who is this dude they call insulin?

Insulin is less of a guy and more of a hormone but because in my imagination he is like the foreman in a factory, sitting in a glass-panelled office doing paperwork until there is some action on the factory floor at which time he arrives in a little white hard hat to give directions let’s go with the 'guy' analogy.  Insulin is created in the pancreas and when you eat, or drink for that matter, insulin is released.

Insulin’s job is to regulate your blood sugar levels. He keeps a check of what is going on (from his little office). When the sugar levels in your blood get too high (so after you eat) insulin orders the sugar out of the blood and off to storage. And what does your body like to store stuff as? FAT! Now I don’t want to be all down on insulin because he is just doing his job but the fact is instead of thinking of a better idea when sugar levels get too high he just keeps ordering more storage. Unfortunately there isn’t much you can do about insulin so you would be wise to be mindful of consuming the stuff that sends your blood sugar levels through the roof (i.e. brings Mr Insulin out of his office). What spikes your blood sugar? SUGAR! Yes that’s right. It is important to note that insulin will come along and check on things no matter what you eat but the storage order is only being sent when blood sugar levels get too high. In short if you are eating slower release foods (e.g protein, fats and complex carbs) insulin doesn’t need to send stuff to storage prematurely.

Glucagon is another hormone and he gets called in when your blood sugar levels get low. He orders some energy out of storage. What’s in storage? FAT! Aha! But, you see,  Glucagon won’t get called in while insulin is on the job. Hands up if you want Glucagon managing the factory? I know I do. Now in all seriousness your body has this stuff sorted - it's systems are pretty good and it is keeping you alive and functioning after all. But once you know what it does and how it does it you can send it messages to burn fat by fuelling it differently. We need to keep insulin in the office pushing paperwork if we want to burn our fat stores and let's face it we all want to burn fat stores.