Want to know one of the keys to going from fat storing mode to fat burning mode? Your blood sugar. Yup, blood sugar is a big deal for everyone, not just people with diabetes. Not only that, but your blood sugar is a big deal when it comes to your overall health, stress levels, sleep quality, and energy levels throughout the day.
The Science 101
Here’s the quick version of how your blood sugars work.
First thing to know: Your body LOVES homeostasis or equilibrium – when everything is as it should be, all is calm, and everything is doing what it’s supposed to be doing in there.
So, you eat or drink something with carbs/sugar. As your body digests the carbs, it breaks it down into something called glucose, which it sends into your blood. The result is that the level of glucose in your blood (aka, your blood sugar) goes up. Your body doesn’t like when things go up or down, so, when your blood sugar goes up, something called insulin is released to help bring it back down.
Insulin helps take the glucose out of your blood and into your cells so they can use it up. This means insulin is a storage hormone – tells the body to store stuff. If you have more glucose in circulation than you can use right then, insulin tells your body to store it as fat to use later. So, insulin does its job, gets the excess sugar out of your blood and into your cells, and your blood sugar comes back down. Then, insulin comes back down and everything goes back to homeostasis.
In addition to what we eat or drink, something else that impacts your blood sugar levels is stress. Stress is triggered in your brain. So, whatever the trigger, the body senses stress, and the brains send a message to your adrenal glands that it’s go time. Like, if a tiger was chasing you, you gotta GO. Your adrenal glands pump out stress hormones so you can go, fight, run, jump, flee, whatever you need to do to combat the stressor. One of those stress hormones is cortisol. One of cortisol’s jobs is to raise your blood sugar so that you have instant energy right then and there to run far and run fast from the tiger. But, stress is stress to your body, so whether it’s an actual tiger or an overbooked schedule, the body reacts the same way.
Then, once cortisol raises blood sugar, the same cascade of events unfolds that I outlined above with the insulin.
Life in Fat Storing Mode
Now you know that what you eat and drink can raise your blood sugar, and that stress can raise your blood sugar. You also know that when your blood sugar goes up, insulin comes along to help bring it back down. And that if you have too much blood sugar floating around, insulin is going to tell your body to take it all and store it as fat. Enter, life in fat storing mode.
If you are eating and drinking a high carb, high sugar diet, you end up spending a whole lotta time in fat storing mode. When your blood sugar is consistently high, you have excess glucose floating around all the time, and it’s no being used up, it’s gotta go somewhere – so it ends up as fat.
Pair that with inactivity, a job where you sit all day long, or a sedentary lifestyle where you aren’t using up that blood sugar as fuel to move, and you are going to end up in fat storing mode pretty consistently.
Hello, Fat Burning Mode
But don’t fret. Where there is fat storing mode, there is also fat burning mode. Fat burning mode is when you aren’t continually storing everything as fat to use later, but you’re actually managing your blood sugar to keep it from spiking, and you’re using up the fat stores you already have. Which leads to weight loss, and more specifically, fat loss.
Here are 6 things you can do every day to switch over into (and stay in) fat burning mode.
1. Eat PHFC balanced: When you aren’t riding the blood sugar roller coaster of spikes and crashes, you are able to keep your blood sugar consistent throughout the day. When you are balancing your meals with the right amounts of protein, healthy fat, and high fiber carbs (aka PHFC), you can spend more time burning fat than you do storing it.
2. Eat consistently throughout the day: No, you don’t have to eat 6 small meals a day – actually please don’t do that. But, you do want to make sure that you are eating 3 good meals that are PHFC balanced so you don’t end up crashing hard and hitting that 4pm wall. When you do that, not only are you riding the blood sugar roller coaster, but you’re also setting yourself up for a binge later on and some serious nighttime munching which will likely spike your blood sugars. Also, eating a lot right before bed isn’t doing you any favors either. Sleep is when you want to let your body fast, rest, and reset, but if it’s having to worry about digesting and managing blood sugar, it’s not going to be able to do that as well.
3. Manage your stress: Easier said than done, I know, but this one is so important. Stress raises your blood sugar. If you don’t want to walk around in fat storing mode, you’re going to have to address your stress levels. My favorite tools for dealing with stress in a healthy way include movement and exercise, meditation and mindset work, breathing exercises, doing something that brings you joy, spending time with people you love, turning off the news, and journaling – just to name a few.
4. Be careful of your fasting: Intermittent fasting can be a great tool for some people. But for others, it can actually just add fuel to the stress fire and make blood sugar issues worse. If you are drinking caffeine and working out fasted, this can set you up for blood sugar issues the rest of the day if your body is already maxed. Your hormones can end up taking a pretty big hit here, so be extra mindful of how you feel and really listen to your body on this one.
5. Audit your caffeine: Caffeine is another one that raises your blood sugar. It’s a stimulant, so it’s stressing your body much like that cortisol spike I talked about before. So if you’re grabbing cups of coffee (or any caffeine) throughout the day, you’re likely riding the blood sugar roller coaster.
6. Move your body: Exercise is a great way to use up the excess sugar in your blood so it doesn’t end up stored as fat. And, it also helps make your cells more receptive to the message of insulin so you’re better at using it as fuel too. It also helps manage stress levels, so bonus points here. And, as you build muscle mass, you give your metabolism a big boost, which is great for burning fat.
If you feel like you’ve been spending a lot of time in fat storing mode and you want to start burning it instead, start paying attention to blood sugar and give it some extra love.