Insulin and Insulin Sensitizers

[Jon Stark]

I basically understand the role of insulin, and that one can manipulate insulin levels (and sensitivity to it) via nutrition and supplementation.

I guess I just don't know what someone looking to put on lean mass should be aiming for...

You want to boost insulin levels after a workout, correct? *(To encourage glucose storage in muscles?) *But you pretty much want to keep blood sugar and insulin low the rest of the time?

And as for insulin sensitizers -- you want them to be discriminate in their effects, right? *That is, you want muscle cells to be insulin-sensitive, not fat cells. *

And do you want to be insulin-sensitive all the time, or do you want to sync it with your post-workout nutritional intake? *(I'm guessing if you have preferrentially sensitized muscle cells to insulin, there's no harm in trying to up sensitivity all the time. *But I am just guessing.)

As you can see, I'm a little confused about what I should be aiming for regarding insulin. *Any help on this issue would be much appreciated!

PS: I read Bryan's ThinkMuscle article on this topic. *What I got from it was that there are substances that mimick insulin -- but I didn't know when it would be desirable to do so from a bodybuilding standpoint.

http://www.musclemonthly.com/article....ork.htm (http://www.musclemonthly.com/articles/001215/001215-haycock-howz-it-work.htm)

PPS: I also read this Berardi interview, which is pretty good but raises more questions about sensitivity. *He seems to imply that it's always good, and that raising sensitivity means muscles become more sensitive than adipose tissue. *(See his discussion of muscle-fat ratios near the middle of the interview.)

http://www.testosterone.net/html/body_149ins.html

[virtualcyber]

Let me give it a shot on answering this one.

One would like to be insulin sensitive all the time. Otherwise, insulin loses its effectiveness. Rephrased, whether you are insulin sensitive or not is independent from whether you want elevated levels of insulin or not. In general, you'd like your body to produce insulin at precise moments and respond to it.

Insulin rush preserves muscle and it lays the foundation for anabolic activity. Say you want to bulk. Then, you want elevated level of insulin because it tends to be anabolic. When you are cutting, you want your body to have low insulin level, which will allow fat cells to release FFA. But, in both of the above cases, your body needs to respond to insulin in order for bulking/cutting to occur. In short, you want to be insulin sensitive.

[Jon Stark]

Thanks for the feedback.