In this post I talk about the importance of metabolic flexibility. We are not meant to be a sugar burner all the time, nor are we meant to be a fat burner all the time. My goal is to become metabolically flexible. For me, this is a huge part of a long-term health. Someone with great metabolic flexibility can burn carbs when they eat them. At the same time they can burn fat when they eat that, or when they do not eat at all. They can switch between carbohydrate metabolism and fat metabolism with relative ease. The benefit of this is that we can safely utilize a wider variety of nutrients. Safer in the sense that we will remain metabolically healthy and decrease the risk of getting sick with obesity, Alzheimer’s, diabetes type 2 or cardiovascular disease for example.

To assist your body with this you can pay attention to the macro nutrients and not mix fats and carbs, especially not high glycemic carbs. But instead keep fats and protein in one meal and perhaps protein and carbs in another meal. To read more about metabolic health please go hit..

Meet the mitochondria

So, who is running the show in the body when it comes to energy consumption? Well it is the mitochondria. Mitochondria are the power plants of the cells. They are the structures that process the fuel (food) and turn it into useable energy. The fewer you have, and the more dysfunctional they are, the more impaired your energy production and the less flexible you are. A high-functioning mitochondrial density enables burning more fat for energy. If you on top of this have a high insulin sensitivity that helps to guide the carbs into muscle rather than storing it as fat – you have a great metabolic flexibility.

What you can do

You can make your body more metabolically flexible with intermittent fasting, exercise, and a low-carb diet that emphasizes whole foods. So, this is what I do when I have the window of opportunity in my cycle – the follicle phase. With this I trust the process that my body will handle the progesterone building days better during the luteal phase as I continue this lifestyle and continue to build a better health.