A method of monitoring glucose transport and/or metabolism in a tissue or an organ of a subject using spin-locking magnetic resonance (MR) includes acquiring pre-glucose MR data by executing a pre-glucose chemical exchange spin-lock (CESL) pulse sequence a number of times each including applying pre-glucose chemical exchange spin-lock pulse sequence irradiation to the tissue or the organ, administering glucose to the subject, acquiring post-glucose MR data by executing a post-glucose chemical exchange spin-lock (CESL) pulse sequence a number of times each including applying post-glucose chemical exchange spin-lock (CESL) pulse sequence irradiation to the tissue or the organ, and using the pre-glucose MR data and the post-glucose MR data to generate a measure of glucose transport, glucose metabolism or both glucose transport and glucose metabolism in the tissue or the organ.