5 Ways to Turn Food Into Muscle, Not Fat

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by TC Luoma (/all-articles/authors/tc) | 09/14/15 Expert Insights To Get
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Tags: Insulin Sensitivity (/all-articles/tags/insulin-sensitivity), Diet

Strategy (/all-articles/tags/diet-strategy)

Here's what you need to know...

1.  Insulin sensitivity is crucial. If your muscle mass is not sensitive to insulin, a lot
of the food you eat won't be delivered to muscle cells, but instead stored as fat.

(/store)
2.  Eat protein and fats first. When you sit down to eat a meal, have protein,
vegetables, and fat before you eat carbs.

3.  Take Cyanidin 3-Glucoside. C3G lowers blood glucose, prevents the storage of
fat, and maximizes muscle nutrient uptake.

4.  Vinegar increases insulin sensitivity. Use it as a salad dressing or take two

tablespoons of apple cider vinegar before big meals.

5.  Have psyllium twice a day. It lowers post-meal blood sugar levels.

6.  Exercise and take fish oil. Combined, these have a blood-sugar lowering effect,
more so than either by itself.

Carb Restriction is Bad News

Insulin can make you fat or it can make you lean and
muscular. It all depends on whether you're insulin
sensitive or insulin resistant. Without optimal insulin
sensitivity, all that protein you eat never gets delivered
to muscle. Instead, a lot of it goes to fat.

Unaware of that physiological fact, people tend to avoid insulin

release by constantly eating low-carb diets. Avoidance not only
doesn't fix the problem, it leaves you impaired for muscle growth.

The only smart option is to optimize insulin sensitivity and start

using carbs to build muscle. So, instead of worrying about carbs
and insulin, make them work for you. Here are five nutritional
strategies to use:

Strategy #1 – Eat Protein and Fat First

Whenever you sit down to eat a meal, make sure you eat some
protein, vegetables, and fat before you so much as take the first
nibble of your ciabatta bread, pasta, or rice. Eating non-carb foods
first leads to lower post-meal glucose and insulin levels. So rather
than fearing carbs, take away some of their belly-fat potential by
putting them at the end of the line.

Studies have shown that eating protein, vegetables and fat leads to
significantly lower blood sugar levels – 29 percent, 37 percent, and
17 percent at 30, 60, and 120-minute post-meal blood samples.

As an added bonus, eating your foods in the order prescribed will

also make you a lot less sleepy after your midday lunch, as eating
some protein first will interfere with the production of the sleepy-
time neurotransmitter serotonin.

Put Carbs First for Workouts

There's one time of day when you need think of carbs first, and
that's around your workout. You want an insulin surge going into
your workout to maximize nutrient (carbs and fast-acting proteins)
uptake into muscle. You need carbs to build muscle efficiently.
Don't forget it.

The Takeaway

To control insulin, eat your protein, vegetables, and fat before you
even have a mouthful of carbohydrates. However, during peri-
workout meals flip-flop the strategy and have your carbs first.

Strategy #2 – Take Cyanidin 3-Glucoside

Cyanidin 3-Glucoside (C3G) (https://biotest.t-
nation.com/products/indigo-3g) is a naturally occurring
anthocyanin found in many varieties of dark-colored berries. When
isolated and taken in exponentially larger quantities in supplement
form, it has powerful blood-glucose lowering properties.

(//www.t-
One of dozens of lab experiments with C3G showed dosage-related
decreases in blood glucose of 33% and 51%, prompting the authors
of the study to remark how favorably it compared to glucose-
disposal pharmaceuticals.

C3G acts a bit differently than other insulin-modulating substances

or protocols in that it appears to be a potent AMPK modulator,
nation.com/workouts/american-sniper-workout)
which ends up increasing glucose and lipid uptake specifically in
muscle cells, which is great news for athletes or anyone wanting a
better body comp.

Aside from being a powerful glucose disposal agent, C3G also

raises adipokinectin levels while decreasing leptin levels, both of
which lead to less body fat. People who take C3G can literally
ingest more calories and see them partitioned to muscle instead of
fat.
(https://biotest.t-nation.com/packages/velocity-
diet)
The Takeaway

Take 2400 to 3600 milligrams of C3G thirty minutes before your

biggest meal of the day or your pre-workout nutrition. Indigo-3G is
the most potent form on the market. Most others are greatly
underdosed. You can get it here (https://biotest.t-
nation.com/products/indigo-3g).

Strategy #3 – Pour Vinegar on Everything

Whenever you have a salad, use vinegar as salad dressing. Vinegar

not only attenuates the glucose and insulin response from a carb
meal, it raises insulin sensitivity.

Several studies have confirmed this, and one study reports that
vinegar raised insulin sensitivity at the 60-minute post-meal point
by an impressive 34%. It does this because acetic acid (vinegar)
suppresses disaccharidase activity, giving it physiological effects
similar to acarbose or metformin, two drugs used to treat Type II
diabetes.

Another study took 29 people and divided them into three groups:
one group with type II diabetes, one with pre-diabetic signs, and
one group that was healthy. All were given apple cider vinegar
before a meal. The results were pretty impressive:

All three groups had better blood sugar readings with vinegar than with placebo.

The group with diabetes improved blood sugar by 25 percent.

 The group with pre-diabetic symptoms had lower blood sugar than even the
healthy group.

The group with pre-diabetic symptoms benefitted the most as their blood glucose
concentrations were cut almost in half.

A follow-up study also revealed that the continued use of vinegar

led to an average weight loss of two pounds in four weeks, and
another found that when people with type II diabetes took two
tablespoons of apple cider vinegar before bed, their fasting blood
sugar test the next morning was lowered by 4 to 6 percent.

The Takeaway

Use vinegar on your foods. Or take two tablespoons of apple cider

vinegar before your biggest, carbiest, non-peri-workout meal of the
day.

Strategy #4 – Take Psyllium Like a Grandpa

Sure, psyllium gives your bowels what I call the Fed-Ex treatment in
that you deliver tightly and efficiently wrapped packages
absolutely, positively on time, but psyllium also lowers post-meal
blood sugar levels.

In one study, 34 men with type II diabetes were randomly assigned

to receive 5.1 grams of psyllium or placebo twice a day for 8 weeks.
The psyllium group showed post-lunch blood sugar levels that were
19.2 percent lower than placebo and all-day blood sugar levels that
were 11 percent lower than placebo.

The Takeaway

Take one teaspoon of psyllium (such as Metamucil) with water

twice a day. While there's some advantage to taking doses before a
high-carb meal, the glucose-lowering effects seem to be somewhat
independent of meal timing. Avoid taking it before your pre-workout
or post-workout meal.

Strategy #5 – Get Your Fish Oil In

Google just about any malady known to man and there'll either be
studies or strong deductive reasoning to support using fish oil as a
treatment.

Insulin insensitivity is no different, except for the sheer volume of

studies that support its use in ameliorating the condition. The
association is so strong, in fact, that fish oil is said to rival the
effects of exercise on blood sugar. However, new research
conducted on 344 subjects suggested that fish oil, combined with
exercise, has a synergistic effect in that the blood-sugar lowering
effects are intensified over that of exercise or fish oil by itself. (//www.t-
 (//www.t-
Furthermore, fish oil (https://biotest.t-
nation.com/products/flameout) is shown not only to make cells
more sensitive to insulin, but also to reduce the secretion of insulin
by the pancreas.

The Takeaway
nation.com/free_online_forum/sports_women_training_performance

For therapeutic effects (blood sugar lowering, inflammation

fighting), take a minimum of 3 grams of combined DHA and EPA
(omega-3 fatty acids). Again, don't take them before your pre-
workout or post-workout meals, though.

Related:  More on the role of insulin and muscle growth

(https://www.t-nation.com/supplements/eat-big-and-gain-nothing-but-muscle)
Related:  The Master Switch for More Muscle and Less Fat
(https://www.t-nation.com/supplements/master-switch-for-more-muscle-less-fat)

References

1.  Alpana, P., et al, Food Order Has a Significant Impact on Postprandial Glucose
and Insulin Levels, Diabetes Care July 2015 vol. 38 no.7 e98-e99.

2.  Anderson, James, et al, Effects of psyllium on glucose and serum lipid

responses in men with type 2 diabetes and hypercholesterolemia, Am J Clin Nutr
October 1999 vol. 70 no. 4 466-473.

3.  Johnston, Carol S., et al, Vinegar Improves Insulin Sensitivity to a High-

Carbohydrate Meal in Subjects With Insulin Resistance or Type 2 Diabetes Care,
January 2004 vol. 27 no. 1 281-282.

4.  Grace, et al, Hypoglycemic activity of a novel Anthocyanin-rich formulation

from Lowbush Blueberry, Vaccinium angustifolium Aiton, Phytomedicine, 2009,
May: 16(5): 406-415.

5.  Muldoon, et al, Concurrent physical activity modifies the association between

n3 long-chain fatty acids and cardiometabolic risk in midlife adults, J Nutr. 2013
Sep;143(9):1414-20.

6.  Sasaki, R, et al, Cyanidin 3-glucoside ameliorates hyperglycemia and insulin

sensitivity due to downregulation of retinol binding protein 4 expression in diabetic
mice, Biochem Pharmacol. 2007 Dec 3;74(11):1619-27. Epub 2007 Aug 10.

09/14/15