Many overweight adults can't seem to lose weight no matter what they
try. The problem may not lie in their calorie counts but their very
cells: Increasing numbers of Americans, leading nutritionists say, are
insulin-resistant. That is, their bodies no longer properly use the
hormone insulin to process the good food that's eaten. Net result: The body
hangs on tight to the fat that's already there.
A stubborn inability to lose weight because of insulin resistance is a complicated but common problem, says integrative nutritionist Beth Reardon, director of nutrition for Duke Integrative Medicine, part of the Duke University Health System. Disease Control. Indeed, diabetes and obesity are so related that some health experts have coined the descriptor diabesity.
For some people, though, this system has gone haywire. The cells'
insulin receptors have pretty much stopped acknowledging the insulin,
which means the cells don't get the glucose. Instead, the glucose builds
up in the blood, where the pancreas notes the escalating glucose levels
and pumps out still more insulin in response.
"The cells are starving because the fuel they need isn't being absorbed at the insulin receptor site on the cell," Reardon says.
So what does the body do in response? It hangs on fiercely to the energy stores -- fat -- it already has. And any glucose the cells do manage to absorb goes straight into storage -- as still more fat.
You can't lose weight because your body is in survival mode.
This whole process builds slowly over years. What triggers it in the first place? Experts believe that for many people, the problem stems mainly from a diet overloaded with simple carbohydrates -- bread, pasta, pizza, pastries, crackers, chips and other processed snack foods, sweetened beverages, corn syrup, and other quickly-digested sugars and starches. In other words: the typical modern Western diet. Faced with constant, quick hits of easily digested energy sources, the pancreas keeps pumping out insulin to help the energy get into the cells, but the overwhelmed cells finally say, "Enough!" and stop paying attention.
A stubborn inability to lose weight because of insulin resistance is a complicated but common problem, says integrative nutritionist Beth Reardon, director of nutrition for Duke Integrative Medicine, part of the Duke University Health System. Disease Control. Indeed, diabetes and obesity are so related that some health experts have coined the descriptor diabesity.
Why You May Not Be Losing Weight
When we eat, the food is broken down into glucose (blood sugar), the body's main energy source. As blood flows through the pancreas, this organ detects the high levels of glucose and knows to release insulin, a hormone that it produces in order to allow the cells throughout the body to use the glucose. The cells have insulin receptors that allow glucose to enter. Then the cell either uses the glucose to make energy right away or stores it as a future energy source. |
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"The cells are starving because the fuel they need isn't being absorbed at the insulin receptor site on the cell," Reardon says.
So what does the body do in response? It hangs on fiercely to the energy stores -- fat -- it already has. And any glucose the cells do manage to absorb goes straight into storage -- as still more fat.
You can't lose weight because your body is in survival mode.
This whole process builds slowly over years. What triggers it in the first place? Experts believe that for many people, the problem stems mainly from a diet overloaded with simple carbohydrates -- bread, pasta, pizza, pastries, crackers, chips and other processed snack foods, sweetened beverages, corn syrup, and other quickly-digested sugars and starches. In other words: the typical modern Western diet. Faced with constant, quick hits of easily digested energy sources, the pancreas keeps pumping out insulin to help the energy get into the cells, but the overwhelmed cells finally say, "Enough!" and stop paying attention.
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