Are there any benefits to having a to-do list? Well, in my opinion, there are.
Life is chaotic in itself. Modern life, even more so.
Life throws a lot of challenges and indeed every now and again will throw us a curve ball.
With so much to do and so little time, we inevitably become overwhelmed. Overwhelm in itself can lead to stress. Sometimes significant stress.
One way to reduce stress in our busy lives is the use of a to-do list.
A to-do list won’t magically solve our problems but it would at least reduce the burden.
Anything that keeps the vehicle of life tasks ticking along nicely can only be a good thing.
I use a to-do list most of the time and I find it very useful. The contrast is when I forget to make a to-do list and carry on with the day’s tasks regardless, my productivity drops like a stone.
I find myself jumping from one task to another usually because I suddenly remembered it’s another task that needs to be done.
Most times abandoning an incomplete task for another. That by definition, is distraction.
It doesn’t matter that the new task is relevant.
That manner of haphazard approach is neither productivity-friendly nor mind-friendly. That’s chaos no matter how you dress it up.
Does that scenario resonate with you?
Anyone who says they don’t struggle to accomplish all of their daily tasks both at home and in the office is probably in denial.
What’s weird is not only do we have difficulty getting tasks completed and on time, we also even have difficulty with the planning stages of tasks.
What is it that I actually need to do today, tomorrow, this week, this month? That in itself becomes a challenge for some of us.
A to-do list encompasses that and solves that problem.
What is a to-do list?
A to-do list is a basic tool that enables you put down what it is that needs to get done in the first place, the order you need to do these tasks and when you want them done by.
A to-do list is the What, How & When of your tasks.
You could refer to a to-do list as a task managing tool. A task master sheet, if you like.
To-do lists aren’t new.
It’s an old concept that’s been around for ages. The problem with a to-do list is that it is simple. In fact, it is so simple that people often ignore it.
Human beings are a complex bunch. If something appears too simple, we assume it is not effective. We find it difficult to see beyond the simplicity of that technique or tool.
How can something be so simple and yet be so effective?
Well, a to-do list fits that bill.
But a good to-do list is more than the generic one below. That’s the daily grind to-do list of most people. The to-do list that makes life just a tad tedious. Our to-do list is much more. A lot more…
So, what are the benefits of a to-do list?
Memory Recall Tool
Remember, I said we sometimes even struggle with the planning stages of what it is we want to do, right?
Well, here is a simple tool to alleviate that pain – a to-do list.
With a hectic lifestyle as it is today, your brain has a lot to deal with. So much stuff to remember. Hence, it can be a challenge to remember the things we want to do.
How about you write them down on a to-do list.
That way you never have to struggle with the planning stages of your tasks.
And you know what:
You won’t forget one or two items that may come to hunt you later on. Heaven forbids, it’s an important but simple task of making that life-changing phone call for you, an employee or your relative.
If only you wrote it down…
2. Structure and Order to your day
A to-do list provides a structure to your day.
Writing down what needs to be done has just put your day in a box. You now know what needs to be done.
You have structured the order on the lists of tasks to be done for the day.
Having a structure is good for the brain. Your brain is now aware of the things you want to do. Your brain will now organise itself along those lines. Less work for your mind.
3. Task Prioritisation
One of the things a to-do list will help you achieve is task prioritisation. You are not just going to have a brain dump when you make your to-do list.
No, a brain dump on paper is not enough.
Writing down tasks is good but it gets better when you weigh what needs to be done first and what can wait till later on in the day or week.
If all the tasks are equally important, that’s fine. But you will find that when you pen down your to-do list, some tasks will jump at you straightaway as being more important.
4. Accountability
The mere fact of writing down a task on paper just makes you accountable. You have written it down. That means you need to complete the task and cross it off your to-do list.
If it’s not written, you might pay lip-service to the task or even forget to do it altogether.
Writing down a task equals accountability. If you don’t get it done, it will be staring you in the face as a reminder. Begging to get done!
5. Re-Schedule & Delegate Tasks as Necessary
That last point about accountability brings me to the issue of re-scheduling of tasks.
Yes, you might not be able to finish all of the listed to-do list activities for the day and you will know because your to-do list tells you so.
So, one benefit of having a to-do list is that you can look at the list and re-schedule stuff.
If a task is running late or completely undone, is it possible that someone else in your organisation can take on that task and complete it on your behalf.
After all, you are working as a team.
It doesn’t make sense you over-burden yourself with a humongous number of tasks, when it is obvious that “the luggage” is too heavy.
Could you delegate the task to someone else?
Would delegation be a reasonable thing to do?
Those are 2 valid questions you should be asking yourself if a particular task is not running on schedule.
Obviously, if delegation wouldn’t work, then you have to reschedule the task to a more convenient time and realistic time.
A to-do list will encourage you to do just that.
6. Organise Tasks in a Manageable Manner
When you write your to-do list tasks, quite apart from listing your tasks, you should be organising them in such a way as to manage them effectively.
When you list a task, you should be mindful of whether a particular task is too chunky and could use a sub-task listing.
For instance, in the task of writing this article, I will put down on paper:
Write To-Do List Article (this is the main task)
Sub-tasks of this task will be:
=> Edit and proof-read article
=> Add images
=> Write meta tags
=> Publish article
Doing things this way makes the task of writing this article much more manageable and a lot more appealing.
The reason is because I have broken the task down to bite-size sub-tasks. When you do that, you don’t feel challenged anymore.
And indeed, you can apply this principle to any tasks ahead of you.
Like they say: “the best way to eat an elephant is in small bites”.
7. Increased Productivity
What’s the short-term advantage of a to-do list? Well, the idea of a to-do list is an increase in productivity. That’s the short-term advantage.
And a well-managed to-do list will do just that.
It’s not hard to imagine this happening at all.
Writing tasks down ensures they get done and ensures no memory lapse occurs. Writing it down means you won’t forget to do one or two tasks and you don’t need to strain your memory to know what tasks you are planning to do.
A to-do list ensures you manage your time wisely. As the saying goes: “Time is Money”. Your bite-size approach means you don’t get intimidated by any tasks.
The net result is an overall increase in productivity. An increase in output. The beauty of this is; you get that immediate feedback looking at your crossed-out tasks for the day or the week.
That immediate feedback is enough to get you excited and actually gives a euphoric feeling. Nothing works better for your ego more than a positive feedback.
What’s the psychology of a to-do list?
I’ve touched a lot on the psychology of a to-do list in the course of this article. Just like that feeling of euphoria I described a short while ago.
But it’s not only upon the completion of a task you get that psychological boost. It also happens at the planning stages of your tasks.
One main thing that happens with writing down a to-do list even before it’s execution is that a to-do list actually relieves anxiety.
Not only anxiety relief but writing a to-do list gives the individual the impetus to get on with the job.
I’m not just saying that for effect. Studies have been carried out and they confirm this. For instance, this study by Brandstatter and his colleagues demonstrated that implementation intentions drives immediate action initiation.
They also found this psychological advantage did not change when there was burdensome cognitive load and mental resources were low as a result.
Gollwitzer also demonstrated that if you could deal with the problem of implementation intention, that automatically takes care of the usual suspects that blight attainment of the desired goal.
And the usual suspects being; ‘failing to get started‘ and ‘getting distracted‘. Both of which can be easily taken care of by a to-do list.
Masicampo and Baumeister also showed that a poor execution of a warm-up activity had a negative influence on the execution of a task.
But if you had a well-executed warm-up activity before commencing the task, then goal attainment was not and shouldn’t be a problem. The task will be executed seamlessly.
Executing a task successfully was always enhanced by a pre-task plan of how, when and where.
You should see a to-do list as a plan to execute a task. This is particularly important if the task is daunting and even when it is not.
I don’t consider article writing a daunting task because I love writing. In fact, the only problem I have writing articles is finger soreness from the keyboard bashing because of how much writing that I do.
But I still have to break my article writing down to sub-tasks. This ensures I don’t forget any component of the process – from initiating the writing to publishing the article.
As you saw from my earlier description, that there are sub-tasks involved in getting an idea for an article to actually publishing it live.
Now, if I were to extrapolate this writing activity to writing a book, then everything changes. That is a much more challenging prospect. Challenging it may be, but the approach will be the same.
I will list this book-writing activity and break it down to sub-tasks in the form of writing one chapter after another. I will take it a step further and break down each chapter to the beginning, the middle and the end.
That way, you reduce anxiety and the stress that will come with writing a book. I hope this is all making sense to you.
If you apply this tactic in your to-do list, you should increase productivity by at least 4 folds.
And you reduce stress associated with your day-to-day tasks…even running your home.
Need I remind you of the joy of looking at the crossed-out activities leading up to the completion of the task. Cool, huh!
Also, do remember to be flexible with your to-do list. Flexibility helps tone down any stress that may be associated with pressure to complete your to-do list tasks.
What do you get on this page regarding blood sugar spikes and crashes?
Well, in a nutshell, you are going to get the know-how on what a blood sugar spike is, what a blood sugar crash is, why your blood sugar actually spikes and crashes, the event, what triggers a blood sugar crash, the symptoms of blood sugar crash and how to prevent a blood sugar crash.
Keep reading…
Blood sugar spikes and crashes. Don’t you just hate it when that happens to you. It’s like your body doesn’t know what it wants to do.
Blood sugar high one minute, then low the next. Why can’t my blood sugar stay in the normal zone?
It’s easy to point the finger at our bodies but we should ideally be pointing the finger at the kinds of foods we eat, if blood sugar spikes and crashes are a frequent occurrence.
A blood sugar high followed by a blood sugar low is invariably the result of dietary choices. Yes, there are a few other causes besides diet but for the most part, diet is to blame for blood sugar spikes and crashes.
What is a blood sugar spike?
In simple terms, a blood sugar spike is one that overshoots beyond the expected target blood sugar for the index event.
Right, I can hear you shouting…WHAT?
…at your computer screen or smart phone. Dr Joe, explain some more.
Okay, let me explain.
The American College of Clinical Endocrinologists has a recommended target blood sugar level for when we are fasting, blood sugar level at 1 hour after we eat and target blood sugar 2 hours after a meal.
The recommended blood sugar target levels are shown in the image below. So, if your blood sugar overshoots above that recommended target, then that is a blood sugar spike.
You should see the target as a ceiling rather than something to aim for.
So, for instance, if 1 hour after your meal, your blood sugar is 180mg/dl (10mmol/l), that is well over the recommended 1-hour post-meal level of 140 mg/dl (7.8mmol/l). That will constitute a blood sugar spike. Does the definition of a blood sugar spike make sense to you now? I hope so.
Now, what is a blood sugar crash?
A blood sugar crash is when your blood sugar level takes a nose-dive below 72mg/dl (4.0mmol/l). People respond differently to low blood sugar levels differently.
I, for instance can still function reasonably well with blood sugar level of 63mg/dl (3.5mmol/l).
The point being; everyone is different. If you are having sugar crash symptoms and your sugar is below 72mg/dl (4.0mmol/l), then it makes sense to act. It’s a crash!
What happens in blood sugar spikes and crashes?
It’s a very simple chronology of events.
You have your meal.
The food is broken down to smaller units by the process of digestion. Usually this refers to a carbohydrate meal which is broken down to glucose.
The glucose is absorbed from the intestines into the blood stream.
Once your blood sugar rises above 100mg/dl (5.5mmol/l), the beta cells in your pancreas receive an alarm call to lower blood sugar back down to normal.
The beta cells respond by releasing the stored insulin hormone inside them into the blood stream to lower blood sugar. Yes, your pancreatic beta cells store insulin inside them ready for action when needed.
Insulin is like a firefighter waiting at the fire station waiting for a call to put out fire in a building. The fire station being the pancreas. Insulin is just there waiting to be released when the call comes along.
And “the call” comes along once blood sugar rises above 100mg/dl (5.5mmol/l).
Once that happens, insulin is released into the blood stream.
The release of insulin happens in pulses. The 1st release should do the job of lowering blood sugar back to below 100mg/dl (5.5mmol/l).
If the first phase of insulin does not lower blood sugar to the desired level, then a 2nd release takes place 20 minutes later.
The 2nd phase insulin response to the high blood sugar is expected to bring blood sugar back down to normal levels.
In a person whose metabolic pathway is intact, this sequence of blood sugar rise and lowering of the blood sugar happens smoothly without any drama.
So, what then triggers the blood sugar spike and the crash?
Glad you asked.
In an individual that experiences blood sugar spikes and crashes, the action of the beta cells in the second phase insulin release is the issue.
It would appear that the pancreas gets “too excited” at the prospect of being asked to release some more insulin in the 2nd phase response.
What then happens is that; the beta cells of the pancreas respond too dramatically in phase 2 release, pushing out more insulin than is required for the remaining blood sugar lowering task.
The net result is a dramatic fall in blood sugar resulting in the blood sugar crash.
And the symptoms of blood sugar crash are not very pleasant.
Symptoms of blood sugar crash includes headaches, dizziness, trembling, sweating, nervousness, feeling agitated, becoming weak and fatigued. Follow that link for a complete look at the symptoms.
The initial blood sugar crash symptoms you feel are due to the release of adrenaline. The adrenaline is released by your body in response to the stress of the blood sugar crash.
Here’s something else that happens:
One of the symptoms of blood sugar crash is hunger. Do remember, I said earlier on that your pancreas releases a disproportionate amount of insulin to lower the blood sugar spike.
This disproportionate amount of insulin released into the circulation is what causes the blood sugar crash following the blood sugar spike.
The insulin produces a sudden “whoosh effect” clearing the sugar from the blood circulation by forcing the sugar into the cells in a dramatic way.
That’s not the end of the story though. The disproportionate high amount of insulin circulating in the blood does something else.
It makes you hungry!
Yes, Insulin makes you hungry.
Which means you want to eat again. In a way, it’s actually a protective effect. Insulin makes you hungry so you eat to replenish your low blood sugar. This is because low blood sugar is dangerous and your body doesn’t like it one bit.
Depletion is a trigger for Repletion. Kinda makes sense, right?
So, you eat again and if you keep eating the wrong foods that trigger the blood sugar spike and crashes, the process will repeat itself again.
You end up with a blood sugar spike and crash roller-coaster ride.
So, what foods are the wrong foods that trigger blood sugar spike and crash?
You guessed it. Refined carbs and Sugary foods, I’m afraid.
Refined carbs are easily digestible. This means they get digested very easily releasing their glucose units quickly.
Quick digestion, quick glucose absorption equates to quick rise in blood sugar and of course a blood sugar spike.
Then the cascade of events I described above ensues. See image below.
Carbs belong to 3 main groups:
Sugar
Refined carbs
Wholegrain carbs
Sugar refers to table sugar, fizzy drinks and sodas, candies, milk chocolate, your favourite Starbucks coffee and even Costa. In short, any sweets fall into this category.
Refined carbs refer to carbohydrate foods that have been stripped of their bran and germ leaving the endosperm only. Exposed endosperm is a recipe for quick digestion, quick absorption and blood sugar spikes.
Refined carbs lack the fiber that slows down the digestive process. Examples of refined carbs are white rice, white flour, white bread, bagels, muffins, cakes, doughnuts and other baked goods.
Wholegrain carbs have their bran and germ intact. The bran and germ constitute the fiber. The fiber applies brakes to the digestive process making the release of glucose from the food a slower process.
The means a gentler release of the glucose into circulation. This prevents the dreaded blood sugar spike and crash that follows. Foods like Amaranth, quinoa, bulgur wheat, oatmeal, brown rice are examples of wholegrain carbs or complex carbs.
Something to bear in mind:
If you are experiencing, blood sugar spikes and crashes, especially frequently, you may want to look into it further.
This is because, blood sugar spikes and crashes may be caused by the following apart from sugar and refined carbs:
Stomach surgery that causes food to hasten through to the small intestines
Reactive hypoglycemia, prediabetes can be diagnosed by your medical practitioner. And of course, if you’ve had stomach surgery, then the cause will be obvious to you by now.
So, how do you avoid blood sugar spikes and crashes?
It’s very simple. See image below for guidance.
If you are one of those experiencing the blood sugar roller coaster problem frequently, see your doctor to exclude reactive hypoglycemia and pre-diabetes.
Beyond that, the mainstay of avoiding blood sugar spikes and crashes is to avoiding refined sugar, refined carbs and sweets.
The way to go is to eat complex carbs only. The management of blood sugar spikes and crashes is similar to the management of non-diabetic hypoglycemia. Follow that link as I have more detailed management tips there.
But you can’t go wrong by eating complex wholegrain carbohydrates.
Along with eating complex carbs, include the pulses in your diet. Eat peas, beans, lentils, vegetables and you will experience a steady release of glucose that will keep your blood sugar in the normal zone – the green zone. No spikes. No crashes.
I got a question the other day from one of my readers of this blog. And the question was; how does insulin resistance cause weight gain?
That is a very good question and I will answer it by going back to the basics first.
Let’s talk about how insulin resistance comes about first.
How does insulin resistance happen?
You will recall from my article on high blood sugars in non-diabetics, I talked about how the food, in particular a carbohydrate meal, when broken down to glucose triggers the release of insulin into the blood stream, right?
The idea is to stop the absorbed glucose in the bloodstream from getting too high. The trigger point is 100mg/dl (5.5mmol/l).
Once glucose levels exceed that trigger point, the beta cells in the pancreas will spring into action. The beta cells will release insulin to counter a further rise in blood sugar. That is the first phase insulin release. This happens following food digestion and glucose absorption from the digested food.
If the blood glucose level does not settle, a second wave of insulin is released by the pancreas to complete the job. The interval between the first and second wave insulin release is about 20 minutes.
In a healthy person whose metabolic pathway is well integrated and functioning well, this mechanism of blood sugar regulation works so well that within 90 minutes of commencing your meal, your blood sugar levels will be back to your pre-meal level of around 80mg/dl (4.5mmol/l).
Certainly, by the 2-hour mark, all should be settled on the blood sugar front and life goes on…quietly.
But when you have insulin resistance, life is not quite that simple.
Sadly, there could be a problem further up the blood sugar regulation pathway with insulin resistance.
The liver and muscle cells take up over three-quarters of the glucose sent up the blood stream from the food we just ate.
For the insulin to effectively reduce blood sugar levels, the liver and muscle cells have to be receptive and responsive to allow the glucose from the blood into the cells.
That’s where the problem lies with insulin resistance.
The question then arises. Why do the liver and muscle cells suddenly become unresponsive to insulin signals to allow glucose into them? They were responsive yesterday. What’s happened today?
Well, it’s not an overnight development. Insulin resistance by the liver and muscle cells is a problem that gradually evolves over time.
Eating refined carbs over the years essentially lead to the development of insulin resistance. Excessive refined carbs stimulate large secretions of insulin every time we eat them.
Over time, these liver and muscle cells develop tolerance to the insulin because they are being pounded all the time by insulin to let glucose into them.
Some people eat up to 8 times a day if you include snacking and it is mainly refined carbs we eat.
Each time you eat these foods, you are asking questions of your pancreas and also requesting your liver and muscle cells to respond to insulin signalling.
These cells “get fed up” of being constantly asked to let glucose in. Over time they become tolerant. Which means higher and higher doses of insulin will need to be pumped out by the pancreas to have the same effect.
As a result, the liver and muscle cells become unresponsive to signals from the insulin to allow the glucose inside their cells. They become tolerant. They become resistant!
Just like a drug addict will need higher doses of the abused drug over time as a result of developing tolerance to the drug.
This causes a build-up of glucose in the blood because the liver and muscle cells have ‘shut their doors’ and won’t let the glucose in.
The pancreas compensates by pumping more and more insulin into the circulation causing high levels of insulin in the circulation. This state of affairs is called hyperinsulinemia (high insulin in blood) and it’s not nice…at all.
I will return to the hyperinsulinemia later on because it is the core event that drives weight gain in insulin resistance.
Am I insulin resistant?
Another pertinent question is, how do you know if you are insulin resistant or not. Lots of people are insulin resistant. They just don’t know it. Because there are no tell-tale symptoms of insulin resistance.
That is what makes it difficult to recognise insulin resistance and it can go on for years carefully damaging your health quietly without you being aware of it.
So, are you insulin resistant?
Well, let’s keep things simple, shall we.
If you test your blood sugar on one or more occasions and you are consistently getting results above the recommended acceptable blood sugar levels below, then that should raise a suspicion of insulin resistance.
That’s how simple it is. There are other tests like C-Peptide test and more expensive ones but they are ultimately not necessary to make a diagnosis of insulin resistance.
Alert your doctor if your home blood sugar test following your meals exceed the values below. Your doctor will take things from there. See this article on how to meal-test your blood sugar here.
Fasting blood sugar should be 100mg/dl (5.5mmol/l)
1-hour blood sugar after meals should be 140mg/dl (7.8mmol/l) or less
2-hour blood sugar after meals should be 120mg/dl (6.6mmol/l) or less
If your 2-hour after-meal blood sugar is over 200mg/dl (11mmol/l), then you are diabetic. It means your insulin resistance has tipped over to type 2 diabetes.
Within the framework of insulin resistance, there is also what we call metabolic syndrome and below are the diagnostic criteria for metabolic syndrome.
You are eligible to be labelled as having metabolic syndrome if you have 3 or more of the following:
Waist circumference greater than 102 cm in men and 88 cm in women
Serum triglycerides level of 150 mg/dL (1.69 mmol/L) or higher
High-density lipoprotein cholesterol level of less than 40 mg/dL (1.04 mmol/L) in men and 50 mg/dL (1.29 mmol/L) in women
Blood pressure of 130/85 mm Hg or higher
Fasting serum glucose level of at least 110 mg/dL (6.1 mmol/L)
How does insulin resistance cause weight gain?
Now that we have the foundational knowledge of insulin resistance, we can now turn our attention to the mechanism behind insulin resistance and weight gain.
Insulin is a fattening hormone. That’s the first thing you need to know.
Insulin is an anabolic hormone. Insulin preserves, builds, restores and conserves.
What insulin isn’t; is catabolic. Never.
When you have a lot of insulin floating around your body, you will constantly be in the anabolic state.
Ask anybody whose been started on insulin hormone by their doctor, they will tell you that without fail, they have gained weight.
More importantly, the weight you gain from insulin is very hard to shift. Weight loss is always frustrating for anyone on insulin therapy.
Evidence that insulin makes you gain weight, apart from anecdotal input from patients on insulin, comes from various studies.
Want evidence?
This study for instance took 14 individuals who were taking diabetic pills, switched them from the pills to intensive insulin therapy.
The idea was to demonstrate that blood sugar levels can be brought under control within a specified time frame (in this case 6 months) without the patients developing low blood sugar side effects (hypo symptoms).
It transpired that the researchers ended up using large doses of insulin to reach their objective of controlling the study participants’ blood sugar. This was because the participants had developed insulin resistance.
The researchers did succeed in achieving good control without low blood sugar side effects. But this came at a cost. The study participants gained 8.7kg (19lbs).
Something else to note from that study was that the study participants actually reduced their calorie intake during the study period by a daily average of 300 calories. So, they gained weight across the board despite calorie reduction.
That’s how powerful insulin can be when it comes to fat preservation.
This other study sought to achieve good sugar control on 708 type 2 diabetics who were on diabetic meds by adding insulin to their treatment.
It’s a bigger study compared to the first one above. The researchers did achieve good control but again at the expense of weight gain in the study participants.
There was a proportionate increase in weight gained in line with the dose of insulin received by each study participants. More insulin, more weight gained.
One more study here sought to identify who amongst 50 obese individuals would predictively lose weight and maintain their weight loss through a 6-week calorie reduction regime.
The researchers found that resistance to weight loss and the tendency to regain weight was easily predicted by how much insulin each participant had circulating in their blood.
So, a high insulin level meant you will have difficulty losing weight and even when you did lose the weight, you were more likely to regain the weight within a shorter time frame.
And here’s the kicker:
You’ll recall I said the liver and muscle cells which ordinarily will take up majority of the glucose from the circulation but are resistant to doing so even when prompted by insulin, right?
Well, something else happens that make it possible for someone with insulin resistance to gain weight.
And here it is:
The fat cells also take up glucose from the circulation prompted by insulin but guess what…
The fat cells don’t resist the uptake of glucose. The fat cells welcome the glucose inside them. This would have been a nice gesture except that inside the fat cells, the glucose is stored mainly as fat.
Aha, can you see this generosity of the fat cells is not necessarily a good thing for your weight management efforts when you are insulin resistant.
Essentially, we have a scenario where the liver cells and muscle cells are resisting absorbing sugar from the blood circulation but the fat cells are “happy” to have the glucose where storage in the form of fat is the norm.
Liver and muscle cells are insulin resistant but fat cells are not.
Does this make sense to you now why and how insulin resistance leads to weight gain?
There are a couple of mechanisms at play here that conspire to make you gain weight when you have insulin resistance.
And they are:
Here’s how insulin resistance causes weight gain:
Your blood insulin levels are high (remember hyperinsulinemia)
Insulin is undeniably a fat storing hormone
Insulin is a known predictor of weight gain
Insulin is a known weight regain facilitator even when you lose weight
Insulin prevents you from burning up your current fat stores
Insulin makes you hungry, so you tend to crave refined carbs that further fuels higher insulin levels
Insulin makes you lazy, so you lack the motivation to exercise
Your liver cells aren’t keen to absorb glucose from the circulation
Your muscle cells aren’t keen to soak up glucose from the circulation
A vicious circle is set up because resistance by the liver and muscle cells leads to high blood sugar which in turn leads to more insulin being secreted by the pancreas further fuelling more resistance and yet more insulin
Worse still your fat cells will take up sugar from the circulation readily and will store it as fat for you
I thought it would be a good idea to provide you with a diagrammatic illustration of how insulin resistance develops.
So, see image below:
All of those ladies and gentlemen is how insulin resistance makes you gain weight and actually frustrates your weight loss efforts. Not nice!
To fully understand what causes high blood sugar levels in non-diabetics, it makes sense to go back to first principles of blood glucose regulation.
You will be glad you did, because by the end of this blog post, you will have the fundamental knowledge to connect all the dots regarding why blood sugar may be high in a non-diabetic.
So, let’s do that, shall we:
Behind your stomach is an organ called the pancreas. The pancreas has a cluster of cells scattered within it called the beta cells.
The beta cells are very important to us. As little in size as they are, their importance cannot be over-emphasized.
Why is this?
Because Beta cells of the pancreas are responsible for producing, storing and releasing insulin when called upon.
You need insulin to survive. Without insulin your cells cannot access the glucose in the blood circulation. Without insulin energy production will cease. Insulin is the hormone that drives sugar from the blood circulation into the cells.
When glucose gets inside the cells, it can then be used by the mitochondria (the power house of the cell) to produce energy. This is the energy we need to perform both basic and advanced everyday activities.
How does insulin interact with the food we eat?
When you eat, digestion of food begins in the mouth. The glucose in the food you eat gets released by the process of digestion via enzymes in your saliva and stomach.
What this means is within a few minutes of chewing your food, blood sugar begins to rise. Of course, the dynamism of this process of digestion varies from food to food.
High glycemic foods will have their glucose released pretty rapidly. Whereas complex carbs for instance are low glycemic in nature. Low glycemic foods will have their glucose released a lot more slowly.
As soon as glucose gets absorbed, it triggers the release of insulin into the circulation to correct blood glucose levels to normal levels.
The trigger point for insulin release is when the blood glucose level hits 100 mg/dl (5.5mmol/l). This is called the First Phase Insulin Release. It is expected that the first phase insulin release should correct the blood glucose level to normal.
Following the first phase insulin response, the beta cells hold back, pause and wait for about 20 minutes to see if blood sugar levels are back to normal.
If this first phase insulin release does not normalize the blood sugar to 100mg/dl (5.5mmol/l), then a second wave of insulin is released by the beta cells of the pancreas to lower the blood sugar level.
This is called Second Phase Insulin Release.
It is also expected that this second wave of insulin release should fix the blood sugar fluctuation back to normal levels.
Physiologically, the combination of the First and Second Phase Insulin release is what prevents blood glucose fluctuations beyond the 140mg/dl (7.0mmol/l) mark.
So, what causes high blood sugar levels in non-diabetics?
Now that you know the dynamics of food digestion, glucose absorption into blood circulation and the expected insulin response, explaining what causes high blood sugar in non-diabetics becomes logical.
So, here it goes:
If you have a fully functioning beta cells in your pancreas that produce, store, and release insulin in response to blood sugar rises when you eat, then a quick response is expected to regulate blood sugar. This quick response prevents unnecessary blood glucose fluctuations.
And this process of blood sugar correction works so efficiently that within an hour and half of eating, your blood sugar levels should return to the fasting blood sugar levels of below 100mg/dl (5.5mmol/l).
In fact, at 2 hours after-meal, both the first phase and second phase insulin release from the beta cells should have your blood sugar levels down to 80mg/dl (4.5mmol/l).
However, if your First phase insulin response and more importantly, your Second phase insulin release is defective or sluggish for whatever reason, then you will have high blood sugar level even if you are non-diabetic. This is actually referred to as Impaired Glucose Tolerance.
Persistent impaired glucose tolerance is actually pre-diabetes.
Impaired glucose tolerance precedes Type 2 diabetes. If your blood sugar level remains high despite your first and second phase insulin release best efforts, such that it hits 200mg/dl (11mmol/l) 2 hours after eating, then by definition, you are now diabetic.
Insulin resistance in the making – How does insulin resistance occur?
Your liver cells and muscle cells take up over three-quarters of the glucose produced by your meal. When your beta cells release insulin, the insulin drives the sugar from the blood circulation into the cells.
It is anticipated that the liver and muscle cells should be very responsive to the prompt by insulin to allow glucose inside those cells under normal circumstances.
The more responsive the cells are the more insulin sensitive you are.
However, there is a situation where even though your beta cells show a good first phase response, the amount of insulin released will not be enough to clear the circulating glucose from the blood.
This is because of what is happening peripherally in the receiving target organs – the liver and muscles.
The cells of the liver and muscles become stubborn. They become unresponsive to the insulin released. The liver and muscle cells are resistant to the signals from the insulin to allow the glucose into them.
What happens next is that the second phase insulin release is prolonged. The second phase response is prolonged because the beta cells have to make and release lots more insulin to force a response by the resistant liver and muscle cells.
This lack of response by the liver and muscle cells to allow glucose inside their cells despite a persistent prompt by insulin is described as insulin resistance and is indeed how insulin resistance occurs.
At this stage of the metabolic disturbance, you end up with high levels of insulin circulating in your blood. This is the result of the pancreas working overtime to drive down the elevated blood glucose by secreting lots more insulin.
This is called hyperinsulinemia.
If you have insulin resistance, you most certainly will have high circulating levels of insulin in your blood (hyperinsulinemia).
Why have the liver and muscle cells become unresponsive to insulin?
It is a tolerance issue. Eating refined carb meals for years leads to heavy demand on the pancreas. The pancreas does its job perfectly in the preceding years.
But refined carb meals always need lots of insulin to restore blood sugar to normal. And in the preceding years, your liver and muscle cells always respond positively by letting sugar into them.
However, as the years roll by and our diet remains unchanged, the liver cells and muscle cells become tolerant to the insulin. They therefore become unresponsive due to the tolerance they have developed.
Meaning they’ve become resistant!
And this insulin resistance is the reason your blood sugar is high as a non-diabetic. Because at this stage, your blood sugar is high but hopefully not high enough for you to be classified as a diabetic.
Insulin resistance may persist undetected for a good number of years. Most times insulin resistance may last up to a decade and even beyond. During all of this time, it will remain undetected and you will to all intents and purposes consider yourself as non-diabetic.
In the end, the beta cells will become exhausted and unable to produce enough insulin to drive down the glucose to normal levels. Blood glucose remains persistently high ultimately leading to Type 2 diabetes.
You may be somewhat “lucky” such that you grow new beta cells that will make and store enough insulin to use in the first and second phase insulin release. But you won’t make enough insulin to lower your blood sugar to normal levels within the usual time frame.
The second phase might take a lot longer.
However, your beta cells will make just enough insulin to stop you drifting into the ‘diabetic zone‘ but not enough to normalize you blood sugar. What that means is; you remain stuck in the ‘impaired glucose tolerance’ stage.
This results in metabolic syndrome. Metabolic syndrome is synonymous with insulin resistance. In fact, metabolic syndrome is also known as insulin resistance syndrome.
In a nutshell, high blood sugar in a non-diabetic can be innocuous when it occurs transiently.
However, frequent and persistent high blood sugar in non-diabetic is not that innocent and can be attributed to:
Some failure at the level of the pancreas to efficiently produce and release enough insulin
Failure of the liver and muscle cells to respond to insulin signalling.
In essence, high blood sugar in a non-diabetic especially when it occurs frequently is likely due to insulin resistance or metabolic syndrome and later on with the build-up of higher blood sugar Type 2 diabetes becomes inevitable.
What foods can cause high sugar in non-diabetic?
Below is a list of foods that can cause your blood sugar to be high even if you are non-diabetic:
Bagels
Muffins
Sports drinks and energy drinks
Black tea
Coffee
Dried fruits
White bread
Potato chips and fries
Green tea
Chinese foods
Alcohol
Regular pasta
Yogurt with added sugar
Cakes
Pastries
White rice
Baked potato
Waffles
White chocolate
Soda and other fizzy drinks
Fruit juices
Certain fruits like pineapple, dates, watermelon
Candies
Of course that list is by no means exhaustive.
What causes blood sugar to rise without eating?
For the most part, food as you gathered from above, is the main driver for rises in blood sugar. However, life as you know is never a straight line.
There are other factors that can cause blood sugar to rise without eating. Some of that has to do with inter-play of hormones.
Stress hormones like cortisol, catecholamines (adrenaline and noradrenaline), mobilize glucose from the stored glucose in the liver. Glycogen is the stored form of glucose in the liver.
These hormones cause a rise in blood sugar without eating both in diabetics and non-diabetics. Any thing that causes stress to your body will cause your blood sugar to rise.
Prescription and some over-the-counter medications like nasal decongestants can also cause your blood sugar to rise without eating.
Below are some of the causes of high blood sugar without eating:
Steroid medication
Stressful job
Diuretics – pills that make you pee
Nasal decongestants containing phenylephrine or pseoudoephedrine
Poor sleep
As you tell from the above list, yes, stress can cause high blood sugar in non-diabetics. Stress from whatever origin has the potential to increase cortisol levels in the blood.
And as I explained earlier anything that causes liver cells to mobilize their glycogen stores unnecessarily will raise your blood sugar. Stress will do just that.
Should non-diabetics check blood sugar?
If you’ve read this far, you will have figured that non-diabetics can have blood sugar spikes without the individual being aware of it. And non-diabetics may have raised blood sugar for years without being diagnosed as having raised blood glucose issues.
Your doctor may not suspect you have blood sugar regulation problems unless you have symptoms. Sadly, lots of people stay in the ‘Impaired Glucose Tolerance’ zone for years without symptoms.
That’s the reason at least a third of the adult population are going about their business without actually realising they have insulin resistance. Only the eagle-eyed amongst us will exclude themselves from this raging scourge.
And Guess what…
The best way to ensure your high blood sugar as a non-diabetic is not a fluke but a much more serious condition like insulin resistance is to test yourself for blood sugar level when you eat.
So, yes, my advice is that non-diabetics can test for blood sugar, if you are looking for some guidance on the matter.
You can just do random blood sugar 1 hour and 2 hours after a meal and see where you stand metabolically speaking.
I have a more detailed technique of doing this. It’s called Eating To Your Meter. Go see it on that link. I have it written there in a step-by-step way for easy digestion (no pun intended).
Yes, test your blood sugar even if you are non-diabetic. Your doctor probably won’t do it as you have no symptoms. Someone’s got to…
Can you lose weight with intermittent fasting? Okay, hold on a minute, this question is like asking me this: can you lose weight without eating. Do you agree both questions are similar?
Food is what provides you with your energy needs. Food is what keeps you alive and kicking. In the same vein, food is what makes you gain weight. Yes, there may be other factors involved in weight gain like being on certain medication, not being physically active etc, but at the very core of weight gain lies your food intake.
Your food intake is the equivalence of your energy intake. So, if you deprive yourself of that energy intake, something has got to give. What’s that? Well, simple, you will have to draw on your energy stores – your fat.
Fat in your body is your ‘Savings Bank Account’. What happens when you run out of money in your ‘Current Account or Checking Account’, you tap into your savings, right?
Same thing happens when you do intermittent fasting. Not eating when you are fasting means you are going run out of “money” soon in your current or checking account. Your ‘Current or Checking Account‘ is your Glycogen stores. Glycogen stores are your go-to everyday spend money.
When you exhaust your glycogen stores when you don’t eat, you will have to draw on the “money” in your savings pretty soon – the FAT bank.
Because even if you lie there and do nothing at all, your body still needs energy to perform basic functions like breathing, talking, texting, your heart beating, thinking, reading that book or watching that television. All of those activities that happen spontaneously to keep you alive require energy. In fact, your body needs energy to burn energy i.e the metabolic process needs energy to power on.
That energy need constitutes the basal metabolic rate which has to come from somewhere if you are not eating – Your fat stores.
Simple answer to the question of whether you can lose weight on intermittent fasting is; Yes, you can lose weight with intermittent fasting, emphatically.
I will go as far as saying, you can lose weight without dieting. Why do I say you can lose weight without dieting? Well, you can, using intermittent fasting.
Because strictly speaking, intermittent fasting is not a diet. Intermittent fasting is a weight loss tool NOT a diet. So, by doing fasting like the 16/8 intermittent fasting, you can lose weight without dieting. Can I repeat that. Intermittent fasting is NOT a diet.
If you think about it there is an element of calorie restriction with intermittent fasting and calorie restriction inevitably leads to weight loss, right?
If you are depriving yourself of calories for any extended periods, such that your body doesn’t over-commit, then it stands to reason that you should lose weight.
Can you lose weight with intermittent fasting – The Science
This review looked at a lot of studies and reached the conclusion that intermittent fasting or alternate day fasting is an option for achieving weight loss and weight maintenance.
This study looked at 240 participants who were on the Ramadan fast. They found significant reductions in both weight and BMI during the fasting period. For some reason the men in the study had more reductions than the women. Maybe the women needed longer time to match the weight reduction seen in the men.
Another study examined what kind of weight could be lost with alternate day fasting over a 12-week period. In it the average weight lost by the subjects in the study was 11 and a half lbs in addition to a fat mass reduction of 7 lbs. They concluded that alternate day fasting was an effective method for weight loss.
If you really want to explore the potential of weight loss, then you may want to know what effect intermittent fasting has on glucose metabolism. In all my research, one thing that was consistent with practically every study was that fasting had a consistent capability to reduce fasting blood glucose and fasting blood insulin levels.
What does this mean?
Put simply anything that helps your body deal with insulin load and makes your body cells more insulin sensitive is a joy to behold.
High blood insulin levels encourage weight gain through fat preservation. Lower blood glucose levels on the other hand prevents prediabetes and type 2 diabetes.
This study of healthy Ramadan fasting Male volunteers recruited to see the effect of fasting on glucose, insulin resistance, adiponectin (a protein that’s involved in the development of insulin resistance) as well as insulin resistance. These parameters were measured just before the fast began and 4 weeks later into the fast. See arrows in diagram below.
Key to graph above
A = Blood Glucose
B = Fasting Plasma Insulin
C = Insulin Sensitivity
D = Insulin Resistance
In the one month of Ramadan Fasting, it wasn’t surprising that the participants in the study dropped their body weight. In response to their weight loss, their adiponectin levels dropped and there was a correlation with the amount of weight lost.
More importantly, there was a consistent increase in insulin sensitivity and a reduction in insulin resistance as plasma insulin and blood glucose levels were lowered on account of the fast. The conclusion from that study being that intermittent fasting has a positive impact on metabolism.
The video below explains more…
How much weight can you lose on intermittent fasting?
Naturally how much weight can be lost on intermittent fasting would vary from person to person as well as your personal discipline. The key here is to be careful with your meals in your feeding days. The last thing you want to do when you are doing intermittent fasting is to over-compensate or over-indulge in the days you are not fasting.
Just eat sensibly and avoid processed foods too, because foods that are overly processed will have refined sugars and trans-fat all of which are unhealthy.
More importantly, refined, heavily processed foods tend to spike insulin. Remember, one objective of intermittent fasting is that, you drive down insulin levels to draw on your fat stores.
As expected how much weight was lost on intermittent fasting also varied in the research studies. I have already mentioned this study earlier. In it the participants lost an average of 11 lbs and a half of weight over the 12-week period of the intermittent fasting.
This meta-analysis of different weight loss on intermittent fasting studies also revealed that participants can expect to lose 3 – 7% of body weight during fasts lasting between 3 – 12 weeks.
Those are figures extracted from research studies, but of course you could lose more or less weight compared to those individuals who have been studied. The other thing to realize is those studies only ran for a small duration and they do not include exercise or any workout whatsoever.
If you add a workout routine to your intermittent fasting, heaven knows how much weight you will shed. I expect the weight loss to be exponential.
How much fat does intermittent fasting burn?
Just like overall weight loss, the amount of fat loss on intermittent fasting will vary between individuals. Factors such as age and sex have been known to play some role in terms of how much fat one could lose when you undertake intermittent fasting.
A study on Ramadan fasting showed a fat loss of between 2.3% – 4.3% over 20 days of Ramadan fasting. In that study waist and hip circumferences fell in most subjects, except females aged 36-70 years. You could argue in that study the measurements were taken only after 20 days and more encouraging results would be had in the women if the study was more prolonged.
This study from the Human Nutrition Research Unit (HNRU) at the University of Illinois, Chicago looked at the effect of alternate day fasting on a variety of parameters one of which was how much fat can you lose on intermittent fasting.
They recruited subjects aged 35–65 years; BMI between 30 and 39.9 kg/m2; weight stable for 3 months prior to the beginning of the study. They found that alternate day fasting after a period of 8 weeks reduced fat by nearly 12 lbs in the participants.
Another study looked at the rate at which we burn fat on intermittent fasting. In this study the alternate day fasting model was also employed. What was found in the study was a swinging pattern in the way fat was burnt or oxidized. On the days the subjects in the study ate, fat oxidation slowed down and similarly on fasting days, fat burning accelerated. Overall fat oxidation was increased by an average of ≥15 g/day on fasting days.
This study gives a very good window to what is happening in our body. When you intermittently fast, you raid your fat stores because there’s no fresh supply of calories. Not only are you raiding your fat stores during intermittent fasting, your rate of fat burning actually goes up which translates to a more efficient way of fat loss.
It’s clear that if you don’t eat, you are giving your body a break. Not only that you are going to exhaust your glycogen stores very quickly. Do you know how long it takes for your body to use up its glycogen stores? 8 – 10 hours, that’s how long.
Yes, withing 10 hours, certainly by 12 hours, you would have exhausted your glycogen stores. What does your body do next? It turns to the fat stores because intermittent fasting drives down insulin levels.
And insulin is what holds the key to the fat stores. Once insulin levels have been driven low, your fat stores become accessible preserving your body’s resting metabolic rate.
That’s the beauty of intermittent fasting. The weight loss or should I say, fat loss associated with intermittent fasting is better than you will see with dieting or exercise.
So, if you are thinking of weight loss without dieting or weight loss without exercise, intermittent fasting is your best bet.
And you know what, intermittent fasting is free. You only need to learn to do it properly and you are on your way.
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Dr. Joe