So all that being said, mixing fat and carbohydrates – not a problem. In fact, elevated levels of blood sugar over two hour period is the definition of diabetes. The question is what about mixing fat and carbohydrates, carbohydrates will always be dominating the metabolism because while glucose is necessary at high levels, it is toxic to the cells. On the flip side for low levels of blood sugar, there are multiple different mechanisms to raise it. There is only one mechanism of action to decrease blood glucose by the body. Glucose in and of itself remains in a very tightly controlled range in the bloodstream. It is the only macronutrient that is toxic. And the reason I say this is because glucose will always be the priority to get rid of. G: Glucose will always dominate your metabolism. So it’s really about being lean, healthy and physically active and then eating within a calorie zone that is not overconsumption.ĭr. So in a short answer, from a perspective of physical health, being lean and being well-trained is going to allow you to really have the metabolic flexibility defined by fuel selection. They would likely be less metabolically flexible.

If you were completely considered metabolically inflexible, that would be someone who say is potentially diabetic and they are continuously in a process of gluconeogenesis or making a lot of glucose.

And it’s the ability to switch between fuel utilization. When you eat a meal, if you’re eating a glucose meal, then the goal would be then to metabolize glucose. So what does that mean? So basically when you are at rest, you would be burning fatty acids. G: When we think about metabolic flexibility, just for people that maybe aren’t familiar with it, it’s the ability for the body to meet the demands with proper fuel selection.

You breathe into it and it’ll let you know whether you’re burning more fats or carbs.ĭr. We all need muscle and we all should be focusing on putting muscle on.ĭon: I like using a device called Lumen and it’s kind of an educated way of carb cycling. Muscle is our body armour and I think it’s often overlooked in training goals. So when your blood sugar goes too low, you do get counterregulatory hormones, like cortisol and a number of other counterregulatory hormones that can increase irritability.Īnd then of course to touch on osteoporosis, you have to make sure protein, vitamin D, K and calcium are optimized.ĭon: Just want to touch on the importance of muscle. Sometimes the sweats and irritability can often be due to bayzos motor issues and hormone changes, but also most uncommonly thought of is blood sugar regulation. So this is that perimenopausal time where number one, you want to make sure that you’re also not having ebbs and flows of blood sugar. Monitoring carbohydrate intake at this time is also important. Throw in high-intensity interval training. Make sure going into it, that body composition is optimized and that you are resistance training. Estrogen and overall all hormones decrease and this is the time when women lose the most muscle mass. There’s a few things that have the potential to cause the weight gain. One of the biggest things that we see in women that transition perimenopause to menopause is weight gain, and it’s not because something magical happens and you gain a bunch of weight. There is potential to start dehydrating the muscle of water, then what we think is the keto diet really becomes more about yo-yo dieting and that’s where I would be careful.ĭr. It depends on what you’re trying to accomplish on the keto diet. I will say, in terms of hormonal regulation, this is purely anecdotal, but a ketogenic diet over the long term may not be as beneficial as a more balanced diet for hormonal health.ĭon: I agree with what Dr. So for example, individuals that have higher cholesterol, those individuals may not be the best people to be trying a ketogenic diet. And what does that simply mean? Meaning some people will respond favourably to it and other people will not. I will also say that there are metabolic implications to a ketogenic diet. Number one thing to consider is that it’s a tool. It’s a very high fat, lower protein, which typically people feel that it’s a high protein diet, which it’s not. It is typically protein is 10% or less and carbohydrates usually breaks down to be about 20 grams. G: The ketogenic diet is 70% or higher fat.

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