3 Supplements To Help Gain Muscle By Increasing Nutrient Utilization and Insulin Efficiency By Joey Vaillancourt
Most of us want to build muscle at a faster rate. Many people follow a weight training routine in order to achieve their muscle goals. The fact is that a healthy muscle building diet is equally important to gain muscle volume.
It is a proven fact that changing a person’s diet has positive effects on a person’s biological condition. Generally, a healthy diet induces change in hormone levels in the body. Some changes include increase in testosterone level, increase in growth hormone level, enhanced cardiovascular capacity and improved insulin efficiency.
We all have heard about Insulin but what purpose does insulin serve?
Insulin is a hormone that regulates glucose in our body. Glucose is the simplest known form of carbohydrates. Insulin forces the cells in the muscles and the liver to absorb glucose from the blood stream, and store it as glycogen. After enriching the muscles with glycogen, insulin will proceed to convert excess glucose into fat cells. This results in additional fat collection in the body.
For anyone who wants to gain muscle it is very important to keep insulin efficiency in positive balance. The conversion of glucose into glycogen takes energy and if the insulin receptors are not efficient, they prefer to directly store glucose as fat rather than converting it into glycogen. Even though you are eating healthy, subpar insulin efficiency will drastically reduce the ability of your body to absorb nutrients from the food.
A weight-training program and a healthy diet can help to increase the insulin efficiency of your body. Supplements are widely used to maximize body’s insulin efficiency. The following are three top supplements in the market for this purpose.
Chromium Picolinate:
Chromium Picolinate is a rare supplement and is difficult to obtain from foods, even if you indulge in a variety of good foods.
However, it is a known fact that Chromium Picolinate easily increases the insulin efficiency of the body. It also increases the muscle cell sensitivity. The muscle cells and fat cells have receptor sites for insulin. By increasing the muscle cell sensitivity, Chromium Picolinate helps in making the muscle cells more active than the fat cells. As a result, the carbohydrates are absorbed more by the muscle cells.
Digestive enzymes:
Human body contains natural digestive enzymes that are required in order to break down the food intake and convert it into energy. As the amount of calories intake increases, the digestive system cannot handle the surplus calories and the food is discarded and converted into fat. However, in order to gain muscle mass, you have to increase the calories.
In order to enhance nutrient utilization, digestive enzymes can be taken as supplements before engaging in larger meals. This combines with the natural digestive enzymes in the body and helps in better absorption of the nutrients.
Alpha Lipoid Acid (ALA):
ALA is a fatty acid, which occurs naturally inside human body cells. The body requires ALA to produce energy to perform day-to-day functions. ALA plays an important role in the conversion of glucose into energy.
ALA is also an excellent anti-oxidant in addition to its ability to increase insulin efficiency. Due to its insulin efficiency benefits, ALA supplement can be included when your meals have high carbohydrate content.
The supplements are not necessary for every person. However, they are beneficial in increasing the insulin efficiency and promote better nutrient absorption. In order to gain muscle, a healthy diet and supplements are as important as the weight training workouts. By increasing the ability of your body to absorb the foods and nutrients, you can maximize your muscle gains.
