Insulin Resistance Help?

If you dont take care of it now you will end up in my shoes. Doctors and nutrionists tell you the wrong things to eat!
Milk is not bad for you! A lower carb diet is best. Learn to love veggies and fruits (in moderation). Learn to live without white flour and sugar. It sounds bland but there are so many yummy healthy things out there.
Exercise is key! It lowers the blood sugar. I learned all about this stuff after years of denial. By then I had screwed myself over. After a hysterectomy, almost ruined feet and liver, I decided I had to change. I still have good eyes and pretty good kidneys and continue to lower my sugars with diet and exercise.

I highly recommend you learn all you can on your own. You will get so much false information from those trying to help who are clueless, as well as those who know because they have been there.

It can be reversed if you lose weight!

i saw an endocrinologist who diagnosed me with insulin resistance and PCOS and then sent me to a dietician. he also gave me Metformin to help with insulin regulation.

basically, the dietician told me that carbs are the enemy. she gave me a limit of no more than 150g/day, and that's definitely on the high side.

foods she told me to eat: chicken, fish, beef, turkey, eggs, cottage cheese, greek yogurt, non-starchy veggies (so no peas, corn, potatoes). light, whole wheat bread and the starchy veggies only a few times per week, and don't mix them together (so corn and potatoes would be a no-no for me).

the key is protein - my doctor explained that my body is looking for carbs for quick energy and when it can't find them, it will move onto burning fat and then protein for energy. the high protein is supposed to help in keeping muscle.

i highly encourage you to see a doctor or a dietician if you can. they have definitely helped me. since January 1, i have lost almost 30 lbs. i could have definitely lost more but i have fallen off the wagon a few times

feel free to add me if you'd like

I too have been told I'm insulin resistant. Carb restriction is key, so whole grains, little process flours. Watch you starchy veggies..white potatoes, corn peas---all my favorites. My Doc told me I can help by developing more muscle mass so strength training is important. Good luck to you.

This is such a common problem and what everyone else has said is right. You have to increase your protein and decrease your starchy carbs and sugar. It really works! I was diagnosed insulin resistant in Feb 2011 and just by making these dietary changes I got my insulin levels back in the normal range within six months. More importantly, I lost weight for the first time in years and also found this way of eating helps enormously to control cravings and constant hunger.

As someone else said, Google insulin resistance diet. I have a website and Facebook page that many people have found very useful. There are some sites that say you should avoid dairy but I have not found that necessary. We are all individual, so you need to find what's right for you, but low carb is the key if you're IR.

The diabetic diet is an easy one and is balanced to promote your levels to be even throughout the day...a balance of all food groups...for they all have a purpose in maintaining your sugar levels.that paired with some form of exercise works wonders.
I was once on 170 units of insulin a day....i am now on nothing. a healthy balanced diet WORKS. getting it from a dietician should be top priority... get yourself on track and get those sugars level...n everything will fall into place.

I have the same exact problem as you do! I have been to a dietician and I am going to lay out the exact program that she put me on.

One serving of carbs is 15grams. A small apple is usually about 15grams of carbs. A cup of broccoli is about 15grams. Carbs that you eat needs to be slow carbs not fast carbs meaning you should really only be eating complex carbohydrates. So if you want to eat potatoes make sure your eating reds.

Breakfast- 3 servings of carbs, and 2-4oz protein

Snack- one serving of carbs

Lunch- 3 sevings of carbs plus 4oz protein

Snack- 1 serving of carb

Dinner- same as lunch

Snack- 1 serving of carbs

I was told not to eat more than one piece of fruit a day because it turns to sugar too quickly. Also no white bread or anything made with all purpose flour, enriched flour, or enriched bleached flour except for on a rare occasion. You do not want to eat more than 5oz if you are a woman because your body will not be able to process all that protein at once. If you do eat more than 5oz you risk it turning to fat. This really worked for me when I was following it perfectly. My insulin levels were way down and I had lost weight. I started weighing a lot more than what I am right now but because I followed this I lost about 20lbs. I fell off the wagon on this diet and went back to eating poorly but I am trying to get back into the groove of it. I just hate restricting myself so much on what I can and can't eat. It ends up at 180grams of carbs a day, but it follows the idea of controlling your glycemic index. You cannot, I repeat cannot take out all of the carbs in your diet. If you do your glucose levels drop and your liver will create and secreat more glucose. When you are insulin resistant your body is fighting against you. Then best way to control it is controlling your carb intake and making sure your carb choices are right and exercize (exercize burns off extra insulin). Once you reach healthier weight the insulin resistance should go away because 9 time out of 10 insulin resistance is caused because your cell membranes are streached out and the insulin in your body cannot find the correct pathways into your cells so your cells send out messages to your pancreas that they aren't getting any insulin so your pancreas goes into overdrive. Once you loose weight your cell membranes shrink down and your pancreas won't have to produce so much insulin to get it into the correct places. The real fear with insulin resistance is that if you don't get it in control your pancreas will burn out and you can become diabetic. So good luck! I

less carbohydrates 80-120g per day perhaps. 100g of protein and loads of oils and fat.

So no more lean stuff - 800 calories from protein and carbs, the rest from fats and oils. Do the math.

Oatmeal - carbs
Bread - carbs - even wholemeal, nearly the same GI as white sugar
Fruit - carbs
Noodles - carbs
Ceral - carbs
Milk - carbs

see where I'm going with this ?

4 ozs sirloin steak with green beans and broccoli. Mmm.

Exercise helps insulin resistance so keep up the walking.

I think you need to eat a little more protein.

Milk is not bad as long as you make sure it fits into your carb plan.

Oatmeal (not the insta pkg sugar stuff but regular kind) is good. I only had to give it up recently but I'm full blown diabetic and my body is currently rebelling.

Tropical fruits are higher in carbs so you want to watch your consumption.

Look up the American Diabetic Assoc. diet. It is a fairly decent diet for those who are resistant. It doesn't always work for those who are diabetic but overall it is a good, moderate carb diet and will give you some good ideas of how you should eat.

When you eat grains you want them to be grainy. So don't eat white bread but eat whole wheat, fibery type breads. Whole grains like quinoa, whole grain barley, and stuff like that are good. Experiment a little and you will find things you like. White rice is not a good grain choice as it seems to really mess with a lot of people's blood sugar.

Learn to eat non starchy veggies. It may take a while to adjust since you don't really care for them but I would try hard. It is fun to cook so get some cookbooks or look up stuff online and start experimenting. Processed foods are often high in sodium and additives.

See, when I googled insulin resistance, it said that milk was one of the worst things I could have unless it was soymilk. Even my doctor said that it basically turns into sugar in my body, because of the insulin resistance, so I take a vitamin supplement and try to stay away from milk, but I seem to have a hard time of it lol.

Unsweetened coconut milk or almond milk.

I think the coconut milk tastes better than the almond.

I attended a really great diabetes class at our local hospital. The bottom line is that there is no such thing as a diabetic diet. There are good diets and bad bad diets. Here is are the rules for a good diet:

For lunch and dinner, divide your plate into 4 quarters: 2 veggies, 1 good carb, 1 lean protein. Carb intake for women should be no more more than 45 grams of carbs per meal. If you limit portion control to about 3 - 3.5 oz per plate quarter, you will eat about 300 -350 calories per meal

Snack lightly twice a day on fresh fruit and some good fat (eg nuts, etc), as fat taken with carbs slows down carb digestion.

Eat about 150 calorie balanced snack before bedtime. Your looking at about a 1200 - 1300 calorie diet and may have to adjust either up to suit your activity level.

When reading food labels, disregard the sugar value. Look at the carb value. Look for high fiber carbs, as fiber does not count against your carb intake.

The bottom line is that there is no such thing as a diabetic diet.

Diabetes is a disease of glucose control. Reducing the glucose load is fairly hard to argue against, don't you think ?

Especially as there are no "essential carbohydrates" ie carbs that your body has to have and can't make (as opposed to "essential fatty acids" etc).

Diabetes associations worldwide have their heads up their *kitten* advising "balanced diets" and crap that leaves their victims munching on the very foods their body can't handle.

+1 - The Glycemic Load Diet

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