As diabetes becomes increasingly prevalent around the world, thanks in part to poor diet and exercise habits, so has awareness of insulin resistance, a precursor to diabetes. Insulin resistance is a condition wherein the body’s cells are unable to properly respond to insulin. As your body’s cells become less sensitive to insulin, your pancreas produces more to compensate—and at some point it may no longer be able to keep up with the demand. And since insulin helps the cells absorb glucose from the bloodstream, over time, insulin resistance can cause an excess of glucose in the blood and lead to major health issues, including type 2 diabetes.

Lifestyle factors play a large role in the process that leads to insulin resistance. Being sedentary and eating an unhealthy diet that is high in sugar and carbs can put you at a higher risk of becoming insulin resistant and developing diabetes. Recognizing the problem and making comprehensive lifestyle changes to reverse it before it turns into full-blown diabetes is important to limiting the severe damage the disease can do to your body.