Growing up, I noticed and observed lots of things and one of them was that there were
two kinds of guys when it came to eating carbs.
The guys that could eat them and would be muscular, hard, full, lean and get energized.
And the other guy, that would be puffy, soft, and would get sleepy and tired after eating
carbs.
Unfortunately, I was the second guy.
So at that young age, I assumed that my body didn’t do well with carbs because of my
genetics.
And so, I started a low carb diet.
I also took it to the extreme of a no carb, ketogenic diet as well.
But I’ll talk about that in a different video.
But mostly, I stuck to low carbs for many months, over a year in fact.
The good news is that I saw results.
You first quickly see results because you lose a lot of water weight.
And this is because every 1 gram of carbs, holds about 3 grams of water.
So, it’s not fat loss, but the scale shows improvements in weight loss and you look better
with less water retention.
Initially, I also was more energetic having low carbs.
So far, so good.
Unfortunately, the problem was my workouts sucked.
I had very little stamina.
I couldn’t do as many sets or reps.
And worst of all, I couldn’t get a deep contraction in my muscles and I rarely got
a good pump.
Which in all honesty, is a big reason I enjoy my workouts.
Without a big pump, I feel like I didn’t even workout.
I feel like I’m just going through the motions.
I leave the gym dissatisfied.
Even Arnold compares a pump
to cuming … The
end result is that even though I did lose weight, a lot of it was also water and valuable
muscle weight over time.
Plus, after a few months I started to get more and more tired.
Something in my body was changing, but in a bad way.
When I did a blood test, I found out my thyroid levels had dropped dramatically.
Which later I found out is due to low carbs.
By the way, this negatively affects women more than men.
My body had completely adapted to the low carb diet.
I couldn’t cut carbs any lower.
And soon, I became skinny/fat - rather than muscular and lean.
Yes, I lost fat, but I also lost a lot of hard earned, valuable muscle.
I also had lower thyroid, which meant slower metabolism and fat burning.
My cortisol levels were also higher due to the low carbs.
Cortisol is a powerful stress hormone that causes muscle loss and belly fat.
It can be a really bad hormone and I’ll discuss this topic in a future video.
The Problem Is NOT Carbs This was all in my early 20’s and I didn’t
know as much as I know now, obviously.
However, I was lucky and had a great mentor, Dan Duchaine who I later became his assistant.
Dan Duchaine was known as the “steroid guru” and I learned so much from him.
He helped me when nobody else would or could.
He was honest and made things really easy to understand.
He told me that my problem was not carbs, but that the fact I had poor insulin sensitivity.
He said by improving insulin sensitivity, I could eat more carbs and that would be utilized
for building muscle, more energy and burning fat.
I would have better workouts and thus, be able to build more muscle and that also means
less body fat.
My thyroid would improve, my cortisol levels would drop, my IGF levels would also rise
- which is one of the most potent muscle building hormones in the body.
And to make a long story short, I did what he told me and over the next few months I
made more improvements in my body than the previous 2 years combined.
All by simply improving my insulin sensitivity, which improved my blood sugar levels and lots
of other hormones.
I ate more carbs, gained more muscle, got leaner, had amazing workouts and great pumps
again.
I was excited, motivated and was enjoying my workouts.
I improved one of the most powerful and important hormones in the body, insulin.
Which when used correctly can either build you lots of muscle or lots of fat.
In fact, this is why some bodybuilders will use injectable insulin.
Of course, you don’t need to do such extreme drugs which can literally kill you.
You can easily do it naturally.
And for the past 25+ years since I learned about the importance of managing insulin and
blood sugar levels, I’ve done everything possible to keep insulin sensitivity high
and optimize my insulin levels.
Which by the way, will dramatically improve your health in every aspect.
But, I’ll discuss that in another video.
So today, I’m going to give you my top 5 best ways to improve insulin sensitivity naturally,
so you can also build more muscle, get leaner and live a longer and healthier life.
One last thing to let you know - the older we get, the worse the insulin sensitivity
becomes.
Thus, you really need to make this a priority and take action on what you’ll learn today.
1] Build More Muscle, Frequently
The greatest thing you can do is build more muscle.
This means, you must lift weights… this can be with barbells, dumbbells, machines,
cables, bands, your bodyweight, and so forth.
It doesn’t matter whether you’re young or old, male or female - everyone can build
more muscle!
Now, when it comes to your workouts, do them frequently.
This means I’d rather you worked out 20 min, 6 days a week.
Instead of 40 min 3x a week.
I’d rather you did 15 minutes, twice daily - instead of 30 minutes, once daily.
Every time you move and contract your muscles, you increase your insulin sensitivity.
Also, super long workouts with lots of volume, sets and reps… depletes glycogen and glucose
from your muscles and liver, and increases the stress hormone cortisol, which then decreases
testosterone, which we do NOT want.
And I’ll talk about this specific topic in a future video because it’s very important.
2] Take Good Supplements
The sad truth is that most supplements suck.
They don’t work because they are using the wrong ingredients, the wrong form at the wrong
dosage.
However, there are a few correctly formulated supplements that really work and will dramatically
improve your blood sugar and insulin sensitivity.
And when used at the correct dose, they can have drug-like positive effects, but without
the negatives.
By far, the best all-in-one formula is Blood Sugar Optimizer.
It’s a product I use myself.
Just take 1-2 pills, with your carb meals - especially after your workouts.
It’s clinically validated and it really works.
Type 2 diabetics also see big improvements in their levels, so it’s very powerful and
safe.
I’ve put the link to Blood Sugar Optimizer below this link along with a special 10% coupon
for my YouTube subscribers.
3] Take Fish Oil
Blood Sugar Optimizer and Fish Oils are my two favorite supplements for improving insulin
and blood sugar levels.
For fish oil, take 1-2 grams, 3x daily with food.
I take the raw oil, because it’s cheaper than me taking a bunch of pills.
But, most people won’t do this.
So you can take 2 pills of fish oil and 2 pills of Blood Sugar Optimizer, 3x daily with
food and you will start to see some very cool body composition changes over the next few
months.
I’ve put links to the fish oils I take, below in the description area.
4] Take Fiber
Fiber also has lots of great health benefits, one of them being improving insulin sensitivity.
Besides, most people’s diets have very little fiber.
I take psyllium fiber, 2-3x daily for a total of at least 5 GRAMS of fiber daily.
For this, I take the pill, since I don’t like the powder.
I’ll put links to this below in the description area as well.
5] Sleep Better
Sleep is awesome and it fixes so many problems in the body.
Deeper sleep lowers the stress hormone cortisol and also improves insulin sensitivity.
I’ll be doing an entire video series about improving sleep in the near future.
It’s too complicated of a topic to get into right now.
But, one tip I can give you is go to bed before midnight and try your best to keep the same
schedule every day.
Summary So let’s quickly recap today.
If you want to build more muscle, get leaner and live a longer and healthier life, you
MUST improve your insulin sensitivity.
Build more muscle, frequently Take Blood Sugar Optimizer and Fish Oil, 3x
daily with your meals.
Take a fiber supplement, 2x daily.
Sleep better - get to bed before midnight and keep the same sleep schedule daily.
I’ve put all the links to everything I mentioned today, below this video in the description
area.
So please scroll down, take action, improve your blood sugar and insulin levels … you’ll
look and feel so much better!