Metabolic Flexibility

Metabolic Flexibility

Being flexible also boosts your body’s metabolism. A flexible metabolism may easily switch between using carbs or fat for energy as opposed to merely being able to use one or the other. The capacity to use various fuel sources for energy is metabolic flexibility. It can enhance your overall health and wellness due to several reasons. Unfortunately, a contemporary diet and metabolic diseases like insulin resistance or type 2 diabetes are only a few factors that primarily disturb metabolic flexibility and may even cause it.

There are a lot of connections between glucose, metabolic flexibility, and metabolic health. High glucose levels can occur without having diabetes, and they can also lead to metabolic dysfunction.

Having metabolic inflexibility raises glucose levels and prevents the body from changing its fuel source. You need to keep an eye on your blood glucose levels to gain a clear picture of your metabolic flexibility. Unless you actively monitor your blood sugar levels, it can be challenging to understand what is happening with them. You cannot physically see the type of foods that cause an increase in your blood glucose and stress on the cells. One can analyse their blood glucose levels during the active and restive periods. It is a preventative approach that enables you to develop an empirical, information-driven association between food and blood glucose levels.

It lets you see how your lifestyle choices and dietary intake affect your blood sugar levels. With this information, one can make easy yet impactful adjustments to optimise metabolic health. You can also try different foods to develop a nutrition strategy tailored to the particular body’s reactions. Monitoring your blood sugar provides statistical information that clarifies how lifestyle changes affect your body.

Understanding Metabolism

All the chemical reactions in your body to convert food and liquids into energy are called metabolism. Your metabolism includes every chemical process that takes place within your body.

You can divide these chemical reactions into two groups:

Anabolism

Building and storage occur during anabolism. An example of anabolism is when your body utilises the food you eat to grow organs, bones, or muscles. Small molecules are used in anabolism to create bigger molecules, such as carbohydrates, lipids, or proteins. Your body uses these bigger molecules to preserve bodily tissues, produce new cells, or store energy. Energy is also required for these anabolic activities to take place.

Catabolism

The reverse, catabolism, involves the destruction of tissues and energy reserves. Catabolic processes break down fat or carbohydrate cells to provide energy.

Every minute of every day, your body processes food. It is vital to your body’s capacity for survival. However, it might not be operating as well as it should. That is because your body merely uses calories at rest to survive, and the process is known as your basal metabolic rate (BMR).

Various variables can influence BMR, such as gender, age, hormones, genetics, body size and weight, body composition (ratio of fat to muscle), diet, hydration, physical activity, and medication. Your metabolism’s effectiveness has an impact on your flexibility and general wellness. Healthy lifestyle decisions aid effective metabolic processes in diet, sleep hygiene, stress reduction, and physical activity. You must work to become metabolically fit, just as you must work to become physically fit. Making the appropriate decisions helps the body become more metabolically flexible and increases metabolism efficiency.

Metabolic Health

You cannot standardise metabolic health in any way. It is typically the lack of metabolic syndrome. However, an increasing number of adults globally have metabolic syndrome.

Five conditions cause metabolic syndrome:

• Elevated blood pressure

• Elevated blood sugar

• Stomach obesity

• Excessive cholesterol

• High levels of triglycerides

You have metabolic syndrome if you experience the presence of three or more of these risk factors. However, the likelihood of having heart disease, diabetes, and stroke significantly increases if all five are present. Therefore, physical inactivity, being overweight, becoming older, and genetics are the key risk factors for metabolic syndrome (having an abnormal metabolism).

Metabolic Flexibility: An Overview

Metabolic flexibility, as the name indicates, refers to your body’s ability to utilise any available fuel for energy, whether fuel stored in your body or fuel obtained through meals. For example, if you recently had a meal or a snack, your body will digest the food and use it to create energy. However, if it has been some time since your last meal, your metabolism may switch to burning the stored sugar and fat in your body. Scientists refer to these fuel-burning procedures as “fat oxidation” and “glucose oxidation.”

Before the industrial revolution, humans were metabolically adaptable when no restaurants or food shops existed. On some days, there was more than enough food for everyone, but on others, there wasn’t. As a result, people with flexible metabolisms might go days without eating and yet feel great. In specific ways, this is also true in today’s world, such as when we exercise vigorously or consume a lot of calories during the day. In these circumstances, our bodies must adjust and use the appropriate quantity of fuel.

Note

Metabolic flexibility is the ability to use different fuel sources as energy to function normally. It is beneficial in several ways as it enables your body to use carbs, fats, sugar etc., depending on their storage. In addition, flexible metabolism allows you to savour various meals at different times without limiting yourself to a particular diet. First, it is essential to understand the impact of foods on your glucose to utilise energy sources to the optimum.