Clinical Nutritionist and Fitness Enthusiast Jessica Kim preaches on the most anabolic hormone in the body and how to take control of it to maximize your gains in the gym.
Insulin is often called the most anabolic hormone in your body. Insulin non-discretely induces an anabolic state across a variety of tissues. While its anabolic effects are unparallel in many respects, it must be managed properly to get maximal gains out of strength training.
The Basics
Insulin is a hormone released into the blood by the pancreas and functions in many ways as an anabolic agent. When insulin is released into the bloodstream, it acts to shuttle glucose (carbohydrates), amino acids, and fats into the cells of the body. The kicker is which cells the insulin will push these nutrients into in YOUR body. While fat and muscle cells are the important ones in terms of quantity, I think you can answer for us all which one is the preferred cell type. Now, if these nutrients go predominantly into muscles, then the muscles grow and body fat is managed. If these nutrients go predominantly into fat, then muscle mass is unaffected and body fat is increased.
So, you might then ask if there is a way to send nutrients preferentially into muscle rather than fat, to increase your overall muscle mass and keep fat mass low. The answer is due in large part how you manage your insulin levels throughout the day and especially in response to your exercise training.
The Ugly Side
In a big way, insulin resistance results in diseases like Type II diabetes. To a lesser extent, insulin resistance occurs in individuals who are inactive and have a poor diet. If you are insulin resistant, your cells do not respond to the anabolic effects of normal levels of insulin. In other words, they resist insulin's effects. If this is the case, the body then must release massive amounts of insulin to promote nutrient storage in the resistant cells. While the body can compensate for this increased insulin release, there are individual (and to a large part probably genetic) differences in the ability to release more and more insulin from the pancreas. In extreme cases, diabetes can develop.
The great thing is that insulin sensitivity can be manipulated by exercise, diet and supplementation. Both aerobic and resistance training greatly increase insulin sensitivity through some different and some similar mechanisms. In addition, supplements like omega 3 fatty acids and fish oils can increase insulin sensitivity. Diet can also modulate insulin sensitivity with moderate carbohydrate diets that are rich in fiber doing the best job.
How Do I Start?
We see tremendous increases in insulin sensitivity with three to four intense weight training sessions per week. These sessions should be coupled with at least three to four aerobic sessions (lasting a minimum of thirty minutes per week). For many people, this is a lot of exercise, but we are not aiming for a small change in our body composition. We are aiming for a LARGE change in muscle mass and decrease in fat mass.
Your diet can make a big difference as well. I recommend moderate quantities of fibrous carbohydrates like oatmeal, fruits, vegetables and whole grains (about 40-50% of the diet). I also recommend eating moderate quantities of high-quality proteins like casein, whey, chicken, beef, fish, dairy and eggs. And finally, I recommend eating low quantities of fats from olive oil, flax oil, fish oil and nut oils (20% of the diet).
All of these strategies can be combined to make the muscles more responsive to insulin, while simultaneously decreasing the fat's responsiveness to insulin. It usually takes a week or two to get the body responding appropriately as long as you are a generally healthy adult to begin with. Once that has been accomplished, there are ways to take it to the next level, which will be dealt with at a later time.
Jessica Kim – A clinical nutritionist and aspiring dietician, Jessica spends most of her time doing rounds as a nutritionist in a hospital setting. Her passion for writing and health translate into a unique clinical perspective on health topics. Jessica has no problem pointing out where fitness enthusiasts take a single research study to the extreme, by reminding us of sound clinical advice! Jessica can be reached at jessicakim@mklaboratory.com