About Metabolic Syndrome
Today's article will talk about
metabolic syndrome, what it is, and five steps you can take to reverse it.
Metabolic syndrome is characterized by
five primary components a large waist circumference, high triglycerides, low
HDL cholesterol, high blood pressure, and high fasting blood sugar.
If you have three or more of these,
you'll be diagnosed with metabolic syndrome, and having metabolic syndrome
isn't just about your weight; it can increase your risk of several diseases as
well.
These include heart disease, fatty liver disease, type 2 diabetes, and PCOS in women, to name a few.
But if you do have metabolic syndrome,
not all hope is lost. It is possible to reverse the symptoms improve your
health, and reduce other disease risks.
So in today's topic, we will talk about
what metabolic syndrome is, what causes it, and five steps you can take to
reverse it.
And these tips are not going to be the
generic and extremely vague tips that we always hear about always.
These are going to be a lot more
specific and actions that you can start implementing today.
The rate at which we see metabolic syndrome occurring increases with more and more people being diagnosed every year.
As I mentioned before, the recommendations we receive on dealing with metabolic syndrome are extremely vague and not very helpful.
We have all heard the classic eat less and move more, but if it were that simple, we would be seeing the rates of metabolic syndrome decrease and not increase.
And a lot of people will say that it comes down to willpower; they will say that people are just lazy and that they don't follow their doctor's recommendations, and that is the problem.
But here's the thing the recommendations that most healthcare professionals are giving are setting people up for failure; you do not have to eat a severely calorie-restricted diet to reverse metabolic syndrome.
you do not have to kill yourself every day at the gym either; there is a much simpler approach that leads to maintainable results, and we will get to that in just a minute.
But first, we are going to talk a
little bit more about what causes metabolic syndrome because the answer isn't
as simple as you might think.
What causes metabolic syndrome? As I
said at the start, five main components characterize metabolic syndrome.
- A large waist circumference for women is over
35 inches or 89 centimeters, and for men, this is over 40 inches or 102
centimeters.
- High triglycerides, which are fats from the
food we eat, are carried in the blood, over 150 milligrams per deciliter
or 1.8 millimoles per liter.
- Low HDL (High-density lipoprotein) cholesterol is less than 50 milligrams per deciliter or 1.3 millimoles per liter for
women, and less than 40 milligrams per deciliter or one millimolar per
liter for men.
- High blood pressure.
- And high fasting blood sugar over 100
milligrams per deciliter or 5.6 millimoles per liter.
If you have three or more of these components, you have metabolic syndrome. But here's the thing it's not just a coincidence that all of these conditions go hand in hand.
There is something at the root which is causing them, and that something is insulin resistance.
Metabolic syndrome used to be called insulin resistance syndrome, and the name insulin resistance syndrome is a lot more helpful because it tells us what's causing the symptoms. So now, let's get into the five steps you can take to reverse metabolic syndrome.
1: stop snacking:
Every time we eat, the food is broken down by the body, and blood sugar rises, and this rise in blood sugar triggers insulin to be released.
Now high insulin for an extended period is what leads to resistance in the first place. So the lower we can keep insulin throughout the day, the more sensitive our cells will become to it again.
if we are eating and snacking all day
long, insulin is always high
now there are some healthcare professionals out there who will tell you that eating small frequent meals throughout the day is the best approach to insulin resistance.
And unfortunately, this is entirely
backward; eating two to three meals throughout the day and not snacking will
mean that your insulin will have a chance to come back down to baseline in
between meals.
2: eat carbs last
Eating carbohydrate-rich foods at the end of your meal after your protein and non-starchy vegetables makes the insulin response a lot less dramatic.
And again, the goal is to keep insulin
low to improve insulin sensitivity and reverse metabolic syndrome.
3: reduce carbs
If you want to take this one step further and see faster results, reducing carbs is the way to do this, Because carbohydrates are the macronutrient that raises insulin the most, much more so than fat or protein.
so if you can limit your total carbohydrates for the day to 100 grams or even 50 grams, you are going to be significantly reducing your insulin load.
4: get proper sleep.
Sleep is so essential for our metabolic
health, and it's not just about how much sleep you get but also about the
quality and the timing.
It has been well established that night shift workers are at an increased risk of developing metabolic syndrome.
It is essential to sync with the
circadian rhythm(physical, mental, and behavioral changes that follow a 24-hour
cycle); we want to be awake during the day and sleep at night.
5: build muscle
Now I do think diet is the most crucial factor when it comes to reversing metabolic syndrome, but exercise can help.
But when I say exercise, I do not mean spending an hour a day running on the treadmill or doing one of those fitness classes at the gym that is only focused on keeping your heart rate high.
I'll get to what types of exercise are best in a minute but first, let's talk about why it helps because it isn't just about burning calories.
First off, exercise is beneficial for
metabolic syndrome and insulin resistance because when you are exercising, your
muscle cells can absorb glucose without insulin.
And second off, if you have more muscle mass, your body can store more glucose.
Now in terms of the type of exercise you should be doing, resistance training is a more effective minute per minute than cardio, and this is also how you're going to build muscle.
The most effective type of resistance training is up for debate, but training with either weights or bodyweight can both be practical when done correctly.
and here's the best part you do not
need to spend hours or even one hour in the gym every day to get these results,
even 10 to 15 minutes
of basic bodyweight movements so that
squats, push-ups planks can yield some fantastic results.
