You wake up and roll out of bed in the morning. Perhaps you're a bit groggy at first, or maybe you're immediately fired up and ready to take on the day.
During that first hour you are awake, how does your stomach react to being up?
Are you hungry right away?
Should you be?
This simple check is an easy way to determine whether you are in fat burning mode, or not.
Humans can primarily function on two primary sources of energy - sugars and fats. The thing is, though, how you eat will determine which energy source you'll use for a vast majority of your activities.
Sugars cannot be stored in your body in massive quantities like fats can. So when your sugar stores in the blood and liver are running low, you get hunger signals. After a night of sleep, sugar stores are almost always low.
As such, sugar burners tend to need sugary or other carb-based foods in the morning. They also need to snack on them at regular intervals all day long to keep their energy levels up.
Fat burners don't have these same cravings. This is because their bodies are trained to use the near limitless supply of energy in their fat cells. They are efficient at simply taking fats and converting them to ketones whenever energy is needed.
Our bodies are well equipped to burn fat stores during periods of food shortages, whether it be a few hours or even a full day, without a huge amount of discomfort.
Not so if your body runs on sugars, though. To the sugar burner, those fat cells are just useless clutter with no purpose. Unless you reach a point of extreme calorie deprivation, they'll rarely be put to any use.
This is important for two main reasons.
If you want to lose fat and keep it off, you need to turn your body into a fat burning machine that operates efficiently 24 hours a day.
And if you want to have sustained energy throughout the day, you'll be much better off as a fat burner because you'll avoid the ups and downs of the sugar-dependent diet.
To find out whether you are a fat burner or sugar burner, start off the day without any sugars or starchy foods (Breads, cereals, etc) and see how you feel by mid-day. If you are starving, tired, or irritable, you are in full sugar burning mode.
Be careful, though, because you may experience more extreme symptoms like dizziness, headaches, and shaking if you are a long-term sugar burner.
The more extreme your response, the more important it is that you seek changes to your nutrition.
It is never too late to reprogram your body to run more efficiently, lower your long-term health risks, and live day in and day out with more energy.
