Are you a sugar burner or a fat burner?
Hello, my name is Magda and I am a recovering sugar burner…..
Are you hungry every 2 hours and feel that you constantly need to snack? Or, even worse, do you get hangry (hungry+angry). For me, that was usually the case sometime between breakfast and lunch…You can ask my husband and my family – they even invented a nickname for the person I would turn into....not a very flattering one to be clear. But, it turned out, this was not a genetic predisposition ;-) and something that I was actually able to change with the right diet, starting with breakfast (in case you haven’t read my blog on breakfast, read it here). This was actually quite a big personal discovery for me and it really changed how I now think about food.
It turns out if we feed our body sugar all day long, it really starts relying on a steady/constant supply of this easy fuel. On the other hand, there is another fuel, which our body can also use, which provides it with much more steady energy – and that’s fat. While these two types of fuel are stored in our bodies, the important difference is that glucose (i.e. what sugar gets converted into after it is metabolised from carbohydrates we eat) is a rather short-term fuel that gets depleted quickly as this is where our body reaches first for an energy boost. Also, when all the places where glucose can be strored are full (liver and muscles), glucose gets converted into fat to be available more long-term. And that’s how we often end up with more than enough fat reserves in our bodies. Wouldn’t it be great to use these for fuel instead?
So, which one are you sugar-burner or fat-burner. To find out, take this quiz: http://jjv-cdn.s3.amazonaws.com/sid-resources/JJVirgin-SID-Resources-Sugar-FatBurner-Quiz.pdf
If you are a fat-burner – congratulations! I am sure you can atest to the beauty of steady energy that you experience all day long. If you are, like most of us, a sugar burner, despair not! So, as you can imagine, a million-dollar question is: How do you transition from being a sugar-burner to fat-burner?
While nobody is the same and, thus, each individual transition will be somewhat different, there are a few basic rules to keep in mind. First of all, re-focus your meals on lean protein, good fats (especially avocado, olive oil, etc.), and fiber (mostly vegetables). Limit your carbohydrate consumption and, when you do include them, make sure these are the slow-burning carbohydrates (the so-called ‘slow-carbs’ like sweet potato, quinoa, steel-cut oats, etc.). Second, start with ensuring that you go at least 12 hours without any caloric food or drink between your dinner the night before and breakfast the next morning. Then, experiment slowly with extending this overnight fasting window by 1 hour. Finally, experiment with various types of breakfasts to ensure that you go 4-5 hours without being hungry until lunch, and then, similarily between lunch and dinner. If you are a serious snacker, this transition may take some time and effort. But, let me assure you, it is worth it! You will be able to have a more steady energy during the day and, as a side effect, are likley to loose some weight in case you have been carring some excess.
On a final note, the idea is not to demonise carbs and not to avoid eating them but rather it is to make you more concious of how much carbs you are consuming vis-à-vis your body’s needs. What we are after is the ‘metabolic efficiency’ - meaning your body is able to switch affortlessly between two fuel tanks – glucose and fat. For some types of activity, for example high-intensity training, your body needs the more-readily available fuel, which is glucose. So, as always, everything in moderation.
Let me know what you think. If it sound like you are ready to transition but still not sure how to go about it, I am here to help. Schedule a free initial consultation with me and we can discuss how I can best help you achieve your goals.
Hello! I am Magda and I work with people that are ready to transform their health and wellbeing. What are your health goals that you have not been able to reach? Read more about me and my services.
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