UNDERSTANDING THE POWER OF INSULIN –Diabetes or Not!
By Ginger Vieira
Whether or not you have diabetes, understanding the power of insulin is crucial to goals in both weight loss and strength development. Insulin is responsible for both storing fat onto the body and for helping the body build muscle, but the balance between storing too much fat from too much insulin when you’re trying to build muscle instead is a careful one.
Insulin transports the glucose in our blood (from the food we eat) to our muscles if the “glycogen stores” in the muscle cells need replenishing, as well the stores in our brain (we need sugar in our brain to think!). The stores of energy need to be replenished most commonly in the morning before we eat breakfast (because we’ve been fasting all night and used them up in our sleep), and after we exercise (because, again, we’ve used them up).
So, if you eat carbohydrates following a workout or first thing in the morning, the first place the insulin is going to take those carbohydrates are to the glycogen stores in your muscles and your brain.
THIS IS GOOD, because if those stores are empty and your body is trying to refill them without extra carbs/insulin, the muscle will continue to break itself down which will hinder its ability to build itself stronger.
Powerlifters and bodybuilders who are NOT diabetic, make sure to eat large amounts of carbohydrates after a workout because it causes their pancreas to naturally produce more insulin and carry those carbohydrates to the glycogen stores. This is an important part of muscle recovery for an athlete. Some people actually get insulin prescriptions from their doctors and attempt to take extra insulin even though their pancreas is making plenty because it allows for even more carbohydrates to be digested at once. This is obviously dangerous and plenty of bodybuilders have induced severe hypoglycemic episodes when they aren’t careful with their dosing.
When will insulin store carbohydrates as fat? When your glycogen stores don’t need to be filled. That’s a large reason why low-carb diets help a person reduce body fat, because when you’re eating mostly proteins and fats your body needs much less insulin in order to digest that fuel and convert it to energy. Proteins and fats cannot be store as fat on your body as easily for this reason. The less carbs you eat = the less insulin you produce = the less food potentially stored as fat.
To lose body fat, your goal is to reduce carbohydrate intake throughout the day—except for breakfast and post-workout meals.
To help ensure muscle growth, your goal is to increase carbohydrate especially at breakfast and post-workout meals, but also spread equally throughout the day. Non-workout days can contain less carbs, and more proteins and fats. Workout days should contain more carbs and proteins, and less fats. This is a nutrition approach known as “carb cycling.”
I had great success with a low-carb, higher-protein diet when I first started weightlifting, training in the method of a bodybuilder (ie: higher reps, more exercises). I followed this plan for a year and lost about ten or twelve pounds while actually putting on about ten pounds of muscle.
As a powerlifter, I had to increase my carbohydrate intake because my muscles are working much differently and being asked to grow stronger much more quickly. My body goes through a lot of calories every day as a result of powerlifting training, therefore I can and need to eat more carbohydrates than I used to. Again, though, I don’t go carb-crazy. I still focus my carbs at breakfast and after a workout, and at two other meals that day. On the days I don’t workout, I eat very low-carb. (And they’re usually in the form of plain oatmeal, oat bran, sweet potatoes or CornBran cereal.)
If you are diabetic and focusing on gaining better control of your blood sugars and losing weight, aim to make the majority of your week low-carb excepf for breakfast and post-workout. Remember to check your blood sugar often as you make adjustments in your lifestyle, because changes in diet will have a large impact on your insulin needs.
Ginger Vieira is a Type 1 diabetic, 15-time record holder in drug-tested powerlifting, and writes for www.diabeteens.com and www.healthcentral.com/about/ginger-vieira/.