Insulin sensitivity and AAS

[rustilldown]

5 Ways to Improve Insulin Sensitivity
by Nate Miyaki – 4/15/2011
I wish the formula for getting ripped were as easy as most traditional nutritionists would have you believe. Fat loss is just simple arithmetic, right? Subtract x from y, and boom, instant 8-pack.

That sure would make the fat loss game a hell of a lot easier. And best of all, Weight Watchers Centers would be like strip clubs, with the "points/calorie counting" process automatically turning every desperate housewife into a pole dancing bikini babe.

Imagine the world we could be living in if simple theories worked off paper, out there yonder, in the real world.

Now, I don't want to give you the wrong idea. Achieving a relative calorie deficit is still the most important piece of the fat loss puzzle – it's just not the only one. Of almost equal importance is understanding the metabolic and hormonal affects of food and then using that knowledge to develop a targeted plan of action.


The Importance of Insulin Sensitivity

I'd argue that the most important piece of the body composition transformation process is getting your body to use the hormone insulin more efficiently. 'Improved insulin sensitivity' should be the #1 goal on your Christmas wish list, but since it's spring; maybe you should throw a coin in a fountain instead.

Carbs and insulin can be a double-edged sword. Insulin is the most anabolic, anti-catabolic hormone in the body. It improves amino acid uptake by muscle tissue, which in turn initiates protein synthesis. It also prevents amino acids (from food or muscle) from being oxidized as a reserve fuel source.

On the flipside, it also can be the most lipolytic (fat storing) hormone in the body, shuttling fatty acids and glucose to fat cells to be stored as body fat.

These days, the majority of fat loss diets only focus on the negative side of insulin, which seems like a logical approach. You gotta go low-carb to minimize insulin release and lose fat, right? That's true, especially if you're overweight, sedentary, and likely insulin resistant – which today represents the majority of the population. The problem is, that's not a complete approach, especially for an athlete.

No hormone is inherently bad. For a leaner body that's training intensely and is in an overall calorie deficit, moderate amounts of insulin can actually be a good thing. And the leaner you get (trying to go from lean to shredded), the more you need to start thinking about the positive side of the insulin equation – insulin can help you maintain muscle while the overall dietary prescription continues to strip off fat.

That's why diets for sick, diabetic, sedentary office workers shouldn't be the same as those for active, lean-to-moderately-lean athletes. Cookie-cutting only works in the cookie making business.

The key is whether your body is insulin sensitive or insulin resistant. If your body is insulin sensitive, than you'll get more of the anabolic effects of insulin. Carbs can be higher in your diet. If your body is insulin resistant, than you'll get more of the lipolytic effects of insulin. Carbs should be lower in your diet.

Old school bodybuilding nutritionists (and even some of the newer-school ones advising natural athletes) say that a fat loss diet should be as high in carbs as an individual's body type and metabolism will allow. I couldn't agree more, though it's not the current trend of the low-carb lifestyle. Maybe instead of always focusing on cutting carbs, we should be trying to improve our body's ability to use them.

That means we need to get all of you a little more sensitive, so you can handle some damn carbs in your diet. Grab your chick flicks and bust out your Celine Dion collection, and lets get this sensitivity train rolling.


The Five-Step Insulin Sensitivity Approach

1. Cut Out Fructose

Condemning all carbs as evil and cutting them across the board, regardless of the type or individual metabolic situation, is no different or more effective than the 1980s low fat approach. If pure starch really were the cause of insulin resistance and obesity, the Japanese would be the fattest, most diabetic people on Earth. Got rice?

Although the traditional Japanese diet is high in carbohydrate/starch, it's low in fructose/sugar, and that's the true anthropological lesson. It is abnormally high amounts of fructose that's causing widespread insulin resistance in America, not necessarily the generic carbohydrate.

According to numerous studies, fructose is the main culprit in table sugar that causes insulin resistance, not glucose. In animal models, fructose produced the following responses: insulin resistance, impaired glucose tolerance, high insulin levels, high triglycerides, and hypertension.

A study in the American Journal of Physiology compared a starch-based diet with a sucrose/fructose-based diet, with the practical application being this:

Cut out high fructose corn syrup, fructose sweeteners, sugar, fruit juice, fruit smoothies, and dried fruit. 1-2 pieces of whole fruit a day is permissible.(1)

Use glucose post-workout (SURGE® Workout Fuel) and fructose-free, gluten-free starch (rice and potatoes) as your primary carbohydrate sources.

2. Cut Out Trans-Fats

Trans fats are horrendous for overall health. In the physique context, trans fats have been shown to inhibit glucose disposal, promote insulin resistance, and induce abdominal obesity.(2)

Practical application strategy: Cut out anything with trans fats or hydrogenated oils on the label.

3. Improve Omega 6:3 Balance
We know the importance of correcting essential fatty acid balance for virtually all things health and fitness related. Insulin sensitivity is no exception.(3)

Practical application strategy: Increase intake of Omega-3 fatty acids through wild fish, grass-fed and finished beef, and/or supplement with FLAMEOUTTM. Decrease your consumption of high Omega-6 vegetable oils such as corn oil, safflower oil, sunflower oil, and fried foods.
4. Grab a Green Tea

You've heard of glucose disposal agents, right? Green tea is one of them. According to a study in Biofactors, "For mechanisms of the anti-obesity actions, green tea significantly reduced glucose uptake accompanied by a decrease in translocation of glucose transporter 4 (GLUT4) in adipose tissue, while it significantly stimulated the glucose uptake with GLUT4 translocation in skeletal muscle."(4)

More carbs being diverted towards muscle cells and away from fat cells? They don't call me Mr. Teabagger for nothing.

5. Be Nice With Cinnamon Spice
Cinnamon is another food compound that has shown to exhibit positive nutrient partitioning effects. Numerous studies have shown it to improve the metabolic action of insulin resistance by increasing glucose uptake by the cells and enhancing the insulin-signaling pathway in muscle.(5)

The last time I checked about 1/4 of the U.S. population was pre-diabetic. If you're over 25% body fat, chances are you could be among that group. So one particular study that stood out: cinnamon extract that was given to 21 adults with pre-diabetes led to a 1.1% increase in muscle mass and a 0.7% decrease in body fat,without exercise. (6)

That may not sound like much, but combine that with some strength training and the previous four steps, and you have a multi-faceted attack on La (Insulin) Resistance. A formidable foe requires a team effort.

And on a side note, that's no excuse to go out and start pounding down Churros or Cinnamon Toast Crunch (my personal favorite as a kid). It has to be high quality stuff without the junk to have an effect. RECEPTORMAXTM anyone?


6th Sensitive Man of the Year Award
So you have your starting 5, crybaby line-up. But who's coming off the bench to hit the game-winning shot? It's your diet of course – the most important piece of this sensitivity makeover.


Find Your Place on the Dietary Seesaw
If you're obese, low carb diets are the best way to go to lose fat – you're so insulin resistant that any carbohydrates you eat will most likely be stored in adipose tissue. Sorry. Research shows that the best approach for this demographic to improve insulin sensitivity is to lose body fat through low-carb eating. Once you're lean, you'll have more dietary options.

However, research has also shown that prolonged low-carb eating may reduce insulin sensitivity. Can you say "post-dieting or post-contest weight rebound"? This may be due to enzymatic changes in the body (for example, pyruvate dehydrogenase activation – a key enzyme in carbohydrate metabolism – is reduced after prolonged periods of low carbohydrate intake). Use it or lose it, I guess?

I don't like to get caught up in the confines of any one, universal dietary "system." I prefer instead to draw from different approaches based on the individual's unique situation.

For carbohydrate intake, I look at it as a seesaw approach. On one side, you have a person's relative insulin resistance, on the other side, their suggested carbohydrate intake.

If someone's insulin resistance level is high, then his/her carbohydrate intake should be low. If someone's insulin resistance level is low (and insulin sensitivity is high), then his/her carbohydrate intake should be high. If it's in the middle, carbohydrates should be moderate and targeted.

Practical application strategy – Since insulin resistance is closely correlated with body fat, we'll put it in terms of ballpark body fat percentages:

>25% body fat: Low-carb diets would be the best. Think Paleo, Caveman, LaLanne's "if man made it don't eat it", or Poliquin's "run, fly, swim, green and grows in the ground" approach.

12-25% body fat: Stick with the "earn your carbs" theme. If you're consistently strength training like a madman, you can reintroduce carbs back into your diet. Start slowly, perhaps 0.75-1.0g/lb of lean body mass. Targeted timing matters – spread intake over periods where insulin sensitivity is at its highest (peri-workout and breakfast).

 

[rustilldown]

Is this information seemingly accurate ? And if so does anything change while on AAS? Not peptides or growth or igf but your basic aas?


Ride it like you stole it!!

 

[stevesmi]

whats funny was that i was thinking about making a thread like this from my experiences with tren.

i always notice on tren if i do not eat carbs after physical activity i start getting shakes presumably from low blood sugar/glycogen levels.. it reminds me of when i was an endurance athlete and would have to eat a cookie or fruit after a long run. i do beleive certain guys are prone to this more than others and we do not know enough about this to form a definately conclusion. i also believe that guys who say that tren helped them cut fat are guys who aren't sensitive like i am so they avoid sugars and the fat melts off.

so basically when i'm off cycle or not on tren i can avoid carbs no problem at all and cut all the fat off i want.. but when i'm on tren i cannot avoid carbs after activity.

who else has noticed this?

 

[rustilldown]

I'd like to hear more about this as well, and also hear about the supplements one uses to increase sensitivity. In more interested in natural ways such as cinnamon, or other herbs/ spices rather than a pill.
I do take l carnitine l cartrate from from need2buildmuscle and I am about to throw some cinnamon into my protein shake



Ride it like you stole it!!

 

[rustilldown]

Four Ways to Jack Up Insulin Sensitivity
by Mike Roussell

It's perhaps the biggest challenge facing the non-drugged-up bodybuilder: gaining muscle without gaining a lot of fat in the process.

No, wait, I take that back. The biggest challenge is probably losing body fat while retaining all that iron-earned muscle.

Hmm, actually, both of those tasks can be frustrating. The cool thing is that both goals can also be achieved if you learn to do one thing: increase your insulin sensitivity.

In other words, make your body more sensitive to the insulin it naturally releases when you eat. That way you can take advantage of the muscle-building effects of insulin and avoid the fat-gaining effects of producing too much insulin (being insulin resistant).

Many bodybuilding nutrition experts believe that if you're more insulin-sensitive during a mass program you'll gain more muscle than fat. And if you're dieting, the insulin-sensitive guy will lose more fat without losing muscle.

Both challenges solved.

We asked nutritionist and iron addict Mike Roussell to give us the scoop on boosting insulin sensitivity. — CS


Put Those Carbs to Work!
A cornerstone principle for any dedicated T NATION reader's diet is nutrient timing. We eat different foods at different times of the day in order to maximize the effect of circadian and behavioral hormonal changes for maximum fat loss and muscle development.

Much of the rationale behind nutrient timing has to do with doing everything we can to enhance glucose control and insulin sensitivity so that the carbohydrates we eat are used to make us look more like a muscle-man and less like the average American.

You've heard the usual advice given to laymen: Exercise to increase insulin sensitivity. Great, but let's assume you're already doing that.

The next piece of advice is to eat more often. You know this one too: Eat six smaller meals per day instead of two or three big ones and you'll improve insulin sensitivity.(3)

So let's go beyond that vanilla advice and look at some other methods to enhance glucose control and insulin sensitivity, including a new concept called antioxidant timing. In fact, let's start there.


1. Properly Time Your Antioxidant Intake
When I first got interested in weight lifting and bodybuilding I read stories about professional bodybuilders and their tackle boxes full of supplements and vitamins. Most notably, Skip La Cour would keep one in the trunk of his car. When he left the gym he'd open his trunk and go through a post-workout ritual of pill popping, including vitamins E and C.

With a physique like Skip's, it would be hard to question his methods, but what if his post-workout E and C supplementation was actually hindering potential results and decreasing his insulin sensitivity?

Ludicrous right? Well, keep reading.

It's common knowledge that one of the benefits of training is that it increases insulin sensitivity. Recently a group of German exercise physiologists set out to examine how supplementing with vitamin C (1000mg) and vitamin E (400 IU) affected the post-workout boost in insulin sensitivity.

In this study, 40 young men exercised five days a week (50 minute sessions including cycling and circuit training) for four weeks. The addition of vitamin C and E supplementation in that group completely eliminated the beneficial insulin-sensitizing effects of exercise!

With further investigation it seems that the post-workout increase in reactive oxygen species (ROS) — which is blunted by C and E supplementation — is a necessary phenomenon for increasing insulin sensitivity. The argument for the temporal benefit of ROS post-workout is strengthened by the fact that long term antioxidant supplementation has been shown to increase insulin sensitivity.(1, 2)

Okay, so what do you do with this info? While it's what some would consider "fringe" nutritional science and the standard, "more studies need to be done in this area to further explore our findings" was added by the authors, I say run with it.

If you're looking for an extra potential edge, then I'd avoid antioxidant supplements and high antioxidant foods around and directly after your workouts. This will allow for the natural post-exercise rise in ROS and improvement in insulin sensitivity.


2. Add Cinnamon to Your Meals
Beyond spicing up your pumpkin pie, you probably never give cinnamon a second thought. However, the simple addition of cinnamon to your diet has been shown in several studies to delay gastric emptying (4, 5), lower blood glucose levels following a meal (4, 5), reduce fasting insulin (6), and maybe even make up for temporary insulin resistance due to lack of sleep.(7)

To reap the glucose-controlling benefits of cinnamon you'll need to use 3-6 grams (approx 2-3 teaspoons). Adding a couple teaspoons of cinnamon to your morning muscle gruel is a no-brainer, so you have no excuse not to add this to your dietary arsenal.


3. Supplement with Alpha Lipoic Acid (ALA)
ALA is an antioxidant found in spinach, broccoli, and tomatoes.(8) However, the clinical trials done using ALA use 500-1000 times more than you get in your diet, so if you want to use ALA to boost your insulin sensitivity then you're going to need to supplement.

In several studies with Type II diabetics, the addition of ALA increases insulin sensitivity by 18-57%.(9-11) While the ALA dosages in these studies vary, 600mg per day may be the maximum effective dosage for diabetics. I'd prefer that you start with a lower dosage 50-100mg per day (the amount recommended for antioxidant purposes) and move up from there.

Editor's Note: Biotest's Receptormax™ contains both Cinnamomum burmannii water extract (standardized for type-A polymers, tetramers and trimers), and Sodium (Na) R-alpha-lipoic acid, which is absorbed by the body 30 times faster than conventional alpha-lipoic-acid.


4. Don't Skip Your Workout Drink
Getting quality protein and carbohydrates into your system around the training period is important, as you probably know. It's so important that it's even been called the 3rd Law of Muscle and it's the basis of the Anaconda Protocol.

In fact, the ability to replenish glycogen stores decreases by 50% if you wait two hours after training to load up with the right stuff. The difference between taking a protein supplement immediately vs. waiting three hours is the difference between experiencing a 300% increase in protein synthesis and being stuck with only a 12% increase.

These drastic differences in the workout window when someone follows the 3rd Law of Muscle vs. when they do not suggest that withholding nutrients after training prevents you from maximizing your insulin sensitized state. So don't skip the workout drinks!


Wrap-up
When it comes down to it, maximizing insulin sensitivity is all about getting the upper hand and giving yourself the edge over those poor drones in your gym with no clue. Put these tips into action, improve your nutrient partitioning, and reap the benefits!


References
1. Ristow M, Zarse K, Oberbach A, et al. Antioxidants prevent health-promoting effects of physical exercise in humans. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 2009;106:8665-8670.

2. Head K. Study suggests antioxidants inhibit exercise-induced insulin sensitivity. Alternative medicine review 2009;14:99-102.

3. Farshchi HR, Taylor MA, Macdonald IA. Beneficial metabolic effects of regular meal frequency on dietary thermogenesis, insulin sensitivity, and fasting lipid profiles in healthy obese women. Am J Clin Nutr 2005;81:16-24.

4. Hlebowicz J, Darwiche G, Bjorgell O, Almer L-O. Effect of cinnamon on postprandial blood glucose, gastric emptying, and satiety in healthy subjects. Am J Clin Nutr 2007;85:1552-1556.

5. Solomon T, Blannin A. Changes in glucose tolerance and insulin sensitivity following 2 weeks of daily cinnamon ingestion in healthy humans. European Journal of Applied Physiology 2009;105:969-976.

6. Hlebowicz J, Hlebowicz A, Lindstedt S, et al. Effects of 1 and 3 g cinnamon on gastric emptying, satiety, and postprandial blood glucose, insulin, glucose-dependent insulinotropic polypeptide, glucagon-like peptide 1, and ghrelin concentrations in healthy subjects. Am J Clin Nutr 2009;89:815-821.

7. Jitomir J, Willoughby DS. Cassia Cinnamon for the Attenuation of Glucose Intolerance and Insulin Resistance Resulting from Sleep Loss. Journal of Medicinal Food 2009;12:467-472.

8. Uma S, Ishwarlal J. Alpha-lipoic acid supplementation and diabetes. Nutrition Reviews 2008;66:646-657.

9. Jacob S, Henriksen EJ, Schiemann AL, et al. Enhancement of glucose disposal in patients with type 2 diabetes by alpha-lipoic acid. Arzneimittel Forschung 1995;45:872-874.

10. Jacob S, Rett K, Henriksen EJ, Hring HU. Thioctic acid—effects on insulin sensitivity and glucose-metabolism. BioFactors 1999;10:169-174.

11. Konrad T, Vicini P, Kusterer K, et al. alpha-Lipoic acid treatment decreases serum lactate and pyruvate concentrations and improves glucose effectiveness in lean and obese patients with type 2 diabetes. Diabetes Care 1999;22:280-287.



Ride it like you stole it!!