How Do You Achieve Metflex?

How do I achieve metabolic flexibility? So let's talk about a few of the different ways that you can become more metabolically flexible.

So the first thing we need to think about is, it really depends on what side of the spectrum you're on. And when I say that, it means, you know, we have two kind of extremes of the spectrum, there's sugar burners and fat burner. So a sugar burner is someone who is solely reliant on carbs and sugar as their main fuel source, right, maybe they're following a higher carb diet, and they haven't really tapped into a lower carb, you know, protocol or ever maybe gotten into a state of ketosis or anything like that.

So they're, they're more sugar, they're relying on carbs as our main fuel source, versus someone who is a more of a fat burner, that would be the other extreme end of the spectrum, someone who is actually solely relying on fat as their main fuel source. So someone who has, you know, been following a low carb or ketogenic diet for a really long time. And they've kind of switched their body to burning fat for fuel. And maybe they're not, you know, very efficient at burning carbs or fuel anymore, because they're so far on that side of the spectrum, right. So it depends on where you're coming from, to achieve that balance of that metabolic flexibility.

So we have, you know, sugar burners, who could be metabolically inflexible on that side. And then we also have people who might be very reliant on fat and ketones for fuel, that they're metabolically flexible, metabolic in metabolically inflexible on the other side, right. So we want to find that balance. And to find that balance, you have to kind of know where you're at. And obviously, those are the two extremes. So most people are probably going to be like, somewhere in the middle, unless you are coming from a lower carb lifestyle, or keto lifestyle, where you've been, you know, down that road for a while.

So you're kind of trying to bring it back a little bit to balance, or if you're someone who's coming from a higher carb lifestyle, and you're trying to, you know, bring back balance on the other side. So that's the first thing you know, where are you coming from, so if you are solely a sugar burner, or solely reliant on carbs, you know, you follow high carb diet, then becoming metabolically flexible, you would probably want to, you know, titrate your carbs down a little bit, right, and, you know, get maybe get into a state of ketosis for a little while and see how you feel there. You don't have to get into state because ketosis, but if you've never been there before, there can be some benefits that you might not have, you know, realized, right, versus someone who is on the fat side of things, and they're very, very reliant on fat, they need to start to introduce carbs back into their diet a little bit right? To see how they feel with that. Because when you are very fat adapted, right, if you've gone through a period of fat, fat adaptation, you're very reliant reliant on fat for fuel, and you haven't had carbs for a very long time, your body kind of switches off that machinery that it has to digest and absorb those carbohydrates, right?

It's kind of thinking about, you know, if you don't use it, you lose it. That's how kind of our body works, right? If we're not for not consuming carbohydrates, then why would we up-regulate different digestive enzymes or different cells to absorb those carbohydrates if we're not consuming them, right. So to become more metabolically flexible, you need to find some balance there. And you need to kind of figure out what end you're on or what end you're closer to, and then titrate carbs in or titrate them out, depending on where you're coming from.

So that would be one of the first things to think about to become more metabolically flexible is where you're coming from, and how can you use carbohydrates to cheat strategically in that sense. So another way to achieve metabolic flexibility, and this is kind of piggybacking off the last point that I mentioned, is cycling your macronutrients.

So more specifically cycling in, you know, low carb and high carb, right. And this will also depend again, on what side of the spectrum you're on. So in terms of cycling macronutrients, that's going to kind of be the key to metabolic flexibility, right, going through periods of time where you're able to bring carbs in or take them out, right, and still be able to, you know, work out efficiently still be able to function throughout the day, right, those are going to be, you know, benefits, right?

So for example, if you're doing high intensity activity, bringing carbs in and using that as a fuel source, and then also using them, maybe post workout to help with recovery, that's going to be important. And then also going through periods, when maybe like on your rest days or days, when you're not doing high intensity activity, you're having lower carb days, right. So you're kind of going throughout, you know, high carb, low carb, but you're doing it in a strategic way that makes sense for what you're doing right what the goal is. So that's something that's a way to achieve metabolic flexibility is just cycling macronutrients. And on your low carb days, you're obviously going to have to increase something else. So on your low carb days, you'll increase your consumption of fat with protein, you'll probably want to keep protein pretty much the same throughout.

I always like to recommend, you know, a little bit of a moderate to higher protein approach, no matter you know, what end of the spectrum you're on, because protein is super, super important. So that is something to think about, but on your lower carb or lower carb days, or your lower carb periods of time, you're going to bring fat up a little bit higher. And then vice versa on your higher carb days or your higher car periods of time, you'll bring fat down. So just kind of thinking about it more in a practical sense.

And realizing that the more you can kind of cycle in macronutrients, and go through periods where you're transitioning between them, the more your body's going to be like, Okay, I can recognize carbs is a fuel, my body recognizes that and I can utilize those efficiently I have, you know, the machinery available to digest those cards and absorb them and use them for energy. But the same goes for fat, right, so I recognize fat as a fuel, I can use that for fuel, I can also tap into my own body fat stores, and use those for fuels and potentially, you know, produce ketones and start to use those for fuel.

So being metabolic, metabolically flexible, is your body's ability to just tap into those different fuel sources and use them strategically and efficiently. So another way to achieve metabolic flexibility is just playing around with different fasting protocols, right. So the reason why you want to do this is because we want to kind of train your body to go through periods of time, where you're not relying on outside energy, right, you want to kind of teach your body to use the fuel sources that are available. And when I mean that, or what I say when I mean, that is that you're able to tap into your fat stores and use those to produce ketones and use those for energy, right, your brain loves to use ketones for energy. And it's something that we as a society have become so metabolically inflexible, that we aren't able to tap into our fat stores and basically create ketones to use for energy. So that's just something to think about in that sense.

But to become more metabolically flexible, try out, you know, different fasting protocols. I'm not saying that you have to do extreme fasts. But maybe if you've never, you know, tried out a fasting protocol in the sense of, you never actively fasted before in your life, maybe you start slow, you, you know, stop eating at eight o'clock at night, and starting again, at eight in the morning, that's a simple 12 hour fast, and then maybe you increase that a little bit, maybe, you know, go from 12 hours to 14 hours, then maybe you go to 16 hours, right, you don't have to do extremes, but really just kind of teaching your body to be able to tap into the source, the fuel sources that you have available. Without food, that's going to be a really great way to kind of up-regulate that fat metabolism and be able to use fatty acids and ketones for fuel, but then at the same time, being able to bring carbs back in and use those strategically for fuel as well.

So you know, when you're working out, or when you're doing something that's more, you know, high intense exercise or whatever it may be. So being able to go back and forth between those that is going to just be the definition of metabolic flexibility, right. So that's why it'd be important to experiment with different fasting protocols so that you can kind of you know, train your body to be able to use fat for fuel, but also use carbs for fuel. When you bring those back in, you know, when you break your fast, so becoming more metabolically flexible, trying, you know, different fasting protocols, you can even you know, try a 24 hour fast, or there's so many different fasting protocols out there, that there's many to choose from, but just kind of starting and seeing how you feel and going from there is going to be your best bet. So another way to achieve metabolic flexibility is to train in different energy systems and to cycle between those energy systems. And when I mean that, I mean training and exercising, both low intensity, moderate intensity and high intensity, right, so doing low intensity activity, walking, cycling versus high intensity activity activity, Sprint's lifting weights, things like that, right.

So being able to train through that spectrum and cycle through those trainings, that's going to increase your metabolic flexibility. And when you can also do that by utilize, when you can also do that utilizing different fuel sources, that is also going to increase your metabolic flexibility. And what I mean by that is that if you're training these different energy systems, for example, in a lower carb state where your body has less carb storage, or less glycogen storage, which is just the storage form of carbs, your body and your cells are going to become more efficient at using fat as a fuel source during that activity level.

So even if you're doing higher intensity activity, your body is kind of gonna save the carb stores and use more fat until it has to use those carbs. So the more metabolically flexible you are, the more efficient you'll be able, you'll be able to use fat stores until you can't anymore until you have to kind of switch over to using those carbs for fuel, but you're kind of saving those carbs for when it's, you know, actually needed at the higher intensity levels, right.

So teaching your body to, you know, work out in those different energy systems and to utilize different fuel sources within that, that is going to allow you to become more metabolically flexible and benefit your performance overall benefit. You know, what you're doing whatever kind of sport you're doing, because we know that you know, whatever sport or exercise you're doing, you're going to be going back and forth between these different energy systems, whether it's low, moderate, or high intensity workouts. So the more efficient you can be at doing that, the better off your performance is going to be, the better off your energy levels are going to be, the better off you're going to feel in general. So that is kind of a way to become more metabolically flexible, and then also the advantages of becoming more metabolically flexible.

So a few other things to think about are just kind of the basics like, is your sleep in check? are you optimizing everything you can do to make sure that you're getting good sleep? You know, throughout the night, you're getting enough sleep? You know, seven to nine hours is the general standard for enough sleep. So seven, nine hours a night, that's ideal? And are you getting good quality sleep like is your sleep? Do you wake up feeling rested, right. So just optimizing your sleep is going to be a way to optimize your overall health. And that will in itself, optimize your metabolic flexibility.

So another thing is just thinking about your stress, like your stress levels throughout the day, right, so this goes back to anything that you're trying to optimize, and becoming more metabolically flexible, stress is a huge piece as well, because your stress level is going to affect everything else that happens throughout your day, how you're feeling how your body's functioning, right. So if you're not managing your stress levels, you're gonna have a hard time doing everything else. So just making sure that you keep stress in check, you know, you're implementing Stress management techniques, whether it's meditation, or taking a bath at night, or you know, sitting on the couch winding down after a long day watching Netflix, what I do. So just making sure your stress is in check is going to be super important. And you know, that's just overall health, but also being able to achieve more metabolic flexibility, that is going to be a core component of it. Because one of the other things, too, that a lot of people don't realize is that stress can be good. And it can be bad, right? So you only have kind of one stress bucket, I like to call it in your body, right. And so the stress that you get from your work, the stress that you get from your exercise, the stress that you get from, you know, your kids playing around or yelling at each other, whatever it is, right, these are all different stressors, but they all go to one place, right, they all go to one system in your body. So there's not like you have different stress buckets for your exercise, your work your, you know, significant others, or kids screaming all day long, whatever it is, you have different stress buckets. So it almost the same place, if you're not managing your stress, in general, you're going to have a very hard time managing other things. Right. So that's just something to pay attention to.

And then lastly, just thinking about recovery in general, so are you recovering from your workouts is a big thing, but then are you recovering in general throughout the day, right, that's a huge thing a lot of people don't think about is just overall recovery. So that is going to just you know increase your metabolic flexibility from a standpoint of your body just being overall more you know, healthy, right, your your cells, your metabolism, your hormones, stress, recovery, sleep, they all have a huge play a huge role in that and so you have to pay attention to that. And make sure that that's in check to you know, make sure everything's running correctly and that you're achieving, you know, what you want to achieve in the sense of becoming, you know, as metabolically flexible as possible in regards of paying attention to fuel sources, and things like that, but then also pay attention to the basic things that are the least sexy things like sleep, stress management, recovery, all that.

Thank you so much for watching. If you want to learn more about nutrition and fitness or metabolic flexibility, you can check out our website metflexlife.com. There you can find our podcast, Netflix and chill our nutrition and exercise programs, our latest blog posts, free recipes and much more.