Weight cycling is a phenomenon that starts with insulin resistance and causes increased fat stores and weight gain. It can make weight loss seem like an impossible feat.

Insulin is a hormone that causes cells to absorb glucose (sugar) from the blood. Glucose is what feeds your cells so your body has energy all day long. Here's how insulin works, when the system is working perfectly:  First, when you eat a meal, glucose from food is released into your blood.  In response to this increased sugar load, your body releases insulin. Insulin will then bind to the receptors on your cells’ moving transporters, which come to the surface of the cell and help move the sugar into the cell to be used later as fuel.

There's a brutal cycle that can evolve if the system is disrupted, however, making it much harder to lose weight. This happens when you become insulin resistant. Insulin can still bind to the receptors, but the signal won't get through, and your sugar transporters therefore aren't directed to the surface of the cell. This resistance is caused by fat droplets stored in the tissues where they don't belong. Can you guess where those fat droplets come from? You guessed it, your abdominal fat. The more body fat you have, the more insulin resistant you become. Your body will then try to compensate for this resistance and release more insulin. The result: hyperinsulinemia.

Hyperinsulinemia means there's a high level of insulin circulating in our blood. It's trying to get the sugar transports to come to the surface of the cells, but they don't receive the message because the fat that's in the cell—where it doesn't belong—muffles the communication.

So what's the big deal? Well, this is the start to the seemingly never-ending circle of weight cycling. This is the cycle that can make weight loss seem impossible.  Insulin resistance leads to hyperinsulinemia, and hyperglycemia—too much sugar in the blood. And remember good old leptin? At this point, you become leptin resistant. The signal that you're satiated after eating is blocked. You then enter the stage called hyperphagia—your appetite increases— and you begin to overeat because you're craving and consuming more sugary foods.

This results in yet more sugar in the blood and increased hyperinsulinemia. All that sugar is hanging out in the blood and not being used by your cells. You continue to overeat, which contributes to your obesity, and this in turn increases your body fat, blocking insulin's ability to push sugars into the cell. All that sugar has to go somewhere, and so it does—into more of your fat stores. See what I mean when I said it was a never-ending cycle?

The million-dollar question is, how do you break the cycle? You have to reduce your sugar intake and reduce your body fat. Fortunately, the fat you will lose initially will be the fat that doesn't belong in the muscle cells, which is the fat that's making you insulin resistant. This will make you more insulin sensitive and less hungry, and you'll utilize your energy better as fuel.

Stay tuned and I'll let you in on some of the secret tools I give my clients to help break this circle of weight cycling.