Under insulin resistance (IR), specialists understand the reduced sensitivity of body cells to the effects of insulin. With IR, even a slight decrease in body weight can increase the sensitivity of tissues to this hormone. In this regard, every diabetic suffering from overweight, experts recommend a low-carb diet aimed at weight loss.
What are the features of nutrition with insulin resistance?
Features diet in IR
It is recommended that all patients with impaired endocrine system control their body weight. This is due to the fact that adipose tissue is not able to perceive insulin. That is, the metabolism of carbohydrates with excess weight is disrupted. Patients with insulin resistance need to monitor the glycemic index of the food they consume. Such people should include in their diet only those products whose glycemic index is low. Such an approach will facilitate the process of glucose processing by the body.
Nutrition with insulin resistance is important to change, because this pathology is often the cause of the development of atherosclerosis and the progression of diabetes. However, it is impossible to completely exclude carbohydrate products from your diet, since as a result intestinal dysbiosis can develop, ketone bodies will accumulate.
In addition, a minimum of 2 liters of water should be ingested daily. It is equally important to take vitamins, medicines recommended by the endocrinologist. If all the recommendations are followed, in a week it will be possible to note the first improvements in the condition. It is possible that over time the situation will fully normalize.
Why is insulin resistance nutrition so important?
Body load
With a decrease in the sensitivity of tissues to hormones produced by the pancreas, there is a violation of glucose absorption by them. This happens for the following reasons. Carbohydrates entering the body become an energy source only after binding to insulin, which is required for penetration into the cells. When glucose is not fully absorbed, pancreatic insulin production increases. Its quantity is increasing, which ultimately exacerbates the situation.
The compensatory mechanism is triggered , leading to hyperinsulinemia, but this does not help to eliminate insulin resistance. With a simultaneous increase in glucose, the body begins to function on wear.
Reasons for developing insulin resistance
In many people, insulin resistance is primarily associated with diabetes. However, this pathology may have other causes, including:
- The use of medications that negatively affect the process of insulin absorption.
- Eating a lot of carbohydrates of a simple type.
- Malfunctions in the hormonal background.
- Genetic predisposition.
List of products allowed for insulin resistance
You can improve your well-being and normalize your condition by completely reviewing your diet. The menu should be compiled so that the products in its composition have a low glycemic index. In the first two weeks of the diet, it is recommended to use only foods with a small GI. This approach will significantly reduce the burden placed on the pancreas.
Allowed foods with a low-carb diet are:
- Any vegetables are green.
- The eggs.
- Shrimp, fish, other seafood.
- Yogurts, cheeses, cottage cheese with a fat content of not more than 3.5%.
- Oil.
- Tomatoes, zucchini, eggplant.
- Sorrel, spinach, lettuce.
- Black Eyed Peas.
- Sea buckthorn, blueberries, elderberries, red currants, cranberries, raspberries.
- Bell pepper.
- Pumpkin.
- Olives.
- Small amounts of pistachios, pumpkin seeds, hazelnuts, peanuts, almonds.
- Green pears, quince, nectarines.
It is important to maintain proper nutrition with insulin resistance.
Tea and coffee should be consumed without adding sugar to them.
Diet expansion
After two weeks of such restrictions and diet therapy, you can expand your diet and include:
- Lychee, guava, pineapple.
- Young potatoes, onions, carrots, beets.
- To the corn.
- Chocolate with a cocoa content of at least 75%.
- Rye, whole grain bread.
- White beans, peas.
- Liver.
- Wild rice, oatmeal, millet, semolina, buckwheat.
- Oysters.
- Yogurt, kefir, nonfat milk.
- Mulberries, cherries, strawberries, black currants.
- Fresh figs, plums, peaches, mangoes, kiwi, persimmons, melon, apricots, tangerines, grapefruits, green apples.
Unsweetened cocoa and compotes are also allowed.
When cooking onions, carrots, beets, preference should be given to cooking, steaming, baking. When using these vegetables for salad should be scalded with boiling water.
How many meals do you have with insulin resistance? Not everyone knows about this.
The number of meals during the day with a similar diet should reach 6-7. This will allow the body to receive nutrients in a timely manner and not experience a deficiency.
How are nutrition related to insulin resistance and weight loss related?
To understand how to lose weight with this pathology, you need to study the list of products that are allowed to be consumed, and use only them in your diet. With a loss of even 5-10% of the weight, the state of health improves markedly, and the susceptibility of tissues to insulin increases.
With diabetes
People with diabetes should coordinate their diet with an endocrinologist. It is important to consider that it is strictly forbidden to refuse the recommended medications when changing the diet. This is due to the fact that in many cases, diet therapy should be combined with drug therapy, which is based on metformin.
Low-carb nutrition with insulin resistance helps to quickly normalize weight.
Prohibited Products
It is important for diabetics and patients with insulin resistance to understand that breaking the diet until there is improvement and the condition normalizes is categorically impossible. Otherwise, all efforts will be in vain. Until the blood counts return to normal, patients should completely abandon the following products:
- Lemonades, liquors, wines, juices, beer, any drinks that contain sugar.
- Ketchup.
- Kefir, the fat content of which is less than 1.5%.
- Coconut milk.
- Canned fruits and berries.
- Bananas, cherries.
- Honey, candy, sweets.
- Pasta.
- Crackers, mashed powder, chips.
- Starch, flour.
- Barley, millet, potatoes, white rice.
- Cornflakes, crackers, pita bread, white bread.
When these products are added to the diet, it is extremely difficult to get rid of insulin resistance. In addition, nutrition, excluding the use of these products, will allow you to lose weight well. That is, reduce the amount of adipose tissue and increase the susceptibility of cellular structures to insulin.
Menu selection
If you want to get rid of IR, you need to carefully consider your menu. The list of allowed foods is varied, but eating only them is difficult, since many people are used to eating pasta, potatoes, and porridge.
In the first 2 weeks of diet therapy, the use of soup, celery, pumpkin, avocado soups is allowed. You can combine yoghurts and cottage cheese with berries and fruits, as well as other permitted products.
Greens and vegetables are well suited for salads, sauerkraut is allowed.
As soon as improvements appear, the diet can be expanded by adding oatmeal, wild rice, buckwheat porridge, whole grain bread, soups with cereals, curd soufflé, and borsch.
Experts recommend contacting a nutritionist and working out a menu with him for each day of the week. Otherwise, the patient can quickly break the diet.
Nutrition for insulin resistance and hypothyroidism is similar.
Weight loss with hypothyroidism. Nutrition rules
Hypothyroidism is an endocrine disease in which the synthesis of triiodothyronine and thyroxine is reduced. Such a violation almost always leads to a slowdown in metabolism, which, in turn, contributes to the appearance of excess weight.
Often, patients report that it is difficult for them to get rid of extra pounds without thinking that they can cope with the problem only when a special diet is combined with the right treatment. It is important to understand that losing weight will be possible only after normalizing the hormonal background.
In addition, you will need to follow a certain diet, which involves the exclusion from the diet of foods in which there are many substances that interfere with the production of hormones. This, as a rule, cabbage of all kinds, some greens, spring vegetables. It will also be necessary to refuse refined carbohydrates contained in refined starches, pasta, instant cereals, dishes based on refined grains, fine flour, shop juices, sugar of any type.
In the diet of a patient with hypothyroidism, high-quality proteins, mainly consumed at breakfast, should prevail. Protein is rich in eggs, liver, rabbit meat, offal, sea fish, beef and all low-fat meat, as well as cottage cheese, cheese, sour-milk products.
However, it is impossible to completely abandon carbohydrates, therefore, the patient must learn to distinguish between healthy and refined carbohydrates. For example, to lose weight with hypothyroidism, you can replace pasta with sweet potato, white rice with brown, refined oil with coconut.
Nutrition for hypothyroidism should be fractional, eat should be in small portions, but often slowly. When cooking, it is recommended to prefer cooking, stewing, baking.
Insulin Resistance Nutrition Reviews
Patients report that it is quite possible to lose weight with pathologies such as hypothyroidism and insulin resistance. The main thing is to follow the doctor’s recommendations, take the necessary medicines, exclude all foods prohibited by the nutritionist from the diet, and not deviate from the intended course.
According to reviews, nutrition with insulin resistance for weight loss after a couple of weeks leads to a significant improvement. Patients note that if you plan your menu in advance and take into account all the rules, then the food is quite diverse, so sticking to a diet is not so difficult.
People suffering from hypothyroidism indicate that losing weight is possible only by combining proper nutrition and drug therapy. Neglect of one aspect or another leads to the lack of the necessary result.
We examined the nutritional features of insulin resistance.