Insulin resistance or just a full cupboard?

You have two cupboards

🚪 One is full to bursting

🚪 The other is mostly empty but the lock doesn’t work. 🔐

Both have the same problem you can’t put anything in them.

🚚Every day you get some boxes delivered and you’ve got nowhere to put them.

Boxes are now filling up your hallway.

📦 📦 📦 📦 📦 📦 📦 📦

🚪 The empty cupboard with a broken lock represents someone with insulin resistance.

🚪 The cupboard that’s full of stuff represent someone that has full glycogen stores but doesn’t have insulin resistance.

🚪🔐The problem is the same… too any boxes in the hallway. Which represents high blood glucose levels. 🩸

📦 📦 📦 📦 📦 📦 📦 📦

The boxes will have nowhere to go except the garage which represents your fat stores.

🚚🚫Both people need to limit the amount of deliveries coming in.

This will buy them some time to either repair the lock or empty the full cupboard.

🚚📦If you keep getting deliveries and not emptying the cupboard. This can lead to insulin resistance and other metabolic problems. Hunger /tiredness /mood swings /cravings. "Sound familiar?"

🥵High intensity exercise is one path, it can both empty the cupboards and repair the lock. 🔐

👨🏽‍🦳You ask Hebert to empty your full cupboard and burn the boxes.

You are eating low(er) carb (you stopped ordering so many boxes) and are doing high intensity, High intensity is represented by Herbert. 👨🏽‍🦳

👨🏽‍🦳Herbert has a nice fire going, problem is there are no boxes left. Low glycogen stores.‼️

👨🏽‍🦳Herbert has DONE his job. However…

👨🏽‍🦳You tell Herbert to keep the fire going. So Herbert starts to destroy the cupboard to get fuel for the fire. 🔥

🚫Other words you start breaking down lean tissue to fuel the workout.🚫

🥵The purpose of high intensity is to help clear glycogen and improve peak power output. It can improve glucose uptake and repair insulin resistance.

📝 We really need to stop thinking of exercise as a way to burn calories and burn fat. Instead think of ‘Exercise’ as a way to create adaptions that facilitate these things when you are NOT exercising the other 23+ hours a day.

🚴🏽🥵💃🏼🏋🏼‍♀️

Different types of exercise have different purposes & and provide unique physiological benefits to the system.

🚪 Empty cupboards

IF you have no glycogen to clear… perhaps a different exercise intensity would be more beneficial? Cough* cough** zone 2.

🔥 High intensity exercise does NOT burn fat while doing it... it’s almost exclusively glucose. Even if you are fat adapted. Even if you don’t have a lot of glucose in your system.

🥵That smell of ammonia is you burning through your muscle tissue. STOP 🛑 immediately this is literally the opposite of improving performance.

🔥 Too much high intensity can add to burnout, if you find you need more & more stimulants to get through workouts. Time to take your foot off the gas.

🤓However it can up regulate fat burn afterwards, but that’s because you’ve depleted glycogen and you have no choice to use fat.

🤔 IF you’re already in a glycogen depleted state you’re already there. So you are doing it why?

😳So if you are doing high intensity for the purpose of fat burn in a glycogen depleted state… you are just spinning your wheels.🙃

📝 Instead Put some boxes into the cupboard or at least into the hallway before you do high intensity exercise. 15 to 20g should suffice depending on length.

👨🏽‍🦳Do this and you will get all the benefits of high intensity exercise without Herbert destroying all your cupboards! You’ll start to see better fat loss, improved power out put, better glucose control and increased lean mass. Because you ate carbs at the right time!

🤓It can be hard to 'guesstimate' levels of glycogen stores. If you are 1-2 on lumen and your weight is down more than 250g from yesterday, it’s possible your glycogen stores are low. If it down 500g+ and you could assume that they’re fairly low.

🤓If you have been in fat burn for 4+ days and weight stable. They maybe at the lower end. Specially if you’ve been eating low-carb.

📦📦📦📦

If your weight has shot up especially if you had a lot of carbs yesterday your glycogen stores are full… this is a good time to kick some ass in a workout.

Hope you got some value out of this.

Angus Logan

Personal Trainer

Metabolic Coach

Health Coach

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