It’s the #1 factor the "Diet" industry doesn't want you to know about it’s a vital key to your nutritional success and sustainability.
97% of diets fail for people long term due to the fact that they're just unsustainable due to a variety of reasons that include lifestyle, food preferences, our community, genetic makeup, lack of results, etc.
Today, I’ll break down that #1 factor and why it’s so important for your health and goals.
So, let's talk about Metabolic Flexibility.
While a state of ketosis is good for your brain and waistline, there's another state that’s even better for long-term health: the state of metabolic flexibility. Metabolic flexibility means your body uses whatever fuel is available – dietary fat, stored fat, or glucose (sugar), or glycogen (sugar stores).
In pre-industrial times, before we had restaurants or grocery stores, humans were metabolically flexible by necessity. Some days there was plenty of food and others there wasn’t enough to go around. Metabolic flexibility allowed people to go days without eating and feeling fine.
If you need to eat every few hours to keep from getting hungry, grumpy, and distracted – THIS POST IS FOR YOU! Keep reading to find out what messes your metabolic flexibility and how to get back into a state where you can burn through your calorie supply, no matter where it comes from.
2 Things that impact Metabolic Flexibility
1. SAD Diet (Standard American Diet)
The standard American diet emphasizes eating carbs and eating frequently — at minimum, three meals a day plus snacks to carry you in between. Eating this way acclimates your body to crave for carbs for energy. When carbs go missing, your body yearns for them, and you end up with weakness, cravings and distraction until you can refuel.
2. Insulin Resistance
Insulin resistance is what happens when you eat carbs, and your cells don’t open up to receive the resulting fuel. A high-carb diet can lead to insulin resistance because frequent surges of insulin have a desensitizing effect.
How to increase Metabolic Flexibility
When you’re metabolically flexible, you almost never get cravings or feel hangry. Metabolically flexible people tend to maintain a healthy weight without trying too hard, because your body doesn’t have to keep your food-seeking mechanisms constantly “on.” When you’re metabolically flexible, you don’t store extra fat to prepare for a constant need for energy. It burns what’s there. Sounds great, right? Here’s how to achieve metabolic flexibility.
Cyclical Keto
When your body is in ketosis and gets used to burning fat for energy, your metabolism more readily burns dietary and stored fat for energy. If you’re thinking about starting a ketogenic diet or you’ve been in ketosis, you’re probably familiar with keto flu — the first few days or weeks in ketosis that make you feel tired, irritable, hungry, or even have full-blown flu-like symptoms like headaches or body aches.
It’s not fun, but you feel incredible once you come out of it. The state of zero cravings, energy, brain power, and elevated mood that you get in ketosis is unmatched. One of the side effects of keto is the impact on insulin sensitivity. We want our body to be able to switch between fuel sources on demand and by completely removing carbs we screw this process up.
Ketosis has so many powerful benefits for fat loss, cognitive function, longevity and so much more. The question that needs to be answered is how do we make it more sustainable, most of us LOVE carbs and don't want to give them up.
So, learning how to cycle your carbs throughout the week or for some even throughout the day. Maybe for some of you it's only having 2-4 days a week where you have days with carbs in the diet and the other days having moderate protein, fat and fiber.
For some it could be even just having 1 meal a day that has carbs and the other meals are protein, fat and fiber.
There are so many different ways to approach this, the key is to understand that your "consistency" is what is making your diet so hard and the results so minimal.
Intermittent Fasting for Metabolic Flexibility
Intermittent fasting is one of the best ways for us to address insulin resistance and control caloric intake. Having periods without food allows us to keep insulin low and glucagon high - this powerful combination allows us to begin to tap into 'stored energy' aka fat!
Intermittent fasting allows you to burn enough fat to use for energy, while releasing a level of toxins that your body can handle. Intermittent fasting plus cyclical ketosis is one of the fastest ways to increase metabolic flexibility. It gets your body used to using the fuel that’s available, and your system won’t go into a panic whenever one or the other fuel type (glucose or fat) isn’t available.
As the name suggests, metabolic flexibility offers you just that — flexibility. Ultra-stringent diets lead to frustration, cravings, and failure. Flexibility allows a little bit of wiggle room and even the ability to go off the rails and bounce back quickly.
I know this information can be a lot to take in – that’s why our coaches are here to help you structure the best possible plan for you and your goals.