All Episodes

December 18, 2024 15 mins

In today’s episode, we explore four proven strategies to naturally reverse insulin resistance and improve your insulin sensitivity. This episode is packed with actionable tips and insights, including:

  • Why reducing fat intake—not carbohydrates—is the key to insulin sensitivity

  • How Zone 2 exercise can supercharge glucose uptake in your muscles

  • The surprising ways sleep impacts your insulin needs and overall metabolic health

  • How intermittent fasting can reset your cells and optimize your insulin response

You’ll also learn why insulin isn’t the enemy and how focusing on insulin sensitivity can transform your diabetes health. Robby shares his personal journey of becoming one of the most insulin-sensitive people on the planet and provides science-backed tips you can implement right away.

 

Link to subscribe to YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@MasteringDiabetes?sub_confirmation=1

Link to recipes: https://www.masteringdiabetes.org/recipe/

 

Mark as Played
Transcript

Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
You need to keep your insulinlow. This is how you can improve

(00:03):
your insulin sensitivities. 48%more
insulin sensitive. One of thebiggest contributors to insulin
resistance is a poor diet. Theover consumption
of carbs is the reason why somany people are insulin
resistant.
Welcome to the masteringdiabetes audio experience in
today's podcast, you'll behearing the audio from a recent

(00:25):
video we published on ourYouTube channel. If you haven't
checked out the masteringdiabetes YouTube channel lately,
definitely go have a look. Wehave some great new science
videos and lots of case studiesas well. Make sure to subscribe
on YouTube, so you'll benotified of new videos that we
post each week in today'spodcast, you'll learn about four

(00:47):
proven strategies to reverseinsulin resistance. If you're
new to this podcast, the wholeconcept of reversing insulin
resistance and becoming insulinsensitive is the entire premise
of what we teach here. So if youwant to make the most of the
insulin your body produces, orthe insulin you inject, you have

(01:09):
come to the right place. Withthat said, let's get into the
show. Am I the most insulinsensitive person on planet Earth
is debatable, but I'm certainlyone of them, and in this video,
I'll teach you how you can jointhe party. The journey to become

(01:30):
the most insulin sensitiveperson who's ever lived has led
me to discover a lot about howto reverse insulin resistance.
The number one, most importantindicator of diabetes health is
your insulin sensitivity, whichmeans how efficiently and
effectively your body usesinsulin. In this video, I'm

(01:52):
going to teach you about fourways to naturally boost your
insulin sensitivity. Forreference, I am 2,100% more
insulin sensitive than yourtypical type one eating a low
carb diet, I eat approximately700 grams of carbohydrates per
day, and use a physiologicallynormal amount of insulin, just

(02:17):
so you understand thatdiscrepancy. Published research
shows that low carb eaters whoconsume 30 grams of carbs per
day require 30 units of totalinsulin. On the other hand, all
consume over 700 grams ofcarbohydrates per day and
require less total insulin,approximately 27 units per day.

(02:42):
This shows that my body is veryinsulin sensitive, because it's
using that insulin veryefficiently. If that sounds
crazy to you, you're in theright place. I like being crazy
because being normal is prettyterrible when it comes to
diabetes health. Today, I'mgoing to teach you how I have

(03:03):
achieved these resultsconsistently for over 18 years.
And these are all things thatyou can do as well. Back when I
was in college, I tried eating alow carbohydrate diet. At first
it felt like it was working. Iwas eating only 30 grams of
carbohydrate per day, and mytotal insulin use was coming

(03:25):
down. I thought, hey, this isworking. I must be doing
something right. But I didn'tfeel that great physically.
Actually, I felt prettyterrible. I felt tired all the
time. I had no energy, and Ieven blacked out a few times. I
knew something was wrong, and inhindsight, I now know that my
insulin sensitivity wasterrible. I started seeking out

(03:49):
more information about my body,nutrition and diabetes, and
discovered two important things.Number one, that the body's
primary and preferred source ofenergy is carbohydrates, and
number two that taking lessinsulin does not mean you are
more insulin sensitive orhealthier. What I realized is

(04:11):
that insulin is not like othermedications, where you want to
take as little as possible.Insulin is a hormone that
healthy people's bodies make forthem. So the goal as a person
living with type one diabetes isnot to not need any insulin, but
rather to need only what a nondiabetic person's body would

(04:31):
need. If you're living with typetwo diabetes or any other form
of diabetes, you can find outhow much insulin your body is
still producing on its own via aC peptide test. Once I realized
this, my goal was no longer totake as little insulin as
possible, but instead to help mybody be able to use insulin as
effectively as possible, aka, tobe as insulin sensitive as

(04:55):
possible, I started reading,researching and going through my
own. Own trial and error to findthe best methods for boosting
insulin sensitivity, and havesince been able to see firsthand
the same experience in 1000s ofclients that have been through
the mastering diabetes coachingprogram. Here's what I've
learned. Number one, reducingfat intake to under 15% of daily

(05:21):
calories. Most people get mixedup and think that they need to
reduce their carbohydrate intaketo improve their diabetes
health. But we found that thebest results for improving
insulin sensitivity actuallycome from reducing fat. For our
clients, we encourage a low fatdiet consisting of mostly or

(05:46):
completely plant based foods,and that's what I've personally
been doing for almost 20 years,with great results. The reason
this works is because when youeat too much fat, the excess
gets stored in your cells, andblocks the insulin from doing
its job of transporting glucoseinto those cells. When you eat a

(06:09):
lower fat diet, it enables yourbody to process carbohydrates
more effectively, and thereforeprotects against high blood
glucose. Multiple studies havedocumented this exact process
from the 1960s to today, andpublished in 2024 I personally
worked with a group ofresearchers on a randomized

(06:30):
clinical trial. In the study,the low fat group decreased
their insulin requirements by28% and they improved their
insulin sensitivity by 127%
all without any limit on totalcarbohydrates. It's really sad
to me that so many people makecarbohydrates the bad guy when

(06:51):
they aren't. I'm not saying thatprocessed carbs, soaked in fat,
like donuts are healthy, but lowfat, high carb foods like
mangoes, potatoes and brown riceare actually ideal for diabetes
health, and they will help youboost your insulin sensitivity.
If being able to eat largeamounts of mangoes is music to

(07:11):
your ears, keep watching,because I have three more ways
for you to achieve legendaryinsulin sensitivity. Now you
might not love exercise as muchas you love mangoes, but I still
bet that the next tip is goingto feel like good news, and is
something you can easily putinto practice. Tool number two

(07:32):
for boosting insulin sensitivityis exercise, specifically zone
two exercise, the kind where youcan feel your body working, but
you can still hold aconversation while you're doing
it. The great thing about thisis that it doesn't have to be
high intensity interval workouttraining or something you don't

(07:53):
enjoy almost any way that youhave fun moving your body can be
zone two exercise, whether thatis pickleball, doing a Zumba
class, roller blading, or goingfor a light run on the beach
with a friend, the reason whyzone two training is so powerful
for increasing insulinsensitivity is because it's the

(08:14):
single most effective way Toincrease glucose transporters
for your muscle cells. Glucosetransporters are like doors into
the muscle cell. When youexercise at a zone two level,
you add more doors for moreglucose to get into the muscle
cells, which lowers your body'sinsulin needs. And zone two

(08:36):
exercise is a gift that justkeeps on giving. Studies have
shown that even after you finishexercising, your muscle cells
continue to have those extradoors and are more efficient in
taking in glucose from thebloodstream for literally days
after the exercise, it's worthit to move your body. Find a

(08:57):
form of exercise that is fun foryou, and ideally, that you can
do with friends too, so that youcan do it consistently and enjoy
your life at the same time.Funny enough, the exact opposite
of exercise is also great forinsulin sensitivity. If you
don't like exercise, maybe sleepis more your thing, and that is
perfect, because that is also aneasy and effective way to boost

(09:21):
insulin sensitivity. Sleep helpsyour body to regulate glucose
metabolism and stay in a healthyoverall hormonal balance. This
directly affects insulinsensitivity on a nightly basis
and over time, it affects otherrelated issues like weight,
inflammation and appetite,creating even more influence on

(09:46):
your insulin sensitivity. Overthe past 50 years, the average
amount of sleep we get hasdecreased by one and a half to
two hours, and this is bychoice. It's easy to think that
it's not a big deal. Be able tomiss a few hours of sleep, and I
definitely used to fall intothat category myself. But
studies have shown that sleeprestrictions such as getting

(10:09):
about five hours of sleep overthe course of one week reduce
participants' insulinsensitivity by an average of 20%
and even just a single night ofsleep has been shown to reduce
insulin sensitivity by 20 to 25%since learning more about how
sleep impacts insulinsensitivity, I've become much

(10:29):
more mindful about making sure Iget at least seven hours each
night, and while all of thetypical sleep hygiene tactics
you hear about like reducingyour exposure to blue light
before going to bed and sleepingwith the room at a colder
temperature are real. There'sone thing that I don't often
hear brought to theconversation, one very, very

(10:52):
highly effective thing. Thething I'm referring to is why I
try to finish my last meal ofthe day by 5pm and that thing
is, intermittent fasting, notonly do you get higher quality
sleep when you stop eating a fewhours before you go to bed, but
you also improve your insulinsensitivity at the same time. I
love efficiency andproductivity, so I love it when

(11:15):
I can do one thing and getmultiple benefits from it. If
you haven't heard of it before,intermittent fasting refers to
an eating pattern that includesperiods of fasting in which you
do not consume any food for aperiod of time, such as a 16
eight formula, where you fastfor 16 hours and eat for eight
hours each day. Here's whyintermittent fasting works. When

(11:37):
you are fasting, your insulinlevels naturally drop because
you're not eating anything, soyou don't need any insulin for
food. When your cells get thatrest period, they end up being
more insulin sensitive once youdo begin eating again, think of
it like noise. If you're exposedto loud noise all day, you might

(11:58):
start tuning it out. Similarly,if your cells are exposed to
insulin all the time, they canstart tuning it out. They'll
tune out insulin signal leadingto insulin resistance. The
opposite effect happens whenthings are silent and then you
hear a noise, you are much morelikely to notice it and have a

(12:19):
bigger response, like beingstartled and again. The same is
true with insulin. Your cellswill be more sensitive to
insulin when it comes after arest period. Fasting can be done
in many ways, but some are oftenunsustainable and can backfire
if the fast makes you so hungryand irritable that you overeat

(12:41):
on the other side or reach forhigh calorie comfort foods, the
16, eight style fasting that Idescribed earlier has been shown
in studies to be effective forimproving insulin sensitivity,
even in the absence of anyreduction of overall calorie
intake. So we recommend startingthere. To sum up everything I've
been talking about today,insulin is not the enemy.

(13:05):
Insulin is a natural hormonethat every non diabetic person's
body makes. The goal is not touse as little insulin as
possible, but rather to makeyour body as insulin sensitive
as possible, aka, to become asefficient as possible at using
insulin insulin resistance isthe root issue in complications

(13:28):
from diabetes, and that is theactual disease process that
leads to other chronic issuesand worsening health over time.
Insulin sensitivity is theopposite. If you focus on
insulin sensitivity, you improveyour health and help your body
to thrive long term, and today,I taught you four key ways to

(13:50):
naturally boost your insulinsensitivity that you can
implement, starting right now.Number one, reduce your fat
intake to under 15% of yourdaily calories. This happens
easily if you eat a plant baseddiet that is centered on whole
foods, like fruits, starchyvegetables, legumes, intact,

(14:10):
whole grains, non starchyvegetables and greens. Number
two, Zone Two, exercise. Findsomething you enjoy doing that
involves movement. Do it with afriend and do it often. Number
three, sleep seven to eighthours each night. Number four,
and keep your daily eatingwithin an eight hour window,
allowing your body to fast for16 hours in between. In my

(14:34):
experience, changing my diet wasthe number one most effective
and powerful thing I've done toboost my insulin sensitivity and
so many other benefits came fromthat single change. If you want
a copy of our free, foolproofguide for eating to have the
best insulin sensitivity of yourlife, click the link in the

(14:56):
notes below to get a copy. Ithas 16 page. Of expert advice,
scientific research and easyrecipes to make food feel simple
and straightforward. Thanks forwatching today. If this was
helpful, please give the video athumbs up and subscribe so you
can get more tips from me and myco founder, Cyrus, to

(15:16):
revolutionize your diabeteshealth. Hope. Okay, there you
have it. Thanks for listening tothis week's podcast. I hope you
take action on this information,and if you're looking for
accountability, support andcoaching, go to our website and
book a free discovery call.Simply go to

(15:38):
masteringdiabetes.org ClickStart here, and you'll be able
to book your call. There's alsoa lot of great recipes on the
website, lots of great articles.If you haven't been there
lately, go check that out aswell, in addition to our YouTube
channel. All right, catch you onthe next show you
Advertise With Us

Popular Podcasts

Crime Junkie

Crime Junkie

Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.

24/7 News: The Latest

24/7 News: The Latest

The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.

Stuff You Should Know

Stuff You Should Know

If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.

Music, radio and podcasts, all free. Listen online or download the iHeart App.

Connect

© 2025 iHeartMedia, Inc.