Eating Less but Still Not Losing Weight — The Place of Insulin Resistance

"I've cut down on what I eat, but I'm not losing weight."

When people say this, their voice usually grows quieter. It's because they are doubting themselves. Did I not keep to it properly, is my willpower weak?

I answer like this. A worsening of metabolism is not a matter of willpower, but a state in which the cells have become unable to hear the signal.

Insulin is a key

When you eat, blood sugar rises. Then insulin is released. Insulin knocks on the cell's door and says, "Sugar has come in, so take it in."

When the cell opens the door, the sugar enters and blood sugar drops. This is normal.

But what happens if this knocking continues all day long, for years on end? The cell grows dull to the sound of the knocking. It won't open the door to the same sound.

So the body knocks louder. It releases more insulin. The cell grows duller. The body releases more.

This is insulin resistance. It is not that the key has gone bad, but that the lock has stopped hearing the sound.

And so the weight doesn't come off

Insulin has another, less well-known face. Insulin is a storage hormone.

When insulin is high, the body moves toward storing fat. At the same time, the work of drawing out and using stored fat stops. This is because, in the body's judgment, now is a time to store, not a time to draw out.

So these things happen.

• Even when you eat less, you can't draw it out — the storage switch is turned on
• Soon after eating, you get hungry again — sugar is plentiful in the blood, but the cells are starving
• You get very sleepy after meals — blood sugar swings greatly
• In the afternoon you crave sweets — this is the valley after the swing

Eating little yet not losing weight is not a contradiction. You ate little with the storage switch turned on.

What makes the cells grow dull

Here I go one step deeper. Why did the cells close their ears?

Ceaseless stimulation — if you eat a little continuously all day, insulin has no chance to come down. When you rest matters as much as what you eat.

Low-grade inflammation — if there is inflammation somewhere in the body that won't cool, its signal interferes with the sound of insulin knocking on the door.

Fatigue of the mitochondria — this is where energy is made inside the cell. When it tires out, even if sugar is taken in it cannot be burned. With no reason to take it in, the door won't open.

The gut — when the gut leaks, that stimulation raises the whole body's baseline of inflammation. This is the same place I spoke of in another piece.

The autonomic nervous system — if a state of tension continues for a long time, the body keeps blood sugar raised. It is preparing to flee. Even though there is nothing to flee from.

So the goal changes

Standing in this view, the goal of treatment is not "to make you eat less."

It is to reopen the cells' ears.

• Making time for insulin to come down — the interval matters as much as what you eat
• Calming low-grade inflammation — reducing the noise that interferes with the signal
• Waking the mitochondria — only what can burn will take it in
• Ordering the gut — lowering the baseline of inflammation
• Stabilizing the autonomic nervous system — making it stop preparing to flee

What herbal medicine does here

At this point the way herbal medicine works takes on meaning.

As I've said before, the active components of herbal medicines reach very low concentrations in the blood. It is not a way of forcefully pushing something in. It is a way of handing over a signal of a size the body can regulate.

Insulin resistance is a problem that arose from knocking too long and too hard. Would adding yet another strong stimulus here be the answer? I think not.

What is needed is a stimulus that wakes the body to regulate itself again. The phenomenon in which a low-intensity stimulus actually raises the capacity for regulation — the same principle by which exercise is good for the body.

I use herbal medicine in that direction. Not to force blood sugar down, but toward reviving the capacity to regulate blood sugar.

And movement is needed

Here, exercise is not for burning calories.

Muscle can take in sugar even without insulin. Moving muscle does not wait for insulin's knock. So exercise is the fastest way to bypass the locked door.

And when you move the muscles, the mitochondria increase. Once the body can burn, the cells open the door again.

Finally

The mechanism of insulin resistance has been largely uncovered. But the way of threading inflammation and mitochondria, the gut and the autonomic nervous system, onto a single line is a view I have built through clinical experience and study. I speak of established facts and my interpretation distinctly.

When diabetes has already progressed, or when blood sugar stays high, medication and regular testing come first. I do not try to replace them.

But if you have been blaming yourself, asking "why won't the weight come off when I've eaten less," you may set that down first. In a state where the body has set the switch toward storage, it is hard to win by willpower.

Let's move the switch first, and talk after that.