Why insulin levels matter for appetite & weight

Why insulin levels matter for appetite & weight regulation

Dawn (00:00):

Hello and welcome to the Gastric Health Show. My name is Dawn Boxell and this week’s podcast is all about insulin. The title is Why Insulin Levels Matter for Appetite and Weight Regulation. So we are going to dig into this topic this week. I am recording in snowy Colorado, so just a different location for me to work. So have to just fit some things in between the skiing and having fun. So just making sure that I stay on task with all the podcasts to keep things going, so. Insulin so let’s kind of dig into this topic. Hopefully it gives you a better insight to what the connection is between your insulin and the importance of it and your blood sugar.

Dawn (01:03):

And why monitoring these is something that you and your physician should always be checking so that where you’re at and where you stand with your insulin level because it can really make a difference in your appetite and in your weight and in just your ability to regulate those more easily. So appetite and weight regulation can be influenced by your insulin level. In conventional healthcare insulin levels are rarely considered for routine blood work. But in bariatric functional nutrition, this is really a cornerstone lab to assess metabolic fun function. So we really look at insulin levels, not just your hemoglobin A1C or your fasting glucose. We want to know what the insulin level is doing.

Dawn (02:01):

Insulin is really just a hormone that affects every cell in your body, and most of you probably have heard of insulin in connection with this primary job of regulating your blood sugar and how it kind of directs it into your cells. And a high insulin level tells your body to store glucose in your fat cells and keep your fat stores locked away so that you’re not going to burn those fat stores.

Dawn (02:29):

And this process makes it quite easily to gain weight. Additionally insulin helps regulate your appetite. Unfortunately half of the US adults have insulin resistance and many have absolutely no idea because they are their family doctor or their primary care doctor is not checking insulin levels. So this is where I want you.

Dawn (02:58):

To find a practitioner that you can partner with and have this level tested if you don’t have a practitioner, and I can help you get this level ordered and guide you on this. So feel free to reach out. I’d love to help you work on this because this is important piece of your metabolic health. This is an important piece to your weight loss success. This is an important piece to your overall health. So if you are ignoring this insulin level or maybe not ignoring, but you are not addressing or evaluating it, you are missing a puzzle piece.

Dawn (03:37):

It’s like you have this puzzle and you’re missing that one middle piece that is lost. So this is an important thing to consider, especially if you’re having issues with appetite regulation or weight loss or weight loss resistance. This is something to tap into and consider as a cause or a reason why.

What is insulin resistance?

Dawn (04:01):

So what is insulin resistance? Insulin resistance is when your cells no longer react to the effects of insulin and making your body need more insulin just to do the same work and having too much circulating glucose or sugar can lead to too much insulin. So the more sugar that’s in your bloodstream, then the more insulin that is released and really your body’s first source of energy comes readily available from readily available glucose in the blood.

Dawn (04:41):

And the secondary source comes from what’s called glycogen. So this is a stored glucose so your body stores extra sugar in your liver and in your muscles for when you need it, when you are moving your body more that it has those reserves. This is its built-in mechanism to have fuel when maybe you’re not going to feed it soon enough. So is it’s kind of your insurance policy.

Dawn (05:16):

So the brain has its, it’s necessary fuel to survive off of. So the glycogen is stored in your muscles and your liver so that it’s there when you need it. And when you don’t engage in adequate exercise or if you’re even just consuming too many calories or just the wrong types of food, your body won’t burn the glycogen stores. So it’s always just going to be there and then you’ll continually add to that. So that’s why anybody in healthcare is always encouraging you to move your body and to make sure you’re making healthy food choices that aren’t going to be increasing this level and putting the demands in your blood sugar and your insulin.

Dawn (06:12):

So as you deplete your glycogen stores, you tap into your stored body fat as an alternative energy source. So when you start moving your body and you’re not feeding it consistently, maybe you’re eating three meals and three snacks and you’re not giving your body a break and you’re giving this constant stream of fuel then you’re never going to tap into that glycogen stores.

Dawn (06:43):

So as you can see, too much glucose leads to increased insulin and excess fat storage when you’re not taking care of yourself. So if you’re just not doing these self-care things this is where it gets easy for it to compound very quickly and get you in a place where it’s hard to get out of metabolically, your body starts working against you and making it super hard to lose and burn that excess stored fuel when you’re not taking care of yourself by moving your body and making good food choices in those types of things.

What causes insulin resistance?

Dawn (07:28):

So what causes insulin resistance? Technically, there are many factors that can cause excess insulin. So it’s not only food choices it includes many different factors outside of food, but food is included. So the main things that can really just set you up to be more vulnerable to insulin and glucose dysregulation is really just consuming an ultra processed food diet.

Dawn (08:02):

So more along the line of you’re not getting whole real food and then insulin resistance. So if you have insulin resistance, it makes it kind of hard to it’s like a vicious cycle. You’re, it perpetuates more insulin resistance your genetics play a role, inflammation, stress, poor sleep, and then too little exercise. So why food choices matter for insulin appetite and weight regulation? So when it comes to eating, perfection doesn’t exist. If you’ve listened to me long enough you’ve heard me say this many time, it’s not about being perfect with your diet, it’s about what you do the majority of the time with your meals, your snacks and those choices.

Why food choices matter for insulin, appetite & weight

Dawn (08:54):

If you’re doing more ultra processed foods or package prepared fast foods on a regular basis, say even just you’re having a meal out every single day and you’re just not cooking at home, you’re relying on fast foods, that’s when you’re going to set yourself up or make yourself more vulnerable to having issues with your insulin and your blood glucose levels.

Dawn (09:25):

So I mean, as you can imagine, ultra processed foods are just really the wrong mix of food properties to sustain an appropriate appetite and healthy weight. So ultra processed foods contained very little fiber and typically contain higher levels of carbohydrates and sugars. And that’s the unfortunate thing. If you think back to when food manufacturers started creating this, I mean, I think they do it with the thought of yes, it is a business and the big food does sway things and we can influence that by how we purchase with our food dollars. But if you think back when women got out into the workforce, we really needed help with preparing foods because we’re no longer at home only cooking.

Dawn (10:25):

And as these things have evolved, which I don’t want to go back to that I liked the convenience of things but I think you have to understand that they have to make it so it’s shelf stable, that it can be efficient and cost effective for the grocers and stuff because you can’t have something that’s going to go bad on the shelves or in the coolers within a few days and have adequate amount of supply for feeding all of us.

Dawn (10:59):

So I it, I know I understand the reasoning and how we got here, but I think we all have to just step back and reflect and say, okay, I can make different choices because there are other things available. And avoiding those things that are already packaged and just low in fiber and have added sugars and added carbohydrates or added poor quality fats, just those types of things are not going to serve our bodies well whenever we routinely consume them, not occasionally but routinely.

Dawn (11:37):

So that’s where you have to be cautious and be real with yourself and making sure that you’re not making these choices as frequently as you may not realize. So it’s paying attention, it’s being aware and being accountable to what you’re putting in your body because you are the only one that can fix this. You are the only one that controls what goes into your body and that’s what you have to reflect and evaluate and really just ask yourself, is this really an issue?

How insulin resistance influences insulin

Dawn (12:12):

prioritizing whole real food at the majority of your meals and snacks is really crucial for your insulin and your blood sugar to remain stable, which then in turn impacts your appetite and weight so . The next one is how insulin resistance influences insulin. So one of insulin’s primary jobs is to regulate glucose in your body and having too much circulating glucose can lead to excess insulin. So the more sugar you have in your bloodstream, the more insulin is going to be released because the insulin is kind of the director of taking it out of your bloodstream and into your cells.

Dawn (13:02):

So you need insulin. And when you have repeated glucose spikes from high carbohydrate foods or sugary foods this leads to repeated insulin surges to clear the glucose from the blood. So the more you spike your blood sugar, the more insulin is secreted. So having high levels of insulin tells your body to store glucose and not use the fat stores for energy.

Dawn (13:34):

Again, it perpetuates this weight issue and it’s kind of a compounding effect. It’s all about kind of mitigating that glucose spike as much as possible, which is why I talk so much about just, they may seem bizarre and random, but utilizing having a salad first before you have a high carb pizza that will help mitigate the glucose spike. So you won’t need the insulin. The insulin won’t be released. So again, it’s little tweaks like that or the apple cider vinegar or walking after a meal.

Dawn (14:15):

Enlisting these things that can serve your body is important to consider because it’s going, it’s all about stabilizing that blood sugar so that your insulin isn’t chronically having these surges that are clearing the excess glucose from the blood. So the more you can do that for yourself and it’s not like you’re restricting and never saying, I’m never having a pizza or I’m never having a potato chip, it’s I’m not doing it by itself.

Dawn (14:46):

I’m going to have a protein source. I’m going to have some fiber first, I’m going to have a vegetable first. There’s tons of studies showing that you have if you eat a vegetable, then a protein and then a carbohydrate, the blood glucose spike is less. So again, what does that mean? That means your insulin is not going to be surging to clear the glucose from the blood. So again, tiny things like this can make a huge difference.

Dawn (15:16):

So then you never feel like I have to be super restrictive or I can’t have these sayings ever, or I can’t have fruit because it’s going to spike my blood sugar. No, you can have fruit, but you might need to have fruit with some nuts or a nut butter or a string cheese just to make sure you kind of mitigate that blue that blood glucose spike.

Genetic connection to insulin, appetite & weight

Dawn (15:40):

The next one is the genetic connection to insulin appetite and weight. And this one I will say probably isn’t talked about and is there’s actually a ton of genes that are connected. There’s 19 different genetic SNPs that can influence how your body regulates glucose and insulin. So to me, this is where some people easily got themselves into diabetes because of these genetic SNPs. So yes, maybe the behaviors were there as well and the choices were there as well, but they maybe really didn’t have to do much and their genes kind of got clicked on and it just kind of took off.

Dawn (16:33):

So I’m going to cover a couple of them just to give you a baseline understanding of how your genetics are act actually impacting how your insulin responds and your glucose is regulated just at the genetic level. So there’s a FOXO1 genetic snp and it plays an important role in glucose levels by regulating insulin signaling through a process called gluconeogenesis and glycogenolysis.

Dawn (17:09):

So to kind of further explain this certain carriers, so if you are an individual that have this genetic snp, so if you’re a carrier of this genetic snp you have a lower insulin response. So your insulin is not going to be responding to those glucose spikes. And so that means your blood sugar, the sugar in your blood is going to stay elevated. So diabetes is easy for you to get. And to me, these individuals would benefit significantly from the glucose, those continuous glucose monitors so that you can truly track what’s impacting you the most.

Dawn (18:00):

And that helps you dial in the foods a little bit more personal to you because yeah, you can prick your finger so many times a day which is not easy and uncomfortable and hard to remember, whereas the continuous glucose monitors, it’s always tracking you and it’s just one stick and you keep that for a few weeks and then you change it again.

Dawn (18:26):

So again, to me that makes better sense, especially if you learn that you have some of these genetic SNPs. This is a no-brainer to me. Get a continuous glucose monitor and just really dial in what is driving those glucose spikes for you because all of us, it’s going to respond differently to food and the other factors in our life that drive it. So there’s another genetic SNP the SLC2A2 genetic SNP is involved in the first step of glucose induced insulin secretion and it is associated with increased insulin response to sugar and refined.

Dawn (19:09):

carbohydrate consumption, therefore kind of compounding sugar intake and cravings especially for sweets. So usually these individuals with this genetic SNP are going to have a more propensity for sugary or carb type foods, sweet type foods and is going to influence how your insulin responds. So again, these are just two of the 19 different genetic SNPs.

Dawn (19:44):

It can truly influence how your body regulates glucose and insulin. So now all of you who’ve followed me for a while. You, you’ve heard me say many times that your genes are not your destiny. And if you are a carrier of these certain or even a certain combination of genetic SNPs you can enlist certain practices to turn these genes back off in order for you to main a healthy glucose and insulin levels lifelong. And again, enlisting things like the continuous glucose monitors and really dial in what is influencing your food blood glucose level and contributing to insulin spikes and surges as well.

How inflammation contributes to higher insulin

Dawn (20:35):

Then next is how inflammation contributes to higher insulin and infl Inflammation has been well established in chronic disease including obesity and inflammation has been shown to interfere with insulin signaling in animal and human studies. So the more inflamed or the more even low grade inflammation that you carry that you may not even realize that you have this inflammation going through your body it’s going to interfere with your body’s ability to respond to high blood sugars and things like that. And I will tell you think about in menopause for women.

Dawn (21:24):

So when you go through menopause, your inflammation increases naturally things are just you, your body is migrating more towards insulin resistance and your cortisol levels increase, your inflammatory markers can increase. So things kind of tuning in and really paying attention to that insulin level and making sure that it’s staying in healthy reference ranges and more tightly regulated will help you control all of this.

Dawn (22:00):

So to me, it’s not, don’t wait until something is broken. Don’t wait until you already have diabetes. Do it when you start seeing signs of pre-diabetes and then attack it before you get too far into it that it’s even harder to get out of. It just is complicated when you wait. So the next one is how stress hormones alter insulin response and stress can cause a rapid and sustained rise in your blood glucose. So when your cortisol level is elevated, then that increases your blood glucose.

Dawn (22:46):

So cortisol epinephrine are considered insulin antagonists, and whenever these hormones are elevated, you need more insulin to do the same job which leads to the outcome of insulin resistance if not addressed. So this is where if you are not great at managing your stress, then you can get yourself in a position where your body is not going to be able to respond and support these blood glucose spikes.

How stress hormones alter insulins response

Dawn (23:21):

So again, I’m going to kind of explain with menopause because this is something that your stress hormones are rising in menopause. So this is a contributor. This is something as females you have to be prepared for and learn and try different things that work for you and really managing your stress and evaluating it. To me, I’m a big pusher of doing journaling at night to just brain dump and get that out because you may not even again realize that you are struggling with stress.

Dawn (24:02):

because sometimes we’re so good at just suppressing things that we don’t even recognize that it is raising our stress hormones. So again, it’s setting you up. The more stress you have consistently and chronically is when you’re going to get yourself into trouble with that insulin being able to respond appropriately. The next one is poor sleep. And sleep is probably the one lifestyle factor that is rarely discuss enough.

Dawn (24:34):

And to me this should be question number one. When you’re at a practitioner’s office and you’re dealing with symptoms. I personally, when I work with patients, I do try to ask how well they’re sleeping and if this is an issue and we really work hard at helping them sleep because different life seasons, again, menopause is one where sleep is impaired and you start having a lot of issues falling asleep and staying asleep again, it correlates with those cortisol levels rising, inflammation rising and hormone changes.

Dawn (25:20):

So lowering a progesterone lowering of estrogen, progesterone is kind of our chill hormone and this is what helps us sleep. So in essence menopausal women may benefit if you qualify to do hormone replacement therapy because it can really help support great sleep and help mitigate this blood glucose at insulin response that is kind of broken. And this, so you are wanting weight loss, you’re going to your doctor saying, I’m hungry all the time, my appetite is up and I am, I’m gaining weight and I can’t lose weight.

You have to dig deep enough to know why are you not sleeping?

Dawn (26:04):

And if you really kind of timelined it and looked at everything, if it’s you’re having poor sleep, then this may be the only thing you need to fix is the sleep piece. And you have to dig deep enough to know why are you not sleeping? What symptoms are you experiencing? Is it just a life event that you’re in that you’re, you’re in stress about and it’s more stress hormones because there’s so many things you can do to turn that stress hormone off. My favorite is phosphatidylserene.

Dawn (26:37):

So when you have high cortisol levels just really dialing in phospho tidal, serene to help lower those, it has been shown in studies to actually lower your cortisol level. I like using it myself. We keep it at our house and we use phosphatidylserene for any of those times that we do need that support. So it’s not something that I use every night, but when I feel like my cortisol levels are rising, I make sure that I start taking them and make sure I utilize that to help keep that cortisol in check.

Dawn (27:15):

So getting a good night’s sleep is so important, and I’ve discussed this before, how a poor night’s sleep will increase your cravings the next day. And there’s a study they followed healthy normal weight individuals who were considered short sleepers and they slept less than six and a half hours per night. And then the control group was considered normal sleepers and they slept seven and a half to eight and a half hours per night.

Dawn (27:45):

And the study found that the short sleepers secrete 50% more insulin than the normal sleepers to achieve similar glucose results. And this places them at risk of developing insulin resistance in the long term because their body is secreting more insulin because they aren’t sleeping long enough for what their body needs sleep is. Think of your restoration. This is how you get to feel better. This is how you restore, rebuild, replenish.

Dawn (28:21):

This is an essential piece of being human. We need rest. And if you get yourself in a cycle where you’re not getting rest night after night, this is when insulin levels rise and blood sugars rise. So again, the whole system is creating this environment of insulin resistance and high blood glucose levels that translate into now I’m hungry all the time and the scale won’t move or it’s moving up in the wrong direction and I can’t get it to move down. So this is where you have to work with someone who can help you really dial in how you can sleep.

Dawn (29:11):

I’ve used so many different things with sleep, something as simple as magnesium. The right types of magnesium can help not just any magnesium, but really dialing in the right type of magnesium can really help with sleep and relax. Progesterone for females is another one that can really help with sleep.

Dawn (29:32):

Phosphatidylserene can help with sleep. Relax max. There’s all kinds of options depending on. What you have going on is really kind of dependent on what I use. But again it’s important to not forget about this piece because. This may be why you’re having an A1C that’s elevated and you’re having fasting elevated fasting blood glucose levels. So your doctor might say, oh, your blood glucose is high. We need to get that down. Maybe we need to start you on metformin.

Dawn (30:15):

But really what you need is you need to sleep and you’ve got to figure out how can I sleep? So make sure you’re having these discussions with your doctor so. That you are figuring out really what’s driving this shift. Additionally, this study also found that partial sleep deprivation is. Also associated with changes in your appetite regulating hormones, leptin and graylin. It leads to increased appetite.

Dawn (30:46):

So sleeping shorter it, and it’s literally not, not going to say. I haven’t had a six and a half hour night’s sleep before. I don’t chronically sleep that little, but I would say I’m more in the seven to eight hour range. But I mean, if you think about that, how easy is that to be in that six and. A half hour or less sometimes? And if you get stuck in that cycle, the longer you do that. You are going to struggle with your appetite and it will be harder for you to deal with the cravings .

Dawn (31:22):

and the hunger that you are now expose to. So now you have to find ways to avoid. It’s kind of like you’re putting willpower in charge and. That is never a good thing and you never win win. Willpower is in charge. You’ll never win with willpower. So you will always end up at some point giving in.

Dawn (31:46):

It could be days, hours, could be weeks or months. We’re all different on our willpower scale, but at some point you lose when it comes to willpower. So this is why you have to look at all areas of life and really having a balanced life. Of having fun, having rest, having good relationships. You can’t ignore these things because these drive the symptoms. That you present to your doctor with, I’m hungry and I’m gaining weight. And it really is driven by some of these things that are just off balance in your life. The next one or the last one is too little exercise.

Exercise is a necessary thing

Dawn (32:35):

And let’s face it, we all know that exercise is a necessary thing we all should do and. It is a great way to tap into your stored fat cells that your body is storing for energy. So if you can help lessen the blood sugar spike, especially if movement is intentional. After a meal there are several studies showing that a 10 minute. Walk after a meal can lower the blood glucose spike.

Dawn (33:10):

So again, when you’re preventing that glucose from spiking, then you are preventing that insulin from surging. But when you are not, then your glucose is spiking. The insulin is spiking to help bring it out of the blood and into the cells. So if you can control those blood glucose spikes. You’re going to control those insulin surges and really prevent any issues. With having insulin resistance or having dysregulated appetite and weight.

Dawn (33:49):

So again, it’s prioritizing just simple things moving your body. So set a timer as soon as you finish eating, set a timer for 10 minutes. And get up and just clean up your kitchen or actually go outside for a walk. I’ve done both in either work. So if it’s freezing cold or raining, then just walk in your house and. Clean up your kitchen for a whole 10 minutes and keep moving that whole time.

Dawn (34:18):

And that will be equal to moving outside. So 10 minute walk is just a simple way to improve. Your insulin response and improve your appetite and weight regulation. So let’s kind of wrap this up and pull us all together because. When your body stops regulating glucose properly, you can develop insulin resistance. And this means that your cells stop responding to insulin. Effectively and are unable to use the glucose floating in your blood. So insulin resistance causes more glucose to circulate in the blood resulting in chronically elevated blood sugars.

Conclusion

Dawn (35:03):

So when you evaluate the reasons that maybe you’re experience in this one. First, get your physician to check your insulin level, find out where you are, and that’s step number one. And then once you know what you’re dealing with, then you can say, okay, how’s my diet? Am I really eating a whole real food diet the majority of the time. Or am I relying too much on ultra processed foods?

Dawn (35:38):

Do I already have insulin resistance and this is driving it more? Do I maybe have some of those genetic SNPs that are why. I can’t seem to get control of this easily? And then do I have inflammation? Is my stress out of control? Am I not sleeping well and am I moving my body enough? So again, it’s evaluating these areas that you can do. You have the ability to shift these, any of these and.. It’s something that you are the only one that can do it. I can’t do it for you, your spouse, your family members.

Dawn (36:23):

No one can do this for you, not even your doctor. All we can do is encourage you to enlist some of these things. And I would say this is why the gastric health membership is so helpful. It’s very affordable in the aspect that you have access to myself as often as you need. And we really can dial in where your issues lie, and we can really kind of help shift. You through the different areas and get you in a better place.

Dawn (36:59):

We can work on sleep, we can work on movement. We can of course work on food choices and stress management. All of those things can’t be ignored. But again, if you need blood work, I can help you get that. Any of those things through the gastric health membership is available. So that you have everything that would make you be successful with your appetite and weight regulation. So I hope this has helped.

Dawn (37:26):

I think it’s given you maybe a deeper insight with insulin I . Don’t know how much it’s talked about with your family physician. I hope it is I . Just don’t hear that frequently that people experience that. So again, I think exploring this maybe new blood work that. You haven’t before is a great step in getting you into the right direction with your health. So I hope you guys have a great week and we will see you next time. Bye-bye.

Listen, Learn, Enjoy…

References & Links: