How Food Affects your Insulin Levels and Fat Loss Follow @CoachFabs

It is impossible to have high levels of insulin in your system while burning fat at the same time. If you eat a meal that has too high of a Glycemic Index, your blood sugar will spike, causing a large release in insulin. During this period of time your body cannot use fat for fuel. It doesn't matter if you are operating under a calorie deficit and even if you workout like crazy.


The “Glycemic Index” ranks carbohydrates according to their effect on our blood glucose levels. The rating used to go from 0 to 100…sugar being the highest GI carbohydrate. Now it goes from 0 to over 100…anything with a rating over 55 is consider a high GI. Carbs with a high GI raise blood glucose levels, which raise the release of Insulin. It is best to avoid high GI carbs when you are trying to burn body fat.

How to prevent insulin Spikes

Glycemic Load: measures how much carbohydrates in a food affect your blood sugar level, that is because carbohydrates have the hihest impact on blood sugar. The more challenging a food is to break down, the slower it digests and the more stable your blood sugar will be. Foods made with refined carbs, such as white pasta, are digested quickly and have a higher GL that causes blood sugar to rise rapidly, but foods made with complex carbs, such as whole-wheat pasta, have a lower GL that has a much smaller affect on blood sugar.

Portion Size: A large meal means more sugar entering the bloodstream at one time. Eating smaller portions beefed up by low GL snacks, such as nuts, keeps your blood sugar even throughout the day.

Food Combinations: What you eat with your carbohydrates matters, too. Protein and fat slow the absorption of glucose into the bloodstream, which helps prevent insulin spikes.

That all might sound pretty complex, but the bottom line is simple: The less processed your food and the more work your body has to do to digest it, the better it is for your blood sugar.

A lot of people think that as long as you burn more calories than what you ingested, you would lose weight. This is true to a point…you should lose weight under a calorie deficit. The problem is that if you eat a high G.I. carb, you may shut down the body’s ability to burn fat for several hours. Even if you do wind up losing weight, you aren’t following the quickest nor healthiest route to your goal.