Metabolism & Insulin Resistance... what one to focus on first?

How do you identify a bad metabolism?

Insulin resistance can be a medical issue and identified with blood glucose measures. I would prioritze it. It can be addressed on a number of ways with food choices, timing, exercise, etc... especially with help from a medical team.

Work on the insulin resistance (IR). There's more to it than how many meals per day a person eats, and that may not even be the biggest helpful thing. Also, IR can be a symptom of a larger pattern, other aspects of which are also sub-optimal for health, so that's another reason to focus there.

I know it's a thing we hear a lot about in the blogosphere (**Note 1), but "bad metabolism" isn't a real thing. Yes, some people require more calories to function at any given body weight, even at rest, but the differences aren't typically huge.

Ref: https://examine.com/articles/does-metabolism-vary-between-two-people/ (**Note 2)

Metabolism is pretty much the sum of energy required by cellular activity in our bodies. If that were truly broken, we wouldn't be walking around above ground, y'know?

Mostly, people differ in how much they move. (A bigger factor for most people than formal exercise: Daily routine, including unconscious things all the way down to fidgeting. Fidgety people have been found in research to burn up to a couple of hundred or so more calories daily than otherwise similar more placid people. No, I'm not saying you should fidget! Moving more is good, though.)

You probably already know this, but eating relatively more whole foods (vs. highly processed, refined ones) will tend to help IR as well (AND be more filling for most people, making it easier to lose weight, AND be better nutritionally, AND burn slightly more calories just digesting the food).

I'm not saying "never eat processed foods". I'm saying "there's decent evidence that eating mostly highly processed foods is unhelpful and unhealthful", so maybe think of trying to get those highly processed foods down to a small part of the overall picture, if they're not there already.

**Note 1: Often from people who are trying to sell us something as "a cure"

**Note 2: After you read that, maybe read this thread for potentially helpful ideas:

http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10610953/neat-improvement-strategies-to-improve-weight-loss/p1

Obese/overweight people statistically tend to have lower NEAT - even after weight loss - than so-called "naturally thin" people . . . but it's a thing we can change about ourselves, to some extent. Bonus: Moving more in daily life might also be a small positive nudge toward reducing the insulin resistance.

Regular moderate exercise would be a bigger nudge. Doing strength challenging exercise adds muscle mass (though very slowly) and actually raises resting metabolic rate a tiny bit long term, plus makes it easier and more fun to move (which can make NEAT improvement more automatic). That "easier and more fun movement" part can happen faster than the muscle mass gains, too.

There are a lot of potential wins in there via behavioral changes that are 100% within our individual control, and that don't have to involve changes in eating timing. (I'm not saying eating timing isn't a factor - just saying there are other factors that might be as big or bigger.)

But maybe I'm preaching to the choir here. :flowerforyou:

Best wishes!

I'd work on the insulin resistance. Which most likely comes from being overweight. As you lose weight, you gradually change the insulin resistance in your body.

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