#165: What is Metabolic Flexibility?

Hey beautiful, it's Dr. Tabatha.

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Hi, I'm Dr. Tabatha, the Gutsy Gynecologist. I'm a triple board-certified OB-GYN and functional medicine physician. I've embraced the world of functional medicine and wellness through my own personal health journey, and I'm super excited to share my wisdom and unique perspective as it pertains to women's health. After caring for thousands of women, I've come to realize that your gut health determines your gyn health and your overall And it's a super gutsy thing for me to go against conventional gynecology practice to bring you the truth. No more Band-Aid medicine, ladies. We're talking root cause resolution on this show. So if you're struggling with hormone imbalance, weight gain, period issues, anxiety, insomnia, you name it, then you've come to the right place. And I want to be your gutsy gynecologist. So welcome. Okay.

Okay. Today we are going to find contentment and work on our metabolic flexibility. So what does that mean? When I talk about being content, I imagine that I am relying on God. I know he's got my back and that if I focus on the tools that he's given me and use my faith as my superpower, Then I can feel content knowing that everything else is out of my control, right? What I have planned might not be what God has planned for me, and that's okay. And I want to lean into the idea that he knows best. And even if I make a decision and it's wrong, he is always working on my behalf to right things for me. So I truly believe that even in times where you've made, you know, quote unquote, a wrong decision, or it wasn't in your best interest, or you didn't have all the information at the time and you wish you could have made a different decision looking back, God is always trying to steer your ship into the right direction. So he's going to adjust things. He's going to give you new opportunities to right your situation. So I truly believe, like, just knowing that will give you some contentment. And so if you can lean into that and just believe, you can feel content. And this carries through into how your body is functioning and what your body is doing every day. So whether You are fasting or feasting, or you've fallen off the wagon and you're bingeing, whatever the situation, you can always right that. You can always correct it, correct course, right? So what I like to think about is the fact that your body was made for feast-famine cycling. What that means is we didn't have grocery stores on every corner when man, you know, first existed, or for thousands of years. We have done all of this without food at our fingertips and readily available, without delivery services and grocery stores and corner markets and all of these things because God gave our body these— this amazing innate intelligence, and it's called metabolic flexibility. So what that means is Your body will adapt and use whatever fuel source it has. And so in conventional society right now, we have really trained our bodies to eat every couple hours and always look to the blood supply for our food source, meaning we eat the food, we absorb it through our stomach, it goes right into our bloodstream, and we have Glucose immediately available for use. Glucose comes from carbohydrates. You know, we have 3 main types of macros for energy. We have carbohydrates, which are a bunch of sugars all connected together, or we have protein, which is a bunch of amino acids connected together, or we have fats, which are a bunch of fats connected together. Our digestive system breaks these down into their smaller components, absorbs them into the bloodstream, and then makes a decision. Do we need to use these right now for energy because she's out exercising, she's doing something strenuous, or she's chilling on the couch, she's sitting at the computer, she doesn't need a lot of energy expenditure, so we're going to store it. So your body's constantly making these decisions as the food source, the energy source, comes in. Now, we have trained our bodies to eat every few hours from dusk until dawn, the minute we wake up to the minute we go to bed. And it's no fault of our own. We are caught up in this society where the snacking industry really has duped us. And unfortunately, the medical system and the governing bodies have, you know, signed on with this idea and it really is not for our health. These recommendations of, you know, keeping, quote-unquote, your blood sugar stable by eating every couple hours, snacking in between meals, Those were not designed to make us healthy. Those were designed to get people wealthy. They really have an agenda, and it has nothing to do with our health. I'm just going to be honest. And so we need to take a step back and realize that the way we're living as a society, even the governing bodies who are telling us what is healthy, it's not actually healthy. It is not how God created our bodies. That's not how he He designed us to function. So he designed us to be able to go a certain time period without food and tap into our energy stores that we have, our reserves, and to use the food that's coming in when it's coming in, and then when it's not coming in, to tap into all of these stores and use them. So When we eat every few hours, especially with snacking in between meals, our body stops looking to fats and proteins for its fuel source. It begins to always rely on what's coming in the bloodstream so that you get into this pattern of becoming addicted to carbohydrates. And carbohydrates are all the complex and simple sugars, like all of the grains, fructose, drinks, you know, pastas, crackers, all the processed foods in boxes and bags, even like granola bars and things like that. Those are all carbohydrates. And if our body is constantly waiting for the next blood sugar surge from whatever carbohydrate you're intaking, it never goes and uses your fat for fuel. And so it's really hard to ever burn fat and lose weight. And to compound that issue, carbohydrates, if they are not used when they go into the bloodstream— say you eat something like a granola bar, If you don't go for a walk immediately or do something to expend and use that energy, your body has to get it out of the bloodstream, so it has to store it and it stores it as fat. And I don't think that most people understand that because, unfortunately, the medical system has been perpetuating this myth that fat makes you fat when, in reality, it's carbohydrates and it's sugar excess that makes you fat. So we need all 3 macros— carbs, proteins, and fats— but we don't need excess of any. And it seems as if we need a lot less carbohydrates in this day and age because we are such a sedentary society, meaning we don't move our bodies the way we did 100 years ago, 200 years ago, 1,000 years ago. And if you don't move your body, you don't need all that immediate energy from carbohydrates. So what happens is you eat the carbohydrates, your blood sugar rises, and your pancreas has to produce insulin to go get that sugar out of the bloodstream. Sugar and glucose are used interchangeably, and they're both referring to the end-result products from carbohydrates. That's just a side note. So your pancreas releases insulin. Insulin is a fat storage hormone. So what it does is it takes the sugar out of your bloodstream, it knocks on the door of your cells, like your liver cells and your fat cells, and says, hey, let us in. Take this sugar and store it. We no longer need it in the bloodstream. And your body will do that, and it will do that, and it will do that, and it will do that until Your cells are so full of stored sugar as fat that your cells start to— or they stop listening to insulin when it knocks on the door. So your body has to make more insulin to knock louder. It has to send a louder signal. Hey, let the sugar in. You can't leave it out here in the bloodstream. And so what happens is our insulin levels start to increase, and that is insulin resistance. Your cells are no longer hearing the signal from insulin because they are sick of storing all of these sugars. And so you go down this path of insulin resistance, prediabetes, then your blood sugar stays elevated because it can't get it out of the bloodstream and store it anywhere. You start to develop fatty liver. You carry excess weight, and not only in your fat cells under your skin, but around and in your organs, especially in your liver. And that is where we get an increased waist circumference, meaning our pants don't fit as well as they used to. We're carrying all of this deep visceral fat, is what it's called. In and around our organs. And this is not healthy. This is what increases our risk of heart disease, heart attacks, diabetes, and so many other conditions. So what we need to do is stop intaking carbohydrates all day long. Give the pancreas a rest so it doesn't have to make insulin all the time. Give the cells a rest so they can stop ignoring insulin because they don't have anywhere to store all this sugar, and that will help things shift back to the way that your body is supposed to function. So your body has this amazing ability. It's got amazing innate intelligence to do all these processes. And your body, if it needs glucose in the bloodstream— say your blood sugar drops too low because you haven't eaten in a long time, It will actually take the stored fat in your liver and make glucose and put it into your bloodstream. That's called gluconeogenesis. It will take amino acids and proteins and make new energy. It will take your fat and make ketones as energy. And so you have all this stored-up energy. That's what Fat really is, is stored energy. So when I see someone who is overweight yet exhausted, the problem is that they are not able to tap into their fat stores to make energy. You have boundless energy, but it's all stored up. It's stuck. So what we need to do is remind your body how to tap into those fat stores for its fuel and create energy. And that is the premise of a ketogenic diet. You are burning fat for fuel. Having said that, a ketogenic diet is burning fat from the food that you're eating. So you're eating more fat, therefore you're burning that fat as ketones for your energy. I want you to take it a step further. I want you to burn your own fat. for energy and not rely on the food that you're taking in. I want you to tap into your fat stores. That is how you lose weight. So we've lost our metabolic flexibility, meaning our body forgets how to go from a sugar burner of carbohydrates to a fat burner because we've trained it in this dysfunctional pattern of only being a sugar burner. So It's super important. Get back into fat-burning mode. Embrace a more ketogenic-type diet to help remind your body how to do that process. I don't recommend staying in a ketogenic diet all of the time because our bodies were created for both fat burning and sugar burning. But to remind your body how to do that process, you do have to eat a ketogenic diet for a little while. And then we're going to add in fasting, and that is your other superpower. That is where the magic happens of, oh, now we're going to burn our own fat for fuel and start to lose weight because we're using up all of our stored energy. So I hope that makes sense to you guys. We're regaining that metabolic flexibility. We're reminding our body how to use fat for fuel instead of carbohydrates/sugar/glucose for fuel. And here's the kicker. For women, we do need carbohydrates every once in a while. And so it's super important to do a feast-famine cycle, meaning you might have a longer fast day once a week or every other week, but you have to add in the high-carb feast day to remind and reassure your body that you aren't starving it and that there is plenty of resources still coming in. Because what we've come to understand is that chronic low-calorie diets, like chronically not eating enough, tells your metabolism, oh my gosh, she's starving us to death. Conserve energy. Turn down the metabolism. Don't burn anything unless absolutely necessary. And that causes thyroid dysfunction because the thyroid is the master gland. It controls our thermostat, it controls our metabolism, it controls our weight, it controls our bowel movements and our skin, hair, and nail growth and our brain function— everything, literally. And it is very responsive and receptive to how many calories you're bringing in, what kind of quality, what kind of macros. Do not only fast. Do not only do a ketogenic diet. You might lose weight initially, but your metabolism will get turned down and you will rebound. You will gain that weight back, plus extra. And I do not want that for you. So it's imperative that you do the feast-famine cycling and that you really regain that metabolic flexibility. If you have already developed insulin resistance, if your fasting insulin is, you know, say, 7 or 8 or 9, above that, it's going to take a few months. It might take 4 to 6 months if you have full-blown insulin resistance. Say your fasting insulin is hanging out at like 15 or 20, it might take you 6 months for those cells to start hearing the signal again. for you to not produce as much insulin to get the job done again. But I promise you, it's reversible. You can shift. You can change all of this and prevent diabetes from happening. So I want you to be encouraged and excited by the fact that you have so much control over the future of your health. You know, we have been lied to and we've been told to look to the white coats. We give the white coats our power. As soon as we walk in the doctor's office, we expect them to have the answers and to fix us. And that's really a wrong way to look at our health. I want you to take back control, and understanding these processes in your body is step one in taking control because. When you realize what's happening, then you know how to get control of it and intervene. So, super important— transition into more of a ketogenic diet, get your body using fat for fuel, then shorten your eating window so that we can start to tap into our own fat for fuel, and then add in a higher-carb day every now and then to Reassure your body you're not starving. And that is where the shift should take place for you. If you are still having cycling periods every month, you know, you're younger than 40 or 45, you probably want to add in the feast-famine cycle maybe twice during your luteal phase. So after you ovulate and you're trying to make progesterone for your luteal phase, You do need more carbohydrates and you probably want 2 feast days during that time of your month. So just know that you can play around with it, but you have the ability to create that flexibility. So I hope that was helpful and I hope that you can feel some contentment in the fact that your body was created To work for you, not against you. That's another lie that is just perpetuated in our society, is that we require all these medications and we require doctors and interventions and all of these things, when in reality, that should be pretty uncommon. Your body was created to heal in such a beautiful miraculous way. Like, literally, I ripped my entire thumbnail off a couple of weeks ago, and I already have a new thumbnail growing because our body is created to be able to do that. It will grow new body parts back. It will self-heal. You have to remove the impedances and stop what's preventing it from getting back into balance. So I hope that makes sense for you today. Let me know. Shoot me a review, a comment. I hope that you're finding so much value in this and that you are just using your superpowers of faith and fasting to become the woman of your dreams. So go have an amazing day. I will talk to you soon.