Is insulin resistance the hidden culprit behind your weight gain? When we’re struggling to release excess weight, the fatigue is through the roof, and we feel like our brain is operating at half capacity, it’s easy to blame it on the thyroid. At the end of the day these are hallmark thyroid symptoms. But what if I told you that there’s another hormonal imbalance that might be hiding behind your symptoms?

A condition that is a epidemic of our modern times, yet it’s not often talked about.

It leads to a stubborn weight gain (particularly in the middle), brain fog, high cortisol, hormonal imbalances and high blood sugar. It can negatively affect your thyroid hormones and contribute to body wide inflammation.

Let’s talk about Insulin Resistance.

What is insulin resistance and how does it affect your body?

Insulin resistance is a condition where the cells in your body don’t respond well to insulin, a hormone produced by the pancreas. Insulin’s main job is to help regulate your blood sugar levels by allowing sugar (glucose) from the bloodstream to enter your cells, where it’s used for energy.

In insulin resistance, your cells become less sensitive to insulin’s signals, so they don’t take up glucose from the blood as efficiently as they should. This means that even though your pancreas may produce more insulin to try to compensate, the sugar levels in your blood remain higher than normal leading to increased fat storage, particularly around the abdomen (visceral fat).

In addition to that, insulin resistance can disrupt the balance of hunger-regulating hormones such as leptin and ghrelin, leading to increased appetite and cravings, particularly for high-carbohydrate and sugary foods. This vicious cycle of insulin resistance, weight gain, and dysregulated hunger hormones further exacerbates the condition, making weight management challenging.

But it’s not just about the weight. Unmanaged insulin resistance can have some very serious consequences, and as a key part of the metabolic syndrome can lead to type two diabetes and heart disease.

How insulin resistance develops

There are many factor that contribute to impaired insulin sensitivity: genetic predisposition, obesity, inactive lifestyle, high carbohydrates consumption, poor diet, poor sleep quality, chronic inflammation (also autoimmune inflammation , hormonal imbalances and yes, you guessed it, your thyroid condition also plays a role!

Insulin resistance is very common amongst hypothyroid patients (also subclinical!!) and there’s a good reason for that. Thyroid hormones T3 and T4 maintain a fine balance of glucose homeostasis by acting as insulin agonistic and antagonistic. Hypothyroidism can break this equilibrium and alter glucose metabolism, which can lead to insulin resistance.

Insulin sensitivity affects thyroid hormones

Elevated insulin levels, a hallmark of insulin resistance, can inhibit the conversion of thyroxine (T4) to its active form, triiodothyronine (T3), impairing thyroid hormone activity. This disruption can lead to hypothyroidism symptoms such as fatigue, weight gain, and sluggish metabolism.

Insulin resistance often co-exists with autoimmune thyroid disorders such as Hashimoto’s thyroiditis (behind 90% of thyroid conditions). Chronic inflammation resulting from insulin resistance can exacerbate autoimmune thyroid conditions, contributing to thyroid dysfunction and exacerbating symptoms.

Connection with other hormones

High insulin has a close relationship with cortisol (the main stress hormone produced by our adrenals), with cortisol spikes leading to increase in insulin. this in turn can lead to an increase of androgen hormones, making the insulin reistance worse. High insulin/ cortisol has been associated with polycystic ovary syndrome and androgenic hair loss.

What can you do to address it?

The most common advice I see if to lose weight but I don’t think that’s very helpful as one the key symptoms of insulin resistance is the inability to lose weight despite the efforts. In order to address insulin resistance, lose weight and see improvements in other symptoms we should focus on the three main areas: blood sugar regulation and preventing glucose spikes, achieving metabolic flexibility so our body can use either glucose or fat for fuel and nervous system regulation to optimise our cortisol levels and get out of the fight or flight.

Here’s how you can begin this process:

• Switching to a low carb diet, with increased intake of quality protein and healthy fats
• Start your day with a savoury breakfast with minimum 20g of protein
• Focus on three, well balanced meals and one snack (go for an option that combines protein and fat and avoid eating carbohydrates as snacks, leaving 10 hours in between your last meal and breakfast the next day
• Avoiding ultra-processed foods like ready made meals, chips, store bought treats, pasta, white bread, pizza etc
• Consider introducing intermittent fasting – this is an amazing tool for improving your metabolic flexibility but please make sure you do it safely, ideally with a guidance from a nutritional therapist like myself
• Avoid caffeine before breakfast to optimise your cortisol response and support your nervous system
• Learn self regulation tools like breath work to increase your stress resilience and work on your sleep quality (consistency and quality over length!)
• Consider supplementation. Chromium is great for balancing blood sugar and berberine has been known to improve insulin sensitivity
• And finally last but not least, introduce a movement routine that supports your metabolic health. Walking can be one of the most effective daily habits to support your glucose uptake, followed by strength training (start with bodyweight exercises like squats, sit ups a couple of times a week and build on that) and a restorative form of yoga or other somatic practice to further support your nervous system and a balanced cortisol production.

Hope you found this article insightful and inspiring. If you’re looking to learn more about thyroid, nervous system and sustainable weight loss follow me on Instagram and see here for more information on my thyroid healing courses and other support options.