How I Become More Resilient By Promoting Metabolic Flexibility

How I Become More Resilient By Promoting Metabolic Flexibility

Photo by Chris Curry on Unsplash

No nobody in the office would ask me to go for lunch together. To be clear, nobody hates me at work. Part of the reason is that I like solitude at work during lunch. It becomes the most productive time during the day. There are no phone calls, no one to ask me questions, and no meetings. But most of all, everyone knows that I eat one meal a day (OMAD is intermittent fasting (IF)).

After practicing it for 15 months now, I finally understand that hunger is just a feeling 9 out of 10 times — instead of an indicator or warning of not enough energy. Most of us cannot differentiate these. It is because we are now in a society that food is more than abundant. Most of the time, we eat because we get used to it, not we need to.

Practicing OMAD helps me to understand the difference. Besides, fasting helps me gain back my metabolic flexibility and makes me more resilient in different ways. For example, I no longer have a brain fog even though I didn’t eat that day; even if I ate more than usual, I would not have any digestion problems.

Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner

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To explain the idea of metabolic flexibility, we need to talk about our relationship with food. For example, if you told anyone with a regular eating schedule of three meals a day (i.e., means most of the people) that you skip breakfast and lunch, you often hear someone would ask:

How can you do that?

Where do you get your energy from?

Imagine ancient times; our ancestors were still hunting and gathering in the wild; they couldn't have three regular meals a day. There was no such thing called breakfast, lunch, and dinner. They eat more when they have enough food (like in summer and spring) and fast when scarce (in winter or drought).

The one meal-a-day lifestyle was the one that our ancestors followed. This is the only way food was so limited, and there was no proper food preservation. They can only serve themselves when the food is still fresh and eat them immediately (like meat).

Our ancestors moved much more but ate much less than we are today. They went hunting and gathering all day on foot and ran and hid in the wild to avoid predators. So, how can they not feeling hungry all the time and “grab a bite” on the way to the hunt? Because our body allows that.

What is Metabolic flexibility?

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Let’s go through the definition of metabolic flexibility, referring from “Metabolic flexibility in health and disease”:

Metabolic flexibility describes the ability of an organism to respond or adapt according to changes in metabolic or energy demand as well as the prevailing conditions or activity.

Break One’s Fast

The concept of “breakfast” means “breaking one’s fast” — from fast state to feast state. This concept was noted and took prevalence around the period of the 17th century. Our body will tap into our “body reserve” and convert it into energy for us through oxidation in a fast state.

We obtain our fuels via eating and digestion. Metabolism is the physiological process by which our body releases the energy needed to function from fuel oxidation. As a result, our bodies are in a feasting or fasting state.

Feasting state — The time you start eating until food is digested Fasting state — The time in between feasting, which means the digestion systems are resting.

Good metabolic flexibility helps the body maintain a stable energy level (given that energy availability is enough). This is the adaptability of our bodies to our physiological needs.

Oxidative Priority

You may know some food makes you fat faster. But the most critical factor is how our body responds to food. So the question you ask should not be just what but when and how.

Oxidative Priority is the order of fuels that the body prefers to burn and how it affects metabolic activities — our body stores different fuels (ketones, fat, glucose, protein, and alcohol).

That means Oxidative Priority can help you understand when and how you should eat. Some fuels are burned first, and some are stored first. In general, alcohol has a priority, while fat is the last.

This priority can explain why ethanol (i.e., alcoholic drinks) is toxic to our bodies if in excess. As indicated in the study:

Ethanol decreased total body fat oxidation by 79% and protein oxidation by 39%, and almost completely abolished the 249% rise in carbohydrate (CHO) oxidation seen in controls after glucose infusion.

Ethanol has the highest oxidative priority. Therefore, an abundance of it within a short period would sharply inhibit the oxidation of other fuels and further impact the metabolism.

With different sources available to your body, the order of fuels consumption is as below:

Alcohol Blood Sugar Glycogen stored in liver and muscle Free Fatty Acids in your blood Body Fat

Overeating sugar, especially refined ones, further enhance absorption, thus prohibiting other fuels. On the other hand, eating less gives your body a chance to use alternative pathways for energy productions.

To use body fat as fuel, excess fatty acid and sugar (glucose) in the blood must deplete first. Thus, the largest storage pool is body fat from the energy storage perspective, and it can save our lives from days or even weeks without a food supply.

Energy Balance

Being living organisms, humans included, must obey the first law of thermodynamics:

The energy balance equation has been used to predict changes in body weight when energy intake or expenditure is changed.

However, the classic energy balance equation, which treats human energy expenditure as energy input and output, has provided insight and confusion while understanding energy balance in humans.

The assumption of body weight and body composition is a constant cannot be right all the time, i.e., the equation works when body weight and body composition are maintained. So what we should be looking at is to think of it as a continuous process.

Being metabolic flexible is thus, having a better and faster adjustment to achieve a new equilibrium in the transition from different conditions, for example:

Fasting to feasting Low-carb to a high-carb diet or the reverse Low-fat to a high-fat content diet or the reverse

All these require our body to respond faster to the change in both food composition and availability. With that, our body needs to upregulate or downregulate the oxidation of different fuel sources (e.g., from carbohydrates depletion to lipid oxidation).

How Do I start?

A few years back, I still suffered from multiple metabolic syndromes like occasional headaches and skin allergies. Then, one day, I learned about “Inflamm-aging” and realized the problem from a different standpoint. As a cybersecurity professional, I applied the concept of hacking to my body (or called biohacking).

Inflammation touches every part of our health, including immunity, digestion, and recovery. Yet, people like me may not notice it as a problem. Some even think it is normal. But once you learn more about inflamm-aging, every day will not be the same.

Hacking (including biohacking) required a thoughtful understanding of a targeted system, generally through reconnaissance or social engineering, to find weaknesses. In this case, the targeted system is my body or, more specifically, the prolonged inflammation inside my body.

As a result, I wanted to understand the cause of multiple reactions that led to this state of physical conditions. Just like computer systems, hackers leverage vulnerabilities, known or unknown, to exploit. So, to biohack yourself, I started to eliminate the most common inflammatory factors in my body.

Mindfulness ????‍♂️

Mindfulness and meditation do not only calm the mind but also lowering stress and thus reduce inflammation. Experiments show that mediation reduces anxiety, reduces stress hormones levels, and improves cognition. So, with only a few minutes a day, I started with light stretching before bed.

Based on the biofeedback I collected, I tweaked my routine and tested out several practices by reviewing my biomarkers, like my sleep pattern by Oura ring. Finally, I came up with my inflammation reduction, morning and night routines.

My data from Oura ring | copyright by the author

No Sugar

I found the most significant challenge during a fast is a limited mindset — You only feel hungry and miserable without joy. Therefore, the first thing I tried was not fasting right away. Instead, I focused on reducing sugar intake at first, especially refined sugar.

But limiting sugar is simple — it is visible and tastable. Your drink would be less sweet, and you intentionally see yourself adding less sugar to your food or drink. Doing something so vividly provides instant feedbacks that give you satisfaction. Therefore, there is a higher chance to keep doing it.

To give yourself more robust feedback, try recording your sugar intake. For me, I keep a physical journal with my favorite fountain pen in my pocket. When I eliminated sugar from my diet, I wrote down every time I ordered or consumed added sugar in food. With this easy step, you will be more mindful every time you eat.

More Fat

Removing sugar means less energy from food if the potion is the same. That is also the reason why all low-fat foods are sweeter (more sugar). As a result, the second hack I applied to inflammation reduction was eating more fat, particularly omega-3 and short-and-medium-chain saturated fatty acids.

To tap into body fat as your fuel source easier, I need to replace long-chain fatty acids with short-and-medium ones. Why is that? Contrary to long-chain fatty acids, the cellular metabolism of short-and-medium-chain fatty acids is easier. This is due to:

more rapidly they are digested,

more quickly, they are absorbed in the intestinal lumen, and

less dependent on proteins for binding.)

Less inflamed fatty acids also depend on their stability. Saturated fats are the most stable class because they have the maximum number of bonded hydrogen atoms. Without double bonds in the chain, they do not quickly react with other molecules (oxidants or free radicals) or break.

To conclude, a better form of using fatty acids as fuel would be:

short-and-medium chain saturated or monounsaturated (only one double bond)

There are multiple options to choose from, for me, I prefer the most common choices:

coconut oil

avocado oil

olive oil (monounsaturated)

Another critical factor that is controlling inflammation in our body is the ratio of omega-6 to omega-3. Researches found that a lower proportion of omega-6/omega-3 fatty acids is more desirable. In short, omega-6s are pro-inflammatory, while omega-3s are anti-inflammatory.

The high omega-6 to omega-3 ratio problem is mainly caused by the heavy usage of processed seed and vegetable oils like soybean oil and corn oil. Using these oils as our cooking oil would increase our consumption of omega-6, which causes prolonged increased inflammation.

As a result, replacing the cooking oil from vegetable oils with olive oil or coconut oil is better. If you want to improve the ratio of omega-6 to omega-3, eating a lot of omega-3 to compensate is a bad idea. Instead, having a relatively low, balanced amount of each would be better.

Precaution — Inflammation is Essential for Survival.

Inflammation helps protect our body from infection and when we are hurt. It is a crucial part of our immune response. We need acute inflammation to help us fight viruses and injuries, but chronic and excessive inflammation is the leading driver of the most severe diseases, including cancers.

Intermittent Fasting

By adding intermittent fasting to the list of your routine, you can enjoy more flexibility in eating. But it doesn't mean “starvation” for a short period. For example, eating breakfast in the morning and then skipping lunch does not benefit from fasting. Instead, it should be the coping mechanism to extend our time from the last meal or delay eating.

Skipping meals with hunger requires willpower. So at the beginning of your fasting journey, it would be wise not to deplete willpower until the next meal. Also, there would be a high chance you will eat more and make a wrong decision on food choices (i.e., low willpower) later when you break your fast. So better start your day busy (but not energy-demanding).

I start the practice of fasting by delaying my breakfast. Thus, from eating first thing in the morning to drinking a cup of bulletproof coffee, which can suppress hunger. Adding butter and oil to coffee may make a person feel less hungry than if they drank coffee alone. By gradually delaying the time to eat, you can extend the body's stay to a fast state.

For sure, some people may find skipping breakfast unbearable. If that is your case, you can try pushing your time for dinner. As a result, instead of delaying the time for the first meal, you can advance your time for the last meal.

Final Words

Often my colleagues ask me why and how I want to do that. Most of them said it is intolerable not to eat when you are hungry. I agree. I love eating, too. But now, spending my only meal at McDonald’s would be too “luxurious.” Instead, I eat nutritious and healthy food for my one meal of the day.

Eating is essential for all of us, physically and mentally. With better metabolic flexibility, I can choose to eat without the burden of physical consequences like low energy or a bad mood. This “decoupling” of food and energy makes me stronger in various ways.

Eating is only one example of metabolic flexibility. There are other areas that, as a human, we should be able to cope with, like extreme temperature and mental stress. That is why ice water showers and hot saunas are good for our health. But with all things considered, eating less should be the optimal choice for most of us.