Which side of the Metabolic Flexibility Spectrum are you on?

So I mentioned that I work with a lot of clients who, who are coming from a period where they did find a lot of benefits from keto in the beginning. And now they came to a point where it's like, it's not working for them anymore, so they need to try something else. And that I've also worked with a lot of clients who have gone so far down, like I said, myself to this side of the spectrum, and we can talk about this as well, where they're becoming so metabolically inflexible, on the side of the spectrum, where they just can't utilize carbs efficiently anymore, because they've taken them out of their regimen for so long. And so that's where my passion for metabolic flexibility kind of comes in.

Because I've seen a lot of people struggle with that side. And it's not really talked about that much, because it is kind of a newer thing. With keto becoming popular over the past four to five years, we see people who've been keto, like strict keto, for like two or three years. And literally, they have like tried to use carbs and bring carbs back in and they can't do it from a psychological standpoint. And then physiological physiologically, their body is adapted so far to that other end that they just can't absorb. And use those carbs that their blood sugar is just going all over the place.

And they're it's just like a kind of a match. So keto, right being in a state of ketosis is is something I like talking about too, because, you know, there's so many different, you know, camps out there within nutrition, right. And there's so many people like, you know, saying keto is just a fad diet and all this stuff. But literally, ketosis is a metabolic state, right. So you can say it's a fad diet, if you want. And people use it that way, which I wouldn't advocate that. We also know that like, there's ketone supplements out there that are people take advantage of, or supplement companies take advantage of people in that way with the supplement side of things. But ketosis is a metabolic state, literally, your body can go in a state of ketosis.

And in that sense, you are basically bringing your blood sugar down, bring your insulin down, reducing your carb intake, so your body needs to rely on a different fuel source. So it starts to rely on your on fat, and ketones for fuel, right? So you start to produce ketones, which can cross the blood brain barrier and be used as a fuel source for the brain. So I think, you know, ketones in themselves can be like, some people refer to them as kind of like the fourth macronutrient. If you think about it, because it is a fuel source if you're able to tap into your body fat stores for fuel. This also gets a little bit confusing, because people are like, Oh, well, if I'm burning fat for fuel, that means that I must be losing a ton of fat doesn't really work like that, yes, you can be burning tons of fat for fuel, but obviously, we know, calories matter calories in calories out.

So if you're over consuming, past that, you know, maintenance or whatever it may be, you're gonna gain fat, even if you are burning fat for fuel on keto, just clarify that. But anyway, I think ketones can be and we know from the research that keto ketones can be an alternate fuel source for the brain. And that's actually where the diet started, right? It started for started to treat children who had epilepsy, they started to put them on a ketogenic diet, high fat, you know, low carb, moderate, low, low protein, which we can also talk about that as well in terms of a standard keto diet first, for someone who's treating a medical disease versus a ketogenic diet for someone who's looking to increase their body composition, or just get overall mental clarity.

Those can be separate things, there can be tons of different types of ketogenic diets in that realm. But anyway, ketones can be used as a fuel source for the brain. And we know that through the research through, you know, treating tons of different disease, not treating, but being beneficial in in certain disease states. So we know that there's some research coming out on like Alzheimer's disease, obviously, epilepsy is where it all started. You know, there's so many other kind of metabolic issues that have been beneficial, benefited from using a ketogenic approach.

And it looked kind of thinking about ketones as that fuel source, alternate fuel source for the brain. Um, so I think that's where a lot of the not a lot, but some of the mental clarity comes from, and the focus can come from actually utilizing those ketones, but then also, you know, like you said, there's going to be some adrenaline there's going to be that cortisol component of it. So that's where we're kind of thinking like, Alright, so we're, we're putting ourselves into this state, and it is actually a stress on our body, like, especially if we're not used to it, right?

Anything that you're not used to is going to be a stress on your body, and there's good stress, right? And then they're stressed that it can be good at first. And then as you continue to go and go and go, it can actually turn into a bad stress because you're actually overdoing it. And so that's where there's a fine line, I think with, you know, going on going into a ketogenic diet, you know, following that approach, and then realizing when you've gone a little bit too far and kind of pulling back and I think people don't realize that ketones are are a fuel in themselves and they can be beneficial for the brain and we know that that's where it actually all started is with the brain.