How do you know if you're insulin resistant?
moe0303
Posts: 934 Member
Just curious. Didn't see anything with this specific focus in the launching pad.
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I am curious about this too...1
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as am i....1
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Clues to Insulin Resistance
As I said above, certain symptoms that you have might make you wonder about insulin resistance. It's not uncommon to have more than one symptom, which makes it more likely that you are developing insulin resistance.
-Mid-body weight gain. People who carry extra weight in their abdomen often have insulin resistance. Some folks are genetically programmed in an “apple” shape, with a full belly and sculpted, thin arms and legs. Other folks notice a change in middle age, with a preferential middle body weight gain not present when they were younger. Everyone's waist should be smaller than their hips. For women a waist measurement should be no more than 75% or _ of your hip size, and for men no more than 90% of your hip size. So for a man with a 36 inch waist: if he can't find some place lower on his body that measures 40 inches, there's a good chance he has some insulin resistance. (Being overweight with a normal waist to hip size suggests that your weight is well-proportioned, balanced with muscle, and less likely to cause insulin resistance or subsequent diabetes.)
-Blood sugar problems are probably the most common indicator of excessive insulin secretion that can then lead to insulin resistance. If you get very agitated or excited after eating sugar, or find yourself sleepy or hungry again soon after meals, you might have the cycle referred to as “sugar blues”: first your high carbohydrate meal causes your blood sugar to climb sky high (which might feel like a mild caffeine effect) followed by your body making lots of insulin, causing your blood sugar to fall (sleepiness). The repetition of that cycle leads to insulin resistance.
-High blood pressure. High levels of insulin are associated with increased levels of aldosterone which causes fluid retention and elevated blood pressure.
-Fatty liver, once thought to be primarily associated with alcoholism, is being found even in children and teens and is always a serious indicator of insulin resistance. Alcoholic fatty liver is usually progressive; insulin resistant fatty liver is almost always reversible with careful food choices.
-Skin changes can indicate insulin resistance, including excessive skin tags and darkened skin in skin fold areas.
-Menstrual and reproductive problems in women, particularly polycystic ovarian syndrome, can indicate insulin resistance, even in women who are not overweight. Women with a history of gestational diabetes, or babies weighing over 9 pounds, have a significantly increased risk of developing insulin resistance.
-Cataracts are increased in patients with both type 1 and type 2 diabetes, and early cataracts (before the age of 70) can be seen in people with insulin resistance.
Frequent infections can both indicate and increase pre-existing insulin resistance.
Found this online but I'm not entirely sure if it's helpful.2 -
Had a lipid profile? Sure sign is high triglycerides and low HDL.
Waist circumference > 40in for men, > 35in for women.
High blood pressure.
High fasting blood glucose is often an indication, but it's the last to show up. That indicates years of damage.3 -
It's incredibly common too. So you don't do yourself any harm eating in such a way as to assume you have some level of IR.
If IR precedes pre diabetes and more than 1 in 3 people have pre diabetes, what does that tell you about how many people have IR?1 -
Thanks for all your help. Very informative.0
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My twitter feed is nuts some days...
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Wow thanks, this was very helpful.1
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Sunny_Bunny_ wrote: »It's incredibly common too. So you don't do yourself any harm eating in such a way as to assume you have some level of IR.
If IR precedes pre diabetes and more than 1 in 3 people have pre diabetes, what does that tell you about how many people have IR?
Great advice! I wish someone had drilled it into my head when I (unknowingly) had prediabetes.
(So keep working on your friends and family.)1 -
(Being overweight with a normal waist to hip size suggests that your weight is well-proportioned, balanced with muscle, and less likely to be caused by insulin resistance or subsequent diabetes.)
Fixed it for you.
Yes, I know you likely didn't write that. But yeah, I'm of the opinion that the insulin resistance comes first in most cases, or some of the weight gain just happens to be in tandem with the development of insulin resistance, and not necessarily that the obesity is what caused the insulin resistance (though it is possible that one can enter a vicious cycle with fat gain and insulin resistance, in a similar way that elevated estrogen also increases fat storage, and fat storage elevates estrogen).
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC380258/
http://www.diabetesselfmanagement.com/blog/diabetes-or-weight-which-comes-first/ (this article also notes that if you're under a lot of stress, or your sleep is poor, you are likely insulin resistant, as well; the former is a cause, the latter is generally an effect)
http://www.techinsider.io/6-volunteers-obesity-6000-calories-insulin-resistance-oxidative-stress-study-2015-9 (so, it turns out, that if you're eating 2-2.5 times your caloric needs every day, in the SAD ratios, you develop insulin resistance within about a week, even without being obese)0 -
I agree @Dragonwolf
Insulin resistance causes weight gain.2 -
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The biggest things that showed my insulin resistance that weren't listed above are:
- never feeling full - or taking ridiculous amounts of food to feel full (not stuff, just sated to where I didn't want to eat the broad side of a barn and half the fridge).
- ALWAYS wanting something sweet to feel like a meal was finished.
- almost always getting hungry again if I eat more that a bite or two of something sweet.
- having that "overwhelmed" feeling at the scent of a sweet food or even the taste of a sweet food, suddenly my rational brain would turn off and I would plow through far more food than I intended to...
- once a thought of a food, generally a sweet food or junk food, was in my head, I would eat half the fridge trying not to eat that food, and still most times end up eating it anyway, leading to the cycle above.
I can say that using some amino acids have really helped me break through this, even when not low carb, to keep somewhat of a handle on the out of control compulsions... I used this formula as a basis for my own supplementing, combined with personal experimentation and a few other book resources, BUT...this didn't help the IR itself...just the compulsive sweet/junk for food compulsion - it would dim that voice enough to where my rational brain could affect the rest of me...
http://carbsyndrome.com/is-your-brain-two-quarts-low/
http://www.foodrenegade.com/how-beat-sugar-cravings-glutamine/1
