One of the more prevalent metabolic issues that individuals are finding themselves in is with regards to insulin. Some people tend to be very insulin sensitive (their body responds very well to carbohydrates containing foods - which release insulin), while others do not.

When you find yourself in either of these situations, you'll have to adapt your diet and workouts accordingly if you hope to train as best as possible, while also trying to stay feeling well.

What Happens

When you have issues with insulin resistance or sensitivity, you normally will find that you do not feel optimal after eating a carb-heavy meal.

In those who are insulin sensitive, their body responds very well to carbohydrates and this can lead them to experience a very dramatic blood sugar low in a very short time span. They consume a carbohydrate rich food, this gets released into the blood (causing a high blood sugar), but then it rapidly gets taken up again.

When this blood glucose is absorbed into the cells, a low blood sugar level is created, causing the individual to experience side effects such as dizziness, fatigue, light-headedness, and potentially they may even pass out if it's severe enough.

For those who are insulin resistant on the other hand, their body will need to release a very large amount of insulin to get the cells to respond to the carbohydrates that were contained in the food eaten.

This can also leave them feeling sluggish, and many times they'll also be bloated, feel weak, and sometimes very tired.

Dealing With These Issues

The first step to dealing with these issues is to maintain a proper, healthy weight. Being too heavy or being too light can both have detrimental effects.

Those who are very, very lean (especially if they were once overweight), will find that their extremely insulin sensitive and after eating a carbohydrate containing food, they'll be starving an hour later.

This is their body's way of trying to get them to consume more food so that they will gain enough weight to put them into the healthy range.

Then those who are very heavy will usually experience insulin resistance, which can also be associated with high cholesterol levels and heart disease.

Potentially the most effective way to deal and remedy this issue in the long-term then, is reducing or increasing your daily calorie intake in order to get yourself back to a more appropriate body weight.

Then, in addition to that, insulin sensitive individuals should focus on foods that are very slow digesting in the body (whole grains, oatmeal, vegetables, and so on), since this will decrease the speed at which the glucose is released into the blood stream.

Both individuals may also want to try adopting a slightly lower carb approach (and correspondingly, a higher fat approach) to their diet. This often helps to clear up some problems as well, since there is very little insulin release in response to fat and protein.

Just be sure that you do still factor in total calories because eating more fat in the diet can really cause them to add up quickly.

Where Exercise Fits In

Finally, exercise in itself also increases the insulin sensitivity of the cells to carbohydrates, so insulin sensitive individuals will want to watch out how many carbohydrates they consume in the pre-workout period. If they go overboard, they may really run into huge issues as they have a very high blood sugar level followed by a very low. It would be a good idea for them to even potentially eat some carbohydrates during the workout period (small candies can work well, as can sipping on a carbohydrate/protein mix beverage). This will allow them to finish the workout session without a blood sugar level crash.

Insulin resistant people should think about focusing the majority of their carbohydrates around the workout period, as this is when their body will handle them the most. Since you do require so many carbohydrates on a daily basis just to sustain high intensity exercise, removing them completely from the diet is not an option. For insulin resistance, eating them when the body is most insulin sensitive is therefore the next best idea.

So, if you deal with either of these two conditions, make sure you keep these points in mind.