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It is that time of year – of delicious treats, cocktails, and holiday goodies. If you are like me, I find myself overindulging and feeling a little guilty about it, but there is a trick I’ve used for the past few years to start my New Year’s training, lose some weight, and improve my metabolic flexibility?
What is Metabolic Flexibility?
It is shifting your body to burning more fat as a fuel source. Being able to burn fat efficiently is critical for every endurance athlete. Plus, who does mind burning some fat!
So how does this magical metabolic flexibility happen?
Well, it is not eating and training at the same time. You can think of it as intermittent fasting or, even simpler, skipping breakfast and doing low-level zone 1 and 2 training in the morning.
I would not recommend this during your season or periods of high training volume. But in January and February, it is ideal when paired with longer, lower intensity base training.
Here is how to do it
1) Wake up, don’t eat. Drink at least 8 oz of water or black coffee/tea. Measure your ketone levels with a Biosense device
2) Train at a relatively low endurance pace (zone 2 is ideal) for at least 75 minutes. You need to train for at least 60 minutes as you have to burn through all your glycogen before you turn into a fat-burning machine. Usually, this takes about 45 minutes.
3) Use a low-calorie hydration mix such as SOS or Thorne Catalyte while training.
4) Measure your ketone levels 60 minutes after training, measure your ketone levels again with the Biosense Ketone Breath Meter.
Why Biosense?
The Ketone Breath Meter from Biosense, is the only clinically validated breath meter for measuring ketone levels. You turn it on and blow into it to see if you are burning fat or not.
I like using the Biosense because it tells us if we’er in a fasted state or not, and when we’ve reached a point where it makes sense to break your fast and eat.
For example, 1 to 2 ACE score on the Biosense when waking up. But an hour after training, typically be 10+ (above ten is when the fat burning kicks in).
Biosense is offering an exclusive course by leading dietitian Kristin Kirkpatrick, she is the manager of The Wellness Nutrition Services at Cleveland Clinic Wellness & Preventive Medicine in Cleveland, Ohio and is the nutrition expert you see on NBC Nightly News and the Today Show.
