WEBVTT
00:00:12.379 --> 00:00:15.739
Welcome back to another episode of Metabolic Mindset.
00:00:15.980 --> 00:00:21.740
This episode is going to be about energy availability, and it's probably going to be a two-parter.
00:00:22.939 --> 00:00:27.579
So, why can two people eat the ex exact same number of calories?
00:00:27.820 --> 00:00:53.179
They can weigh the same, exercise the same amount, and yet one of them has this incredible energy, recovers really well from workouts, builds muscle really easily, sleeps well, you know, good libido, feels motivated, and the other person with the same exact number of calories is gonna struggle with fatigue or poor recovery or constant hunger, stubborn fat loss.
00:00:53.979 --> 00:01:07.659
If metabolism were just calories in versus calories out, which is an argument that you you hear a lot, those differences shouldn't exist on the same caloric intake, even with two different people.
00:01:08.859 --> 00:01:21.179
The missing piece is that your body doesn't simply measure how much energy comes in, it's continuously evaluating whether enough energy is available to support everything it would like to do.
00:01:21.739 --> 00:01:31.579
So today we're gonna start kicking off, like I said, a two-part episode on something that's really overlooked in nutrition and metabolism.
00:01:31.819 --> 00:01:37.019
And we're we're gonna define energy availability a little bit more and sort of dive into it.
00:01:37.980 --> 00:01:43.179
Content in this podcast is intended for educational and informational purposes only.
00:01:43.420 --> 00:01:50.379
It's not personalized nutrition advice, medical advice, or a substitute for working with a qualified healthcare professional.
00:01:50.620 --> 00:01:52.459
The opinions expressed are mine.
00:01:52.620 --> 00:01:56.620
They don't represent the views of my employer or any professional organization.
00:01:57.179 --> 00:02:05.739
I'm Sarah Perry, a registered dietitian with a pro-metabolic approach to nutrition, and this is the Metabolic Mindset podcast.
00:02:06.459 --> 00:02:09.579
Every cell in your body has an energy demand.
00:02:09.819 --> 00:02:21.579
So your brain, muscles, immune system, thyroid, reproductive system, liver, kidneys, digestive tract, they're all going to be competing for the same energy resource.
00:02:21.980 --> 00:02:35.339
And when energy is abundant, the body can afford to invest in things like performance, repair, growth, reproduction, and all of those processes that make you feel healthy and resilient.
00:02:35.899 --> 00:02:43.660
When energy is limited, or when the body perceives that energy is limited, it starts making trade-offs.
00:02:43.899 --> 00:02:52.459
It doesn't necessarily shut down everything overnight, but it becomes a little more selective about where energy is spent.
00:02:52.779 --> 00:02:56.060
So things like thyroid output can decrease.
00:02:56.300 --> 00:03:07.899
You see spontaneous movement fall, recovery slows down, the same workout can wreck someone a lot differently than it might wreck a person who has good energy availability.
00:03:08.379 --> 00:03:20.139
Hormone production can change, your hunger signals can shift, and even motivation and mood are influenced because the brain is constantly trying to balance a sort of metabolic budget.
00:03:22.060 --> 00:03:37.579
It's not just the number of calories that you eat, it's the amount of usable energy that your body has left over after meeting its most immediate demands and whether that amount is sufficient to support optimal physiological function.
00:03:38.300 --> 00:03:48.300
So that's what energy availability really is, and understanding that one idea explains so many things that seem unrelated on the surface.
00:03:48.459 --> 00:04:00.300
So why chronic dieting often backfires for people, why some people plateau despite eating less, and why stress can change your metabolism.
00:04:00.779 --> 00:04:12.220
You know, you see this when athletes lose their menstrual cycle, and it's why thyroid function adapts and slows down over time if energy availability is scarce.
00:04:13.660 --> 00:04:23.980
All right, so we're gonna dive into a bit how your body decides what gets priority, why not all calories are metabolically equivalent.
00:04:24.220 --> 00:04:27.500
This might be in this episode, it might be a bit in the next one.
00:04:27.660 --> 00:04:34.460
Um, and how hormones, nutrients, and cellular energy production all sort of fit into that picture.
00:04:36.060 --> 00:04:41.100
All right, let's start with a definition of energy availability.
00:04:41.420 --> 00:04:59.500
In sports nutrition, energy availability has a very specific meaning, and it's the amount of dietary energy that's left over to support your body's normal physiological functions after you've already accounted for the energy that you expend through exercise.
00:05:00.060 --> 00:05:26.300
So imagine you're training for a marathon and you eat 2,500 calories today, you burn roughly 800 calories during your training run, and your body now has to divide the remaining available energy among hundreds of different jobs, like maintaining your body temp, repairing your muscle, supporting your immune system, producing hormones, on and on and on.
00:05:27.100 --> 00:05:52.939
You can technically consume enough calories to maintain your body weight while still having periods of low energy availability if your exercise expenditure is very high or your energy intake is really poorly timed, as in doing something like eating an entire meal of 2,500 calories late at night, but then sort of starving the body the rest of the day.
00:05:53.819 --> 00:06:07.259
So someone can be in a caloric deficit while still supporting many physiological processes, if that deficit is moderate enough and if it's managed appropriately, which is a huge thing you see.
00:06:07.420 --> 00:06:12.939
Um, you know, two people can be on the same calorie cut.
00:06:13.420 --> 00:06:32.139
But if one of them is sleeping really well and spacing out their meals appropriately and getting enough protein and eating foods that are quite satiating, that 1800 calorie cut is going to be a lot easier than someone doing just two or three fast food meals.
00:06:32.939 --> 00:06:47.340
A key point is that your body doesn't simply care about the total number of calories on paper, it cares whether enough energy is available to support all of the jobs that it needs to perform throughout the entire day.
00:06:48.060 --> 00:06:57.180
So let's dive into that a little bit more and just talk a bit about how the body's sort of constantly gathering information.
00:06:58.220 --> 00:07:03.980
The brain doesn't wake up every morning and ask how many calories did we eat yesterday.
00:07:04.379 --> 00:07:06.540
It doesn't have a calorie calculator.
00:07:06.699 --> 00:07:13.819
I I know we all kind of think of it that way, is the body knows the exact amount of calories that you're eating, but it doesn't.
00:07:13.980 --> 00:07:16.060
Um, it gathers information.
00:07:16.300 --> 00:07:28.460
So questions like, you know, obviously the brain is not asking these questions, but it's evaluating, you know, what is blood glucose looking like?
00:07:28.699 --> 00:07:31.500
How full is the liver's glycogen reserve?
00:07:31.660 --> 00:07:36.379
Uh, what are leptin levels telling us about like long-term energy stores?
00:07:36.699 --> 00:07:38.939
What's the body fat percentage?
00:07:39.180 --> 00:07:41.020
How much muscle mass do we have?
00:07:41.100 --> 00:07:43.340
And are we actively trying to feed?
00:07:43.660 --> 00:07:44.699
Did we sleep well?
00:07:44.860 --> 00:07:46.300
How much sunlight are we getting?
00:07:46.379 --> 00:07:51.100
There's so many things that the brain is is constantly monitoring.
00:07:51.420 --> 00:08:01.420
And every one of those pieces of information sort of tells the brain something about the outside world or how how well we're being fed.
00:08:02.780 --> 00:08:05.500
You know, our overall state basically.
00:08:05.740 --> 00:08:12.540
The hypothalamus is the region of the brain that helps coordinate energy homeostasis.
00:08:12.780 --> 00:08:24.460
And it's constantly integrating all of those different signals that we mentioned to estimate whether the body is in a state of relative abundance or relative scarcity.
00:08:24.939 --> 00:08:31.180
And again, it's it's not like reading a single gauge, it's sort of interpreting a dashboard.
00:08:31.340 --> 00:08:59.659
And I like to picture, I mean, if you're in a calm state and you're feeding yourself well and exercising and all the things, the dashboard looks mostly green with maybe one or two red flashing lights, and then you can picture a person just like going through really stressful time and they're not eating and all the things, and it it's just funny to picture that you know a freaked-out controller and in 18 red blinking lights, but it it is kind of that way.
00:09:00.620 --> 00:09:13.740
Um, which is what makes metabolism seem so complex and why I have a job, but there isn't one master switch, there's many different signals that are working together at all times.
00:09:14.379 --> 00:09:19.419
All right, so let's zoom in from the whole body to an individual cell for a second.
00:09:19.740 --> 00:09:31.180
When people are talking about energy, they're usually talking about calories, but your cells do not spend calories, they spend ATP, um, adenosine triphosphate.
00:09:31.580 --> 00:09:34.700
And that is the energy currency of the cell.
00:09:35.259 --> 00:09:43.019
Every single heartbeat, nerve impulse, muscle contraction, basically every breath you take.
00:09:43.659 --> 00:09:44.539
Sorry about that.
00:09:44.700 --> 00:09:47.100
Um, all of it requires ATP.
00:09:47.419 --> 00:10:00.060
So the body stores really only a tiny amount of ATP at any given moment, and that's enough to power the cells for only a few seconds, if it weren't constantly being regenerated.
00:10:00.779 --> 00:10:06.860
And you can think of ATP like cash in your wallet, and it's what you're actively spending.
00:10:07.340 --> 00:10:10.779
But if your wallet gets really low, you don't necessarily panic.
00:10:10.860 --> 00:10:16.620
You're gonna pull money from your checking account, and in metabolism terms, that's glycogen.
00:10:17.659 --> 00:10:26.139
If the checking account starts running low, you begin drawing from you know longer-term savings, and that's more akin to like body fat.
00:10:26.860 --> 00:10:34.779
And the metabolism isn't just concerned with what's in the wallet today, it's paying attention to the entire financial picture.
00:10:36.300 --> 00:10:41.820
All right, last episode we talked about glycogen as being the storage form of glucose.
00:10:42.460 --> 00:10:45.740
And I just want to think about this a little bit more.
00:10:45.820 --> 00:10:47.580
You can imagine your checking account.
00:10:47.740 --> 00:10:50.220
It's not all the money you'll ever have, right?
00:10:50.460 --> 00:10:53.100
But it's the money that's readily available.
00:10:53.419 --> 00:10:59.180
And it gives you confidence to pay bills or take a friend out to dinner without worrying.
00:10:59.340 --> 00:11:02.620
And liver glycogen serves a similar role.
00:11:02.860 --> 00:11:07.820
And one of its primary jobs is maintaining blood glucose between your meals.
00:11:08.940 --> 00:11:18.779
As that becomes depleted, the body begins relying more heavily on processes like gluconeogenesis to keep your blood glucose within a healthy range.
00:11:19.019 --> 00:11:27.980
And at the same time, the brain receives multiple signals suggesting that readily available fuel is becoming less abundant as that runs out.
00:11:28.539 --> 00:11:34.220
And that doesn't necessarily mean that a low glycogen level automatically switches off your metabolism.
00:11:34.379 --> 00:11:41.820
Rather, it's one of the more important pieces of information that can contribute to the body's assessment of energy status.
00:11:42.539 --> 00:11:49.019
I talk about this a lot with clients, especially in regards to training.
00:11:49.340 --> 00:11:53.740
So we don't want to be pushing workouts fasted.
00:11:53.820 --> 00:11:58.220
We don't want to be skipping post-mer workout carbohydrates.
00:11:58.379 --> 00:12:02.539
That's sort of the optimal time to get carbohydrates in during the day.
00:12:02.700 --> 00:12:03.899
And it's for this reason.
00:12:04.060 --> 00:12:06.460
We don't want the body to be stressed.
00:12:06.940 --> 00:12:27.180
Um, again, if we're thinking of like a little controller in the brain, if you're working out fasted and then not repleting glycogen after you work out, that's gonna be a lot of alarm bells going off that you could otherwise completely avoid if you just appropriately feed yourself around workouts.
00:12:28.139 --> 00:12:45.980
All right, so over time, especially if low glycogen is accompanied by inadequate energy intake, if you're doing a high training load, if you're not sleeping well, the body begins to conserve energy in subtle ways because it's trying to keep you alive.
00:12:46.139 --> 00:12:51.419
And it's the body's not trying to make you gain weight, it's trying to manage risk.
00:12:52.539 --> 00:13:02.300
The question that I think of it as asking is given everything I know right now, is today a good day to spend energy or should I be careful?
00:13:02.460 --> 00:13:06.620
Like you'll think about that too if you equate it to a wallet.
00:13:06.700 --> 00:13:17.019
And if you're constantly dieting or working out fasted or not repleting glycogen, it's not a good day to spend carbs, right?
00:13:17.659 --> 00:13:23.899
Once you understand that sort of question, given everything I know right now, is it a good day to spend energy?
00:13:24.300 --> 00:13:28.860
Almost everything else in metabolism begins to make a little bit more sense.
00:13:30.860 --> 00:13:42.139
All right, so how is it possible that some people begin eating more food, more carbs, sometimes more calories, and they actually lose body fat?
00:13:43.259 --> 00:13:46.940
You've obviously you've heard calories in, calories out.
00:13:47.580 --> 00:13:57.180
And it should be really simple that if you eat more, you'll gain weight, and if you eat less, you'll lose weight, but it does not work that way, especially in practice.
00:13:57.259 --> 00:14:00.700
I can't tell you how many times I've seen that not work.
00:14:02.460 --> 00:14:10.139
Um, so human physiology is obviously complex, and I think I'm just gonna keep repeating this in podcasts.
00:14:10.300 --> 00:14:14.060
It's the reason why I have a job, is that it's complex.
00:14:14.220 --> 00:14:16.460
So yeah, I'm grateful.
00:14:17.419 --> 00:14:29.340
Someone who's been chronically dieting, if they begin to eat more, if they add fruit, rice, more carbs, potatoes, maybe another meal during the day, maybe a late night snack.
00:14:29.820 --> 00:14:35.899
A few weeks later they'll tell you, oh my gosh, I'm down two pounds, or I have more energy.
00:14:36.060 --> 00:14:37.899
I'm I'm feeling good during the day.
00:14:37.980 --> 00:14:39.340
I don't have to take a nap.
00:14:39.580 --> 00:14:41.659
My workouts are feeling a lot better.
00:14:41.899 --> 00:14:43.899
I'm walking more in the evenings.
00:14:44.220 --> 00:14:46.060
How does that happen?
00:14:46.460 --> 00:14:51.340
When most people think about calorie expenditure, they're thinking about workouts.
00:14:51.659 --> 00:14:58.220
But structured exercise usually represents only a small fraction of the energy that you burn each day.
00:14:58.460 --> 00:15:02.700
Your total daily energy expenditure is made up of different components.
00:15:02.940 --> 00:15:06.779
And the first one is your basal metabolic rate or BMR.
00:15:07.180 --> 00:15:20.379
And all too often you see people go get something like a DEXA scan, and the BMR tells them something like 1200 calories, and then they start eating 1200 calories, which is extremely raw.
00:15:20.779 --> 00:15:28.379
That's just the energy that's required to keep you alive, like keep your heart beating, your lungs breathing, the organs functioning.
00:15:28.700 --> 00:15:36.779
And it is true that the BMR accounts for the largest portion of your daily energy expenditure, but there is a thermic effect to food.
00:15:37.019 --> 00:15:42.700
So digesting, absorbing, transporting, storing nutrients, that does require energy.
00:15:43.259 --> 00:15:46.700
We all know protein has the highest thermic effect to food.
00:15:46.940 --> 00:15:51.019
Carbohydrates are intermediate and fat is generally low.
00:15:51.580 --> 00:15:54.460
And finally, of course, there's physical activity.
00:15:54.940 --> 00:16:04.539
It's going to include your workouts, but it's going to include everything else that most people don't factor in, like walking to the mailbox or just standing while you're cooking dinner.
00:16:04.860 --> 00:16:07.820
Fidgeting in your chair is a big one for me.
00:16:08.220 --> 00:16:14.379
And then those insignificant movements are going to add up over time, and collectively they have a name.
00:16:15.180 --> 00:16:22.700
So this is where we're talking about neat, neatogang, non-exercise activity thermogenesis.
00:16:23.180 --> 00:16:33.019
And this is part of the equation as to why when people start eating more, eating more carbs in particular, they're losing weight because of neat.
00:16:33.740 --> 00:16:35.899
So let's drill into neat a little bit.
00:16:36.139 --> 00:16:43.340
It refers to the energy that you burn through all of the physical activity outside of purposeful exercise.
00:16:43.580 --> 00:16:45.340
For me, it's fidgeting, right?
00:16:45.500 --> 00:16:50.860
I burn just an excessive amount of calories every day, fidgeting.
00:16:51.340 --> 00:16:54.379
And this is neat is fascinating to me.
00:16:54.539 --> 00:16:56.539
It's incredibly variable.
00:16:56.860 --> 00:17:00.940
Some people naturally move almost constantly throughout their day.
00:17:01.100 --> 00:17:05.099
They're tapping their feet, they change their posture, they walk while they think.
00:17:05.339 --> 00:17:09.500
And you know, the like Italians talking with animated hand movements.
00:17:09.819 --> 00:17:12.299
And other people are naturally still.
00:17:12.379 --> 00:17:17.259
And it's really fun for me to observe people and just sort of notice the differences.
00:17:18.379 --> 00:17:22.699
And then, of course, I'm looking at what are they eating and stuff like that.
00:17:23.819 --> 00:17:27.339
Neither one of these groups is consciously trying to burn calories.
00:17:27.500 --> 00:17:33.500
This is completely unconscious, and they're simply responding to internal signals.
00:17:34.139 --> 00:17:43.259
And research has shown that differences in meat between individuals can amount to several hundred calories per day, and in some cases, even more.
00:17:43.899 --> 00:17:56.539
And two people can perform the exact same workout, eat similar meals, have similar body sizes, and one of them can unconsciously burn substantially more energy simply because they move throughout the day.
00:17:57.500 --> 00:18:02.139
All right, so why would the body change meat unconsciously?
00:18:02.939 --> 00:18:05.819
When we sometimes call it spontaneous movement.
00:18:07.179 --> 00:18:10.379
Movement costs energy, obviously.
00:18:10.619 --> 00:18:19.740
And if you're if we're thinking of a company, if the company isn't sure whether money's coming in next month, it wouldn't start hiring more employees.
00:18:19.979 --> 00:18:24.059
And you might become more cautious, you delay unnecessary spending.
00:18:24.219 --> 00:18:26.699
The body behaves really similarly.
00:18:26.939 --> 00:18:35.019
And if it perceives that energy is limited, one of the easiest places to conserve energy is through your small unconscious reductions in movement.
00:18:35.339 --> 00:18:44.939
And you're not going to notice yourself standing less, you're not going to notice walking slower, you're not going to notice taking fewer trips around the house or skipping evening walks.
00:18:45.179 --> 00:18:55.179
But over days, weeks, and months, those tiny changes accumulate, which is another reason why it's really important to have something like a total daily movement or step goal.
00:18:55.740 --> 00:19:10.059
But conversely, when energy is plentiful, as in someone who might be eating for the first time in their life an adequate amount of carbohydrates or calories in general, many people are naturally going to become more active.
00:19:10.539 --> 00:19:16.299
Not because they're forcing themselves, but because the bodies become more comfortable with spending energy.
00:19:19.339 --> 00:19:19.979
All right.
00:19:20.539 --> 00:19:29.019
So in the context of that person that's naturally moving more, part of that is that liver glycogen begins to refill.
00:19:29.339 --> 00:19:31.259
Their muscle glycogen improves.
00:19:31.419 --> 00:19:34.859
Their training performance often improves because of that.
00:19:35.099 --> 00:19:37.740
And their recovery is becoming easier.
00:19:37.979 --> 00:19:49.659
So this is something you hear about all the time, or at least I do, when I increase people's carbohydrates, I don't even have to tell them necessarily to start working out with more intensity.
00:19:49.899 --> 00:19:59.500
They come onto appointments and they're like, oh my gosh, I'm benching 30s now, or I'm hitting 15k steps a day, and I feel great.
00:20:00.139 --> 00:20:02.939
So that's just part of it.
00:20:03.099 --> 00:20:16.939
With more carbohydrate, your sleep can improve, your mood often improves, and cortisol can decrease, especially if it's been elevated due to chronic energy deficiency or prolonged glycogen depletion.
00:20:17.179 --> 00:20:23.979
So the body's receiving multiple signals suggesting that the immediate fuel availability is improving.
00:20:24.299 --> 00:20:26.859
And I do want to be careful here, all right?
00:20:27.019 --> 00:20:31.979
It's not that carbohydrates are going to magically increase metabolism.
00:20:32.299 --> 00:20:41.659
It's that adequate carbohydrate intake can support the physiological conditions that allow the body to become more willing to spend energy.
00:20:42.219 --> 00:20:47.500
And for someone who's been chronically restricting food, that shift can feel quite dramatic.
00:20:47.819 --> 00:20:50.059
And this is something I see all the time, right?
00:20:50.299 --> 00:21:00.619
Someone has been eating as little as possible for months or years, and they're exhausted, and their workouts are not productive, and they're constantly thinking about food.
00:21:00.859 --> 00:21:06.139
And despite near starvation level calories, fat loss is stalled.
00:21:06.699 --> 00:21:08.859
So what do these clients do typically?
00:21:08.939 --> 00:21:13.659
If they're not meeting with a dietitian, they may eat even less.
00:21:13.979 --> 00:21:19.819
And from the body's perspective, that's exactly the wrong signal, and it's not fixing the underlying problem.
00:21:20.699 --> 00:21:29.179
Again, going back to the business scenario, imagine trying to run a successful business by cutting the budget every single month.
00:21:29.419 --> 00:21:33.019
The business might survive, but it's certainly not going to thrive.
00:21:33.259 --> 00:21:35.979
And the human body is remarkably similar.
00:21:36.299 --> 00:21:43.019
When resources remain limited for long enough, the body begins prioritizing survival over performance.
00:21:44.459 --> 00:21:53.339
Question here to ask yourself is what is a long-term goal, especially if you're someone who's sort of cut calories for a large portion of your life.
00:21:53.579 --> 00:21:59.740
Is the goal to continue to cut calories until you're eventually only eating 800 calories per day?
00:22:00.059 --> 00:22:01.259
And to what end?
00:22:01.419 --> 00:22:02.939
With what results?
00:22:06.139 --> 00:22:06.779
All right.
00:22:08.699 --> 00:22:13.179
Let's I'll just do another disclaimer here, okay?
00:22:13.500 --> 00:22:15.259
I want to be super clear.
00:22:15.579 --> 00:22:21.339
This doesn't mean that everyone should immediately go and double their carbohydrate intake.
00:22:21.579 --> 00:22:22.139
All right.
00:22:22.539 --> 00:22:25.979
Or that eating more food automatically leads to fat loss.
00:22:26.139 --> 00:22:28.619
That's not what the science shows at all.
00:22:28.939 --> 00:22:39.339
In clinical practice, though, I can tell you 95% of the people who come to me for weight loss or health issues in general, they're under-eating.
00:22:39.500 --> 00:22:42.539
They're under-eating nutrient-dense foods.
00:22:42.699 --> 00:22:56.219
And it is true that they might be overeating calorically dense foods that are not very nutrient-dense, but in general, the overall picture is people are not eating enough throughout the day, and they're not eating enough good foods.
00:22:56.379 --> 00:23:04.459
When you think of good foods, we're talking about the obvious unprocessed single ingredient foods like potato, chicken breast, orange, right?
00:23:05.259 --> 00:23:07.819
Anyway, so the context matters.
00:23:10.219 --> 00:23:12.459
What else do I want to say about this?
00:23:14.459 --> 00:23:17.099
The spontaneous energy thing is really interesting.
00:23:17.179 --> 00:23:28.139
And if you talk to any spontaneous movement, if you talk to any practitioner that does this for a living, they're gonna tell you that when someone's diet improves, they just start moving more on their own.
00:23:29.659 --> 00:23:32.299
Alright, so next episode, we're gonna zoom out a bit.
00:23:32.379 --> 00:23:35.500
We're gonna explore this is a fun topic for me.
00:23:36.139 --> 00:23:40.219
Why many people naturally feel more energetic during the summer?
00:23:40.459 --> 00:23:43.259
The summer is the time to be alive, if you ask me.
00:23:43.500 --> 00:23:48.059
The fruit becomes abundant at exactly the time we're often most active.
00:23:48.299 --> 00:23:49.099
Why is that?
00:23:49.179 --> 00:23:50.459
We'll talk about it.
00:23:50.699 --> 00:23:54.299
How does daylight influence hormones and behavior?
00:23:54.539 --> 00:24:01.099
And whether there's an evolutionary reason humans respond differently to times of abundance and scarcity.
00:24:01.419 --> 00:24:15.659
You're kind of guessing already where this is going, but it's it's interesting to me that summertime people typically walk more, eat more fruit, carbohydrate intake goes up, and you see spontaneous movement take up massively.
00:24:15.740 --> 00:24:17.740
So I want to talk about that a bit.
00:24:17.979 --> 00:24:26.619
And we're gonna discuss what of all of that means and basically how we should think about metabolism in the modern world.
00:24:26.859 --> 00:24:28.459
So thank you for listening.
00:24:28.699 --> 00:24:36.219
If you want personalized guidance and a pro metabolic approach that's tailored to your life, you can book a session with me through Nourish.
00:24:36.539 --> 00:24:38.379
And my link is in the show notes.
00:24:38.619 --> 00:24:41.179
Thank you so much again for listening and take care.
00:00:12.379 --> 00:00:15.739
Welcome back to another episode of Metabolic Mindset.
00:00:15.980 --> 00:00:21.740
This episode is going to be about energy availability, and it's probably going to be a two-parter.
00:00:22.939 --> 00:00:27.579
So, why can two people eat the ex exact same number of calories?
00:00:27.820 --> 00:00:53.179
They can weigh the same, exercise the same amount, and yet one of them has this incredible energy, recovers really well from workouts, builds muscle really easily, sleeps well, you know, good libido, feels motivated, and the other person with the same exact number of calories is gonna struggle with fatigue or poor recovery or constant hunger, stubborn fat loss.
00:00:53.979 --> 00:01:07.659
If metabolism were just calories in versus calories out, which is an argument that you you hear a lot, those differences shouldn't exist on the same caloric intake, even with two different people.
00:01:08.859 --> 00:01:21.179
The missing piece is that your body doesn't simply measure how much energy comes in, it's continuously evaluating whether enough energy is available to support everything it would like to do.
00:01:21.739 --> 00:01:31.579
So today we're gonna start kicking off, like I said, a two-part episode on something that's really overlooked in nutrition and metabolism.
00:01:31.819 --> 00:01:37.019
And we're we're gonna define energy availability a little bit more and sort of dive into it.
00:01:37.980 --> 00:01:43.179
Content in this podcast is intended for educational and informational purposes only.
00:01:43.420 --> 00:01:50.379
It's not personalized nutrition advice, medical advice, or a substitute for working with a qualified healthcare professional.
00:01:50.620 --> 00:01:52.459
The opinions expressed are mine.
00:01:52.620 --> 00:01:56.620
They don't represent the views of my employer or any professional organization.
00:01:57.179 --> 00:02:05.739
I'm Sarah Perry, a registered dietitian with a pro-metabolic approach to nutrition, and this is the Metabolic Mindset podcast.
00:02:06.459 --> 00:02:09.579
Every cell in your body has an energy demand.
00:02:09.819 --> 00:02:21.579
So your brain, muscles, immune system, thyroid, reproductive system, liver, kidneys, digestive tract, they're all going to be competing for the same energy resource.
00:02:21.980 --> 00:02:35.339
And when energy is abundant, the body can afford to invest in things like performance, repair, growth, reproduction, and all of those processes that make you feel healthy and resilient.
00:02:35.899 --> 00:02:43.660
When energy is limited, or when the body perceives that energy is limited, it starts making trade-offs.
00:02:43.899 --> 00:02:52.459
It doesn't necessarily shut down everything overnight, but it becomes a little more selective about where energy is spent.
00:02:52.779 --> 00:02:56.060
So things like thyroid output can decrease.
00:02:56.300 --> 00:03:07.899
You see spontaneous movement fall, recovery slows down, the same workout can wreck someone a lot differently than it might wreck a person who has good energy availability.
00:03:08.379 --> 00:03:20.139
Hormone production can change, your hunger signals can shift, and even motivation and mood are influenced because the brain is constantly trying to balance a sort of metabolic budget.
00:03:22.060 --> 00:03:37.579
It's not just the number of calories that you eat, it's the amount of usable energy that your body has left over after meeting its most immediate demands and whether that amount is sufficient to support optimal physiological function.
00:03:38.300 --> 00:03:48.300
So that's what energy availability really is, and understanding that one idea explains so many things that seem unrelated on the surface.
00:03:48.459 --> 00:04:00.300
So why chronic dieting often backfires for people, why some people plateau despite eating less, and why stress can change your metabolism.
00:04:00.779 --> 00:04:12.220
You know, you see this when athletes lose their menstrual cycle, and it's why thyroid function adapts and slows down over time if energy availability is scarce.
00:04:13.660 --> 00:04:23.980
All right, so we're gonna dive into a bit how your body decides what gets priority, why not all calories are metabolically equivalent.
00:04:24.220 --> 00:04:27.500
This might be in this episode, it might be a bit in the next one.
00:04:27.660 --> 00:04:34.460
Um, and how hormones, nutrients, and cellular energy production all sort of fit into that picture.
00:04:36.060 --> 00:04:41.100
All right, let's start with a definition of energy availability.
00:04:41.420 --> 00:04:59.500
In sports nutrition, energy availability has a very specific meaning, and it's the amount of dietary energy that's left over to support your body's normal physiological functions after you've already accounted for the energy that you expend through exercise.
00:05:00.060 --> 00:05:26.300
So imagine you're training for a marathon and you eat 2,500 calories today, you burn roughly 800 calories during your training run, and your body now has to divide the remaining available energy among hundreds of different jobs, like maintaining your body temp, repairing your muscle, supporting your immune system, producing hormones, on and on and on.
00:05:27.100 --> 00:05:52.939
You can technically consume enough calories to maintain your body weight while still having periods of low energy availability if your exercise expenditure is very high or your energy intake is really poorly timed, as in doing something like eating an entire meal of 2,500 calories late at night, but then sort of starving the body the rest of the day.
00:05:53.819 --> 00:06:07.259
So someone can be in a caloric deficit while still supporting many physiological processes, if that deficit is moderate enough and if it's managed appropriately, which is a huge thing you see.
00:06:07.420 --> 00:06:12.939
Um, you know, two people can be on the same calorie cut.
00:06:13.420 --> 00:06:32.139
But if one of them is sleeping really well and spacing out their meals appropriately and getting enough protein and eating foods that are quite satiating, that 1800 calorie cut is going to be a lot easier than someone doing just two or three fast food meals.
00:06:32.939 --> 00:06:47.340
A key point is that your body doesn't simply care about the total number of calories on paper, it cares whether enough energy is available to support all of the jobs that it needs to perform throughout the entire day.
00:06:48.060 --> 00:06:57.180
So let's dive into that a little bit more and just talk a bit about how the body's sort of constantly gathering information.
00:06:58.220 --> 00:07:03.980
The brain doesn't wake up every morning and ask how many calories did we eat yesterday.
00:07:04.379 --> 00:07:06.540
It doesn't have a calorie calculator.
00:07:06.699 --> 00:07:13.819
I I know we all kind of think of it that way, is the body knows the exact amount of calories that you're eating, but it doesn't.
00:07:13.980 --> 00:07:16.060
Um, it gathers information.
00:07:16.300 --> 00:07:28.460
So questions like, you know, obviously the brain is not asking these questions, but it's evaluating, you know, what is blood glucose looking like?
00:07:28.699 --> 00:07:31.500
How full is the liver's glycogen reserve?
00:07:31.660 --> 00:07:36.379
Uh, what are leptin levels telling us about like long-term energy stores?
00:07:36.699 --> 00:07:38.939
What's the body fat percentage?
00:07:39.180 --> 00:07:41.020
How much muscle mass do we have?
00:07:41.100 --> 00:07:43.340
And are we actively trying to feed?
00:07:43.660 --> 00:07:44.699
Did we sleep well?
00:07:44.860 --> 00:07:46.300
How much sunlight are we getting?
00:07:46.379 --> 00:07:51.100
There's so many things that the brain is is constantly monitoring.
00:07:51.420 --> 00:08:01.420
And every one of those pieces of information sort of tells the brain something about the outside world or how how well we're being fed.
00:08:02.780 --> 00:08:05.500
You know, our overall state basically.
00:08:05.740 --> 00:08:12.540
The hypothalamus is the region of the brain that helps coordinate energy homeostasis.
00:08:12.780 --> 00:08:24.460
And it's constantly integrating all of those different signals that we mentioned to estimate whether the body is in a state of relative abundance or relative scarcity.
00:08:24.939 --> 00:08:31.180
And again, it's it's not like reading a single gauge, it's sort of interpreting a dashboard.
00:08:31.340 --> 00:08:59.659
And I like to picture, I mean, if you're in a calm state and you're feeding yourself well and exercising and all the things, the dashboard looks mostly green with maybe one or two red flashing lights, and then you can picture a person just like going through really stressful time and they're not eating and all the things, and it it's just funny to picture that you know a freaked-out controller and in 18 red blinking lights, but it it is kind of that way.
00:09:00.620 --> 00:09:13.740
Um, which is what makes metabolism seem so complex and why I have a job, but there isn't one master switch, there's many different signals that are working together at all times.
00:09:14.379 --> 00:09:19.419
All right, so let's zoom in from the whole body to an individual cell for a second.
00:09:19.740 --> 00:09:31.180
When people are talking about energy, they're usually talking about calories, but your cells do not spend calories, they spend ATP, um, adenosine triphosphate.
00:09:31.580 --> 00:09:34.700
And that is the energy currency of the cell.
00:09:35.259 --> 00:09:43.019
Every single heartbeat, nerve impulse, muscle contraction, basically every breath you take.
00:09:43.659 --> 00:09:44.539
Sorry about that.
00:09:44.700 --> 00:09:47.100
Um, all of it requires ATP.
00:09:47.419 --> 00:10:00.060
So the body stores really only a tiny amount of ATP at any given moment, and that's enough to power the cells for only a few seconds, if it weren't constantly being regenerated.
00:10:00.779 --> 00:10:06.860
And you can think of ATP like cash in your wallet, and it's what you're actively spending.
00:10:07.340 --> 00:10:10.779
But if your wallet gets really low, you don't necessarily panic.
00:10:10.860 --> 00:10:16.620
You're gonna pull money from your checking account, and in metabolism terms, that's glycogen.
00:10:17.659 --> 00:10:26.139
If the checking account starts running low, you begin drawing from you know longer-term savings, and that's more akin to like body fat.
00:10:26.860 --> 00:10:34.779
And the metabolism isn't just concerned with what's in the wallet today, it's paying attention to the entire financial picture.
00:10:36.300 --> 00:10:41.820
All right, last episode we talked about glycogen as being the storage form of glucose.
00:10:42.460 --> 00:10:45.740
And I just want to think about this a little bit more.
00:10:45.820 --> 00:10:47.580
You can imagine your checking account.
00:10:47.740 --> 00:10:50.220
It's not all the money you'll ever have, right?
00:10:50.460 --> 00:10:53.100
But it's the money that's readily available.
00:10:53.419 --> 00:10:59.180
And it gives you confidence to pay bills or take a friend out to dinner without worrying.
00:10:59.340 --> 00:11:02.620
And liver glycogen serves a similar role.
00:11:02.860 --> 00:11:07.820
And one of its primary jobs is maintaining blood glucose between your meals.
00:11:08.940 --> 00:11:18.779
As that becomes depleted, the body begins relying more heavily on processes like gluconeogenesis to keep your blood glucose within a healthy range.
00:11:19.019 --> 00:11:27.980
And at the same time, the brain receives multiple signals suggesting that readily available fuel is becoming less abundant as that runs out.
00:11:28.539 --> 00:11:34.220
And that doesn't necessarily mean that a low glycogen level automatically switches off your metabolism.
00:11:34.379 --> 00:11:41.820
Rather, it's one of the more important pieces of information that can contribute to the body's assessment of energy status.
00:11:42.539 --> 00:11:49.019
I talk about this a lot with clients, especially in regards to training.
00:11:49.340 --> 00:11:53.740
So we don't want to be pushing workouts fasted.
00:11:53.820 --> 00:11:58.220
We don't want to be skipping post-mer workout carbohydrates.
00:11:58.379 --> 00:12:02.539
That's sort of the optimal time to get carbohydrates in during the day.
00:12:02.700 --> 00:12:03.899
And it's for this reason.
00:12:04.060 --> 00:12:06.460
We don't want the body to be stressed.
00:12:06.940 --> 00:12:27.180
Um, again, if we're thinking of like a little controller in the brain, if you're working out fasted and then not repleting glycogen after you work out, that's gonna be a lot of alarm bells going off that you could otherwise completely avoid if you just appropriately feed yourself around workouts.
00:12:28.139 --> 00:12:45.980
All right, so over time, especially if low glycogen is accompanied by inadequate energy intake, if you're doing a high training load, if you're not sleeping well, the body begins to conserve energy in subtle ways because it's trying to keep you alive.
00:12:46.139 --> 00:12:51.419
And it's the body's not trying to make you gain weight, it's trying to manage risk.
00:12:52.539 --> 00:13:02.300
The question that I think of it as asking is given everything I know right now, is today a good day to spend energy or should I be careful?
00:13:02.460 --> 00:13:06.620
Like you'll think about that too if you equate it to a wallet.
00:13:06.700 --> 00:13:17.019
And if you're constantly dieting or working out fasted or not repleting glycogen, it's not a good day to spend carbs, right?
00:13:17.659 --> 00:13:23.899
Once you understand that sort of question, given everything I know right now, is it a good day to spend energy?
00:13:24.300 --> 00:13:28.860
Almost everything else in metabolism begins to make a little bit more sense.
00:13:30.860 --> 00:13:42.139
All right, so how is it possible that some people begin eating more food, more carbs, sometimes more calories, and they actually lose body fat?
00:13:43.259 --> 00:13:46.940
You've obviously you've heard calories in, calories out.
00:13:47.580 --> 00:13:57.180
And it should be really simple that if you eat more, you'll gain weight, and if you eat less, you'll lose weight, but it does not work that way, especially in practice.
00:13:57.259 --> 00:14:00.700
I can't tell you how many times I've seen that not work.
00:14:02.460 --> 00:14:10.139
Um, so human physiology is obviously complex, and I think I'm just gonna keep repeating this in podcasts.
00:14:10.300 --> 00:14:14.060
It's the reason why I have a job, is that it's complex.
00:14:14.220 --> 00:14:16.460
So yeah, I'm grateful.
00:14:17.419 --> 00:14:29.340
Someone who's been chronically dieting, if they begin to eat more, if they add fruit, rice, more carbs, potatoes, maybe another meal during the day, maybe a late night snack.
00:14:29.820 --> 00:14:35.899
A few weeks later they'll tell you, oh my gosh, I'm down two pounds, or I have more energy.
00:14:36.060 --> 00:14:37.899
I'm I'm feeling good during the day.
00:14:37.980 --> 00:14:39.340
I don't have to take a nap.
00:14:39.580 --> 00:14:41.659
My workouts are feeling a lot better.
00:14:41.899 --> 00:14:43.899
I'm walking more in the evenings.
00:14:44.220 --> 00:14:46.060
How does that happen?
00:14:46.460 --> 00:14:51.340
When most people think about calorie expenditure, they're thinking about workouts.
00:14:51.659 --> 00:14:58.220
But structured exercise usually represents only a small fraction of the energy that you burn each day.
00:14:58.460 --> 00:15:02.700
Your total daily energy expenditure is made up of different components.
00:15:02.940 --> 00:15:06.779
And the first one is your basal metabolic rate or BMR.
00:15:07.180 --> 00:15:20.379
And all too often you see people go get something like a DEXA scan, and the BMR tells them something like 1200 calories, and then they start eating 1200 calories, which is extremely raw.
00:15:20.779 --> 00:15:28.379
That's just the energy that's required to keep you alive, like keep your heart beating, your lungs breathing, the organs functioning.
00:15:28.700 --> 00:15:36.779
And it is true that the BMR accounts for the largest portion of your daily energy expenditure, but there is a thermic effect to food.
00:15:37.019 --> 00:15:42.700
So digesting, absorbing, transporting, storing nutrients, that does require energy.
00:15:43.259 --> 00:15:46.700
We all know protein has the highest thermic effect to food.
00:15:46.940 --> 00:15:51.019
Carbohydrates are intermediate and fat is generally low.
00:15:51.580 --> 00:15:54.460
And finally, of course, there's physical activity.
00:15:54.940 --> 00:16:04.539
It's going to include your workouts, but it's going to include everything else that most people don't factor in, like walking to the mailbox or just standing while you're cooking dinner.
00:16:04.860 --> 00:16:07.820
Fidgeting in your chair is a big one for me.
00:16:08.220 --> 00:16:14.379
And then those insignificant movements are going to add up over time, and collectively they have a name.
00:16:15.180 --> 00:16:22.700
So this is where we're talking about neat, neatogang, non-exercise activity thermogenesis.
00:16:23.180 --> 00:16:33.019
And this is part of the equation as to why when people start eating more, eating more carbs in particular, they're losing weight because of neat.
00:16:33.740 --> 00:16:35.899
So let's drill into neat a little bit.
00:16:36.139 --> 00:16:43.340
It refers to the energy that you burn through all of the physical activity outside of purposeful exercise.
00:16:43.580 --> 00:16:45.340
For me, it's fidgeting, right?
00:16:45.500 --> 00:16:50.860
I burn just an excessive amount of calories every day, fidgeting.
00:16:51.340 --> 00:16:54.379
And this is neat is fascinating to me.
00:16:54.539 --> 00:16:56.539
It's incredibly variable.
00:16:56.860 --> 00:17:00.940
Some people naturally move almost constantly throughout their day.
00:17:01.100 --> 00:17:05.099
They're tapping their feet, they change their posture, they walk while they think.
00:17:05.339 --> 00:17:09.500
And you know, the like Italians talking with animated hand movements.
00:17:09.819 --> 00:17:12.299
And other people are naturally still.
00:17:12.379 --> 00:17:17.259
And it's really fun for me to observe people and just sort of notice the differences.
00:17:18.379 --> 00:17:22.699
And then, of course, I'm looking at what are they eating and stuff like that.
00:17:23.819 --> 00:17:27.339
Neither one of these groups is consciously trying to burn calories.
00:17:27.500 --> 00:17:33.500
This is completely unconscious, and they're simply responding to internal signals.
00:17:34.139 --> 00:17:43.259
And research has shown that differences in meat between individuals can amount to several hundred calories per day, and in some cases, even more.
00:17:43.899 --> 00:17:56.539
And two people can perform the exact same workout, eat similar meals, have similar body sizes, and one of them can unconsciously burn substantially more energy simply because they move throughout the day.
00:17:57.500 --> 00:18:02.139
All right, so why would the body change meat unconsciously?
00:18:02.939 --> 00:18:05.819
When we sometimes call it spontaneous movement.
00:18:07.179 --> 00:18:10.379
Movement costs energy, obviously.
00:18:10.619 --> 00:18:19.740
And if you're if we're thinking of a company, if the company isn't sure whether money's coming in next month, it wouldn't start hiring more employees.
00:18:19.979 --> 00:18:24.059
And you might become more cautious, you delay unnecessary spending.
00:18:24.219 --> 00:18:26.699
The body behaves really similarly.
00:18:26.939 --> 00:18:35.019
And if it perceives that energy is limited, one of the easiest places to conserve energy is through your small unconscious reductions in movement.
00:18:35.339 --> 00:18:44.939
And you're not going to notice yourself standing less, you're not going to notice walking slower, you're not going to notice taking fewer trips around the house or skipping evening walks.
00:18:45.179 --> 00:18:55.179
But over days, weeks, and months, those tiny changes accumulate, which is another reason why it's really important to have something like a total daily movement or step goal.
00:18:55.740 --> 00:19:10.059
But conversely, when energy is plentiful, as in someone who might be eating for the first time in their life an adequate amount of carbohydrates or calories in general, many people are naturally going to become more active.
00:19:10.539 --> 00:19:16.299
Not because they're forcing themselves, but because the bodies become more comfortable with spending energy.
00:19:19.339 --> 00:19:19.979
All right.
00:19:20.539 --> 00:19:29.019
So in the context of that person that's naturally moving more, part of that is that liver glycogen begins to refill.
00:19:29.339 --> 00:19:31.259
Their muscle glycogen improves.
00:19:31.419 --> 00:19:34.859
Their training performance often improves because of that.
00:19:35.099 --> 00:19:37.740
And their recovery is becoming easier.
00:19:37.979 --> 00:19:49.659
So this is something you hear about all the time, or at least I do, when I increase people's carbohydrates, I don't even have to tell them necessarily to start working out with more intensity.
00:19:49.899 --> 00:19:59.500
They come onto appointments and they're like, oh my gosh, I'm benching 30s now, or I'm hitting 15k steps a day, and I feel great.
00:20:00.139 --> 00:20:02.939
So that's just part of it.
00:20:03.099 --> 00:20:16.939
With more carbohydrate, your sleep can improve, your mood often improves, and cortisol can decrease, especially if it's been elevated due to chronic energy deficiency or prolonged glycogen depletion.
00:20:17.179 --> 00:20:23.979
So the body's receiving multiple signals suggesting that the immediate fuel availability is improving.
00:20:24.299 --> 00:20:26.859
And I do want to be careful here, all right?
00:20:27.019 --> 00:20:31.979
It's not that carbohydrates are going to magically increase metabolism.
00:20:32.299 --> 00:20:41.659
It's that adequate carbohydrate intake can support the physiological conditions that allow the body to become more willing to spend energy.
00:20:42.219 --> 00:20:47.500
And for someone who's been chronically restricting food, that shift can feel quite dramatic.
00:20:47.819 --> 00:20:50.059
And this is something I see all the time, right?
00:20:50.299 --> 00:21:00.619
Someone has been eating as little as possible for months or years, and they're exhausted, and their workouts are not productive, and they're constantly thinking about food.
00:21:00.859 --> 00:21:06.139
And despite near starvation level calories, fat loss is stalled.
00:21:06.699 --> 00:21:08.859
So what do these clients do typically?
00:21:08.939 --> 00:21:13.659
If they're not meeting with a dietitian, they may eat even less.
00:21:13.979 --> 00:21:19.819
And from the body's perspective, that's exactly the wrong signal, and it's not fixing the underlying problem.
00:21:20.699 --> 00:21:29.179
Again, going back to the business scenario, imagine trying to run a successful business by cutting the budget every single month.
00:21:29.419 --> 00:21:33.019
The business might survive, but it's certainly not going to thrive.
00:21:33.259 --> 00:21:35.979
And the human body is remarkably similar.
00:21:36.299 --> 00:21:43.019
When resources remain limited for long enough, the body begins prioritizing survival over performance.
00:21:44.459 --> 00:21:53.339
Question here to ask yourself is what is a long-term goal, especially if you're someone who's sort of cut calories for a large portion of your life.
00:21:53.579 --> 00:21:59.740
Is the goal to continue to cut calories until you're eventually only eating 800 calories per day?
00:22:00.059 --> 00:22:01.259
And to what end?
00:22:01.419 --> 00:22:02.939
With what results?
00:22:06.139 --> 00:22:06.779
All right.
00:22:08.699 --> 00:22:13.179
Let's I'll just do another disclaimer here, okay?
00:22:13.500 --> 00:22:15.259
I want to be super clear.
00:22:15.579 --> 00:22:21.339
This doesn't mean that everyone should immediately go and double their carbohydrate intake.
00:22:21.579 --> 00:22:22.139
All right.
00:22:22.539 --> 00:22:25.979
Or that eating more food automatically leads to fat loss.
00:22:26.139 --> 00:22:28.619
That's not what the science shows at all.
00:22:28.939 --> 00:22:39.339
In clinical practice, though, I can tell you 95% of the people who come to me for weight loss or health issues in general, they're under-eating.
00:22:39.500 --> 00:22:42.539
They're under-eating nutrient-dense foods.
00:22:42.699 --> 00:22:56.219
And it is true that they might be overeating calorically dense foods that are not very nutrient-dense, but in general, the overall picture is people are not eating enough throughout the day, and they're not eating enough good foods.
00:22:56.379 --> 00:23:04.459
When you think of good foods, we're talking about the obvious unprocessed single ingredient foods like potato, chicken breast, orange, right?
00:23:05.259 --> 00:23:07.819
Anyway, so the context matters.
00:23:10.219 --> 00:23:12.459
What else do I want to say about this?
00:23:14.459 --> 00:23:17.099
The spontaneous energy thing is really interesting.
00:23:17.179 --> 00:23:28.139
And if you talk to any spontaneous movement, if you talk to any practitioner that does this for a living, they're gonna tell you that when someone's diet improves, they just start moving more on their own.
00:23:29.659 --> 00:23:32.299
Alright, so next episode, we're gonna zoom out a bit.
00:23:32.379 --> 00:23:35.500
We're gonna explore this is a fun topic for me.
00:23:36.139 --> 00:23:40.219
Why many people naturally feel more energetic during the summer?
00:23:40.459 --> 00:23:43.259
The summer is the time to be alive, if you ask me.
00:23:43.500 --> 00:23:48.059
The fruit becomes abundant at exactly the time we're often most active.
00:23:48.299 --> 00:23:49.099
Why is that?
00:23:49.179 --> 00:23:50.459
We'll talk about it.
00:23:50.699 --> 00:23:54.299
How does daylight influence hormones and behavior?
00:23:54.539 --> 00:24:01.099
And whether there's an evolutionary reason humans respond differently to times of abundance and scarcity.
00:24:01.419 --> 00:24:15.659
You're kind of guessing already where this is going, but it's it's interesting to me that summertime people typically walk more, eat more fruit, carbohydrate intake goes up, and you see spontaneous movement take up massively.
00:24:15.740 --> 00:24:17.740
So I want to talk about that a bit.
00:24:17.979 --> 00:24:26.619
And we're gonna discuss what of all of that means and basically how we should think about metabolism in the modern world.
00:24:26.859 --> 00:24:28.459
So thank you for listening.
00:24:28.699 --> 00:24:36.219
If you want personalized guidance and a pro metabolic approach that's tailored to your life, you can book a session with me through Nourish.
00:24:36.539 --> 00:24:38.379
And my link is in the show notes.
00:24:38.619 --> 00:24:41.179
Thank you so much again for listening and take care.
