How do I balance exercise/glycogen metablolism with insulin resistance?

JulieSHelms

I was hoping someone could explain or direct me to an article that explains how to do this properly. Everything I have found on the net hasn't really addressed this directly, or talks about needing to lower insulin sensitivity with exercise which I desperately need not to be lowered but increased.

My history: I am a 50 y.o. female with a whopper of a case of PCOS. In my 20s I needed fertility drugs to get pregnant and hormone therapy to stay pregnant. At 35, I had a hair transplant because I was in stage 4 male-pattern baldness. My weight gain averaged about 10 lbs/year. I was finally diagnosed with PCOS at 35 (thanks to the hair guy finally directing me to a dr. who knew what he was doing) and got on meds that immediately stopped further hair loss and lowered my weight gain to about 2 lb/year. A 5-hr glucose tolerance test had my glucose go from 160 to 40. I am not diabetic (My fasting glucose and HbA1C are normal).

Feb 2015, age 49, I finally got my mind in a place where I was ready to do this. (It took a photograph of me that I just could not accept--how could I possibly look like that??) I was 125 lbs overweight with a BMI of about 46. I knew a diet was not the answer, but a lifestyle change had to be. So I said goodbye to paste, rice, potatoes and most bread (I've never been a sugar eater, so that wasn't an issue). That was the only change I made--didn't count calories and I have never exercised, like EVER. I lost 56 lbs in 9 months.

Then the weight loss stopped. For 6 months I maintained (on the same diet). I was happy that I knew the secret NOT to gain it back but still needed to lose a lot more weight. So 8 weeks ago I joined Planet Fitness. Of course, I was dreading doing exercise and, even worse, doing it publicly. But turns out I really enjoy it (guess I shoulda figured that out 30 years ago.)

I've lost 23 lbs in 8 weeks with exercise, still following the same low-carb diet as always. I have been also following MFP's calorie plan, except with fewer carbs (occasionally my fat or protein numbers exceed what they recommend, but with so few carbs, the calories have to come from somewhere.) For exercise, I do the elliptical for 25-35 minutes then the weight machines for 15-20. I cannot do free weights due to back problems from a history of back surgery--the machines really support my back while doing the exercises. I go to Planet Fitness 5 days/week, then swim laps for 30 minutes, 2 days/ week. I haven't missed a day in all 8 weeks.

So I'm certainly happy that the exercise has led to greater and fairly quick weight loss. I'm down a total of 79 lbs, with 46 still to go. Current BMI is 33.6.

SO (and thank you for reading this far) now I am concerned about the whole carb thing. I am terrified to add them back in to my diet because I gained so much weight from carbs and insulin resistance over 30 years. But I don't want to hurt myself with the exercise and not getting enough. I understand the insulin mechanisms pretty well, but the glycogen/glucagon cycle is new to me.

Current stats:
5'8"
SW 300
CW 221
GW 175

Thanks for any help.
Julie

Cherimoose

Many people adapt fine to exercising on a low carb diet. If your energy drops during your workouts, try increasing your carb intake slightly a few hours prior. Doing weights before cardio.. or in a different session than cardio.. will also keep your energy higher. Lifting improves insulin resistance, so lift heavy.

AllanMisner

There's no need for you to go back on carbs. In fact, it is the only macronutrient you don't absolutely have to have. Stick to vegetables and some occasional fruit and you'll get all you need. The muscles don't really hold much glycogen (aka there are zero carbs in a serving of meat), and your body will use the protein to make glycogen if you really need it.

If our cardio consists of bouts less than 100 minutes, you should have no problems.

If you looking to kick things up, rather than going longer, I'd recommend putting some sprints/HIIT training in there. The eliptical and swimming are both great opportunities for you to add a HIIT session. I'd start with just one HIIT session per week until you get comfortable with it.

Allan Misner
NASM Certified Personal Trainer
Host of the 40+ Fitness Podcast

capaul42

Also, since you got great advice that I can't really add to, you can manually adjust the macro goals to what you are currently eating. Just go into Goals and look for calorie/macronutrients. You'll be able to change the percentages. I have mine set for 40c, 30p and 30f currently as I didn't like MFP'S default of 50% carbs. The only one I really care about hitting is my protein. I let the rest just fall where they fall on any given day.

JulieSHelms

Thank you very much. These responses put my mind at ease about the whole carb issue. I was already starting to look into the HIIT idea (everything exercise related is just so new to me) and will pursue that, along with heavier lifting!

moorem93

Hi,

I worked with a predicabetic population for some. First of all if you want to lose weight it really boils down to creating a calorie deficit by eating less and moving more (which is what younger doing).

Carbohydrates are stored in our body as glycogen and is converted to glucose when we want to use it for energy (sorry if you already know this), so honestly I don't think you need to worry about glycogen levels right now mostly this comes into play with high performance sports and athletes. Our body needs a certain amount of carbs to function so avoid going too low on carbs, for example our brain runs completely of glusoce so if we are on too low of a carb diet you will feel like CRAP! You can up your carb in take slowly and experiment with how you feel as you do this. I would recommend foods with a low glycemic index/ release energy slowly to start with. If you want to have something with a little more simple sugars like fruit or yoghurts high in sugar have them before or after exercise when your body is most sensitive to glucose uptake.

One other thing is exercise can help to reverse the insulin resistance effect. Basically cardio exercise provides a way to get glucose into your muscle and this effect can last up to 48hours and then you will need to exercise again (and you get this in with your exercise but try not to burn yourself out).

I would suggest also trying to lift weights or use the machines to build or maintain muscle mass this will help to keep your metabolism. Muscle mass/ fat free mass is more metabolically active than fat so we want to keep the muscle mass and get ride of the fat. Use the machines if they support your back, there is no point in risking injury if you can get just as effective workout on the weights machines.

I hope this helps and might answer some of your questions.

adamblake007

JulieSHelms wrote: »

I was hoping someone could explain or direct me to an article that explains how to do this properly. Everything I have found on the net hasn't really addressed this directly, or talks about needing to lower insulin sensitivity with exercise which I desperately need not to be lowered but increased.

My history: I am a 50 y.o. female with a whopper of a case of PCOS. In my 20s I needed fertility drugs to get pregnant and hormone therapy to stay pregnant. At 35, I had a hair transplant because I was in stage 4 male-pattern baldness. My weight gain averaged about 10 lbs/year. I was finally diagnosed with PCOS at 35 (thanks to the hair guy finally directing me to a dr. who knew what he was doing) and got on meds that immediately stopped further hair loss and lowered my weight gain to about 2 lb/year. A 5-hr glucose tolerance test had my glucose go from 160 to 40. I am not diabetic (My fasting glucose and HbA1C are normal).

Feb 2015, age 49, I finally got my mind in a place where I was ready to do this. (It took a photograph of me that I just could not accept--how could I possibly look like that??) I was 125 lbs overweight with a BMI of about 46. I knew a diet was not the answer, but a lifestyle change had to be. So I said goodbye to paste, rice, potatoes and most bread (I've never been a sugar eater, so that wasn't an issue). That was the only change I made--didn't count calories and I have never exercised, like EVER. I lost 56 lbs in 9 months.

Then the weight loss stopped. For 6 months I maintained (on the same diet). I was happy that I knew the secret NOT to gain it back but still needed to lose a lot more weight. So 8 weeks ago I joined Planet Fitness. Of course, I was dreading doing exercise and, even worse, doing it publicly. But turns out I really enjoy it (guess I shoulda figured that out 30 years ago.)

I've lost 23 lbs in 8 weeks with exercise, still following the same low-carb diet as always. I have been also following MFP's calorie plan, except with fewer carbs (occasionally my fat or protein numbers exceed what they recommend, but with so few carbs, the calories have to come from somewhere.) For exercise, I do the elliptical for 25-35 minutes then the weight machines for 15-20. I cannot do free weights due to back problems from a history of back surgery--the machines really support my back while doing the exercises. I go to Planet Fitness 5 days/week, then swim laps for 30 minutes, 2 days/ week. I haven't missed a day in all 8 weeks.

So I'm certainly happy that the exercise has led to greater and fairly quick weight loss. I'm down a total of 79 lbs, with 46 still to go. Current BMI is 33.6.

SO (and thank you for reading this far) now I am concerned about the whole carb thing. I am terrified to add them back in to my diet because I gained so much weight from carbs and insulin resistance over 30 years. But I don't want to hurt myself with the exercise and not getting enough. I understand the insulin mechanisms pretty well, but the glycogen/glucagon cycle is new to me.

Current stats:
5'8"
SW 300
CW 221
GW 175

Thanks for any help.
Julie

First of all...HUGE congrats on the progress, you are doing great. Something that you might want to look into is getting a food sensitivity blood test (you can order one from life extension.com). You might have certain trigger foods that lead to issues and it would be good to identify those.

Training wise...a couple of full body heavy lifting days (don't be afraid of the weight...especially in machine based training) and a couple of low impact metabolic sessions should do wonders for you.

Good luck going forward....keep it up and good things are sure to happen

JulieSHelms

adamblake007 wrote: »

First of all...HUGE congrats on the progress, you are doing great. Something that you might want to look into is getting a food sensitivity blood test (you can order one from life extension.com). You might have certain trigger foods that lead to issues and it would be good to identify those.

Training wise...a couple of full body heavy lifting days (don't be afraid of the weight...especially in machine based training) and a couple of low impact metabolic sessions should do wonders for you.

Good luck going forward....keep it up and good things are sure to happen

Adamblake007--great name! Thanks for the encouragement--it means a lot after so many not so encouraging years. I'll look into the food sensitivity test. It never occurred to me there could be an issue in that way.

SideSteel

Sounds to me like you're doing very well as is. I wouldn't change anything.