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How Is Body Composition Related to Insulin Resistance?

How Is Body Composition Related to Insulin Resistance? (0:53)

Body composition is the amount of muscle vs. fat we have, and how it's metabolized; those who have muscle usually don't become insulin resistant, while people with excess body fat can. Watch endocrinologist Reza Yavari, MD, explain this concept.

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Body composition refers to, the amount of muscle and fat that our bodies have and it's distribution. So people who have excellent amount of muscles, they tend to be athletic and they tend to be very responsive to food, their blood sugars don't go high, their insulin levels remain low and they don't develop insulin resistance.

However, people who have excess body fats or not enough muscle they become insulin resistant because the sugar they consume has nowhere to go so basically just hangs around and levels goes up and insulin levels goes up accordingly. So body composition does matter, when it comes to metabolism in particular metabolism of sugar that we consume.