Please do read the disclaimer before you read the post below.
What is Insulin resistance?
Insulin Resistance is when cells in your body resists Insulin.
Insulin is needed by the cells to extract glucose from the bloodstream (from the food that we eat) and use this glucose.
What happens when cells resist Insulin?
As is obvious, when cells resist Insulin, it cannot use the glucose from the food that we eat.
With this excess glucose in the bloodstream, when a person does a blood test, it will come up as high sugar and hence lead to diabetes.
How can I avoid insulin resistance and reduce glucose levels?
Lets try to go through this in very simple terms:
- The more a person eats, the more insulin is secreted and if the cells are resisting insulin, the more glucose remains in your blood stream.
- One can reduce their food intake (not quantity but the # of times one eats).
- As one reduces the # of times one eats, the lesser insulin is exposed in the body and lesser glucose in the blood stream.
- Eating less carbs helps since carbs produce glucose.
- Combining the above two points helps a lot (eating less frequently and eating less carbs).
What is Intermittent Fasting (IF)?
IF as the name suggests implies fasting intermittently and eating in a set window of time.
Many folks do a standard 16:8 IF which implies fasting for 16 hours and eating for 8 hours (typically 2 meals in an 8 hour window).
There are various options that people follow in IF:
- 12:12 [Fast for 12 hours and eat twice a day for 12 hours]
- 16:8 [Fast for 16 hours and eat twice a day for 8 hours]
- 20:4 [Fast for 20 hours and eat twice a day for 4 hours]
- 23:1 [Fast for 23 hours and eat once a day for 1 hour]. This is also known as OMAD (one meal a day)
- Alternate day fasting (Fast for one day and eat for one day)
- Alternate day fasting + IF (Fast for one day and next day do a 16:8 IF)
- Water Fast for multiple days
Please do read the disclaimer.
