Insulin the answer to your weight management challenge?

MIGHT INSULIN provide the answer to your weight management challenge, when controlling calories does not help? The chances are that someone you know is struggling with weight management. It is the worldwide obesity epidemic!

The World Global Obesity Observatory (2022) data for Jamaica estimates that nearly 70 per cent of women and 40 per cent of men, or over one million adult Jamaicans, are obese or overweight.

According to Ardinel Davis at Riviera Wellness Retreat Limited, on average, persons are advised to burn more calories than they consume on a daily basis in order to lose weight. “That is the time-honoured and most popular advice, even among experts. However, it is widely reported that a high percentage of the people who follow this calorie- control plan fail to get their desired results in weight management,” Davis said.

“Also, research on diet effectiveness shows that we have weak scientific support for the expectation that burning more calories than you consume consistently produces weight loss; even though burning less calories tends to promote weight gain,” she added.

The popular explanations of the failure of the calorie-control plan focuses upon genetics. That is, your genes are the reason why burning more calories than you consume does not produce weight loss. That explanation seems reasonable when you observe thousands of families where a certain type of body mass pattern seems to be handed down from one generation to next.

However, according to Davis, this tendency in family inheritance is a weak explanation of person’s pattern of weight changes, especially as he or she ages during middle and later life.

“Nutrition scientists have for many years studied the influences of hormone changes on body weight. These studies often target the hormone named insulin. Hormones are substances secreted by glands in our body, and which help to regulate body functions. The key idea here is that hormones can exert a major influence on the pattern of your weight changes. This can happen regardless of what you have achieved in terms of calorie control,” Davis said.

Insulin is widely thought to be one of the most powerful of the hormones that help to explain changes in body weight. It is produced in our bodies by the pancreas that is located at your back, behind the stomach.

At the core of these processes is a type of sugar found in your blood and which is used to make the energy that your system requires. This type of sugar is called glucose, and it is common to read that glucose as blood sugar.

According to Bridget Lawrence at Footcare Academy, when you consume certain carbohydrates, mostly starchy or sugary foods and drinks, they are converted into glucose by your digestive system and absorbed into your blood stream.

“The arrival of that glucose causes your pancreas to respond by secreting insulin into the blood stream. When your metabolism works well, insulin serves to shift glucose from your blood into your muscle and fat cells, where glucose can be used for energy or can be stored as fat for later use in energy production,” Lawrence said.

‘Fat burning’ is the phrase often used to refer to the processes by which that stored fat is turned into energy. Body fat that is not burned to make energy may pile up, producing weight gain when the piling-up process becomes chronic.

“When your metabolic system is not working well, your cells resist the effort by insulin to move glucose from the blood stream to your cells. This is called insulin resistance,” Lawrence said.

Insulin resistance causes the pancreas to raise its level of insulin production. When insulin levels are high, insulin promotes a process that inhibits the body’s ability to burn fat. Also, a high level of insulin facilitates a process that causes carbohydrates to be stored in your body as fat.

“So, according to a prominent body of nutrition theory and research, you should focus on insulin in your weight-management strategy. Do so in addition to what you are doing about calories. However, there are many other hormones involved in fat loss, appetite, hunger and metabolism, many of which are not well understood,” Davis said.

These hormones may counteract, limit, or enhance the effect of insulin. Prominent among these hormones are leptin, FGF-21, glucagon, epinephrine and ghrelin. The balance among these hormones can vary from one person to another.

keisha.hill@gleanerjm.com

SOURCE: Ardinel Davis at Riviera Wellness Retreat Limited; Bridget Lawrence at Footcare Academy.