The Root of the Metabolic Syndrome

Here's a great article about how the metabolic syndrome develops.  Researchers have traced the problem back to insulin resistance in the muscle tissue as a precursor to whole-body insulin resistance.

What's interesting about this study is that all the subjects were young and lean.  However, some were already insulin resistant and others weren't.  This shows that the metabolic problems start before they are visible (in terms of body fat).

Want to predict what the young, lean insulin resistant subjects will look like in 5 or 10 years?  You can almost guarantee they will gain abdominal fat unless they change their diet and exercise.

At the end of the article, the authors state that exercise is the key to preventing all this.  Exercise is a important component, because it empties the glycogen stores of the muscle, but it has relatively small effects compared to diet.  A poor diet of refined carbs and sugar will overpower any exercise program and lead to insulin resistance in the long run.