Healthy Weight Loss — Without Dietingsugar levels can lead to insulin resistance, a condition that we now
recognize as a critical factor in the development of many health
conditions.
Insulin Resistance
Health scientists have always looked at the process of developing a
chronic disease—like obesity, or diabetes, or high blood pressure—
as being a complicated one that involves many factors. One of the
most prominent factors in this mix is insulin resistance. In the year
2007 alone, over 900 research studies focused exclusively on insulin
resistance and its relationship to long-term health. Insulin resistance
has become so important in our understanding of health that it is no
longer possible to understand a simple process like chronic weight
gain without considering insulin resistance and its potential role in
the process.
How Insulin Resistance Becomes a Problem
The most common source of energy in our body is sugar (glucose.)
When our cells need energy, sugar is the fuel they depend on most
often. The sugar needed by our cells is constantly flowing through
our blood. However, the help of insulin—a protein hormone made
by our pancreas—is usually required in order for sugar to leave our
bloodstreamand flow into our cells. Insulin resistance is a situation
in which this process breaks down and our cells stop responding
effectively to the insulin produced by our pancreas. Our pancreas
may make an unusually high amount of insulin in an effort to get
sugar into our cells. But insulin resistance prevents this effort from
being fully effective because the actions of insulin continue to be
resisted in some way. “Insulin resistance” is the name given to this
unwanted set of events. Insulin resistance can become more than just
temporary—it can become an everyday roadblock to health.
How Insulin Resistance Affects Weight Management
There is not one simple, easy-to-describe relationship between insulin
resistance and body weight. But there are several easy-to-describe
features. First, excess body weight in the form of excess fat—particularly