Insulin: Your Body’s Most Anabolic Hormone

Written By Jerry Teixeira

If you’re someone who takes your training and nutrition seriously, at some point you’ve most likely heard about the latest diet fad that everyone is doing. These diet fads range from The Paleo Diet, Bulletproof Diet, Sugar-Free Diet, 5:2 Diet, South Beach Diet, Low Carb Diet and more recently the Keto Diet. The list of diets goes on and on.

The important thing isn’t to get on a set “Diet”. What you really need to know is what is going on inside your body when you eat any type of food and how that food effects your body’s natural secretion of insulin. Often referred to as “The Most Anabolic Hormone in the Body”, Insulin can help you improve athletic performance, it can speedup post training recovery and it can improve muscle development while keeping you lean.

On the other hand, insulin isn’t managed correctly it can make you feel sluggish, it can make you add unwanted bodyfat. And if insulin isn’t managed correctly for a long enough period it can lead to insulin resistance and even diabetes. The key is to understand what insulin is, what it does in your body and how to control your body’s secretion of it, so you can make it work with you and not against you.

In this two-part article, we’ll roll up our sleeves and get down to the “nitty gritty” of what is really going on when you eat. We’ll look at ways to make insulin work with you to improve your athletic performance, speedup your recovery and make the changes in body composition that you want faster. With that, let’s jump right in!

WHAT INSULIN DOES AND WHY:

Insulin plays two major rolls in your body.

Insulin’s first role is to transport nutrients from your bloodstream to body tissue and so by doing, insulin helps your body build up tissue. Whether it helps to repair and build muscle mass tissue or buildup fat mass is highly dependent on your choices of food intake and your activity level at the time.

Insulin’s second role is to regulate blood sugar levels. Anytime you eat a form of carbohydrate, whether it is a fast digesting carbohydrate or a slow digesting carbohydrate, your body breaks it down into simple sugar and converts it into glucose. Glucose is your body’s only usable form of simple sugar. When your blood sugar levels are raised, your body releases insulin into your blood stream to regulate blood sugar levels by transporting excess glucose to body tissues.

A keynote to keep in mind is that insulin must be present for the uptake of glucose in all body tissues except the brain. The only exception to this is during or immediately following physical activity.

An important point to keep in mind is your liver and muscle tissue take up glucose much slower than your fat cells. So, if your blood sugar levels are raised too high or too quickly, your liver and muscles won’t be able to absorb glucose at the rate insulin is providing it. If this happens, much of the glucose will end up being moved to your fat cells.

Keep in mind, the amount of insulin your body releases into your bloodstream will be determined by how many total carbohydrates you consume as well as the type of carbohydrates you consume.

WHAT INSULIN MEANS TO YOU:

 

So now that we’ve covered that carbohydrates causes a release of insulin and insulin is released to keep blood sugar levels stable and transport nutrients form the bloodstream to body tissue, how does this apply to you?

 

First, if you have a high intake of simple carbohydrates, your body will secrete a large amount of insulin into your bloodstream. If you are in an inactive state, your liver and muscles most likely won’t have a need for a lot of glucose at this time, nor will they absorb glucose very quickly. This means insulin will draw that glucose (blood sugar) almost directly into your bodyfat tissue, which can cause you to gain bodyfat. If this is done long enough, it can lead to insulin resistance and even diabetes.

 

On the other hand, if you consume slow digesting carbohydrates evenly throughout the day, your body will secrete small amounts of insulin, which will transport glucose, amino acids and other nutrients you consume into your liver and muscle tissue at a slower rate, which they can absorb and draw from steadily for hours. This will provide your body with a steady flow of energy and nutrients your muscles need to repair and grow your muscle as well as fuel you throughout the day.

 

Finally, if you are in the process of completing a training session or have just completed a training session, your muscle and liver will need glucose as a fuel source and to optimize recovery. At this point, your liver and muscles are depleted of glycogen, so they will absorb more glycogen and quicker than at other times of the day. At this point, you may want to consume simpler carbohydrates and you want a higher release of insulin. So, it makes sense to follow up your workout with some simple carbohydrates to replenish glycogen stores quicker.

 

If you time your carbohydrate intake correctly with the right amounts and the right kind of carbohydrates, you can start to control your body’s secretion of insulin and get it optimize post-workout recovery, muscle development while minimizing fat gain.

IN PART TWO:

In part two of this two-part article, we’ll dig deeper and look at the relationship insulin has with amino acids and see how they tie together with carbohydrates. We will also look at the affect insulin has on your performance and your post-workout recovery. See part two HERE.