the 20-something’s guide to naturally helping your metabolism & body composition (aka:: how blood glucose regulation & things like sleep, sunlight, & mental clarity walks are related)
let me convince you why the human body is absolutely magical…
let me convince you why the human body is absolutely magical:: blood glucose regulation. now, kelsy, how is something as mundane as blood glucose regulation going to convince me how magical the human body is? such a good question! how about the way the order in which we eat foods can directly affect our body composition & metabolism? you can eat the same, most delicious sourdough bread, salad, & steak in many different orders, but eating that meal in a few specific ways can help your body store less fat! or how about the optimal timing of hot girl walks in order to help your body composition goals? or how breathwork can help decrease our chances for diabetes? or how chemicals in our environment can contribute to obesity (upwards of 15%!)? & finally, how about the way our digestive tract & brains interact to help our body into a mode of relative homeostasis? yes, this is why blood glucose regulation is absolutely magical & a huge way we can work with our bodies to make sure we are reducing our risk for so many metabolic disease processes!
(& if you’re more of an auditory learner, check out our podcast episodes that dive into each of the components that help our metabolism & blood glucose levels! on spotify, apple, & youtube!)
9:: your ultimate guide to hot girl walks (& how to help your metabolism & body composition goals!)
12:: the best way to eat food for your metabolism (& how we can be the magicians of our own body!)
13:: how sunlight helps your metabolism (& how artificial light harms it!)
15:: your metabolism & the role stress plays in your body composition & energy goals!
the science behind blood glucose:: simplified, not classified
glucose is one of our body’s primary sources of energy & is used by our cells to produce ATP, which helps to power many of the cellular processes in the body. glucose is carried in the bloodstream throughout our body, & when we’ve used all the glucose we need, our body stores the excess glucose in the form of glycogen in our muscles & liver. glycogen is considered the “short-term” storage solution for glucose, as it's easily broken back down into glucose & re-mobilized in the bloodstream. when our short-term storage solution fills up, the excess glucose is converted to fatty acids, combined with glycerol, & turned into triglycerides to be stored in the body’s adipose tissue (fat tissue) as the “long-term” energy storage solution.
insulin & glucose are frenemies. when our metabolism is healthy & optimal, insulin is released from the pancreas in response to higher blood glucose levels (oftentimes after a meal) to signal to cells that they need to take in glucose for energy or convert excess glucose to glycogen for storage. in a metabolically unhealthy person, the cells stop listening to insulin or the signal from insulin gets blocked by other molecules, reducing glucose uptake by the cells & leading to consistently elevated blood glucose levels, causing more insulin to be released in response to the elevation. when blood glucose levels are consistently elevated, we have to rely more on those long-term storage solutions for glucose in our adipose tissue, which in turn perpetuates a vicious cycle of metabolic disease.
elevated blood glucose levels can also be perpetuated by:
a lack of exercise:: the muscle cells that would typically use glucose for energy don’t really need to if you’re not exercising
stress:: increased cortisol levels can interfere with insulin while also mobilizing stored glucose from the liver (glycogen) when it isn’t necessary
lack of sleep:: poorer healing, cellular waste clearance, etc.
obesity/systemic inflammation:: inflammatory molecules are released & can distract the insulin receptors (like the game of “telephone” where the message is clouded by the time it reaches the last person!)
sustained, elevated blood glucose levels can lead to vascular & nerve damage, gut health issues, eye problems, kidney damage, increased risk for infection, poor healing, & so much more. it is so important for us to keep a healthy balance between our glucose levels & insulin to optimize our own metabolism & all the systems that are affected by our metabolism (muscular, neural, hormonal, cardiovascular, visual…really all of them!)...
fun fact:: high intensity interval training elevates blood glucose levels, but it is thought that the reason it elevates is because more glucose is mobilized from storage to power our cells during intense exercise! kinda cool! (but also goes to show how important getting that parasympathetic nervous system back in action is following a HIIT workout!)
so how can we help out our metabolism & overall regulation of our blood glucose levels?
here are the pillars involved in a healthy metabolism::
fueling
movement
sleep
stress management
gut health
environmental toxins
light
fueling
this might be my most favorite, recent wellness topic & why i now eat a random boiled egg or scoop of greek yogurt before every meal. let me explain…
the food we digest can be broadly categorized into 3 types of macronutrients:: fats, protein, & carbohydrates. we will scoot fats & protein for the side for now & focus on carbohydrates. carbohydrates are broken down into glucose in order to be absorbed by the body into the bloodstream & transferred to different cells for immediate usage or into short-term or long-term storage sites. if we eat a meal that is carb-heavy without diversifying our plate with other macronutrients or fiber, our glucose levels spike because our body is solely working to digest those carbohydrates, rather than also having to break down fats & protein. i like to think of it in terms of multi-tasking. if we give our bodies one task to take care of (breaking down carbohydrates), it can do that relatively quickly & efficiently, creating a higher blood glucose spike & forcing our body to find quicker utilization & storage of that glucose. glucose spikes & variability, in a metabolically healthy system, are what we want to minimize. enter:: digestive multi-tasking (my terminology… super science-based for sure!). if we couple carbohydrates during a meal with protein & fats, our body can busy itself by digesting other macronutrients with the carbohydrates, helping to level out the glucose spike from a carbohydrate-only meal. furthermore, if we pair carbohydrates with fiber, the fiber helps to line our digestive tracts to slow the absorption of glucose into the blood stream, further reducing the level of glucose spike & variance we experience post-meal.
one of the coolest things i have come across while learning about this topic is related to the order in which we eat our food. the glucose goddess has wonderful graphs related to this topic, but eating vegetables, fats, proteins, & fiber prior to or with our carbohydrates during a meal can help to significantly lower our blood glucose spikes & variability throughout the meal! isn’t that so cool? even if you aren’t ready to fully overhaul your diet, you can simply eat the same foods in a precise order to help minimize glucose spikes! if you’ve heard the phrase “don’t eat naked carbs”, then this is what they are referring to! dressing your carbs with other macronutrients & fiber can significantly help, & it is also why i try to accompany my meals with a scoop of greek yogurt, boiled egg, or veggies to help that post-meal glucose regulation!
movement
another way to be a magician for your body is by incorporating properly timed movement snacks throughout the day. in the simplest of terms, movement & exercise help to activate cells throughout our body, like skeletal muscle cells, to uptake & utilize glucose for energy. so it begs the question, how can we utilize movement & exercise as a way to improve glucose uptake & utilization to control the height of our glucose spikes throughout the day, especially after meals?
after a meal or food of any kind, our glucose will typically spike as we break down food into its component parts, like glucose. in metabolically healthy individuals, our blood glucose levels should fall in response to insulin being released & return back down to baseline after a couple of hours after our meals. this rise & fall throughout the day is expected, but if we have too many or too high of peaks because of snacking, lots of carbohydrates, or just never giving our body enough time to return to baseline levels of blood glucose, our body might start struggling with managing & controlling our blood glucose levels. this consistent variance & spiking over time can cause the body’s metabolism to slow or be negatively affected by the increased work placed on various organs & processes within our bodies.
if we want to help our bodies out, we can utilize movement throughout the day to help control the frequency & intensity of those spikes...magic! we can add movement to the equation so that a glucose spike from a piece of sourdough bread can be minimized through both the natural post-eating insulin release & through utilization of that glucose in the form of energy to power movement or exercise. (can you tell i like sourdough…?)
a few studies have examined this phenomenon, & it turns out that taking “movement snack breaks” throughout the day, where you might take a mini-2 minute walk, perform some bodyweight squats, etc. throughout the day (especially for those folks who sit for prolonged periods of time), can help control the relative rise of our blood glucose levels. when movement snack breaks were compared to the same time of walking, for example 1 minute 40 seconds of walking every 30 minutes (for a total of 30 walking minutes) compared to 30 minutes of walking 1x/day, they saw lower blood glucose levels throughout the day in the group that performed the small movement snacks throughout the day.
a systematic review (engeroff, et al.) also looked at comparing multiple studies with timing of walking before or after meals & how long after meals to incorporate walking in order to find which had the most significant effect on lowering blood glucose levels after meals. they found that walking after meals was more beneficial, & timing those walks closer to the end of the meal was better than waiting longer after a meal.
so if you’re a “mental clarity walk” sister or mister, try taking a lot of movement snack breaks throughout the day to see how your energy levels, cravings, & overall body feels with the improved control of your blood glucose levels!
sleep
this one i’ve been struggling with, & i need a healthy kick in the tush to get back on track. luckily, this research is pretty convincing.
as an overview, a lack of sleep can affect our management of glucose levels while perpetuating the cycle of increased blood glucose levels, increased insulin resistance, decreased insulin sensitivity, increased adipose tissue storage of glucose, obesity, inflammation, etc. sleep deprivation for even 6 days increases the release of cortisol in our bodies, which in turn mobilizes glucose while also making our cells less responsive to insulin. sleep deprivation also increases inflammation within our body, which makes our cells less sensitive to the effects of insulin, in addition to putting the body into a more sympathetic state (helllooo fight or flight!), further increasing the body’s release of cortisol, which in turn elevates our blood glucose levels. even a small sleep deficit (less than 1 week!) can significantly impact so many processes in our bodies that start to put us into a metabolically unhealthy cycle of increased stress on the body, inflammation, & hormonal abnormalities, all affecting each other & our ability to keep our bodies in a metabolically healthy state! no, thank you.
stress management
ahhh another struggle for this oldest child, type a, capricorn, enneagram 3:: stress management. always so much easier said than done, but oh so important.
when the body is in a “fight or flight” state, with an increased sympathetic tone, we start to pre-mobilize stored glucose in order to help “fight the bear”, creating higher blood glucose levels due to the body’s perception of threat & perpetuating the cycle of insulin resistance (which we don’t want… it means our cells are more resistant to the effects of insulin!). furthermore, in states of stress, our body releases more cortisol, which helps to mobilize stored glucose for us to utilize. it is an awesome pathway in our system, but in our day-to-day lives, we don’t want consistently high elevated blood glucose levels & cortisol, so it is important our bodies learn what is true stress where we need that glucose mobilization & what is perceived stress.
many times our bodies react to various circumstances in order to protect us, but it usually reverts to an “all or nothing” response, meaning if we are slightly stressed about a test, the body might go into the physiological state that mimics running from a bear (or another life or death experience!). it is hard for our body, mind, & emotions to gauge severity, so the body often reverts to the most protection available. in order to train our bodies & minds out of this “all or nothing” response while also giving language to what we are actually feeling, it is up to us to be more curious & mindful of what our bodies are telling us in these situations. for example, when i was stressed before a practical in pt school, my heart rate would increase, my breathing rate would get more shallow, & my blood pressure would rise, which are all physiological responses to a threat. by being more mindful of this physiological response as my body’s way of sensing a threat & protecting me, i was better able to override that extreme response through breathwork & putting language to that feeling (“hey, kelsy, it isn’t life or death. you’re nervous because you care, not because you might die from this experience”) in order to help manage those physiological spikes that can release cortisol & mobilize more glucose.
in order to help manage the mobilization of glucose due to various life stressors (perceived or real!), we need to implement strategies that combat this stress & help put the body into a more parasympathetic, or “rest & digest” state. if you read or listened to my gut health episode, you know this is something we can do ourselves through proper breathwork! it is a voluntary way we can help assist the body into a parasympathetic state to improve its ability to manage stress & reduce the body’s tendency towards mobilizing glucose in increased “fight or flight” states! i like to think of it as more body magic because it is a way we can trick our bodies into a parasympathetic state, even when we might not feel super calm.
gut health
when we eat & our body is in a healthy state of blood glucose regulation, insulin is released to cue cells to take in blood glucose as fuel or to store it, but how do our bodies know when to release insulin? i’m so glad you asked! when our gut senses food, it releases a peptide that tells the pancreas to release insulin to help manage the incoming food & glucose. when we have difficulty with glucose regulation, our bodies release less of this peptide, which causes delayed & impaired management of our blood glucose levels. (anyone heard of ozempic? yes, this peptide helps to release the body’s natural ozempic!)
another important component of our gut health involves the type of fiber we eat & the subsequent production of short chain fatty acids, which help to cue insulin secretion & the secretion of GLP-1 (natural ozempic, again!).
furthermore, the body’s own adipose tissue has been found to feed into insulin resistance & poor glucose regulation. as we produce more adipose tissue for storage, it stays in this low-level inflammatory state, which negatively affects our blood glucose levels & insulin sensitivity.
environmental toxins & obesogens
this is arguably one of the least-talked about contributors to our glucose regulation & metabolic health. environmental toxins can create hormonal changes, changes with our genes & gene expression, microbiome imbalances, fertility challenges, & increase inflammation in our bodies. obesogens is a newer term related to how these toxins can directly contribute to obesity, with the most recent research citing up to 15% of obesity can be traced back to obesogens!
at the most basic level, exposure to these obesogens can interfere with our hormones & other communication pathways within our body, leading to an increase in fat cells, increasing food intake, & altering our microbiome, which can all contribute to poor blood glucose regulation & metabolic health.
limiting exposure to these environmental toxins is helpful in managing our blood glucose, metabolic health, and obesity risk, but it can definitely be daunting. i think it is beneficial to start with limiting fragrance, using lined & “no stick” cooking equipment, switching to more natural skincare/body care/cleaning products, & trying to buy real, whole foods. i know it is definitely easier said than done, but every small change helps, & slowly easing into the process rather than making a drastic switch all at once will be much more attainable! (trust me, i am totally still working on this & need to be better at it!)
light
what better way to end this magical post than with light? light plays a huge role in the timing of our body (hello, circadian rhythm), which means properly timed exposure to light can help regulate our metabolism, too!
exposing our eyes to light in the morning helps to set our circadian rhythms, which helps to regulate when we are awake & asleep, hormonal regulation, insulin release, & blood glucose levels. throughout the day we have various peaks & valleys of certain hormones, neurochemicals, & molecules that help control our daily, physiological tasks. when we expose our eyes to false sunlight (bluelight from our phones, computers, etc.) or experience a lack of light (staying in dark environments), these peaks & valleys can become altered, leading to poorer management of glucose & sleep difficulties. too much bright light exposure for even a single night increases our blood glucose levels & insulin resistance (again, we do not want this! I know it can get kinda confusing), so we can only imagine what happens over longer term bright light exposure! if your job & schedule allows, try getting sunlight in your eyes within the first few minutes of waking, & refrain from blue light & bright light exposure later in the evening before you go to sleep!
final thoughts
i hope i’ve convinced you that the body is magical in so many ways, but glucose regulation might be pretty high up on that list. as much as i wish each of these components were a “one & done” task, most of these are consistent lifestyle changes that, over time, can start to help positively impact our metabolism. the body is magical, but it is up to us to be the magicians!
love y’all forever, from one body magician to another,
kelsy
resources::
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Chesak, J. Walking after a meal: the simplest habit for stable blood sugar regulation. https://www.levelshealth.com/blog/walking-after-a-meal Levels. Sept 9 2021. Updated March 18 2024. Accessed May 11 2024.
Peddie, M. et al. Breaking prolonged sitting reduces postprandial glycemia in healthy, normal-weight adults: a randomized crossover trial. Am J Clin Nutr. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23803893/. Jun 26 2013. Accessed May 11 2024.
Energoff, T., Groneberg, D., Wilke, J. After dinner rest awhile, after supper walk a mile? A systematic review with meta-analysis on the acute postprandial glycemic response to exercise before and after meal ingestion in healthy subjects and patients with impaired glucose tolerance. Sports Med. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10036272/. Jan 30 2023. Accessed May 11 2024.
Mateo, A. D’Agostino, D. The metabolic health effects of HIIT exercise. https://www.levelshealth.com/blog/the-metabolic-health-effects-of-hiit-exercise. Levels. Jun 24 2022. Updated October 11 2023. Accessed May 11 2024.
Heindel, JJ, et al. Obesity II: establishing causal links between chemical exposures and obesity. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0006295222001095. Biochem Pharm. May 2022. May 29 2024.
Albreiki, Ms., Middleton, B., Hampton, SM. A single night light exposure acutely alters hormonal and metabolic responses in healthy individuals. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5424773/ Endocr Connect. Jan 25 2017. Accessed May 30, 2024.
Eckelkamp, S., Joseph, R. How to balance blood sugar and why it matters. https://www.levelshealth.com/blog/how-to-balance-blood-sugar-and-why-it-matters. Levels. April 3 2024. Accessed June 1 2024.
Means, C. 12 ways to lower blood sugar. https://www.caseymeans.com/learn/article-12-ways-to-lower-blood-sugar?rq=fiber. Casey Means. Jan 18 2024. Accessed June 1 2024.
