Living a sedentary lifestyle can cause us to gain weight. As you know sitting around not doing a lot will lead to excess weight around the midsection. During the pandemic at this time with #Covid19 many people are complaining about gaining weight. As a personal trainer with years of experience and being a type 1 diabetic and metabolic nutrition consultant I can explain one of the main reasons for this.
Insulin....
The main roles of insulin are to convert the sugar in our blood into energy and to get our bodies to store fat.... Yes FAT.
As humans we crave the feel good factor of "endorphines". You know what I'm talking about. That feeling that you get when you have done something great, we experience happiness, self satisfaction. This could be "the healthy list" exercise, walking, going for a bike ride, even simply having sex releases will release endorphines. There are also unhealthy choices which will release these endorphines such as eating chocolate, eating high carb foods, drinking alcohol.
Some of us crave more endorphines than others, which means they may eat more carbs, more chocolate and drink more to feel good. They may also be the adrenaline junkies that do extreme sports.
This is what happens when we get into a state of eating too many carbs and sitting around not doing anything i.e a sedentary lifestyle:
Our bodies do not burn off the excess glycogen in our blood stream
Our bodies need to produce more insulin to deal with this
Our bodies now become insulin resistant
INSULIN IS ALSO A FAT STORING HORMONE
Our bodies now hold onto body fat more than before
When we eat high carbs with fats, ie Pizza this equates to an atomic bomb in fat storage.
How can we reverse this problem and help with weight loss during the #lockdown:
Eat a low carbohydrate diet
Exercise such as a daily brisk walk, take up running, resistance training, bodyweight exercises contact someone like me a Personal Trainer for some advice. Also check out my YouTube channel for exercise videos. https://www.youtube.com/user/76Andrewcross/videos
Exercise makes your body insulin sensitive i.e less insulin produced by the body to burn sugar = less fat storage
Find other ways to release endorphines as well as exercising. For me I love gaming and cycling so I do more of these.
Eat more protein and vegetables
Keep away from fruit juice
DO NOT BUY THE BAD FOODS !!!
Then once this is all over look at joining a gym, fitness classes and perhaps getting a personal trainer. I offer personal training in Milton Keynes from a private fully equipped fitness studio so no membership is required. Please feel free to contact me for more advice.
Keep an eye out for more Blogs by me. Take care and look after yourself and those around you.
Andy Cross - Personal Trainer
great info, thank you