Metabolic switching in practice.

Hello friends!

Today I want to share with you what metabolic switching can look like in practice as I just experienced it!

The follicle phase – the strong phase

I am in my strong phase again of my menstrual cycle and thereby incorporate fasting into my lifestyle. Coming from the luteal phase I am quite glucose driven because of my restricting my fasting to 12 – 13 hours and adding healthy carbs to my diet. So it takes a few days to drain all that glucose out of my body (liver and muscles).

Considering the bleed days

I do it this way namely because it does take it toll on me to go through my bleed days. So I need to balance how many hours I fast in the beginning. It is all about  being in tune with yourself and listen to your body. And I always monitor my blood sugar levels and when I come down to the lower ranges of four mmol/L or higher ranges of three mmol/L then I also measure my ketones. Ketones is a sure sign of my body using fat for fuel to some extent – the higher value the more ketones are circulating in my blood stream.

A good trend going

This time I got a ketone reading of 0.3 mmol/L on the fourth day of my cycle and third day of implementing 17 – 18 hours of fasting. As you can see on day two and day three, I am in a good trend as my blood glucose after my fasting is either lower or at least equal to my morning sugar. So my body is draining itself from the stored glucose and bringing me closer to running mainly on fat for fuel. Those times when it is equal or perhaps higher after my fasting, I interpret is based on two different scenarios:

• I have recently been training or been active in some way and my body adds more glucose to my blood stream to give me energy.
• I still may have more glucose left in my system to get rid of before I can be truly driven by fat for fuel. Either way I see this as something positive. My body is doing what it is supposed to do – burning off that extra glucose first and then start tapping into my fat stores.

Feasting and fasting

Now in my lifestyle there is also margins for some feasting. That is by the way what we are supposed to do. Feasting and fasting. But there need to be a balance. So Saturday’s are my luxury day where I treat myself to carbs that I truly enjoy eating – and they are in no way healthy and something that my would benefit my health. It is purely for short-term enjoyment. But in order for me to keep my lifestyle long-term I also need that something in life that gives me a little mental boost. I am sure you know what I am talking about and can relate.

Impressed by my metabolic flexibility

So on this day I had around 125 grams of carbs but what was so interesting to see was that 24 hours later after 17 hours of fasting on Sunday I was back at using fat for fuel again to a small extent. But still – after all that luxury on Saturday. I was impressed with my metabolic flexibility and my body’s ability to switch between fuel sources!

But with this said I took some important measures to control my blood sugar in this process. I talk about my favorite blood sugar spike hacks on this page. But I will also share what I did in detail in this post.

Introduction of fasting and working on my insulin resistance

First and foremost I had been doing a few days of extended fasting of 17 hours. This had made me more insulin sensitive.

Time-restricted eating window

On that Saturday I also gave myself a time-restricted eating window. That means that I fasted for 18 hours but had an eating window between roughly 12:00 – 20:00 where I consumed my calories.

The Importance of breaking a fast

I broke my fast with a bone-broth shake. This serves two purposes for me. Number one is that it is a kind way of breaking my fast to my gut. So it eases me into starting to eat again. Secondly, when you have fasted you are very insulin sensitive. The body will soke up everything you eat in a very effective way. So it is important to pay attention to what you eat or drink when you open up your eating window. The protein from the bone-broth will take the edge of this somewhat and dull this reaction so that the second thing I eat will not go straight into storage.

Strength training at the end of the fast

Exercising at the end of the fasting window will further drain my body from glucose as a last action before I start eating again. I chose strength training which is a great way of activating my muscles and also send signals to my body that my muscles are needed. When fasting you run the risk of losing some muscles – especially if you are not in the fat burning system. Ketones and autophagy are muscle sparing but when you are in the middle of transitioning from glucose to fats you run the risk of losing some muscle. That is why strength training is so extremely beneficial when you have a fasting lifestyle!

Nutrient dense food

I made sure my first proper meal was nutrient dense with good quality fats and proteins. After this meal and about one hour later I could then indulge in some carbs. The bone-broth, training and the fats and protein from my meal took the edge of the blood sugar spike. So instead of it spiking really high it had a slower release into the blood stream.

Apple cider vinegar (ACV)

I always have 1 – 2 table spoons of ACV diluted with water before my meals. ACV has great properties to modulate the blood sugar and also assist with digestion.

Time to introduce the carbs along with low-intensity exercise

After my first meal and my second high carb meal I was physically active with low intensity for about 2.5 hours. Exercise is by far the best blood sugar regulation tool we have at our disposal. And by doing a low-intensity activity I did not add any cortisol that drove up my blood sugar and this is a prerequisite to activate fat burning.

Then it was time for dinner and further indulgence with carbs until 20:00 where I closed my eating window for the day.

Another fasting session

The following day I checked my sugar which was at a good place considering my indulgence the day before. It sat at 4.5. I gave myself another 17 hours of fasting and during this window I also did low-intensity activities.

HIIT training at the end of my fast

But then at hour 15 I gave myself a high intensity interval training session. HIIT training is stressing the body and drives up cortisol. The activity itself is more glucose driven then fat driven. The positive effects of fat burning is something you get after a workout of this type. When the cortisol comes down you will come into a deeper state of fat burning. Reason why is because the HIIT training requires glucose. This will help your body to change energy source from glucose to fat as it senses that it gets less and less of this fuel and has no other option then to switch to fat.

Summary

So there you have it. This is my activities that assisted my body to be able to handle all those carbs and come back to using fat for fuel to a certain extent within 24 hours. I am super proud over my abilities to do this type of metabolic switching.

The more I learn about health and metabolic health the more everything just circles back to blood sugar management control. That is at the core of being metabolically healthy.