are you a sugar burner or a fat burner do you constantly snack throughout the day have to
eat every few hours to maintain energy get headaches when you're hungry feel shaky if
you miss a meal unfortunately these are all signs that you are a sugar burner and you're not alone
due to our modern food environment most people nowadays their bodies are used
to burning sugar for energy and they're not efficient at burning fat and another one of
the side effects of not burning fat efficiently is it's difficult to lose weight so how can we
become more efficient at burning fat that's what we're going to talk about today [Music]
hey guys welcome back to my channel if you're new here my name is Kait I'm a certified health and
nutrition coach I post videos twice a week here on YouTube talking all things insulin resistance
weight loss sleep and more so if you're ready to take control of your metabolic Health make sure
to click that subscribe button and you can also find me on Tick Tock and Instagram watch your
new posts every single day metabolic flexibility is the ability to switch between burning carbs
for energy and fat for energy seamlessly this means that if you don't eat for several hours
is you won't have a huge crash in energy because your body is able to tap into your fat stores
and on the flip side this also means that your body is able to utilize carbohydrates for energy
when it needs them such as for a hard worker the problem is is that most people nowadays
have poor metabolic flexibility as humans we have the ability to use different fuel sources
glucose is the sugar in our blood and is a source of energy for ourselves when we
eat foods that contain carbohydrates those carbohydrates are broken down into glucose
and it enters our bloodstream this applies for both simple and complex carbohydrates
both are broken down into glucose or sugar but the rate at which they're broken down May differ
the glucose is then moved from the bloodstream to our cells for energy but food isn't the only way
that our bodies obtain glucose our bodies can also make it through a process known as gluconeogenesis
by breaking down other compounds such as lactate and amino acids our bodies can make
enough glucose for our needs if you've ever worn a continuous glucose monitor or even just tested
your glucose before and after a hard workout for example you might have noticed a rise in
your blood sugar despite not eating anything and this is gluconeogenesis at work your body needed
glucose to fuel that workout so it created it the second main energy source that our bodies
can utilize is fat this is both dietary and stored body fat Now using fat for energy occurs through a
completely different pathway than when our bodies use glucose for energy when we eat
foods that contain fat the fat is broken down into fatty acids it enters the bloodstream and
can be used for energy by ourselves the main difference here is that fat takes longer to
break down and process than carbohydrates do so this means you're not going to experience
that immediate burst in energy that you would if you consumed a food high in simple carbohydrates
for example but even though it's not quick energy it's longer lasting and more consistent because
carbs are a faster energy source your body is always going to use them first when they're
available but this doesn't necessarily mean that they are the best option for certain situations
yes such as fueling an intense workout in these situations you want that quick burst in energy
but for day-to-day life for anyone trying to lose weight and for the everyday exerciser fat is a
better source of energy yes simple carbohydrates provide quick energy but it's short-lived so when
you have poor metabolic flexibility basically what's happened is your body has gotten so used
to using carbohydrates and glucose for energy and it can't really tap into using fat for energy
so when there's no excess glucose available in your bloodstream or if your cells have lost the
ability to use glucose which we'll talk more about in a second this is when you're going to get the
side effects that we listed before you will have an energy crash maybe get a headache you're going
to have trouble focusing and you might even get hangry and you won't be able to feel better until
you eat poor metabolic flexibility is linked to insulin resistance also known as metabolic
syndrome and this makes sense when you are insulin resistant your cells are not responding to glucose
the way that they should so instead of taking the glucose out of the bloodstream and using it for
energy the cells resist it and this leads to many of the symptoms that people who are metabolically
inflexible suffer with for example you might have just finished a meal and still be hungry
or be craving dessert this is because your cells are not using blood sugar efficiently there's
adequate energy available but they can't access it and on top of that you are not able to use stored
fat for energy because when blood sugar is high insulin is high and high insulin stops fat burning
so by now you might be starting to understand why it's not optimal to rely only on glucose for
energy but how can we increase metabolic flexibility here is five ways to do that
number one shorten your feeding window what do I mean by this while our bodies are always in one of
two states a Fed state or a fasted state after we eat we're going to be in a Fed State fat burning
is on hold and fat storing goes up but once our body has completely digested and processed our
last meal we're in a fasted State and our bodies go into fat burning mode instead if you are eating
every few hours from the moment you wake up until you go to bed then your body never has a chance
to enter the fasted State and you're going to be using mainly glucose for energy the entire day
which leads you to have poor metabolic flexibility the more time you can spend in a fasted State the
more your body will adjust burning fat for energy and the more metabolically flexible you'll become
so this is sometimes known as intermittent fasting and I promise you it doesn't have to be as intense
as some people make it out to be let's say you wake up at 6am you have breakfast straight away
and then you eat all throughout the day and before you go to bed at 10 pm you have a snack your
feeding window is going to be 16 hours and your fasting window is only going to be eight hours so
you want to shorten your feeding window and extend your fasting window this can mean not having
breakfast until eight or nine or eating dinner at 6 pm and not eating anything as a snack after
if you can get your feeding window down to anywhere between 8 to 12 hours this is going
to significantly help your metabolic flexibility and this doesn't have to be drastic start by just
making one hour changes and go from there number two stop snacking this ties in with the last tip
stop snacking in between your meals this is just about the worst thing you can do if you're trying
to improve your metabolic flexibility and your health in general to be honest every time you eat
blood sugar goes up insulin goes up and you're going to be in a Fed State now if you continue
to eat every couple of hours blood sugar and Insulin don't have a chance to come back down to
Baseline so you're constantly going to be burning glucose throughout the day and never burning fat
I recommend eating two to three big meals with no snacks in between this works well for most of
my clients number three prioritize sleep getting proper sleep is extremely important for improving
metabolic flexibility even if we just have one night of poor sleep the following day hormones
that impact our metabolism are thrown out of whack our insulin is elevated putting us in this
fat storing mode which of course again not ideal for building metabolic flexibility now my number
one tip for improving sleep is to manage your light exposure so this means exposing yourself
to sunlight in the morning and then blocking light after Sunset and a good way to do this is with
blue light blocking glasses because light is a key indicator for a circadian rhythm exposing and
limiting exposure at the right times of day helps keep our bodies in sync and we can sleep better
I'm going to put the link for these blue light blocking glasses that I've been using for years in
the description box down below I recommend these ones and not going with a cheaper option because
a lot of the cheaper ones they don't actually block the correct type of light they just have
orange lenses so you think they're doing something but they're really not these ones from boncharge
which I use and absolutely love they have been lab tested and I do have a promo code which I
will also put in the description box down below number four do low intensity aerobic exercise
when we do low intensity aerobic exercise our bodies are using manly fat to fuel these workouts
this means walking jogging swimming or cycling and keeping the intensity low here is key you
shouldn't feel out of breath you should be able to talk comfortably through the entire workout if
you're not able to talk if you're breathing heavily the intensity is too high and that
is a sign that your body has switched to using glucose to fuel that workout instead of fat and
number five eat a low carb diet this is effective because remember that carbohydrates are what is
broken down into glucose when carbs in the diet are low the body is burning mainly fat for energy
by reducing carbs and focusing your meals around protein and fat your body will quickly be forced
to adapt to using fat for energy and the longer you eat a low-carb diet the easier it becomes
for your body to switch between burning fat and carbs for energy anyways guys that's all I have
for you today let me know in the comment section down below if you think you are a sugar burner or
a carb burner and what signs are making you think that I love chatting with you guys in
the comments section so even if you just want to say hey I really appreciate it if you did enjoy
this video you might also enjoy my video on if carbohydrates are bad for weight loss you can
check it out here if you want to catch up on my most recent upload you can find it here and if you
want to check out my coaching programs including my seven day keto crash course and also my seven
day insulin resistance Master Class you can find those here thanks guys I'll see you next time bye