If you feel you’ve tried every diet known to man or if you feel exercise just doesn’t seem to do what it’s meant to do when it comes to your waistline then this article is for you.
Within our practice, we help people to navigate metabolic and hormonal health through meaningful lifestyle change, whether that be nutrition, exercise, supplements or lifestyle habits.
So what is your metabolic health and why does it matter for weight loss?
Your metabolic health refers to how your body processes things like fats and sugars. A optimally healthy metabolic system will be more efficient in the way it transports and processes these nutrients into energy. But perhaps the easiest way to understand your metabolic health is through learning about a condition labelled metabolic syndrome, which is the presence of 3 or more of the following findings:
1. Central (abdominal) obesity (men >40 inches, women >35 inches)
2. Elevated blood pressure
3. High blood triglycerides
4. Low levels of HDL Cholesterol
5. Impaired Glucose tolerance (i.e. Insulin Resistance)
Shockingly, 35% of Australians have metabolic syndrome with 2 thirds of Australians being overweight or obese so this is becoming an ever growing topic of conversation within the healthy industry as it should be.
If you’re reading this and thinking ‘well that’s not me’, then firstly great! But secondly, what we need to understand is that although metabolic syndrome is its very own diagnosis with clearly defined risks and management, understanding your metabolic health is more of a spectrum and the closer towards metabolic syndrome you are, the more significant the impact is on your health outcomes.
But back to those 5 key test indicators for metabolic syndrome. They all have one common driver. Something called insulin resistance.
Insulin resistance is the thing that happens well before any diagnosis of pre-diabetes. It is the number one most common health concern in our modern world and it is the driving factor for why we have an epidemic of obesity, chronic illness and autoimmune conditions, and it is very likely the reason why your diet or exercise plan does not work.
The role of insulin is to regulate your blood sugar levels by opening the gates for glucose to be stored within the fat, liver and muscle cells.
For sake of time, I strongly recommend you listen to the podcast series by Dr Ben Bikman on insulin resistance starting with the episode in this
LINK
So why does insulin resistance matter when it comes to losing weight?
When you have excessive insulin, your body will be carrying calories from your blood and storing it within the fat cells. It will do this with whatever it can find in the blood. Unfortunately if you aim to diet by reducing your calorie intake, the increased insulin will still perform its task of transporting and storing whatever calories you do have into your fat cells. What ends up happening is the blood no longer has any calories within it to provide energy and the brain registers this as an energy crisis! So what does it do? Tell you to eat more!!
Unfortunately, it is a cruel joke the body plays, that the worse your metabolic health status, the harder it is to lose weight.
How to test for insulin resistance:
Go to your doctor and discuss the following tests:
- restricting carbohydrates and ensuring all carbohydrates you do have are coming from a whole foods source
- Focus on a high protein diet
- Increase fibre intake
- Focus on good fats
Notice these strategies do not involve restricting calories. We want to do this for 3-6 months and retest your fasting insulin at quarterly intervals. You will still notice a marked reduction in fat and likely weight but most importantly your insulin will come down. Once it has come down, introduce your diet and exercise plan!
Kate is the General Manager of Health Space clinics group and has a Bachelors Degree in Complementary Medicine from Endeavour College of Natural Health.
