Does Insulin Block Fat Burning?

Insulin does block fat burning and can completely derail your weight loss efforts. To understand how insulin blocks fat burning, you must first understand insulin’s major role in your body. Insulin is a hormone that is produced by the pancreas. The pancreas releases insulin when blood glucose, also known as blood sugar, increases. Insulin regulates glucose levels when the blood glucose is transported into muscle and fat cells.

How Does Insulin Block Fat Burning?

Along with its primary function, insulin is also responsible for storing all the foods you eat. This includes carbohydrates, proteins, and fats. While it stores the nutrients from the foods you eat, it also blocks the protein, fat, and carbohydrates from breaking down in your body. Carbohydrates that are considered to be high glycemic will cause your blood sugars to rise at high speed. The pancreas will then release insulin at a high speed, as well.

When this happens, your body will overcompensate and release too much insulin. Insulin will then store the carbs and sugars. You will become energized for a short time; however, this is where insulin begins to affect your weight. The food you eat will now be stored as fat.

Because your blood sugars increased at a rapid pace, your insulin will try to normalize the blood sugar ranges quickly. This causes the sugars to be pushed by the insulin into all of your cells. This includes the fat cells.

If you eat low glycemic carbohydrates, the blood sugars will not raise as quickly, which causes the insulin to rise at a slower pace. At this point, the food you eat will be transferred into the cells and used for energy, while the rest is stored in fat cells. The best thing to do at this point is to reduce the amount of carbohydrates you consume. This will help to stimulate increased fat burning and decrease the amount of fat being stored.

Other Ways Insulin Blocks Fat Burning

When insulin is released, it activates an enzyme called lipoprotein lipase. This enzyme inhibits the removal of triglycerides (fat) out of the fat cells. It also blocks another enzyme from doing its job, which is, hormone sensitive lipase. This enzyme breaks down stored fats around your waist.

If your insulin levels are high when you exercise, your body will use more of the energy from the carbs and sugars than from the fat. This results in little or no reduction in weight through exercise. This can be very frustrating for those who spend a lot of time trying to do the right thing by exercising only for it not to help with weight loss.

What can you do?

The best thing you can do is to try to control your insulin and blood sugar levels. This is essential for optimal health and for fat burning. Controlling these levels is not as difficult as you might think. Here are some tips to help you control these levels.

Eat more Fiber – Foods rich in fiber help to regulate the impact on blood sugar and insulin levels. Foods that are high in fiber can slow down the absorption of carbs, as well as speed up how fast food is digested through the digestive track. This limits the amount of carbs entering the blood stream.
Eat more Protein – Protein that is eaten with a carbohydrate can dramatically reduce blood sugar that is spiked. This will only work if the protein is eaten with a carb.
Take a Walk after you Eat – If you go for a walk directly after you eat, a large portion of blood is pushed away from your digestive tract to your leg muscles. This allows the food being digested from your food to go directly into your leg muscles instead of lingering in your blood stream. This will automatically reduce your blood sugar and insulin levels.

Consult a doctor if you are not able to control your insulin and blood sugar levels. There are things you and your doctor can do to help you reduce these levels and help your body to start burning fat efficiently.

Click here to follow us on twitter and our facebook fan page.