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TC Luoma – T Nation Editor

Improve your insulin sensitivity, starting with your next meal.

Okay, improving insulin sensitivity might not sound like a tip you can use right away. It sounds like some painstaking process that happens over a long period of time, like getting better at playing violin or hacky sack.

But you really can improve your insulin sensitivity right away, and at the same time coax your body into losing fat. Plus, when you do improve your insulin sensitivity over the long run, it's possible you may not have to ever pay attention to fat loss tips again because you'll have set your body up to stay continually lean, even in the face of future increased calorie intake.

Quite simply, insulin sensitivity largely determines how lean you are and how muscular you are. It improves the way your body partitions energy so that food calories are preferentially shuttled to muscle instead of fat. If insulin sensitivity is poor, you might look and feel squishy, or you might be reasonably lean everywhere except for a layer of overflowing fat around your waist that reminds everyone of the miniature volcano you once made for a school science project.

So do as many of the these insulin-sensitizing things as you can:

Take 2 tablespoons of vinegar before bed and/or use it as a salad dressing.Taking it before a meal can raise post-meal insulin sensitivity by 30 to 40%.Sprinkle 2-3 teaspoons of cinnamon into your breakfast oatmeal.It slows down how fast your food digests and reduces fasting insulin levels.Take 1 teaspoon of psyllium (found in Metamucil) twice a day.Researchers found that using it for 8 weeks reduced all-day blood sugar levels by 11%.



Tip: Ladies, Build Muscle to Get Leaner

Lift weights to lose fat. Use these 4 training tools for a smokin' physique.

byDani Shugart|12/02/15



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Tips

Never Sacrifice Muscle

Even when fat loss takes precedence, do your best to minimize catabolism (muscle loss). Why? Because muscle is pretty and it's metabolically expensive. Why would you want to destroy something that eats up calories and makes bodies look harder and tighter. And if you think your legs (or any other areas) are "too big" the worst thing you could do is try to atrophy them.

Don't get so weird about trying to lose weight or shrink body parts that you end up making yourself weak, skinny, flabby, and metabolically stunted. This is what happens when muscle gets the shaft. Weight train for the purpose of building more, not losing fat. Fat loss will happen easily and inadvertently if you become a fanatic about building muscle and being able to see that muscle.