Hi Serenity,
Exercise is the biggie for lowering insulin resistance, but I have found it of very limited use, since yeah, it lowers IR, but then
my IR bobs straight back up again the moment I eat as little as 5g carbs.
- so don't worry, you aren't necessarily missing much!
I find low carbing is the next most effective. And for me, that means less than 20g carbs a day. Other ppl can get away with a lot more carbs, but it really helps to find out what your personal tolerance is, and then keep to a carb level below that.
Intermittent Fasting works too. Although for me it takes approx 20 hours for there to be an appreciable difference/drop in my IR (as seen on the Libre graph), so if I wanted to use fasting as a weapon to fight IR I would have to only eat about once a day.
Metformin is supposed to reduce IR a bit. I think. And it also reduces liver dumps, which can exacerbate IR by raising blood glucose and requiring more insulin release to deal with the rise.
Basically, anything that you can do that lowers your body's need to produce/need insulin, will eventually lead to a knock on reduction in insulin resistance. Because insulin resistance is caused by constant exposure to raised levels of insulin. Once that insulin at lower levels in the blood, then the cells become less resistant to it. Rather like sunburn. The less sun we are exposed to, the less our skin produces melanin to protect us from the harmful rays. (insulin=sun, and melanin=insulin resistance)
Jason Fung has a whole section on his blog, and a whole chapter in his 'Obesity' book about this if anyone wants it in more detail.