Unless you’re diabetic, you probably haven’t taken your blood sugar with a glucose meter. Taking your blood sugar, or having your doctor do it, could help you determine if you have some insulin resistance. If you’re carrying more than 30lbs of excess fat and having trouble getting the weight to come off with a healthy diet and exercise, then you MAY have some insulin resistance.
Just because your goal is to lose weight, don’t think you avoid lifting weights. One of the greatest benefits of resistance training is insulin sensitivity. Insulin sensitivity means that your muscles are receptive to insulin bringing fuel to be stored in the muscle- NO, this does not make you bulky. It actually provides energy for when you move those muscles.
The opposite of insulin sensitivity is insulin resistance which means that your muscles don’t respond to insulin so the fuel is diverted to your FAT CELLS for storage. Increased insulin resistance leads to, not only fat gain, but also diabetes.
How many times have we heard that a calorie is a calorie? This is beyond an over simplification. It just isn’t true. Our bodies store and burn primarily two different types of fuel- fat and glycogen. We have two different metabolic systems- aerobic, being fat burning and anaerobic which burns glycogen.