Why Is Metabolic Health Important?
Unfortunately, only 1 out of 8 Americans is metabolically healthy. We are particularly interested in the new pathway to obesity prevention and metabolic health. We explore dietary approaches, stress management, movement, quality of sleep, toxicity, and even fun for the prevention of common diseases like type 2 diabetes, heart disease, and cancer.
In order to have optimal metabolic health, according to a new study published in the journal Metabolic Syndrome and Related Disorders, men need a waist circumference below 102 cm (40 inches) and women below 35 inches (88 cm), blood sugar below 100 mg/dL, blood pressure below 120/80, triglycerides below 150 mg/dL, and high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (also known as “good” cholesterol) greater than or equal to 40 mg/dL for men and 50 mg/dL for women (Kasandra Brabaw, 2018).
There is a lot more to the story but these are good goals and measurements to strive for. First, you need to know where you stand today. Do you know? When was the last time you got checked?
How to Improve Metabolic Health?
An Important factor of improving metabolic health is how you feel, how well you sleep, what your mental clarity is like, and your overall wellbeing and sense of happiness. To be able to improve your metabolic health, you need to be able to identify what your goals are, what has made you become metabolically unhealthy, and what changes you can make to be able to become metabolically healthy again.
You will knock many birds, I mean results, with one stone when you put the body into a state that it was designed for, which is of burning the fat in a healthy and sustainable way.
How do we do that?
A good starting point is to understand our blood sugar and insulin levels. Insulin, being the hormone that controls blood sugar, lowers blood sugar when the level increases too much due to our food intake, and it also tells our body to store fat instead of burning it. If we’re trying to balance our blood sugar level, and we release insulin to do that, we do not want our body fighting to try and burn fat at the same time.
So, by understanding our body’s insulin levels through a blood test, we can control our carbohydrate intake through our diet and manage to balance our blood sugar levels, which then leads to an improvement in our Metabolic Health.
Let’s say you want to take action right now and you don’t have access to a glucometer, CGM, or did not have your insulin level tested recently. What can you do now?
Incorporate more movement into your daily routine. Don’t have a routine? Build one. Mark your calendar. Whether it walking, hikes, jogging, dancing, playing a sport, swimming, doing yoga. Move more and more often, even if short bouts.
Need help getting started, staying the course, and improving your health and fitness? Schedule a call at www.BeFabBeYou.com. I would love to be part of your health village and healing journey.
Next episode, I will dive into the biomarkers of metabolic health and how this one hormone can wreck your health, weight, energy, and much more when it’s out of control.
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Tchau!
