Fitness coach shares 5 tips to reverse insulin resistance and lose weight: The secret is ‘building muscles’

Julie Capozziello explains how building muscles, planning our meals, regulating sleep, and focusing on data helps with insulin resistance over time.

Insulin resistance is a complex condition in which the human body does not respond to the pancreatic hormone insulin as it should under normal conditions. According to the Cleveland Clinic, it is associated with a number of disorders, including cardiovascular disease, metabolic syndrome, PCOS, and obesity.

Strength training helps to reverse insulin resistance, shares Julie Capozziello. (Unsplash)

Taking to Instagram on January 5, online fitness coach Julie Capozziello shared a video where she noted that women often hear that they are unable to lose weight because of their insulin resistance, and then, paradoxically, are asked to lose weight to solve the problem.

She went on to share a five-step solution, laying out a detailed, easy-to-follow plan to reverse insulin resistance and lose weight.

1. Build muscle

“Skeletal muscle is the largest site of glucose disposal in your whole body,” noted Julie.

“Basically, what that means is that when you eat a carb, it turns into sugar in your blood. That sugar has to go somewhere. And the place of storage is your muscle.”

When we work (contract) our muscles, they pull the sugar out from the blood and store it there. Utilising more muscles results in more sugar being pulled out of the blood and the body requiring less insulin to manage the remaining blood sugar.

A well-established method to build muscles is through weight or resistance training. “Resistance training increases something called GLUT4 (Glucose Transporter Type 4) for the muscles,” explained the fitness coach. “GLUT4 allows glucose to enter the muscle without causing large insulin spikes.”

Resistance training helps with insulin resistance even without weight loss. As such, many women who do only cardio stay insulin resistant, she highlighted.

2. Eat protein first

While increasing protein intake is essential, the order in which we eat our meals also has an important role to play. Starting our meals with protein leads to smaller glucose spikes as the sugar enters our bloodstream more slowly.

“Slower digestion equals lower insulin response. And lower insulin response means better sensitivity over time,” noted Julie.

It is also a great tip for those who feel “snacky or exhausted after meals,” as the condition can be caused by not having enough protein or not eating meals in the right order, such as eating carbs first. This leads to getting full and not finishing the proteins.

“A good goal is having one gram of protein per pound of goal body weight,” added Julie.

3. Walk post-meals

Julie claimed that she could not overstate the importance of postprandial walks, or short walks taken immediately after meals.

“I repeat myself because I know that this is gonna make your life so much better,” she shared. “And it doesn't need to be a long walk. Light movement post-meals has been shown to increase glucose uptake by the muscles almost immediately. And studies show that it could reduce those glucose spikes by 20 to 30 percent.

4. Regulate sleep and stress

Sleep and stress have a major effect on overall health, and insulin resistance in particular, revealed Julie.

“Sleep deprivation alone can induce insulin resistance because short sleep increases cortisol, and cortisol blocks insulin signalling,” she explained, suggesting that getting a sleep tracker might help.

5. Data to drive behaviour

“My last tip is to use data to drive behaviour,” noted the fitness coach. “And what I mean by that is you can't really improve what you don't measure. You can't really build muscle if you're not keeping track of your lifts.”

When it comes to calorie intake, Julie said that most people underreport calories by 20 percent. This means that some people can eat too little instead of too much. Taking thehelp of an app and tracking what we are eating every day can give us a better idea of what actually needs to change.

Note to readers: This article is for informational purposes only and not a substitute for professional medical advice. Always seek the advice of your doctor with any questions about a medical condition.

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