HOW TO BE METABOLICALLY FLEXIBLE
Have you ever heard the term “metabolic flexibility”? If so, do you even know what it is? It’s kind of a weird term that gets thrown around in certain circles, but I would venture to guess, most people have no idea what it is. Let me tell ya though, you want to know!
Your body has two different fuel sources available to it, it can either use glucose/sugar or it can use ketones/fat. Metabolic flexibility is the ability to use either fuel source, whichever is available.
When you eat, your food is turned into glucose which circulates in your blood as sugar providing you energy. When you don’t eat for an extended period of time, and your glucose stores have been used up, then you’ll burn fat as fuel.
A comparison of the two fuels I like to use when helping my clients to understand the difference between the two fuel sources is to think about a campfire. When starting the fire, you use kindling, this is the quick-burning fuel, this is what glucose/sugar is. The kindling is great for getting things going, but if you want to spend any time around that fire, you’re going to want to switch to the slow-burning log, and this is the ketones/fat. A fire that is burning on kindling alone is exhausting and inefficient, you’d have to constantly add more and more fuel to keep it going. Sadly, because of the sugar-filled, high carb, processed diet, that most of us are eating, and the fact that we’re eating too often, means we are stuck in sugar-burning mode 24/7. This is grueling for our poor bodies and creates a situation of chronic stress, inflammation, not to mention a nightmare for blood sugar regulation.
The dietary guidelines laid out by the government years ago and all the proceeding recommendations that followed have left us eating the wrong foods, in the wrong quantities, and at the wrong frequencies, and all this has left us as constant glucose/sugar burners, and this has weakened our metabolic health and in turn, we’ve lost all metabolic flexibility. Our body no longer fluctuates seamlessly between these two fuel sources the way it was meant to. It has turned off our satiety hormones, has driven us to constant hunger and food obsession, and we’ve lost the ability to eat in a way that is intuitive.
There is a lot of talk these days about intuitive eating, and I am a big believer. I find that many people don’t actually know what this means, and definitely don’t know how to get to a point where they can eat in an intuitive way. The truth of the matter is, when we lose metabolic flexibility, we lose the ability to eat intuitively.
Let me ask you a question when was the last time you were hungry? I mean, genuinely hungry, like stomach growling hungry. I’m not talking about having a craving, feeling hangry, or needing to eat because your energy is crashing. Think about it for a minute and be honest with yourself. When I ask clients this question, most of them can’t really remember the last time they actually felt hunger. In general, we now eat because it’s time to eat because we have a craving, it’s afternoon and our energy is crashing, or maybe we’re just bored. For some, they’re eating because they’ve been led to believe they should eat often to keep their metabolism healthy. There are so many reasons that we eat nowadays, but it’s almost never because of actual hunger.
There is one reason we should eat, and that is hunger. You knew I was going there, right?
The loss of metabolic flexibility means that when we don’t eat, we get hangry, we’re shaky, tired, foggy, and we are going to be looking for our next hit of sugar. And guess what, if you’re someone who doesn’t eat a lot of sugar, you’re not let off the hook here, your body turns any carb and processed food you eat into sugar, and that means starchy veggies and grains are the equivalents of that sugar hit! Besides not feeling good if you’re not eating at least every three hours, you’re likely also never fully satisfied. This is all a sign that metabolically you could use some work.
This metabolic inflexibility is very likely a symptom that you’ve got blood sugar issues. Even if you haven’t been told by your doctor that you’ve got a blood sugar problem, typically diagnosed as metabolic syndrome, prediabetes, or type 2 diabetes, this does not mean that you don’t have a reason for concern. The numbers that most doctors look at don’t give the full picture of your metabolic health. They typically look at fasted blood sugar and A1C, but they don’t look at fasted insulin, and insulin is the key marker to measure your metabolic flexibility. Let me explain, your blood sugar levels are regulated by insulin, every time you eat, your blood sugar goes up, this causes the pancreas to release insulin to lower your blood sugar back down. As long as your pancreas can keep up with the demand for insulin, your fasted blood sugar and A1C will likely appear normal. If you were to look at that fasted insulin level though, you could very well get a different picture. High levels of insulin, beyond diagnosable blood sugar issues, are dangerous and should be addressed long before you’re told you’ve got type 2 diabetes.
If you’re now scratching your head, wondering if you should be concerned, let me share some common symptoms that you’re producing too much insulin:
You often crave sweets, pastries, or bread
Indulging in your cravings does not satisfy the desire and may even increase them
If you go too long without eating you have mood swings or get “hangry”
You need caffeine to get through the day
You struggle to lose weight
You often feel weak, jittery, and shaky
You often feel exhausted after eating
You experience brain fog
You have become forgetful
Your vision is often blurry
You feel lightheaded or nauseous if you skip a meal
You have to pee a lot
You’re frequently thirsty
Your waist is equal to or bigger around than your hips
You have a low libido
The thought of going 8 or more hours without a meal feels impossible
All of these symptoms of blood sugar dysregulation and too much insulin are a result of eating too much sugar, carbs, and processed foods, as well as eating too often. These eating habits are driving poor metabolic health, and poor metabolic health is driving chronic disease. And that is why you should get familiar with the idea of metabolic flexibility and make changes that will move you in that direction!
At the beginning of this article, I mentioned the two types of fuel, glucose/sugar, and ketones/fat. As long glucose and insulin are present, you will never get into ketone/fat-burning mode! That is why implementing the following is so important!
Here are a few simple steps you can take to start improving your metabolic flexibility.
Allow yourself to be hungry. Being hungry, if you haven’t been for years, may feel intimidating and even a little scary. But, it actually is not nearly as bad as you may be anticipating and the good news is, being hungry for most, does not mean starvation. It is a situation you are choosing, and you can end it when you’re ready.
For one week, write down every single thing you eat and drink and what time you eat and drink it. That means even your diet coke, that piece of candy you grab when you walk by the reception desk, and even that healthy handful of almonds. Write it all down and take note of how often you’re eating. You may be surprised! Now consider that every single time you eat or drink something, you are causing your blood sugar to go up, and your body to release insulin. This can be quite an eye-opening experience and as they say, knowledge is power. When you have a good grip on how much you’re eating and how often, you can do something about it.
Now that you have an idea of how often you’re eating, start slowly cutting back on the frequency. If you find that you’re eating 10 x’s per day, for a few days try eating 9 x’s. And keep going from there. You’ll find that initially, you’ll be hungry and maybe a little uncomfortable at that time you usually have your snack, but that feeling will quickly pass and within days your body will stop expecting the snack and will stop asking for it. Keep doing this until you’re down to 3 meals per day with no snacks and no sweet beverages.
Try intermittent fasting. A really great place to start is to utilize the time you’re sleeping. Start with just going 12 hours. Finish dinner by 7 pm and don’t eat again until 7 am. After doing that for a few days, try going 16 hours. Once again finish dinner at 7, and have breakfast at 11 am the following day. You can experiment with different time frames from there. The benefit is, when you’re not eating, your blood sugar is not going up and you’re not producing insulin. This is an incredible way to start increasing your metabolic flexibility.
In order to feel satiated when you eat, focus on eating healthy protein and fat with every single meal. If you’re going to have carbs, make them whole food carbs and preferably from a variety of vegetables. A little trick you can try is eating your protein and fat first, and finish with your carbs. This is helpful for two reasons. First, you’ll be fuller and won’t need to eat as many carbs. And second, eating the protein and fat first slows down the breakdown of the carbs meaning less of an impact on blood sugar and insulin.
Put all of these into practice and recognize that this is a long game that you’ll be doing for life. Over time your body will become more sensitive to insulin leading to better metabolic health. You will gain metabolic flexibility because now you are going hours without food giving your body the opportunity to switch from glucose/sugar burning to ketone/fat burning. Your health will be better, you will lose weight if you need to, if not your weight will stay stable, you’ll ward off chronic health concerns, your mood and energy will stay stable, and all of this leads to a much better quality of life!