[Ronin]

Hi Bigpete!

I have to join the chorus on the issue of IR. While there are lots of companies that want to sell you a pill that will "solve all your problems" the reality is IR is that between your eating and exercise you produce more insulin than your body can use in a effective manner.

Exercise is the proven method for countering IR. Why does this work? Simply because muscle cells use glucose/glycogen to produce energy. Muscle cells have sites where the insulin attaches and acts like a key in a lock to let the insulin in. Over time these locks get stuck and don't work as they should. Exercise makes the muscle cells create more receptor sites and also produce more muscle cells which consume more energy.

Over eating produces a weird reaction. Excess glucose goes to the liver where it is stored. If there is still excess floating in the blood stream, that is sent to fat cells for more storage. If there are not sufficient fat cells, the body makes even more of them and puts them wherever they will fit.

Exercise makes the muscle cells demand more energy thereby clearing a lot of the glucose/glycogen from your blood stream. Therefore there is less to re-stock the liver and then the fat cells have to give up their stored energy to replenish the liver and mucsle cells.

As I noted in my previous repsonse the good news about your current weight is that it takes a lot of energy to move around the weight you carry. So, even moderate exercise will consume a lot of calories. Example: a 30 minute walk will consume a lot of calroic energy as well as put demands on your muscle cells. Of course as you lose weight it will take longer and longer to consume the same number of calories. However, by then you should actually like getting out an moving around and it will be easier.