If you did not read it. Read this first about why insulin should be your focus.
Ok so you read part-1 of this. It sounds reasonable that glucose and insulin might be the problem not too many calories. So you are asking. What do I do?
Do yourself a favor and get a CGM (continuous glucose monitor). Because each person is unique and many cyclists love technology and gadgets, I suggest getting a CGM and see what causes YOUR glucose spikes. We suggest the 14-day Freestyle Libre 1 is good and around $50. It will connect to your phone.
A CGM allows you to test the foods YOU EAT and life YOU HAVE, not some generic idea of foods presented in a book. You can see how you eat affects your blood sugar (glucose) and how to make modifications to reduce your glucose levels. This is revolutionary. This is like having a diet coach following you around 24/7. Even for 2-weeks ($50) could be enough to change everything. You might be so addicted to this information that you decide to do it longer to continue to optimize your food/life plan.
If you have a CGM, you can test some “simple hacks.” These hacks I am suggesting below come from a fantastic book called the Glucose Revolution.
There is nothing better than seeing real time feedback to changes from YOUR BODY to support you continuing to following them. You can also do these hacks without a CGM and just trust that they work and you are likely to see changes within a week or two, depending on how aggressive you are. If you don’t plan to use a CGM, I would say reading that book is a must.
My first hack is not from that book, but is the one I use the most. Intermittent fasting (IF). You need to experiment. Start at 16/8 for example. Only eating 8 hours a day, that might mean skipping breakfast, for example. For many people, shifting to eating or getting any calories 8-hours a day is not very hard. It was easy for me. Below is not my plan, but you can see an example.
One great thing as a cyclist is if you are doing a long ride and want to do pure carbs for energy. During harder exercise, many people don’t see spikes, so it can be a free eating period 🙂
The Glucose Revolution Book — 10 Hacks
- Eat in the right order — You will see a significant decrease in your spikes if you eat fiber, then fats and protein and finally carbs. Those quick snack carbs are a killer.
- Add a green starter to all your meals. A salad with oil and vinegar, for example. Even a few bites of broccoli. I even take phyllium husk pills with water for emergencies. There are tons of solutions.
- Stop counting calories — They don’t matter and disrupt your focus
- Flatten your breakfast curve — Starting with a carb heavy breakfast and, even worse, a sweet breakfast is a killer. It sets you up for a glucose crash that makes you super hungry and comes with a high glucose spike.
- Have any type of sugar you like. They are all the same. — Stevia might sound good. The reality is it does not spike your glucose levels, but spikes your insulin just the same as sugar does. Since your only goal is reducing insulin spikes and calories don’t matter, you might as well have the full sugar option. Drink a real Coke, not Coke Zero, unless you really like the Zero option better.
- Pick a desert over a snack — It’s much better to have that wonderful cheese cake after dinner than the snickers as a snack. Snacks cause huge glucose spikes. Deserts after meals have less of an impact.
- Reach for vinegar before you eat carb snack — If you are in an emergency, a teaspoon of apple vinegar before that sweet snack can have a big impact on your glucose spike.
- After you eat, move — If you go on a 20–30-minute walk after eating or any kind of exercise, it can lower your glucose spike significantly.
- If you have to snack go savory — For example, choose something spicy over something sweet.
- Put some clothes on your carbs — Don’t eat carbs all by themselves. Add a lot of olive oil to bread. Add any fiber, fat, or protein to your carbs while eating them. Carbs by themselves cause large spikes.
Here is the link to the book. Well worth reading to understand these 10-hacks.
Glucose Revolution: The life-changing power of balancing your blood sugar
I would add one more hack. This would be to reduce the number of times you consume calories during the day. 2 or 3 meals, eat as much as you want. No snacking or calorie drinks in between.
Personally, I have learned to add olive oil to lots of foods. Tortilla’s soaked in olive oil. Get creative. Watch on the CGM how your own hacks fatten your glucose curve.
So you can mix and match these hacks. I would guess if you started eating 8-hours a day and taking a few of these hacks, you will start seeing immediate results. Shorten 8-hours to 6 and take on a few more and you could see rapid loss.
The entire goal is to flatten your glucose curve. Without the big ups, you don’t have the big crashes, so you are much less likely to be hungry between meals. Here is what I mean by flatten the curve.
You can also follow the glucosegoddess on Instagram. She has 500k followers and the writer of the Glucose Revolution book.
In my next article, I will share my personal success story. I now have a dead simple plan that will easily keep me at my target weight and allow short periods of deviation from the plan and a simple way to get back on target.