How Keto Diet Improves Insulin Resistance
You almost certainly know someone who has tried or is currently following the keto diet for diabetics. It’s tempting, isn’t it? Most people are pleased with the results. Loss of weight, increased energy levels and decrease in fasting blood glucose and haemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) are all desired results. HbA1c is a simple blood test that shows how well an individual’s blood sugar levels have been regulated in the previous 2-3 months. The higher the levels, the greater the risk of developing diabetes or complications from diabetes.
The diabetics keto diet appears to improve values that indicate insulin resistance in people whose bodies have a poor tolerance to sugar or glucose- generally considered as lower blood sugar diabetic (including more nutrient-dense carbohydrates like fruits and vegetables). This is because a diabetes keto diet helps get rid of the “trigger” food. Over time, the ketogenic diet can improve insulin resistance, pre-diabetes, and diabetes.
Ketogenic Diet and Insulin Resistance
When most people start a diabetics keto diet, their insulin resistance improves quickly, and the effect appears to be due to the ketones themselves, not just the reduced carbohydrate intake. Insulin resistance can be reduced further if a person loses a significant amount of weight.
The extent to which this improved insulin sensitivity lasts depends on the individual. After a successful period of time on a well-formulated ketogenic diet, factors such as the length of time someone was insulin resistant and their current physical activity level may play a role in their level of carbohydrate tolerance. While it is not predominantly considered a necessity for everyone to remain in ketosis indefinitely, following a well-formulated ketogenic diet is the most effective way to maintain metabolic health in the long run.
If one chooses to reintroduce carbohydrates into one’s diet, it may be best to do so gradually and in small amounts- but remember to stick on to your keto in full-fledged. In the process, biomarkers such as fasting blood glucose, serum triglycerides, and HbA1c should be monitored to assess carbohydrate tolerance and prevent the re-emergence of insulin resistant conditions such as metabolic syndrome and type 2 diabetes. Learn more about how a ketogenic diet can help you reverse type 2 diabetes. Let’s delve into 2 main aspects that help your body improve insulin resistance through keto.
Diabetes Keto Diet Triggers the Body’s Emergency Response
The ketogenic diet is a high fat diet. When strictly adhered to, the diet requires an individual to consume 50 grams or less of carbohydrates per day. Eventually, the ‘fat burner’ keto diet should be adhered to, in the long term to adapt to fat-burning. This is something that most first timers might misinterpret or conveniently keep aside. A disciplined keto routine enables us to intentionally create an environment in which our body has to use a resource to make energy that it would otherwise only use in an emergency. This intentionally created emergency situation in our body can be maintained for long term benefits.
Now, a high-fat diet has moved someone who already struggles with carbohydrate processing even further away from a carbohydrate-processing metabolism. Not just carbohydrate intolerance, but full-blown insulin resistance. When this person reintroduces carbohydrates, they will experience immediate weight gain or other side effects from putting too many carbohydrates into a body that doesn’t know how to process them well. This is an important part of the keto routine that many are unaware of. What waste all your hard earned gains from keto, when you can make it a health regime?
Your Body Isn’t Able to Burn Carbohydrates
So the diet contains an excessive amount of fat – a concept termed as ‘Randle Cycle’. There is an inverse relationship between fat and carbohydrate burning. When there is too much fat in the diet, as in a ketogenic diet or the typical American diet, the body’s ability to burn the carbs we eat decreases. This means that when we reintroduce carbs after a ketogenic diet, our bodies don’t know what to do with them. It’s similar to a muscle in that if you don’t use it, you lose it.
A ketogenic diet significantly reduces the body’s need to burn carbs, impairing its ability to burn carbs when we do eat carbs. This results in carbohydrate intolerance and insulin resistance. It isn’t just the keto diet. Eating too much fat (more than 25% of your daily calories) has the same effect.
That’s all there is to it. There are multiple reasons why a high-fat, diabetes keto diet can lead to improved insulin resistance for pre-diabetics, and diabetes patients.
More importantly once you (as a diabetic) are on keto diet, it should be maintained as a part of your daily life. It is a proven and faster diet regime for increased insulin resistance and much more for type-2 diabetes.
Discover how our Custom Diabetic Keto Diet packages can assist you in managing your diabetes today.