The Art of Energy Juggling: Understanding How Your Body Chooses Fuel

The types of fuel your body uses—like fats, carbs, or proteins—depend on several factors. These include how efficiently your metabolism works, your gene expression, what you eat, and how much insulin you produce. When you eat a lot of carbs and your insulin levels are high, your body focuses more on burning glucose (sugar) and storing extra calories as fat, rather than burning fat for energy.

Fuel Storage and Priority

Different fuels have different storage capacities, which affects how your body uses them. This is known as oxidative priority:

• Alcohol: Your body can’t store alcohol, so it burns it first if you drink it.

• Glucose: Stored as glycogen in your muscles and liver, but there’s only so much room. When you eat more carbs than your body can store, the excess is turned into fat.

• Fat: This is stored in your body fat and is almost limitless. Your body burns fat for energy only when there are no other fuels available.

The Role of Protein and Ketones

• Protein: Mainly used for building and repairing tissues, not as a primary energy source. It’s hard to convert protein into energy, and most people don’t eat enough to make it a major fuel source.

• Ketones: These are produced when you burn fat and are used for energy. However, your body only makes ketones when it’s burning fat. If you eat a lot of carbs, any extra fat you consume gets stored rather than used for energy.

Many people believe that breakfast is the most important meal and that you need to keep eating regularly to maintain energy levels. They also think that whole grains and starchy foods are better than sugary ones for stable blood sugar levels. These ideas fit well with a high-carb diet but can lead to issues:

• Difficulty Managing Energy: High-carb diets can make it hard to manage your weight and can increase disease risk.

• Disconnection from Natural Appetite: Eating lots of carbs and sticking to strict eating schedules can mess up your hunger hormones like leptin, ghrelin, and CCK (cholecystokinin). This imbalance can lead to constant hunger, fluctuating energy levels, and difficulty managing fat storage.

• Obsessive Eating Patterns: The fear of not having enough food can make you overeat at every meal, leading to ignoring or suppressing your body’s signals of fullness. This can create a cycle of anxiety and unhealthy eating habits.

The best breakfast that you can have to maintain great energy levels for the rest of the day and to be able to burn fat for energy is a savory one that includes protein and fat. This can be as simple as having an omelette for breakfast and skipping the cereal.

When you consume too much glucose (from carbs), it can cause a range of health issues:

• Oxidative Stress: Excess glucose leads to the production of free radicals, which can damage cells and contribute to diseases like Alzheimer’s and cancer.

• Systemic Inflammation: High glucose levels can cause chronic inflammation, linked to various diseases, including heart disease, kidney problems, and autoimmune conditions.

Dr. Steven Phinney, an expert on low-carb diets, argues that a low-carb diet can have powerful anti-inflammatory effects. Our genes haven’t fully adapted to the high-carb diets that are common today. For most of human history, we ate minimal carbohydrates, and our bodies are better suited to process fewer carbs and use fats for energy. Balancing your insulin levels and choosing foods that align with our evolutionary diet can lead to better health and well-being. Humans are omnivores, which means our genes thrive on a diet rich in a variety of plant and animal foods. This includes:

• Meat
• Fish
• Fowl
• Eggs
• Nuts
• Seeds
• Vegetables
• Fruits
• Legumes
• Dairy

In summary, understanding how your body juggles energy and the impact of your diet can help you make healthier choices. Reducing your reliance on carbs and managing your eating habits by eating more protein and fat can improve your energy levels, help with weight management, and reduce disease risk.