Can Insulin help build muscle?

Can Insulin help you build muscle?











“Eat some candy after your workout, you need to keep those insulin levels high bro, that’s how you get jacked”. No “bro”, it isn’t.
Insulin is a hormone that tells your body’s cells to use the sugar in your blood. It is a so called “anabolic” hormone, which many people have interpreted to mean “muscle building”.

The word anabolic, however, doesn’t mean building muscle. It means building large molecules from smaller ones. In this case insulin helps your body take small glucose molecules from your blood and store them in your cells as larger sugar molecules called glycogen.

Insulin DOES play a role in muscle building though, but it works mainly by limiting muscle breakdown, rather then helping muscle buildup [1]. However, VERY low levels of insulin are needed to get these benefits [2, 3]. In fact, eating your protein will stimulate insulin levels enough to stop muscle breakdown [4, 5], and adding carbs for a “bigger” insulin response won’t do any good.

So stop chasing high insulin levels to build muscle. Instead start chasing maximal volume at heavy enough loads, proper protein intake and enough recovery.

THE EVIDENCE:
1. Abdulla et al. Role of insulin in the regulation of human skeletal muscle protein synthesis and breakdown: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Diabetologia. 2016;59(1):44–55. doi: 10.1007/s00125-015-3751-0.
2. Greenhaff et al. Disassociation between the effects of amino acids and insulin on signaling, ubiquitin ligases, and protein turnover in human muscle. Am J Physiol Endocrinol Metab. 2008;295(3):E595–E604. doi: 10.1152/ajpendo.90411.2008.
3. Rennie et al.Branched-chain amino acids as fuels and anabolic signals in human muscle. J Nutr. 2006;136(1 Suppl):264S–268S. doi: 10.1093/jn/136.1.264S.
4. Power et al. Human insulinotropic response to oral ingestion of native and hydrolysed whey protein. Amino Acids. 2009;37(2):333–339. doi: 10.1007/s00726-008-0156-0.
5. Error encountered - PubMed - NCBI

GREAT TOPIC! I guess like anything, or most things anyhow, its how you use said compound. Insulin can indeed help build muscle through its unique capacity of nutrient shuttling. Im no scientist, nor claim to have all the answers , but i know for certain insulin helps build muscle by way of what i just described. With that said, whatever you put in your body post insulin, you will get out. Eat fatty foods, youll pack on fat faster than you ever thought possible, feed your body protein and some complex carbohydrates post insulin, and you will indeed pack on more muscle.

The candy comment in the above article is nothing more than a red herring!

You are on the money daddio.

Thanks again for the topic though, as the shit can be dangerous, and i do think some younger guys think insulin is something they can use alone to get jacked, and its not for most people if im being honest!

I packed on fat by way love handles area many many years ago when i used insulin!

I was on cycle, and already pretty well jacked and fairly lean, so my thinking was that i could use insulin to put me over the top and continue to eat how i always have, which isnt all that clean, but ive always maintained a lean physique even nearing 320lbs , so when i started insulin which was Humalin r, i was amzed at how fast it worked, and when i say worked i mean put size on me, and a lot of it was some new belly fluff lol I couldnt belive it! I was so use to eating whatever i wanted and staying lean that i did the same thing and I didnt respect the insulin the way i should have.

Everything i always preached to guys on here about needing to eat clean on insulin, yada yada yada, and I myself thinking i was somehow genetically superior could get away with some fast food here and there during the week! NOPE!!!! lol,

And yeah i was young, so i am sure i did think "i was genetically superior" to most guys lmao, ahhh fuck it, i still think that way honestly lmao, a side from my dick i guess! lol i could use some serious insulin fat on that bad boy! lol

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Everyone is looking for the easy way out and the only way to real success is hard work.

If you use Insulin correctly (with HGH and AAS) Its a definite game changer.

It is a game changer but is the change good? I still like the look of the era before all the gh and slin took over.