Burn More Fat & Spare Energy... a.k.a. Improving Metabolic Efficiency

Metabolic efficiency refers to your body’s ability to burn fat for fuel and spare carbohydrates. It is a crucial concept for the prevention & treatment of obesity and type 2 diabetes, in addition to improving endurance performance.

For the endurance athlete: Becoming metabolically efficient allows the athlete to last longer on less fuel and aids in GI distress.

Therapeutically, optimizing fat oxidation (fat burning) through simple lifestyle modifications could have a profound impact on metabolic diseases.

The Science: A key component to increasing one’s fat oxidation is increasing fatty acid availability. So… how do you do that? One way is through LSD training. This refers to long slow distance. Thus, exercising at a low intensity for an extended period of time (i.e. a 60 minute walk, however exercise intensity is relative to the individual... if you are in better shape then it could be a 60 min jog). Also, by not consuming carbohydrates before or during exercise has been shown to increase fat oxidation through its effects on insulin levels. The final way to increase metabolic efficiency is by adopting a high fat, low carbohydrate diet. This dietary intervention has been shown to increase fatty acid transport into the muscle cell, therefore utilizing fat for energy.

To sum it up, the main ways you can improve metabolic efficiency: exercise at a low intensity for a long duration of time, try exercising first thing in the morning (in a fasted state), and adopt a low carb, high fat diet.

I hope this was helpful!