Protecting your metabolic flexibility
You know that if you sit around too much, your chances of bending over and touching your toes are about as good as winning the Mega Millions jackpot. (The odds on Jan. 5 this year were 1 in 302.5 million.) And if you’re not pruning the
dogwood out back or doing the downward dog, your pups aren’t moving in the right direction either!
Around 50 million of YOU are profoundly sedentary. You have sitting jobs, participate in no regular program of physical activity and generally don’t do much that’s demanding around the house or yard. That accounts, at least in part, for the fact that more than a third of American adults are obese (one in six, or 17 percent, of kids 12-19 are, too).
But having trouble bending and stretching isn’t the only way a sedentary lifestyle affects your flexibility. Turns out being sedentary is directly related to another major health problem: metabolic inflexibility. That’s what happens inside your cells — especially muscle and fat cells — when you are overweight, sedentary and eat high-fat, processed-carb meals.
Metabolic inflexibility means that your body has a hard time switching fuel sources the way it needs to, from using carbs to using fat (fatty acids). That’s probably because you’re supplying your body with an excess of those two energy
sources and not spending as much energy as the fuel you consume could support.