How To Improve Metabolic Health And Flexibility

Scary fact: only 12% of adults in the United States are metabolically healthy. (1) Metabolic health is a term used to describe how well our body can generate and process energy from the food that you eat without unhealthy spikes in blood sugar, blood fat, inflammation, and insulin. There is no official definition of the term metabolic health. Some experts say that metabolic health means the absence of metabolic syndrome, which is a group of risk factors that contribute to the risk of heart disease, type 2 diabetes, stroke, and other metabolic diseases. From a clinical perspective, metabolic health is defined by optimal levels of five markers without the use of medications: blood sugar, triglycerides, high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol, blood pressure, and waist circumference. (2)

The opposite of metabolic health is a state is known as metabolic syndrome, where people have three or more of the following traits:

• A waistline of 35 inches for women and 40 inches for men

• Fasting glucose above 100 mg/dL

• HDL cholesterol less than 40 mg/dL in men or less than 50 mg/dl in women

• Triglycerides above 150 mg/dL

• High blood pressure (130/85 or higher)

If all five are present, it greatly increases the chance of developing heart disease, diabetes, and stroke. A combination of factors make up your individual metabolic health, some of which you can influence and others that are set. Healthy lifestyle decisions in diet, sleep routine, stress management, and physical activity help metabolic processes work effectively.

Metabolic flexibility drives metabolic health. When you are metabolically flexible, you can easily switch between fuel sources to maximize efficiency. If you have good metabolic flexibility, your body will quickly adapt to burn what it consumes. Just as you must work at being physically fit, you have to work at being metabolically fit. With the right choices, metabolism efficiency improves, and the body learns to be more metabolically flexible.

Long-term metabolic inflexibility can cause serious health issues such as insulin resistance, weight gain and obesity. Glucose and metabolic flexibility are intrinsically connected. You can improve most metabolic markers by consistently making choices that keep glucose levels in a stable and healthy range. Achieving metabolic flexibility can help you achieve better weight maintenance, increased energy levels, better health, lower odds of developing a metabolic disease, healthy glucose levels, improved sleep and optimized workout performance.

How to get started on improving your metabolic flexibility:

1. Focus on your diet

Diet always affects metabolic flexibility. Eating a whole foods diet and avoiding processed foods is the best place to start. Minimize your added sugar and refined carbohydrate intake. Avoid overeating as extra calories lead to excess glucose, which leads to insulin resistance and fat storage.

2. Get enough exercise.

Physical inactivity is one of the leading causes of metabolic inflexibility. Exercise is key as if helps control glucose levels. Any type of exercise is beneficial however, incorporating a combination of high-intensity exercise and strength training gives optimal results. (3)

3. Try intermittent fasting.

Intermittent fasting (or not eating for a set period each day of 14-24 hours) helps combat insulin resistance and improve metabolic flexibility. (4) Fasting helps to reduce insulin levels quickly, prompting your body to switch fuel sources to use ketones. Research identifies that intermittent fasting has several other benefits: preserves lean muscles, reduces cholesterol levels, reduces oxidative stress, reduces inflammation, increased dopamine levels.

4. Get enough sleep.

Sleep deprivation can lead to chronic health problems such as diabetes or an increased risk of cardiovascular disease. Both the quality and length of sleep are essential to metabolic health. Poor sleep can affect hunger hormones, increase inflammation, promote insulin resistance, and increase weight gain. (5)

5. Find ways to control stress.

Managing stress is necessary for metabolic health. Stress causes our bodies to release hormones such as adrenaline and cortisol. When facing a “fight or flight” stress response, our bodies release glucose to provide the extra energy required to deal with the situation. Chronic stress causes excess glucose to consistently build up in the body. That built up glucose can lead to long-term conditions like diabetes and cardiovascular disease. (6)

6. Track your glucose.

To understand how food and lifestyle choices are directly impacting your metabolic health you can track your glucose levels. People can have very different glucose responses to the same exact food. There are many strategies to improve your metabolic health and being able to see how your body responds to these strategies will help you find the right options for your body. A continuous glucose monitor (CGM) can help track your glucose in real-time. It lets you actively see which lifestyle influences and foods directly impact your glucose levels and track if the changes you make are working. If you are unable to use a CGM, blood work such as a fasting glucose level and hemoglobin A1c can give you some insight into glucose control. Both these labs can provide an approximate measure of glucose control however they do not address short-term glycemic variability.

Achieving metabolic health and flexibility requires effort and persistence. No one is perfect. Metabolic health is a daily, continual process. You are in control of the decisions that can improve metrics that define your metabolic health.

Reference:

1. Araujo, J., Cai, J., & Stevens, J. (2019). Prevalence of optimal metabolic health in American adults: National health and nutrition examination survey 2009-2016. Metabolic Syndrome and Related Disorders, 17(1), 46-52. https://doi.org/10.1089/met.2018.0105

2. Grundy, S.M., Cleeman, J.I., Daniels, S.R., Donato, K.A., Eckel, R.H., Franklin, B.A., Gordon, D.J., Krauss, R.M., Savage, P.J., Smith, S.C., Spertus, J.A., & Costa, F. (2005). Diagnosis and management of the metabolic syndrome: An American Heart Association/National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute scientific statement. Circulation, 112, e285-e290. https://doi.org/10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.105.169405

3. DaSilva, M.A., Baptista, L.C., Neves, R.S., DeFranca, E., Loureiro, Hl, Santos-Lira, F., Caperturo, E.C., Verissimo, M.T., & Martins, R.A. (2020). The effects of concurrent training combining both resistance exercise and high-intensity interval training or monderate-intensity continuous training on metabolic syndrome. Frontiers in Physiology, 11(572). https://doi.org/10.3389/fphys.2020.00572

4. Palmer, B.F., & Clegg, D.J. (2022). Metabolic flexibility and its impact on health outcomes. Mayo Clinic Proceedings, 97(4), 761-776.

5. Sharma, S., & Kavuru, M. (2010). Sleep and metabolism: an overview. International Journal of Endocrinology, 2010, https://doi.org/10.1155/2010/270832

6. American Heart Association Editorial Staff. (2021). Lower stress: how does stress affect the body. Retrieved from: https://www.heart.org/en/healthy-living/healthy-lifestyle/stress-management/lower-stress-how-does-stress-affect-the-body