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Coach Kelly Fitness Correspondent

Insulin is a hormone that allows glucose to enter cells in the body for use as energy and also reduces blood glucose (blood sugar).

Insulin is released by the pancreas in response to carbohydrates consumed in the diet.

There are many causes of insulin resistance and the underlying process is still not completely understood but sulfate depletion may be the important factor.

Risk factors for insulin resistance include obesity, sedentary lifestyle, family history  of diabetes, various health conditions and certain medications.

Insulin resistance is considered a component of metabolic syndrome. There are multiple ways to measure insulin resistance such as fasting insulin  levels or glucose tolerance tests but these are not often used in clinical practice.

Insulin Resistance is when the body no longer burns fat as it used to overtime. This is because the fat to be burnt exceeds the insulin produced. It may be due to frequent eating of the wrong foods and the window in which they are eaten.

So what we eat and when we eat it in terms of quality, quantity and frequency determines how much we can burn the fuel stored in fat cells in our body

If we eat food that has high calories (energy fuel) the body burns that first before burning the fat in the body already

Insulin resistance can be improved or reversed with lifestyle approaches such as exercise and dietary changes.

Fixing the problem of lack of fat burning is a combination of three things done together. We cannot do one and leave out the others, we have to do all three.

• Exercise
• Diet
• Fasting

All done in tandem with each other

A calorie deficit (British English: caloric deficit) is any shortage in the number of calories consumed relative to the number of calories needed for maintenance of current body weight (energy homoeostasis).

A deficit can be created by decreasing calories consumed by lower food intake, such as by swapping high-calorie foods for lower calorie options or by reducing portion sizes.

A deficit can also be created by increasing output (burning calories) without a corresponding increase in input. Increased output is created by increasing physical activity, from increased caloric requirements necessary to heal an injury, or from growth.

There are also some substances, including caffeine, which can create a small (3-5 percent) increase in caloric expenditure, via a variety of pathways that include increasing physical activity levels and increasing thermogenesis (heat output), and/or by reducing caloric input via appetite suppression.

Drugs and herbal treatments creating a more extreme metabolic effect exist; however, they cause extreme increases of heart rate and thermogenesis that can cause death in even very healthy and athletic individuals, and these drugs are not widely sold.

As the calories required for energy homeostasis decreases as the organism’s mass decreases, if a moderate deficit is maintained eventually a new (lower) weight will be reached and maintained, and the organism will no longer be at caloric deficit.

A permanent severe deficit, on the other hand, which contains too few calories to maintain a healthy weight level, will eventually result in starvation and death.

To reduce 1 kg of weight, about 7 000 kcal deficit is required.

Now at lnvictus Westgate gym we encourage people to decide a healthy lifestyle the decision is made through confrontations it’s a principle that says l can’t overcome what you don’t confront and face head on.

So you should truly make the decision to leave a healthy lifestyle.

The following workouts can help you exercise so as to tackle the exercise aspect of a healthy lifestyle.

Option 1

Walk on a treadmill at incline for 30 minutes.

Ride a stationary bike or stair machine for 30 minutes.

Option 2

Run on a treadmill for 30 minutes.

Option 3

Jump rope for 1 minute.

Rest for 30 seconds

Do 30 burpees

Rest for 30 seconds

Do 30 jump squats

Rest for 1 minute

Do 30 jumping jacks

Rest for 2 minutes

Repeat for  6 times.

Remember, working out has to be combined with a deliberate and healthy diet to yield the desired results.

Enjoy your week and meet me at Invictus Fitness Centre at Westgate Shopping Centre for healthier lifestyle choices.