Sugar, Muscle, Body Fat & Health.
A Glasgow Personal Trainers Thoughts…
Sugar is energy, in fact I would say sugar is our rocket fuel source of energy. Sugar supplies energy for our most intense forms of exercise, but eat more than our bodies can handle and it can get us in a whole host of cellular trouble.
I’ve found if clients understand what happens to their body when they consume sugar/ glucose/ carbs, it better equips them to employ the best strategies for for optimal body composition, performance and health.
In the following article we’ll look at how the body uses and stores sugar in blood, muscle, liver and fat. Finally at the end we’ll look at strategies and tactics for optimising how our body deals with sugar. Throughout the article I’ll use the measurements in teaspoons of sugar to make it easier to visualise and understand.
I find when clients understand sugars journey through these organs it unlocks the door to one of the biggest factors to better health and fitness. Hope you take something from it, enjoy.
Calculating Your Sugar Intake
4 grams= 1 teaspoon
Sugar content in teaspoons
Glucose is the dietary sugar our body uses to produce energy our cells use. From here on in when we use the word glucose, we mean sugar, and vice versa. The food groups that contain glucose are called carbohydrates. Complex carbohydrates like bread, pasta, rice and potatoes, contain long chains of glucose units held together like strings. Simple sugar carbs like sweets and honey have free floating glucose which are not held together by chains. Both complex carbohydrates and simple sugars are made up of glucose.
For simplicity and to help us visualise amounts we have calculated and illustrated glucose content in teaspoons, which we get by dividing the grams of total carbohydrates by 4. We have used both the complex carbs and simple sugars to calculate the teaspoons of glucose.
How Much Glucose Can The Body Use?
The following table shows how many teaspoons of glucose can be stored or held in blood, liver, and muscle. Notice how the amount that can be stored in the muscle varies according to its trained state. We will go into more detail on this soon, but have a look at the table.
Table 1- Potential Glucose Storage of Organs
| ORGAN | TEASPOONS OF GLUCOSE |
|---|---|
| Blood | 1 |
| Liver | 18 to 25 |
| Muscle- Sedentary person | 20 to 25 |
| Muscle- Moderatly active | 30 to 40 |
| Muscle- Active Person | 45 to 60 |
| Muscle- Athlete | 80 to 120 |
Next let’s look at the factors related to glucose in each of the organs in the above table.
Sugar And Your Blood
The Ideal Glucose Levels in Blood
The average person has 5 litres of blood circulating in their body. The blood glucose level of a fasted person should be 1 teaspoon of per 5 litres of blood. If a fasted person has 1.25 teaspoons, they’re considered pre-diabetic, if they have 1.5 teaspoons or more, they are considered diabetic. This is important to understand.
Too Much Glucose In The Blood
Even having half a teaspoon too much glucose in the blood is dangerous for the blood vessels as it causes glycation. Glycation is when sugar binds to protein molecules stripping them of there flexibility and function. Glycation of blood vessels restricts blood flow to vital organs like kidneys, eyes, brain, nerves and heart, which leads to irreversible damage in those organs due to poor oxygen supply. This is the main danger of developing type-2 diabetes.
A tell tale early sign of glycation in new clients from consuming too much glucose in their diet, is tight and stiff muscles. This worries me as I know if its happening in the muscle its more than likely to be happening in their blood vessels.
For all of the above reasons our bodies want to maintain 1 teaspoon of glucose per 5 litres of blood, and our bodies have evolved lots of strategies and tactics to maintain this optimal blood sugar balance. Let’s look at how it does this.
Using It At Source
Initially some of the glucose in our blood stream gets taken up passively in parts of the body like the blood vessel-linings, white blood cells, brain, kidney, red blood cells, pancreas, and eyes. The glucose here is used anaerobically to produce energy for these cells. This is partly why we need some glucose in our blood. However in this article we’re more concerned with what happens next in the chain.
Glucose And The Liver
The Livers Role
The liver can also take up glucose passively. Blood glucose flows directly into the liver via the hepatic vein. As indicated in table 1, the liver can store up to 25 teaspoons, that’s 400kcal of energy. In addition to storing glucose the liver is also the blood sugar regulator, releasing glucose into the blood to avoid low blood glucose levels to increase energy for cells, or storing excess blood glucose in an attempt to avoid glycated damage of blood vessels.
How The Liver Makes Body Fat
If the liver reaches its full 25 teaspoon glucose storage capacity, and senses via blood flowing to it that muscles are at full glucose capacity, it converts any extra glucose into fat packages, called triglycerides. These fat packages are transported to fat tissues in the body to be stored. By doing this the liver keeps the blood glucose level at optimum level of 1 teaspoon to avoid excess glucose glycation damage to blood vessel cells. So fat production acts as an excess glucose safety release valve when liver and muscles are full of glucose.
The Fatty Liver
The livers ability to produce fat from sugar has become more evident in recent years with a rise in cases of non-alcohol related fatty liver disease due to modern being higher in sugar/ carbs. The more often a liver has to make fats from sugar the fattier the liver itself becomes. A tell tale sign that someone may have significant liver fat deposits is having fat stored around the waist, due to vicinity and shared “plumbing”.
The liver isn’t the only place we can store glucose, we can store even more in our muscles, and this is where it gets interesting.
Glucose In The Muscle
Muscles
We mentioned how the liver takes up glucose passively form the blood previously, this isn’t the case with muscle. There are only two ways for the muscle to take up glucose from the blood, the first is via the hormone “insulin”, the second is via exercise.
Insulin- The Delivery System
Once glucose from our meal has passed through the liver it now enters the wider blood stream circulatory system. The body senses this and releases the hormone insulin via the pancreas. It is insulins job to stimulate the muscles cells to activate minute straw like structure at the muscle cells to suck in the glucose, these structures are called “glut 4 transporters”. This glucose can be converted into energy straight away or turned into its muscle storage form call “glycogen”. As we saw in table 1, some athletes can store 120 teaspoon of glucose in their muscle!
In a healthy person insulin does an amazing job of stimulating our muscles to extract glucose from the blood to avoid glycation of our blood vessels by activating our muscle cells to absorb glucose, however there are downsides to insulin. The pancreas isn’t great at releasing the right amount of insulin in relation to the amount of glucose in the blood. In fact if you eat a very carbohydrate rich meal, like a big bowl of pasta or pizza, the pancreas can overshoot and produce too much insulin. Too much insulin takes too much glucose out of the blood, causing low blood sugar levels, which can make us feel low in energy, shaky and brain foggy about an hour after eating.
At a more chronic level if someone consistently eats a very high sugar/carb diet, their cells start to become resistant to the effects of insulin, not only will more glucose hang around the blood stream causing glycation of blood vessels, but higher levels of insulin will start to build up in the blood vessels, think type 2 diabetes. Higher levels of insulin in blood vessels is also one of the main signals to the liver to start turning glucose into fat.
Exercise- The Delivery System
There is another way to get glucose into the muscle cells that produces minimal insulin and its through movement after meals. If we go for a walk after eating a carbohydrate rich meal we will activate the same glut 4 transports straw like structures that suck in glucose from the blood. This is called “non-inulin dependant pathways”. Activating the non-insulin dependant pathway means less post meal lethargy that insulin causes, less fat storage, less glycation of blood vessels, and less insulin resistance.
Muscle- The Best Place To Store and Use Glucose
We saw in table 1, how health and fitness of muscles can effect the amount of glucose you can store in them. Think of muscles as glucose sponges that can suck glucose out of the blood stream, and the bigger those muscular sponges the more glucose we can get in. Next think of muscles as the furnaces that burn through glucose to release energy that drives muscles contractions. I cannot emphasis enough how critically important it is to consistently improve the fitness of muscle, to reduce glycation of blood vessels and all the associated chronic diseases, and reduce the likelihood of fat gain from excess glucose in the blood.
Its so easy to use glucose energy when its in muscle, its like spending money form your banks current account- its instant. The same cant be said of body fat, that’s like trying to sell a house- its very illiquid, with more moving parts, and it takes time to find a buyer.
Sugar and Body Fat
Body Fat- The Safety Valve
A commonly held belief is that body fat is the main driver behind chronic diseases and health issues. Fat cells can release pro-inflammatory compounds that cause cellular stress and immune responses, but I believe fat gain is a side effect or symptoms of a more serious underlying health problem. In my opinion consuming more glucose in the diet than the body can store or use in muscles is the main driver fat gain and chronic health issues in the modern world.
When your muscles can’t get the excess glucose out of the blood stream your liver converts it into fat packages, that are released into the blood stream, and stored in fat cells. I see body fat as a kind of emergency safety valve that helps alleviate the glucose pressure in the blood stream when muscles and liver cannot.
Infinite Calorie Store
An example of just how much energy can be stored in body fat is as follows. Imagine an 18 stone person who is carrying 6 stone of body fat (33% body fat). They will have approximately 343,636 Kcal of energy to burn in their fat stores. A highly trained athlete can only store about 2400kcal of glucose in their muscles and liver. From an evolutionary perspective those fat stores would see us through hard times, but in the modern age thankfully those hard times like in famine don’t happen, so we have less need for them.
How To Improve Your Bodies Ability to Use Glucose
Lets now outline some of the best strategies and tactics to help optimise how our body responds to glucose in our diet.
Dietary Strategy
When it comes to dietary strategies to improve blood glucose its all about lowering the sugar spikes in our blood, improving insulin sensitivity, and calculating how much glucose we need for energy.
Tactic 1- Reduce Glucose Content of Meals
Observe table 2 below- choose lower sugar content foods.
Lower glucose foods will reduce sugar spikes which will improve insulin sensitivity, cause less glycation of blood vessels, reduces body fat gain, and increase the likelihood of burning fat.
Tactic 2- Increase Fibre to Sugar Ratio
Observe table 2 below- choose foods with a higher fibre content to sugar ratio.
Fibre binds with sugar in the gut, allowing the sugar to release slower than with out it. This in turn allows for less insulin to be produces, and more sensitivity gained and all the health improvements outlined previously.
Tactic 3- Optimise Balance of Meals
Adding proteins, healthy fats and plants to meals will also reduce sugar spikes. These foods contain minimal glucose and bind with glucose in gut to slow down release into blood stream.
When selecting your carbs types and amounts, think how much energy do you need to fuel 75% maximal effort exercise. Adjust accordingly to you goal, so for fat loss less, intense exercise eat more.
Table 2- Glucose Content of Carbohydrate Foods
| FOOD | GLUCOSE (TEASPOONS) |
FIBRE CONTENT (GRAM) |
SUGAR TO FIBRE RATIO (GRAMS) |
|---|---|---|---|
| White rice cooked (100g) | 7 | 1.3 | 21 to 1 |
| Brown rice cooked (100g) | 6 | 3 | 8 to 1 |
| White pasta cooked (100g) | 17 | 3 | 22 to 1 |
| Brown pasta cooked (100g) | 7.5 | 4 | 7.5 to 1 |
| Porridge (50g) | 9 | 5 | 7.2 to 1 |
| 2 x slices of sourdough | 10 | 3 | 13 to 1 |
| Potatoes with skin (100g) | 4 | 2.1 | 6.1 to 1 |
| Banana | 6 | 2.6 | 9.2 to 1 |
| Apple | 3.5 | 2.4 | 5.8 to 1 |
| Blueberry's (100g) | 3.5 | 2.4 | 5.8 to 1 |
| Brocolli (100g) | 1.7 | 2.6 | 2.6 to 1 |
| Medium pizza | 35 | 10 | 14 to 1 |
| Crisps (1 regular packet) | 4 | 1 | 16 to 1 |
| Milk chocolate bar (standard size) | 6.5 | 0.7 | 37 to 1 |
| Biscuit plain x 1 (14 g) | 2.8 | 0.3 | 36 to 1 |
| cracker x 1 | 1.3 | 0.08 | 16 to 1 |
| oat cake x1 | 1.6 | 1 | 1.6 to 1 |
Muscular Health Strategy
Our muscle strategy is about increasing storage capacity, improving delivery, and enhancing glucose use in the muscle.
Tactic 1- Increase Mass to Increase Storage
The more muscle you have, the greater your storage capacity for glucose in your muscle, and the less likely for excess sugar in the blood stream to be turned into fat.
Weight training is the most effective means to increasing muscle size
Tactic 2- Improve Insulin Sensitivity to Improve Delivery
By improving insulin sensitivity of muscles you’ll be able to deliver more glucose into your muscle.
On top of the nutritional tips we gave exercise can also improve insulin sensitivity.
Weight training stimulates GLUT 4 glucose transporters to suck in glucose more efficiently.
Going for post meal walks after carb rich meals allows you to get glucose into muscles through the non-insulin dependant pathways, minimising insulin production.
Tactic 3- Improve Mitochondria to Improve Glucose Use
Improving the function of mitochondria in muscle cells improve muscles ability to burn glucose for energy.
The key to improving muscle glucose metabolism is the organelles inside the muscle called “mitochondria”. Think of mitochondria as furnaces that convert glucose into the energy our muscles use (ATP).
The dietary changes we outlined above will prevent your mitochondria being overwhelmed and being retired too early which can lead to a loss of their numbers, and a loss of energy production.
The best exercises for improving mitochondrial function is Zone 2 steady state cardio training and HIIT training. The ideal ratio seems to be 80% zone to to 20% HITT.
Conclusion
If you’ve made it to this point in the article well done! Its a lot of information but i truly believe understanding what’s been outlined can be transformational for health and fitness. Sugar/ carbs/ glucose, whatever you decide to call them, is only one nutrient, there are hundreds if not thousand of nutrients in our diet that affect our health and fitness. But I believe due to our modern day diet, understanding and controlling this nutrient can have profoundly positive effects on health and fitness. I have seen clients lose 5 stones in 20 weeks, clients dramatically improve health conditions, clients complete marathons when they understand and implement the above strategies.
If you would like help on your health and fitness journey get in touch.
Thanks Martin