is better. There is mounting information and support online for something called Zone Two Training.

You can break your heart rate down into five zones, with the fifth zone being your maximum heart rate and the first zone being just a little bit over your baseline or sedentary heart rate. Keeping your heart rate in Zone Two for long periods of time has been shown to help metabolically. It's been shown to help with insulin resistance.

Pro tip: This might mean that you feel a little bit breathless, but you're able to string words together in a sentence. Your rate of perceived exertion should be around a six or seven. It's 60-70% of your maximum heart rate.

Is strength training good for insulin resistance?

Strength training is an incredibly important component of making you more sensitive to insulin. When you cause the skeletal muscles to grow (hypertrophy), they pull glucose into them so that they're able to both grow and then recover the following day.

Note: I never recommend high intensity interval training (HIIT) for PCOS and insulin resistance. If you enjoy HIIT, that's great, but you don't have to do it. 

If you do strength training two or three times per week and supplement that with some more-vigorous-than-normal walking, where you feel like it's a little bit of an exercise as opposed to a stroll, that's really important.

Tip #2: Eat Slow Carbs

The second thing is that you want to eat in a way where you're prioritizing complex or unprocessed carbs in your diet. Think anything that's not white, like brown rice, quinoa, and whole wheat pasta. It's really important that you have what we call "slow carbs."

Here's why: When you eat something like white rice, your glucose spikes, and when you have insulin resistance, your insulin spikes in order to accommodate that glucose. The glucose eventually needs to come down and that reactive or reflexive hypoglycemia (that lower amount of glucose), can make you feel pretty bad.

It can also make you feel super hungry - like you have an urgent need to eat.  

It's also important that you combine carbs with protein and healthy fat. In fact, I tell all of my health coaching clients to try to make sure that they include a protein, healthy fat, and some kind of color (which is usually a vegetable, but can be a fruit), and then add the carb.

PCOS Nutrition Myths

With so much conflicting information out there, it can be hard to know what to believe. A PCOS nutrition expert debunks some of the biggest misconceptions.

Combining Food Groups

A lot of times we may think, "Oh, I'm hungry. I feel shaky. I'm going to have a banana."

But did you know that a banana will cause your blood sugar to spike? People with insulin resistance will get an insulin spike that quickly lowers their blood sugar and makes them feel bad (physically). You'll then often want to reach for another carb, which will only perpetuate that cycle.

Combining food groups when you eat can make a big difference. If you're not sure how to do this, please consult with one of our nutritionists or health coaches here at Illume!

Need some healthy, delicious snack ideas? Check out this guide from Jill Hickey, RDN.

Tip #3: Explore Supplements & Medications

There are medications, like metformin, that can make you more sensitive to insulin. There are also some over-the-counter injectable medications, like Ozempic, which you would have to talk to a medical endocrinologist about. In addition, some studies show that supplements like myoinositol and berberine can be as helpful as metformin, in terms of regulating blood sugar.

Always talk with your doctor before you start any new supplements or medications.

The Most Important Action You Can Take

If there's one thing that I can get across to you, it is the importance of starting or maintaining a regular movement practice, whatever that means for you.

It does not need to be spin class. It does not need to be Orange Theory or CrossFit. It can simply can be walking and using some body weight or hand weights. If you're interested, you can also look up Zone Two heart rate training.

Thanks so much. As always, please send us your questions or concerns for future episodes of Ask Monica! We're here to help.