Metabolic Health
3 Tips to Adjust Biological and Psychological Rhythms for Fat Loss
Building helpful habits to accelerate the fat-burning process while maintaining lean muscles for better metabolic health
Impact and Implications of Biological Rhythms on Metabolic Health
Life and the universe function with rhythms. They are part of our biology and psychology. Finding the right rhythm for our metabolic functions can be invaluable for our physical and mental health.
Our body and organs, like the brain and heart, work with rhythms. Rhythmic behaviors can motivate us. Making them a habit can ease the process of progress. Habits are made up of our neurochemistry. Neurochemicals in the brain help us gain new habits.
Biological rhythms affect our appetite, hormone levels, body temperature, blood pressure, heart rate, urine production, alertness, focus, attention, memory, mood, reaction times, and sleep schedules.
I posted several articles about healthy weight management. Some readers ask which actions they need to make habits to achieve their fat loss goals and maintain lean muscles.
In this post, I touch on the importance of biological rhythms for habit-building to help with metabolic activities. Then, I introduce three simple habits contributing to the successful healthy weight management process.
While the physical and biological aspects of metabolism are essential, psychological factors also play a significant role in the fat loss journey. These aspects overlap and need to be integrated into preventing obesity.
We perceive the rhythms as psychologically similar to habits, mindset, motivation, persistence, and consistency. Our habits feed these critical success factors. Effective habits determine successful outcomes.
Creating patterns requires awareness, commitment, and determination. Even though habits look psychological from the outset, they have biological and neurological elements. For example, habitual actions can thicken neural pathways in the brain through consistent use.
Our success is closely related to our habits and mindset. Habits are made up of our neurochemistry. Neurochemicals in the brain help us gain new habits, practice, and sustain them.
Our brain and the body follow patterns and work on routines. Saving energy is a survival mechanism. Habitual practices save mental and physical energy.
Habit-building is a skill used in many disciplines, such as psychology, business, leadership, health sciences, and education.
The easiest way to build habits is to create micro-habits and link them to current routines. Improving our current patterns can be easier than creating new ones. Success feeds success.
Studies indicate that it takes 66 days to build a habit. The range is between 18 to 254 days. So, we must be patient for at least 18 days to make a routine for success.
The brain needs rewards to act to create habits. Dopamine is a critical neurotransmitter making a significant effect on habit-building. Motivation is a critical factor in achieving our goals. Fat loss requires motivation. I documented my experience in creating motivation.
Biological rhythm disorders can have an adverse impact on our fat loss and overall metabolic health. Biological rhythms have a significant impact on habit-building. Biological rhythms impact our activities.
The critical point in my article is awareness of our biological clocks and using them in our favor. For example, to take our appetite under control, we must obey the circadian rhythm. We use the daytime for activities and nighttime for resting. This simple fact can help us build our habits quickly and naturally.
In this post, I explore and present a few ideas to make these abstract points practical in our daily lives. Here are the three significant rhythms that affect our lifestyle choices.
1 — Rhythm of Feeding and Fasting Windows
The body is either fasted or fed state at a time. Each state creates different biochemicals in the body. Eating and fasting are necessary for maintaining a healthy metabolism.
Nevertheless, we cannot eat or fast at all times. Creating a balance between a fed and fasted state requires a habit.
The balance of the fed and fast window matters. If we keep eating without fasting, the blood glucose constantly increases and causes frequent and excessive insulin spikes leading to insulin resistance.
Thus, eating all the time does not help with fat loss. However, if we keep fasting too much, we might lose valuable muscles.
In general, people eat three meals a day. The typical fasting window between breakfast and lunch is around 4 to 6 hours, between lunch and dinner is around 6 to 8 hours, and between dinner and breakfast is between 12 to 15 hours, depending on the meal hours.
Some people skip breakfast, giving longer fasting windows. And some outliers like me eat one meal a day, making 2 hours of eating and 22 hours of fasting windows. These extremes are not for everyone, of course.
Many people follow the typical rhythm, which works for them to lose visceral fat and maintain lean muscles.
However, some people add snacks between these intervals that significantly lower the fasted windows, trigger excessive insulin spikes, and cause blood glucose fluctuations, leading to more hunger.
This happened to me in my younger years when consuming three meals and three snacks, thinking that it was healthy. Since I didn’t consume adequate protein and did too much cardio, my body caused muscle loss.
One of the practical ways to balance fed and fast windows is a time-restricted eating regimen. Another approach is skipping one meal.
There might be several protocols to implement time-restricted eating based on needs. The important point is creating biological and psychological rhythms that meet our needs.
These rhythms can improve our digestion process. In addition, as the brain loves rhythms, food triggers disappear. As you can imagine, smell and visual triggers can activate our senses to feel hungry. Sensual cues for food can adversely impact our willpower.
2 — Rhythm of Work and Movement
Creating energy balance requires ingesting and spending energy in adequate amounts. I touched on getting energy in the previous section. Work and movement are the ways we consume energy.
Unless we have physical work, we don’t spend much energy at work. However, exercise is a helpful way of achieving this goal.
If we don’t have an established rhythm for work and movement, we may experience low energy and impaired mood. Thus, the body does not want to move. We feel lazy and lethargic.
Our body and primitive brain are designed to reserve energy. The ultimate goal is survival. However, paradoxically, the body needs movement to survive. Therefore, we must make a specific effort to use our thinking brain to move.
Nevertheless, when we create work and movement rhythms, they become habits, and we can perform our work and exercise with less effort without needing too much willpower.
Some people perform better in the earlier hours of the day and some in later ones. However, using our cognitive capabilities, such as planning, focus, attention, and task switching, we can gain momentum to work and move at our preferred times.
3 — Rhythm of Rest and Sleep
After eating and moving, the next fundamental points are resting and sleeping. A minimum amount of sleep is essential for our survival. Adequate and restorative sleep is necessary for thriving.
Sleep is critical in balancing our metabolism and maintaining a healthy weight. Sleep deprivation prevents fat burning due to hormonal effects. For example, lack of sleep can cause increased stress hormones such as cortisol preventing fat burning.
Sleep is a rhythmic behavior managed by circadian rhythm. Developing a consistent sleep routine and adhering to this can keep our biological clocks functioning correctly.
Besides sleep, we need to have deliberate downtimes for resting. As we schedule our workouts, so should we plan the downtimes.
Rest is necessary for managing stress. However, the amount and type of downtime may vary from person to person.
Some options are lying down, doing gentle breathing exercises, having pleasant conversations with friends or family members, watching a movie, listening to music, meditating, or reading enjoyable books.
These enjoyable and relaxing activities can lower stress and contribute to fat burning, especially in a fasted state.
Since stress plays a critical role in metabolism, planning time for rest and making it a habit can be the easiest solution to stress management. Some people enjoy scheduling their rest and fun times.
Conclusions and Takeaways
Biological and psychological rhythms determine our metabolic activities and habits.
Balance of metabolic activities is vital. Routines are also critical for our success as the brain works based on patterns to save energy.
Biological and psychological rhythms also affect our hormones and neurotransmitters.
Creating necessary rhythms might balance our hormones and neurotransmitters. Imbalanced hormones cause fat gain and muscle loss.
Rhythms and habits make our lives easier and increase our chances of achieving our goals. The critical point is to create rhythms and routines for eating, fasting, working, exercising, resting, and sleeping.
Thank you for reading my perspectives. I wish you a healthy and happy life.
As a new reader, please check my holistic health and well-being stories reflecting my reviews, observations, and decades of experiments optimizing my hormones and neurotransmitters. I write about health as it matters. I believe health is all about homeostasis.
Petechiae, ALS, Metabolic Syndrome, Type II Diabetes, Fatty Liver Disease, Heart Disease, Strokes, Obesity, Liver Cancer, Autoimmune Disorders, Homocysteine, Lungs Health, Pancreas Health, Kidneys Health, NCDs, Infectious Diseases, Brain Health, Dementia, Depression, Brain Atrophy, Neonatal Disorders, Skin Health, Dental Health, Bone Health, Leaky Gut, Leaky Brain, Brain Fog, Chronic Inflammation, Insulin Resistance, Elevated Cortisol, Leptin Resistance, Anabolic Resistance, Cholesterol, High Triglycerides, Metabolic Disorders, Gastrointestinal Disorders, Thyroid Disorders, Anemia, Dysautonomia, cardiac output, and urinary track disorders.
I also wrote about valuable nutrients. Here are the links for easy access:
Lutein/Zeaxanthin, Phosphatidylserine, Boron, Urolithin, taurine, citrulline malate, biotin, lithium orotate, alpha-lipoic acid, n-acetyl-cysteine, acetyl-l-carnitine, CoQ10, PQQ, NADH, TMG, creatine, choline, digestive enzymes, magnesium, zinc, hydrolyzed collagen, nootropics, pure nicotine, activated charcoal, Vitamin B12, Vitamin B1, Vitamin D, Vitamin K2, Omega-3 Fatty Acids, N-Acetyl L-Tyrosine, and other nutrients.
Disclaimer: My posts do not include professional or health advice. I only document my reviews, observations, experiences, and perspectives to provide information and create awareness.
As part of my creative non-fiction writing goals, I’d like to share a few stories that might warm our hearts with a bit of humor into weighty topics.
Sample Humorous Stories
Finally, After Burning Her House, Georgia Found Enlightenment
Hilarious Tips to Prevent Brain Atrophy and Keep the Gray Matter Giggling
8 Psychological Points I Had to Unlearn and Relearn the Opposite
Based on my writing experience and observations, I documented findings and strategies that might help you amplify your voice, engage your audience, and achieve your desired outcomes in your writing journey.
I publish my lifestyle, health, and well-being stories on EUPHORIA. My focus is on cellular, mitochondrial, metabolic, and mental health. Here is my collection of Insightful Life Lessons from Personal Stories.
You might join my six publications on Medium as a writer by sending a request via this link. 22K writers contribute to my publications. You might find more information about my professional background.
As a writer, blogger, content developer, and reader, you might join Medium, Vocal Media, NewsBreak, Medium Writing Superstars, Writing Paychecks, WordPress, Cliqly, and Thinkers360 with my referral links. These affiliate links will not cost you extra to join the services.
