Using Insulin to Help you Gain Muscle not Fat
Summary Study: The major effects of insulin on muscle and adipose tissue are: (1) Carbohydrate metabolism: (a) it increases the rate of glucose transport across the cell membrane, (b) it increases the rate of glycolysis by increasing hexokinase and 6-phosphofructokinase activity, (c) it stimulates the rate of glycogen synthesis and decreases the rate of glycogen breakdown. (2) Lipid metabolism: (a) it decreases the rate of lipolysis in adipose tissue and hence lowers the plasma fatty acid level, (b) it stimulates fatty acid and triacylglycerol synthesis in tissues, (c) it increases the uptake of triglycerides from the blood into adipose tissue and muscle, (d) it decreases the rate of fatty acid oxidation in muscle and liver. (3) Protein metabolism: (a) it increases the rate of transport of some amino acids into tissues, (b) it increases the rate of protein synthesis in muscle, adipose tissue, liver, and other tissues, (c) it decreases the rate of protein degradation in muscle (and perhaps other tissues). These insulin effects serve to encourage the synthesis of carbohydrate, fat and protein, therefore, insulin can be considered to be an anabolic hormone. (Read here: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21864752)
Intro: Insulin can have great effects on protein synthesis, feeding glucose to the muscle cells, and decreasing degradation of the muscle. Insulin can also be bad, if insulin is spiked at the wrong times, it can encourage fat storage. How do we convince insulin to be our friend while it could easily be our enemy?
GI Carbohydrate Timing:
GI stands for glycemic index, or how fast or slow a carbohydrate enters your blood stream. High GI foods enter the blood stream fast and spike insulin. These foods typically cause a crash shortly there after. These foods include: simple sugars, white rice, white bread, sweets, sodas, etc. Low GI foods digest slowly and give you sustainable energy over a longer period of time. Low GI foods do not cause your insulin to spike as fast. These include whole grains.
So when should I eat each?
High GI: As soon as you wake up and post workout.
- When you wake up in the morning, your body has been in a fasting state for 6-10 hours. Your muscles are starving. Adding High GI foods with protein can help refuel your muscles and prevent muscle wasting.
- You want to spike your insulin post workout to drive protein synthesis and refeed the muscle cells glucose that it burned during the workout.
Low GI: During the day and before workout.
- You want to eat Low GI foods during the day to give yourself long lasting energy that will also prevent you from being hungry.
- You also want to eat Low GI foods prior to working out. This will keep you from crashing in the middle of your workout.
Post Workout Shake:
Using Insulin to help you gain muscle not fat:
My wife and I suggest 1st Phorm’s Post Workout Stack. This includes Phormula-1 and Ignition. Phormula-1 is one of the most highest quality proteins in the world. It also has zero fat, and out of a 26 gram scoop, 23 grams of it is high quality protein. Unlike other simple or fast absorbing carbohydrate sources such as sucrose, fructose, and even waxy maize starch that offer little to no insulin response, Ignition actually delivers pure dexanhydrous glucose to the cell which offers an insulin spike up to 6X greater than these other sugars. Ignition will help you spike your insulin so that lean sexy muscle can be added and prevent your workout from becoming a waste.
Lift Heavy My Friends,