Research

Hormonal

Maintaining elevated free fatty acid (FFA) levels during hyperinsulinemia significantly inhibits skeletal muscle glucose storage (glycogen synthesis) and reduces glycogen synthase fractional velocity, representing the primary mechanism of FFA-induced insulin resistance in muscle.

When your insulin is high (e.g., after a high-carb meal), your body's ability to store glucose as glycogen in muscles is significantly reduced if free fatty acids are also circulating. To maximize muscle glycogen storage, minimize fat intake in meals containing carbohydrates, or separate high-fat and high-carb meals to allow distinct metabolic phases.

GoodSupportsHIGH confidence
The greatest effect of FFA replacement was reduced muscle glucose storage (0.36±0.20 vs 1.24±0.25 ,umol/min per 100 ml, P < 0.01), accompanied by decreased GS fractional velocity (0.129±0.26 vs 0.169±0.033, P < 0.01).
David E. Kelley et al. · Journal of Clinical Investigation · 1993

Why this rating

Randomized crossover design with direct muscle biopsies and leg balance techniques in healthy humans, though limited to short-term acute effects.

Source

Interaction between glucose and free fatty acid metabolism in human skeletal muscle.

David E. Kelley et al. · Journal of Clinical Investigation · 1993

DOI 10.1172/jci116603

crossover · n=10Cited 484×
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DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10

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