The Overnight Fat-Burning Switch: What Happens When You Stop Eating 3 Hours Before Bed

Welcome back to the Biohack Method podcast. I'm Lindsey Burwell, the host, and today I'm going into a topic that I am so obsessed with, and it is the nighttime fat burning switch. What happens when you go to bed 3 hours without food? Let's dive into it.

Welcome to the Biohack Method. I am Lindsey Burwell. I break down the science, cut the fluff, and give you real tools to optimize your body with peptides, transdermal patches, and root cause biohacking that actually works.

Two things that are so important to know is the energy systems we have in our body. We have glucose or we have fat, and in order to tap into fat stores for energy, you have to regulate insulin and blood sugar. I thought for the longest time that just exercising more, eating less was going to help me burn more fat and do body composition. It wasn't until I started diving into blood sugar and how that can truly transform your whole body, but not just that—the benefits from a longevity perspective, from an autophagy perspective. Of how important blood sugar and insulin is. So you think of these 2 energy systems. You have glucose, like I said, or you have fat. If you want to be able to tap into your fat stores for energy, you have to regulate blood sugar and insulin. Most Americans have elevated insulin, and the reason why is because the things that elevate blood sugar and insulin— it's not just from sitting around and eating sugar all day. Actually, the things that elevate blood sugar and insulin are not getting adequate sleep, from stress, from snacking throughout the day. How many times have you been in a place where you had a coach, or maybe you thought in order to rev up your metabolism you need to keep feeding it throughout the day, whether it be protein, fiber, fat, things like that? However, if you think about our body and when it was really designed, right, we lived in a place of fast and famine. We also used to hunt for our food, so we would go for hours at a time hunting for our next meal. We would cook that meal, we would eat that meal, and then we would maybe not eat again for another 12 to 24 hours, right? Right? We now live in a world where we are eating all day long. You may skip breakfast, maybe skip lunch, and then you're gorging at dinner, or you're eating multiple snacks through the day, or you're having breakfast and then a snack, then you're having lunch, then you're having a snack, then you're having dinner, then you're having another snack or treat. In these scenarios, both of them, you're keeping your blood sugar elevated and insulin elevated, basically making it impossible for your body to have an opportunity to tap into those fat stores for energy. So if you want to train your body to start burning fat for energy, we have to regulate blood sugar and glucose. And why nighttime is one of the most powerful times to do this is because you should be sleeping at least 7 or 8 hours, right? And not just that, nighttime is the time where we go to recharge our body. It's like plugging your cell phone into the charger at night. You want to wake up and your cell phone being at 100%, right? Because you have a lot to do, you need to use it throughout the day. So Same with your body. If you want your body to have high energy, be metabolically fit, be able to focus and get everything done, nighttime is where your body resets, it repairs, it goes through a self-cleaning process. And how you can maximize your nighttime is to tap into those fat stores for energy, and you do this by the magic 3-hour window prior to going to sleep. Why that three-hour period is so important is because you want to get your body to a place where glucose is not high and elevated, and you don't have food in your system prior to going to sleep. If you go to bed with a full stomach full of food, not only is your blood sugar elevated, but your body is going to be focused all throughout the night on digesting that food. It's going to distract your body from the actual purpose it has throughout the night, which is to go through that cellular repair, that autophagy. Basically cleaning out old dead inflamed cells and then ultimately giving your body an opportunity to get into those fat stores for energy throughout the night. So you want to create that 3-hour window after your last meal for that purpose. And so what I like to do is I like to actually have my largest meal of the day being at breakfast. Most standard American diet is people, women, will maybe skip breakfast, maybe have lunch, and then come home to their families and have their largest meal of the day be dinner. The problem with that is one, just like I talked about, you're going to bed with a full stomach, which is going to distract your body from getting into that cellular repair. Not just that, your blood sugar and insulin is going to be elevated, making it impossible to get into a fat burn. But also what is so important is that you have to think of food as energy. When you are eating your largest meal of the day at dinner, are you then going on a marathon run or like getting 8 hours worth of projects done or doing all the things? No, usually most of us are having dinner And kind of just winding down and chilling, right? And so it really goes opposite of what our circadian rhythm and our natural metabolism is actually optimized, where we need food as fuel earlier in the day. So I like to utilize breakfast as my largest meal, or lunch as one of my larger meals, and dinnertime is really more of a snack or an appetizer. I still cook, I still do all the things for my family. We still have dinner together. I'm just proportionately eating based on the energy needs of my body. For the rest of the day. Also making sure we're having an earlier dinner so I'm not going to bed with a full stomach, with elevated blood sugar, with blood sugar elevated. And so that is going to be why it is so important to also think of your metabolism as like a circadian clock. Another thing so important to know is metabolism is the fastest in the morning, and it's designed this way because cortisol is supposed to be highest in the morning too. Cortisol rises in the morning with the sun. It's what gives us energy focus. It revs up our metabolism. So most women in today's world, they are fasting and not eating breakfast, which really clashes with what is really great for our body. And so if you can switch those time frames and honor that circadian rhythm, eat a more nutritious breakfast with protein, fiber, healthy fats, and then as the cortisol starts dropping throughout the day as the sun is setting, honoring that with less carbohydrate-rich foods. The later the day goes on, as cortisol drops, the sun is we are actually more insulin resistant, meaning that our body is more sensitive to carbohydrates. Our insulin and blood sugar will actually increase more naturally, and that is again why our largest meal should be breakfast, our smallest meal should be dinner, and it should be very light in the carbohydrate area. And that is going to be so key if you really care about getting into a fat-burning mode throughout the night. Another reason why going to bed not on a full stomach is so huge: if you experience any digestive stress— I know for me, I had a decade of my life life. I was chronically bloated. I had IBS-C, IBS-D. I was hyper-inflamed. And it's so important to go to bed without food in your stomach because that is where your body's going to go through what I talked about, autophagy. So what is autophagy? Autophagy is when your body goes into a self-cleaning mode, and it does not happen throughout the day. It actually happens in a fasted state. Why bedtime is so optimal is that you hopefully are not eating throughout the night, right? You're hopefully getting your body into a fasted state. So it's the most opportunistic time to let your body go into that self-cleaning mode and start eating and deleting those old inflamed cells. It's one of the most powerful things you can do, especially if you think about our body and how hyperexposed it is throughout the day of EMF and Wi-Fi, Bluetooth. Oxidation is your body, your cells basically starting to be depleted and diminished from all of the environmental stress that we're exposed to in today's world. And so in order to support ourselves from not being damaged, so not going through that Yeah. So, if you want to slow down that hyper-aging process, autophagy is going to be one of your greatest assets to do that. Also, what allows that process to happen is regulating the insulin and regulating the blood sugar. Again, nighttime is the most magical time. You should be sleeping, what, 7 or 8 hours a day? So, you're capitalizing on that timeframe, but you're giving it a greater boost by going to bed, ideally, 2 to 3 hours in a fasted state. This is also why we created the metabolism patch. The metabolism patch is everything your body needs when it comes to regulating and supporting your metabolism. It has the berberine, which has been shown to support blood sugar, everything we've been talking about. It has some fat-burning amino acids to help with that metabolic switch to get out of insulin and actually start tapping into those fat stores. And then it has glutamine, which has been helpful to heal the gut lining where your GLP receptors are. So think satiety, think cravings. You're going to be able to support that with the transdermal delivery of the metabolism patch. I love to wear this patch in the morning. It's very activating, and I love to support, again, that blood sugar throughout the day. And then as I'm getting ready for bed, I actually switch off the metabolism patch and put on the detox patch, because what's really important while you're sleeping is to give your liver the space to be able to go through that natural detox cycle, and which is also important for fat metabolism. To be able to break down those fatty cells, our liver is involved in that. And so to support your liver in that process, Is like killing two birds with one stone. It's super powerful. Okay, so what I would do, if you are somebody listening to this that is like, I really need to switch up the metabolism, I really need to start getting into fat burning, what I would do if you are excited about this is I would start your morning with a protein, fiber, and healthy fat forward diet. I would make sure you're getting your nutrition front loaded throughout the day, one, so your body's getting the energy it needs to crush the day ahead. And then I would skip on the snacks. I would wait and give your body a break, a nice 2, 3, 4 hours, and then have lunch. With your lunch, you're gonna want protein forward, healthy fats, and fiber. Eating those in that order is gonna help regulate blood sugar and insulin, prevent it from spiking, whether, versus having maybe carbohydrates first, then protein and fats. You wanna eat with the protein, healthy fats, and then fiber. And then I would fast again for another 3, 4 hours, and then have a small dinner. You're gonna wanna have dinner, Again, 3 hours before you go to bed, you allow your body to digest that food. Maybe even consider going for a walk or getting some things done around the house. Keep your body moving so that glucose from the fuel that you just ate gets out of your bloodstream and into your cells. And then go to bed on a nice semi-fasted state. Sleep throughout the night. What you'll notice in about a week, you're going to notice that you're going to be hungrier in the morning. I work with a lot of women who say, I'm not hungry for breakfast. How am I supposed to eat this amazing big breakfast to fuel me for my day? Usually if you're waking up morning with no hunger, it's because your metabolism, that fire, is not turned on. It's super easy to train. I did this for myself and many other women. So all you have to do is if you go to bed on that fasted state, I promise you within a few days you will absolutely be waking up hungry, which is a really, really great sign. So if this topic lights you up and you loved it, I would love nothing more. Drop in the comments one of the most favorite things that you learned. Make sure you subscribe because every week we drop episodes like this, and I can't wait to see you on the next one.

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