In case you haven’t noticed, politics is not the only place where people are congregating on the extreme ends of the spectrum. . . it seems this has become a cultural mindset in almost every facet of modern life… and it is no different in the spheres of health, wellness, diet, exercise and human performance.

Modern Healthcare versus Alternative Health 

There has been a bifurcation of the modern conventional ‘healthcare’ with alternative health and wellness . . . and there is no shortage of dietary camps with their entrenched tribes ascribing to their dietary deity; vegan/vegetarian, carnivore, paleo, keto, mediterranean, high carb low fat , etc.

The same applies to the exercise - aerobic is good, aerobic is bad, resistance, strength, intervals…..all one dimensional dogma. 

We Need Real Conversation

Thus dogma rules the day while open-ended discussion, the kind that leads to real and sustained progress, has largely died out.

The last three years have pretty well demonstrated this. From our personal lives to the global scale it is easy to recognize everyone has and is suffering from their extreme and intransient positions.

The result? The population as a whole is less healthy and a lot less wealthy because we failed to have meaningful conversations and discussions over the evolving facts. Instead fear and the resulting intransigence has ruled the day.  It is time for open conversation and discourse which is the purpose of this vlog; to engage you in discussion and exploration rather than more dogma. 

Accepted Health Concepts 

Instead of challenging you, let me begin by offering a couple of points in my wheelhouse we can all agree upon to better understand “The Why” for Optimizing Your Fat Metabolism . . . 

Sugar

First of all we can all agree too much sugar is not a good thing and eventually will lead to problems. What most people do not understand is this: your body sees concentrated forms of carbohydrates as glucose, blood sugar. That is right and a key reason why we have an epidemic of chronic diseases like diabetes, obesity, cardiovascular disease and cancer.  Too much sugar on a daily basis no matter what the source of carb, is simply not a good thing.  Even if you are an athlete, bonking, energy swings and the literal physiological need to consume concentrated forms of carbohydrates every few hours, even when sedentary, is a sign you are probably eating too much sugar. . 

Physical Activity

Second, we can all agree upon the benefits of physical activity. Again, ZERO controversy on this topic. No need to go Liberal or Conservative, science versus religion or any other iteration of the cultural divides we seem to distract ourselves with on a daily basis.

Yet, again, the Human Condition has us forming tribes of exercise and the need to be ‘right’ about a single modality instead of a deeper conversation and understanding of the various modalities and their impact on the underlying physiology. 

Point is, get moving. Our evolutionary heritage is to move for hours upon hours including the ability to cover great distances if necessary and, from all this activity, become physically strong and robust. 

Our Evolutionary Heritage

Accomplishing all this was not done by carb loading, glycogen nor gels. It was done via your fat metabolism, the pathway to tapping into your virtually limitless energy source, as well as virtually all of the pathways to building and rebuilding every cell in your body! 

From a science perspective ZERO controversy and why I am bringing it up. Fat metabolism is what develops the capacity for a competitive swimmer to compete in a sport where the competitions are completely glycolytic, yet built on those long hours staring at the black line on the bottom of the pool, doing ‘the work’ in a fat burning state. Same with an elite runner or cyclist. Like our ancestors developing that aerobic and metabolic capacity to perform, compete and win is mostly accomplished through hours of training on a fat based physiology. 

Strategic Carbs

Developing your fat metabolism in no way limits your glucose metabolism. In fact, proper fat adaptation for performance and health, depend upon fat and carbohydrate metabolism enhancing each other. This is precisely why we use carbohydrates ‘strategically’ so you not only can gain the performance but to enhance fat metabolism.

By  focusing on optimizing fat metabolism, carbohydrates yield a much bigger bang for the buck, using less while providing the adaptive stress to increase fat metabolism. Think of the “Yin/Yang” concept of duality instead of two dietary camps arguing on who is right and better. OFM is no more a ‘Keto’ diet than it is a high carb diet. It is not a diet but an individualized approach so you can reach a state of “Higher Health & Peak Performance” in every facet of Life! . . . now that is something we can all agree upon!

Start a conversation with us today about building your metabolic capacity