Insulin Resistance and Gluconeogenesis

Here's what you need to know about insulin resistance and gluconeogenesis, especially if you have diabetes.

Timestamps

0:00 Introduction: What is gluconeogenesis?

0:35 How does gluconeogenesis work?

1:00 Insulin resistance and gluconeogenesis

1:45 I'm not eating sugar, but I have high sugar—why?

2:30 What you can do

2:42 What's happening in the body

5:14 Share your success story!

Let's talk about insulin resistance and gluconeogenesis. Gluconeogenesis is the new creation of glucose made by your liver. It's stimulated by a hormone called glucagon, and it's inhibited by a hormone called insulin. Insulin is triggered by glucose from the diet.

With gluconeogenesis, your body is making new sugar out of non-carbohydrate sources. Your body makes this sugar from protein, fat, and ketones.

This happens because your body does need a certain amount of sugar. However, the sugar your body needs does not need to come from your diet. Your body can make it from other sources.

Insulin resistance is a precursor for prediabetes. You'll have insulin resistance if you have prediabetes or diabetes. Diabetes and prediabetes are both high sugar situations. A high-carb diet can contribute to the situation, making it worse.

But, when someone starts to cut carbs out of their diet, sometimes their sugar is still too high. How can this happen if they're not eating any sugar? Well, it must be coming from gluconeogenesis.

The body is making more sugar because the "off switch" (insulin) is not working. You don't have enough insulin because your insulin resistance is so strong. You have so much resistance that the insulin is not able to get through. Your body senses a deficiency of insulin, and it will make more sugar.

If you're in this situation, you need to stay on the keto diet and keep doing intermittent fasting—just give it more time. Eventually, the insulin resistance will improve to the point where your liver won't keep making excess sugar.

DATA:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5927596/

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/9416027/