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- Jul 15, 2020
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The real 101 guide to insulin and Bodybuilding. Doses, Timing, Different insulin analogs effects on appetite, IGF-1, Hyperplasia, Health benefits and more.
This is going to be a big topic and hopefully, I don't leave anything out. So without further ado… here we go.
Insulin, what does it do?
Let’s focus on the main function of Insulin here: taking glucose and amino acids to our lovely muscle cells (Insulin has many other functions such as driving potassium and much more but let’s focus on the main aspect most want to hear in relation to Bodybuilding).
Why is insulin needed?
So insulin drives glucose and amino acids straight to our muscles, which is what we love so much about it, right? Of course! Because sometimes as a Bodybuilder you might not be able to adequately shuttle all the nutrients to your muscles (due to many different factors). One such factor is eating insanely high amounts of food. Eat all you want, but if you are not able to shuttle nutrients to your muscles optimally you will suffer health consequences and just urinate that extra glucose out.
Another factor: drugs Bodybuilders use, such as HGH. Every study ever done on HGH shows it worsens insulin sensitivity. Now add to this fact that generally higher doses of HGH cause even worse insulin sensitivity, and you can see how many can end up with a very severe state of insulin resistance. Like we hear time and time again from actual IFBB pro Bodybuilders, that they had felt HGH slowed and even prevented muscle gains for them while using it. They either only used it pre-contest or realized they needed to add in insulin because if HGH is causing insulin sensitivity to worsen and muscles are not getting nutrients then their muscles will not grow, on the contrary, they might even shrink. A side note: before insulin was discovered and with undiagnosed diabetics, it was known as the wasting disease because patients would waste away. They would urinate their glucose out while their muscles starved until they eventually died. Obviously, you are not going to die, you are just not getting all of the nutrients into your muscles like you once were when your insulin sensitivity was good.
Hyperplasia, hypertrophy, and HGH.
The difference between hyperplasia and hypertrophy is very basically: Hypertrophy is the growth of the cell which is not necessarily permanent. Hyperplasia is the cell splitting into 2 new cells and stays as permanent growth.
Here is something about insulin you might not know: Insulin is actually shown to cause hyperplasia of the muscle cells in a fetus. Something people rave about HGH doing, yet if you read my HGH article you will see that 40 years worth of studies have never once shown actual MUSCLE tissue growth via hypertrophy or hyperplasia so all the stuff you see online on HGH inducing hyperplasia simply makes no sense. If it was causing new muscle cells to be had via hyperplasia, then the huge 280lb Bodybuilder wouldn’t be able to shrink down to 150lbs again, they would stay at 280lbs. Yet funnily we see their permanent bone growth stick around yet their muscles shrivel away to 150lbs. So much for hyperplasia right? In those same 40 years of studies, they have shown HGH to cause bone and tendon growth which is something a lot harder to do than muscle growth. Yet they could not produce a single spec of muscle even at doses as high as 27iu a day. So, the only thing we have pointed towards hyperplasia of muscles is with insulin, although it is not amazing evidence, it is a lot stronger than the (lack of) evidence for muscle hyperplasia with HGH (The insulin studies were not done in adult humans but it is still something that requires further studies).
When to use insulin, optimally for growth.
At every meal.
The whole “pre workout/post workout utilization” has never made any sense for insulin use optimally. When you work out does that mean the only time you are growing is during those couple of hours? If so then why not only eat during your workout period and call the rest of the day done for? It is well known that we don’t grow during the workout but in the rest and recovery time outside of the gym. So we eat dinner after, we eat breakfast the next day, we eat lunch etc, and all of this is helping grow our muscles we damaged inside the gym. And what is happening every single time we eat? We are releasing insulin. And why? Because insulin is needed for the muscles to repair/grow, period. Without insulin you would not grow a single ounce of muscle, that is a full out 100% fact. You could say that insulin is the single most important hormone for muscle building. If you block insulin’s effect you fully block muscle growth. You can have basically no androgen or sex hormones and still grow muscle that’s also a fact, but insulin you cannot.
So with us eating multiple times during the day to repair our muscles, and us needing insulin to shuttle nutrients to repair our muscles, it goes without saying that we need insulin every single meal. Namely for those who are eating insane amounts to grow, and/or on drugs like HGH at bodybuilding doses, hurting your ability to grow as optimally as possible. With using insulin at every meal, besides optimizing the nutrients you are eating every single meal to optimize your growth, you also get the added benefit of insulins effect on keeping your blood sugar in a very healthy range, which it might not be as a bodybuilder due to the factors I’ve already stated.
You wouldn't eat just once a day would you near your workout? You also wouldn't just want your workout timing to optimally drive nutrients to the muscles, would you? I am sure you would like every meal you ate to be optimally used to its fullest for muscle growth and health. So, you need to use insulin at every meal not just once a day, just like your body doesn’t naturally make insulin for one meal a day either (elaborate/clarify??)
Continued...
This is going to be a big topic and hopefully, I don't leave anything out. So without further ado… here we go.
Insulin, what does it do?
Let’s focus on the main function of Insulin here: taking glucose and amino acids to our lovely muscle cells (Insulin has many other functions such as driving potassium and much more but let’s focus on the main aspect most want to hear in relation to Bodybuilding).
Why is insulin needed?
So insulin drives glucose and amino acids straight to our muscles, which is what we love so much about it, right? Of course! Because sometimes as a Bodybuilder you might not be able to adequately shuttle all the nutrients to your muscles (due to many different factors). One such factor is eating insanely high amounts of food. Eat all you want, but if you are not able to shuttle nutrients to your muscles optimally you will suffer health consequences and just urinate that extra glucose out.
Another factor: drugs Bodybuilders use, such as HGH. Every study ever done on HGH shows it worsens insulin sensitivity. Now add to this fact that generally higher doses of HGH cause even worse insulin sensitivity, and you can see how many can end up with a very severe state of insulin resistance. Like we hear time and time again from actual IFBB pro Bodybuilders, that they had felt HGH slowed and even prevented muscle gains for them while using it. They either only used it pre-contest or realized they needed to add in insulin because if HGH is causing insulin sensitivity to worsen and muscles are not getting nutrients then their muscles will not grow, on the contrary, they might even shrink. A side note: before insulin was discovered and with undiagnosed diabetics, it was known as the wasting disease because patients would waste away. They would urinate their glucose out while their muscles starved until they eventually died. Obviously, you are not going to die, you are just not getting all of the nutrients into your muscles like you once were when your insulin sensitivity was good.
Hyperplasia, hypertrophy, and HGH.
The difference between hyperplasia and hypertrophy is very basically: Hypertrophy is the growth of the cell which is not necessarily permanent. Hyperplasia is the cell splitting into 2 new cells and stays as permanent growth.
Here is something about insulin you might not know: Insulin is actually shown to cause hyperplasia of the muscle cells in a fetus. Something people rave about HGH doing, yet if you read my HGH article you will see that 40 years worth of studies have never once shown actual MUSCLE tissue growth via hypertrophy or hyperplasia so all the stuff you see online on HGH inducing hyperplasia simply makes no sense. If it was causing new muscle cells to be had via hyperplasia, then the huge 280lb Bodybuilder wouldn’t be able to shrink down to 150lbs again, they would stay at 280lbs. Yet funnily we see their permanent bone growth stick around yet their muscles shrivel away to 150lbs. So much for hyperplasia right? In those same 40 years of studies, they have shown HGH to cause bone and tendon growth which is something a lot harder to do than muscle growth. Yet they could not produce a single spec of muscle even at doses as high as 27iu a day. So, the only thing we have pointed towards hyperplasia of muscles is with insulin, although it is not amazing evidence, it is a lot stronger than the (lack of) evidence for muscle hyperplasia with HGH (The insulin studies were not done in adult humans but it is still something that requires further studies).
When to use insulin, optimally for growth.
At every meal.
The whole “pre workout/post workout utilization” has never made any sense for insulin use optimally. When you work out does that mean the only time you are growing is during those couple of hours? If so then why not only eat during your workout period and call the rest of the day done for? It is well known that we don’t grow during the workout but in the rest and recovery time outside of the gym. So we eat dinner after, we eat breakfast the next day, we eat lunch etc, and all of this is helping grow our muscles we damaged inside the gym. And what is happening every single time we eat? We are releasing insulin. And why? Because insulin is needed for the muscles to repair/grow, period. Without insulin you would not grow a single ounce of muscle, that is a full out 100% fact. You could say that insulin is the single most important hormone for muscle building. If you block insulin’s effect you fully block muscle growth. You can have basically no androgen or sex hormones and still grow muscle that’s also a fact, but insulin you cannot.
So with us eating multiple times during the day to repair our muscles, and us needing insulin to shuttle nutrients to repair our muscles, it goes without saying that we need insulin every single meal. Namely for those who are eating insane amounts to grow, and/or on drugs like HGH at bodybuilding doses, hurting your ability to grow as optimally as possible. With using insulin at every meal, besides optimizing the nutrients you are eating every single meal to optimize your growth, you also get the added benefit of insulins effect on keeping your blood sugar in a very healthy range, which it might not be as a bodybuilder due to the factors I’ve already stated.
You wouldn't eat just once a day would you near your workout? You also wouldn't just want your workout timing to optimally drive nutrients to the muscles, would you? I am sure you would like every meal you ate to be optimally used to its fullest for muscle growth and health. So, you need to use insulin at every meal not just once a day, just like your body doesn’t naturally make insulin for one meal a day either (elaborate/clarify??)
Continued...