One of the biggest and most frustrating challenges in the fitness world can be weight loss. At one point in your life you looked a certain way, felt a certain way or you have been trying to attain a goal weight for some time and it has posed rather difficult. You hear that it takes diet and exercise but what does that mean? Does that mean that you have to go from the couch to the cross fit gym? To an intense boot camp class? Heavy lifting or hard cardio session? Crash diets? No. As a personal trainer the most important thing in those instances would be safety and not going from nothing to everything. If you have incorporated these things there could be another factor that could be inhibiting the weight loss. This plays in to how we as a people have transitioned from being mobile to being sedentary. So, what does this have to do with weight loss? It has to do with the insulin response. Let’s go into a little detail as to what insulin is, what role it has in the body and how when insulin resistance is present it makes it harder to lose weight.
Insulin is a hormone. We know about insulin and glucose metabolism but this hormone is responsible for many other things. Some examples are preventing the breakdown of proteins (which is another reason why carbs are emphasized when trying to put on muscle size), helps with metabolism, helps with the growth of tissue (such as muscle) and is responsible for glycogenesis and lipogenesis.1,2All in all it promotes growth or “anabolism.” Let’s focus on the latter. Lipogenesis is the creation of adipocytes (fat cells). Therefore, if there is any sort of insulin resistance in your body, insulin circulate around your body promoting fat storage. Insulin resistance does not only apply to just diabetes. It can come from other stress factors on the body such psychological stress, thermal stress, infection, toxicological (from chemicals that we are exposed to), electromagnetic stress from the computer and our phones, improper diet and mechanical stress.3Mechanical can account for over training but here is where being sedentary can lead to insulin resistance. Some of the ways your body tries to compensate for these stressors when extended is decrease in potassium and magnesium from inside the cells, decrease in B-vitamins, increase in blood lipids, increase in inflammatory markers and most importantly the receptors for insulin tend to decrease in efficacy.3
With all this said, what is one thing that you can start to incorporate in to your daily routine? More movement and more standing. I know that this is not new knowledge, as we are now hearing that sitting is the new smoking. Not only does sitting affect the insulin response in your body but affect lipid composition in your body.4Insulin sensitivity has been shown to drop by 18% with lower energy intake and energy expenditure, while no change in energy intake and lower energy expenditure accounted for a 39% drop in insulin sensitivity.4Therefore, insulin sensitivity and movement tend to go hand in hand. Exercise does help with insulin sensitivity and is usually recommended for at least 150 minutes per week.4 In this study that I stumbled across, the authors looked in to the effects of a sedentary lifestyle on blood lipids and insulin sensitivity and how movement throughout the day effects that. The control group was sedentary for 14 hours of the day, standing one hour and walking 1 hour, another group replaced one of those hours of sitting with 1 hour of intense/vigorous activity(cycling), and the main study group (minimal intensity group) was sedentary for a total of 6 hours, walked for a total of 4 hours and stood for a total of 2 hours, which was chosen based off increased Daily Energy Expenditure(DEE) of 450 calories. Dietary habits and caloric intake remained the same in each of the subjects for the duration of the study. Results showed improvement in Insulin Sensitivity Index(ISI) in the minimal activity level in comparison to the to the two other groups and a statistically but not significant improvement in triglycerides, HDL and LDL in the minimal exercise group vs. the exercise group, and no effect in the exercise vs. the sitting group.4
So, what is the underlining message? You can start by standing and moving more throughout your day. I would recommend this even for those who are avid gym goers but still have a sedentary job. To those getting started, don’t be intimidated by taking that first step into a gym and getting on the treadmill. Bottom line, move more, drink more water, eat right and enjoy!
References:
1)Lord, R., J. Bralley. Laboratory Evaluations for Integrative and Functional Medicine. 2ndDeluth, GA. Metametrix Institute. 2008.
2)Hessberger, M. Insulin Resistance, Metabolic Syndrome, Diabetes, and Cardiovascular Disease. University of Bridgeport. 2015.
3)Allostatic Load Model. Moss, J. What is the rightful place of clinical nutrition in today’s world of chronic illness: A metabolic perspective. University of Bridgeport. 2015.
4)Duvivier, B.M.F. et al. Minimal Intensity Physical Activity (Standing and Walking) of Longer Duration Improves Insulin Action and Plasma Lipids More that Shorter Periods of Moderate to Vigorous Exercise (Cycling) in Sedentary Subjects When Expenditure Is Comparable. PLOS one[serial online]. February 2013; 8(2):1-8. Article retrieved from http://eds.b.ebscohost.com.libproxy.bridgeport.edu/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=2&sid=bf229488-bebb-46aa-990a-c47bf5ed4756%40sessionmgr102.
