Healthy Habit #1: Keep Your Mitochondria in Fat-Burning Mode

Your Body is Like a Car or Household Appliance

It Needs Maintenance

Question:

If you could only have one car or one particular household appliance to last your entire lifetime, what good maintenance practices would you establish to make it last your whole life? More importantly, with the one and only body you will ever have, what maintenance practices are you implementing so that your body will stay optimally healthy through a long life?

Eight Habits of Health

Maintain a Fat Burning Mode

Consume Essential Nutrients

Detoxify and Reduce Toxin Load

Optimize Movement & Recovery

Engage with Hormetic Stressors

Sync With Your Body's Natural Rhythms

Supercharge Brain & Cellular Health

Make Your Mind, Relationships & Environment Work for You

The 3Q Framework for Clear Thinking - Applied to Fat Burning

What’s the downside of not burning fat?
What’s the upside of burning fat?
What’s the long-term effect of burning or not burning fat?

Before committing to anything — from a product, health strategy or anything in life —this simple filter brings clarity and balance to the decision.

The Hidden Cost of Not Being a Fat Burner

If your mitochondria rely primarily on sugar for fuel, you're unknowingly accelerating your biological decline—potentially sacrificing 10, 20, or even 30 years of vibrant health.

Why does it matter?
Because sugar-burning speeds up mitochondrial wear and tear. Over time, this leads to earlier fatigue, inflammation, and age-related degeneration—all long before it should happen.

Switching to fat as your body’s preferred fuel source isn’t just about weight—it’s about preserving energy, resilience, and longevity.

🌟 The Upside of Being a Fat Burner: Greater Longevity & Health

Your mitochondria are the powerhouses of your cells, generating ATP (adenosine triphosphate) — the energy currency that fuels nearly every function in your body.

When your mitochondria are fat-adapted and strong, you thrive. Energy is steady, inflammation stays low, and both aging and chronic disease slow down dramatically.

Becoming a fat burner isn't just a diet change—it's a long-term investment in vitality and resilience.

🔥 Fat-Burning Powers Your Healthspan

Fat fuels your mitochondria. Sugar burns them out.

Switching to fat for energy doesn’t just improve metabolism — it shields your cells, slows aging, and protects you from today’s top killers: chronic disease and premature death.

According to Dr. Ron Rosedale click to read his bio:

"If I were to summarize in a single sentence what practice would best promote health, it would be this:

Health and life span are determined by the proportion of fat versus sugar people burn in their cells throughout their lifetime.

The more fat that one burns as fuel, the healthier a person will be, and the more likely he or she will live a long time.

The more sugar a person burns, the more disease ridden and the shorter a life span a person is likely to have."

Technically Speaking — Why Does On'es Mitochondria and Overall Health Thrive in the Fat-Burning Mode?

Answer: Because all fuel-to-energy systems function best when energy is produced efficiently—with minimal waste and damage. Fat burning generates energy with fewer harmful byproducts (such as excess heat and oxidative stress), allowing mitochondria to last longer and sustain overall health.

Fat oxidation (beta-oxidation) is a cleaner, more efficient energy process.
Glucose metabolism tends to generate more reactive oxygen species (ROS) in mitochondria.

Fat Burning Produces Fewer Free Radicals

✅ More Stable Electron Flow: Fat metabolism reduces electron leakage in the mitochondrial electron transport chain (ETC), meaning fewer free radicals are produced.
✅ More ATP per Molecule: Fat metabolism yields more ATP per molecule than glucose, reducing the need for excess energy production.
✅ Less Glycolysis, Less Oxidative Stress: Glucose metabolism produces more NADH, leading to a higher electron load in mitochondria, increasing ROS leakage.

Inefficient Energy Conversion: Appliances vs. Your Body

Poor Energy Conversion in a Kitchen Appliance

Overvoltage = Heat Damage

Imagine plugging a 110-volt appliance into a 160-volt outlet without proper regulation. The excess energy isn’t efficiently converted to work—it turns into heat.

Over time, this heat buildup damages internal components, leading to permanent failure.
If left unchecked, the appliance burns out prematurely.
Just as you wouldn’t expose electronics to destructive energy overload, you shouldn’t fuel your body with inefficient energy sources.

Poor Energy Conversion in a Human Being

woman worn out from free radicals from a sugar burning mode lifestyle

Sugar Burning = Free Radical Damage

When mitochondria rely on sugar instead of fat, they produce excess free radicals, the cellular equivalent of overheating circuits:

These free radicals damage mitochondria, DNA, and other vital structures, accelerating aging and disease.
The longer your body operates in sugar-burning mode, the greater the health consequences—including reduced lifespan.
Fat-burning is the optimal energy source, generating cleaner energy with fewer harmful byproducts.

Optimizing your metabolism to be a "fat burner" is the most important step toward avoidance of chronic diease, poor health, and lesser lifespan. Nothing else in health delivers such massive, positive results!

Key Takeaway

To maximize health and longevity, your mitochondria should primarily burn fat, not sugar, for energy. Unfortunately, most people unknowingly remain in sugar-burning mode, accelerating aging and disease. This metabolic imbalance—driven by a lack of awareness—leads to unnecessary cellular damage and a shortened health span. By making the shift to fat-burning, you can unlock decades of better health and resilience.

How to Ensure Your Mitochondria Burn Fat Instead of Sugar

Causes of Sugar-Burning Mode:

High Insulin – Excess insulin prevents fat metabolism.
Damaged Leptin Receptors – When receptors don’t respond properly, insulin stays elevated.
High Adrenaline (Chronic Stress) – Stress hormones push the body into sugar-burning mode.
Low Leptin – Insufficient leptin signals the body to conserve energy instead of burning fat.

How to Stay in Fat-Burning Mode:

Keep insulin low – Limit simple carbohydrates and processed sugars.
Support leptin balance – Avoid excessive body fat accumulation.
Prioritize quality sleep – Poor sleep disrupts metabolic regulation.
Maintain a healthy body fat percentage – Don’t become too skinny, as very low fat levels can disrupt hormones.

Bullet Point Understanding of Fat Burning versus Sugar Burning

✅ Cells can burn either sugar or fat for energy.
✅ Fat burning generates about 50% fewer free radicals than sugar burning, leading to better health and longevity.
✅ The body is naturally designed to burn fat—until modern eating habits disrupt this balance.

How Sugar Consumption Breaks the Fat-Burning System

❌ Excessive sugar and carbohydrate intake over time causes the body to store visceral fat, increasing leptin production.
❌ Too much leptin overwhelms the hypothalamus, damaging its leptin receptors.
❌ Once leptin receptors are damaged, the hypothalamus misreads the body's energy status and signals for chronically high insulin levels.
❌ High insulin forces the body into sugar-burning mode, preventing fat-burning and accelerating metabolic decline.

Other Factors That Promote Sugar-Burning:

🛑 Chronic stress & high adrenaline – Forces the body into a sugar-burning, fight-or-flight state.
🛑 Poor sleep – Disrupts metabolic regulation and increases sugar cravings.
🛑 Low leptin levels – When body fat is too low, the body prioritizes sugar-burning to compensate.

The Only Way Back to Fat Burning? A Major Lifestyle Change.

To restore fat metabolism, you must:

Lower insulin levels by reducing sugar and refined carbs.
Rebalance leptin sensitivity through proper nutrition and fasting strategies.
Prioritize sleep and stress management to support metabolic healing.

Fat Burning University — More Key Concepts for Fat Burning:

How Do Hypothalamus Leptin Receptors Get Broken?

The major cause of having a sugar burning metabolism (that creates excessive amounts of damaging free radicals and other life-shortening problems) is having broken Leptin receptors in the Hypothalamus:

Leptin is a chemical messenger that is made in fat cells. It circulates in the blood. Receptors in the Hypothalamus sense Leptin as blood moves past the Hypothalamus. How much Leptin is sensed by the Hypothalamus is the primary driver for whether our bodies burn fat or sugar. How this works is described below.

Leptin sensory receptors in the Hypothalamus drive a metabolic mode "switch" — like an "on" or "off" switch. This switch can be in one of two positions: fat burning or sugar burning

How the Hypothalamic Leptin Metabolic Mode Switch Works

If the Leptin receptors detect sufficient Leptin, the hypothalamus activates fat-burning mode. However, if Leptin is not perceived as abundant, the switch shifts to sugar-burning mode. This triggers higher insulin levels, instructing the body to burn sugar while storing fat.

The Path to Leptin Resistance

Leptin: The Body’s Fat-Sensing Hormone. Leptin is a hormone produced by fat cells. The more body fat a person has, the more Leptin circulates in the bloodstream. The hypothalamus, a gland in the brain, continuously monitors Leptin levels to assess the body's energy reserves.
Since Leptin reflects stored fat levels, the hypothalamus interprets high Leptin as a sign of abundance—indicating that no famine or illness is occurring. In response, the hypothalamus signals cells to burn fat for energy.
Conversely, low Leptin levels trigger a survival response. The hypothalamus assumes a famine or illness is occurring, panics, and signals the body to conserve fat while burning sugar instead. This sugar-burning mode remains active until the hypothalamus detects enough Leptin, signaling that fat stores are sufficient.
This Leptin-regulated switch is a powerful evolutionary mechanism designed to protect against starvation by ensuring adequate fat reserves. However, this system can break down—with severe metabolic consequences.
How the Hypothalamic Leptin Switch Breaks —The Leptin switch can "break" due to prolonged exposure to excess body fat and chronically high Leptin levels.

🔹 How This Happens:
- If a person consumes more calories than they burn, excess energy is stored as adipose fat.
- Over time, Leptin levels become excessively high due to large fat stores.
- Chronic high Leptin overwhelms the hypothalamic receptors, causing them to become desensitized—a condition known as Leptin resistance.
This is similar to how strong smells fade over time—our olfactory sensors become desensitized to continuous exposure. Likewise, if Leptin levels remain elevated for too long, the hypothalamus stops detecting it.

The Metabolic Consequences of Leptin Resistance

Once the hypothalamus no longer responds to Leptin, it incorrectly assumes Leptin levels are zero, even when they are actually high. This leads to disastrous metabolic consequences:

1️⃣ The body gets stuck in sugar-burning mode.

The hypothalamus panics and signals the body to burn sugar instead of fat.
This switch remains stuck on sugar-burning mode, making fat loss extremely difficult.

2️⃣ Fat storage continues despite already high fat reserves.

The body stores nearly every incoming calorie as fat.
It becomes very difficult to return to fat-burning mode.

3️⃣ Excessive sugar-burning accelerates aging and disease.

Sugar metabolism generates higher levels of free radicals, damaging mitochondria
Over time, this leads to chronic inflammation, metabolic disorders, and accelerated aging.

4️⃣ Insulin resistance develops.

Eventually, the body stops responding to insulin, leading to persistently high blood sugar.
This results in glycation damage—a process where sugar molecules bind to proteins, causing tissue stiffness, premature aging, and chronic disease.

The Takeaway: Why Breaking the Leptin-Insensitive Cycle is Critical

Once the Leptin switch is broken, escaping sugar-burning mode becomes increasingly difficult. The body remains locked in fat storage mode, continuously accumulating fat while struggling with rising free radical damage, inflammation, and insulin resistance.

To prevent or reverse this cycle, it’s essential to:

✅ Reduce insulin levels by minimizing sugar and processed carbohydrates.
✅ Rebuild Leptin sensitivity through proper nutrition and fasting strategies.
✅ Prioritize fat-burning metabolism to restore energy balance and metabolic health.

By understanding and addressing Leptin resistance, one can unlock fat-burning mode, enhance longevity, and prevent metabolic disease.

How Much is Too Much Leptin, What is Just the Right Amount of Leptin and What is Too Little Leptin?

Working with the Human Body's Leptin Management System

Optimizing the Body’s Leptin Management System

The human body evolved to carefully regulate Leptin levels, as they serve as a key indicator of stored energy reserves. Maintaining sufficient energy stores was critical for survival, making continuous Leptin monitoring essential.

When Leptin levels are within an optimal range, the hypothalamus remains stable, sensing no threat of famine. As a result, it signals the body to burn fat for energy.

However, if Leptin levels move outside this range, the hypothalamus perceives an energy crisis, panicking and switching metabolism to sugar-burning mode to conserve fat stores.

But what exactly is this optimal Leptin range, and how can we maintain it?

Too Much Leptin: When the Body Misinterprets Abundance as Starvation

A serum Leptin level above 9.0 ng/ml (the top red zone of the Leptin Meter) indicates a Leptin-insensitive hypothalamus—a condition that disrupts the body's metabolic regulation.

How a Leptin-Insensitive Hypothalamus Affects Metabolism:

The Hypothalamus Misinterprets the Signal
- Instead of recognizing excess energy reserves, the hypothalamus falsely believes the body is on the verge of starvation.
- In response, it triggers sugar-burning mode while conserving fat stores—just as if a real famine were occurring.
Leptin Receptors Become Desensitized
- Chronically high Leptin levels overwhelm the hypothalamic receptors, rendering them insensitive to Leptin’s presence.
- This means the hypothalamus can no longer measure Leptin levels accurately.
- Even if a person has hundreds of pounds of stored fat, the hypothalamus will still perceive Leptin as zero and continue acting as if starvation is imminent.

The Consequences of Excess Leptin:

🚨 The Body Tries to Store Even More Fat
- Despite already high fat reserves, the body prioritizes fat storage over burning.
- The metabolism slows, and weight loss becomes extremely difficult, even with calorie restriction.
🚨 Insulin Resistance Develops
- Over time, cells become resistant to insulin, causing elevated blood sugar levels.
- This leads to increased glycation damage, inflammation, and a heightened risk of diabetes and metabolic disorders.
🚨 Weight Loss Becomes Nearly Impossible
- When the hypothalamus is stuck in fat-conservation mode, the body tries to convert every incoming calorie into stored fat, making sustainable weight loss incredibly difficult—regardless of how little food is consumed.

The Ideal Leptin Balance: Unlocking Fat Burning & Longevity

A serum Leptin level between 4.0 ng/ml and 9.0 ng/ml (the green middle zone of the Leptin Meter) signals "no famine mode"—a state where the body is in optimal fat-burning mode, producing high energy with minimal free radicals.

Why This Leptin Range is Ideal:

✅ Efficient Fat Burning:
- The hypothalamus is at ease, sensing no need to conserve energy.
- Fat is burned freely, reducing the likelihood of fat accumulation.
✅ Less Free Radical Damage:
- Cells experience less oxidative stress, preserving mitochondrial function.
- This supports cellular longevity, keeping tissues healthier for longer.
✅ A Slower Aging Process:
- Maintaining this range allows mitochondria to function efficiently for decades longer.
- Promotes better health and longevity.

This is the optimal metabolic state, where energy is abundant, fat is efficiently burned, and cellular aging is slowed.

Too Little Leptin: When the Body Shifts to Survival Mode

A serum Leptin level below 4.0 ng/ml (the bottom red zone of the Leptin Meter) signals the body to enter famine or illness mode.

Why This Happens:

🛑 The hypothalamus interprets low Leptin levels as a sign of severe energy depletion.
🛑 It switches metabolism to sugar-burning mode while actively conserving fat stores.

Not Always Due to Famine or Illness:

🔹 This response may also occur in individuals purposely reducing body fat, such as bodybuilders preparing for a contest.
🔹 Regardless of the cause, the hypothalamus reacts the same way—prioritizing fat conservation and sugar burning.

The Consequences of Low Leptin:

⚠️ Fat Burning is Halted & Metabolism Slows
- The hypothalamus lowers metabolic rate to prevent further fat loss.
- Every calorie consumed is more likely to be stored as fat.
⚠️ The Hypothalamus Panics & Prioritizes Fat Storage n
- When Leptin levels drop too low, the hypothalamus assumes survival is at risk.
- It actively suppresses fat burning, commanding the body to store energy whenever possible.

📌 In the case of real famine or illness, this is a life-saving adaptation. However, in modern conditions, it can work against long-term metabolic health.

Salient Fact to Take Away

When the Hypothalamus cannot sense an adequate amount of Leptin in the bloodstream, either because there really isn't very much Leptin or because its Leptin receptors have become desensitized by the presence of too much Leptin, the Hypothalamus panics and commands the body to try to burn sugar and store fat. While burning sugar, one is growing old and diseased twice as fast because twice as many free radicals are being generated compared to if one's cells were burning fat.

Learning how to keep your Hypothalamus sensitive to Leptin and your Leptin level optimal is one of those practices that ACTUALLY drives long term health! Understanding and managing Leptin, which is really understanding and managing fat, is getting at the roots of health.

How Can You Know What is Your Current Leptin Level?

Getting and keeping Leptin levels in normal range is our number one Habit of Health.

Start by knowing where your Leptin level currently is!

You can get a blood test for Leptin (from your Doctor) in order to know where you are currently in terms of Leptin level.

Or, since Leptin is made in body fat which means the more body fat you have the more Leptin your body makes, you can estimate your Leptin level by simply looking at the fat percentage chart to see where your body fat most likely is, and if your Leptin level is in the the fat burning mode or not. Please note that women make about 15 percent more Leptin in their fat cells than do men, since women's hormonal processes are different. This means that women's fat burning responses are different, take longer, and must be sustained longer.

Once you get your Leptin blood test results (or make an estimate based on body fat percentage), you will know where you are at. You can then choose to adjust your life-style and/or diet to get your Leptin level into the fat burning range.

Remember Leptin is made in fat cells and that means that a main driver of Leptin level is the amount of body fat one has. So, scientifically speaking, in order to stay in the fat burning mode and live the healthiest and longest life possible, it will be essential to get and keep your body fat percentage in an optimal range.

Body Fat Corresponds to Leptin

If your body fat percentage is not in the optimal range for fat burning, then you need to learn and carry out the tactics for temporarily normalizing Leptin levels while you make permanent changes that will allow you keep your Leptin level in the fat burning range permanently, for the rest of your life.

How Can You Get Your Leptin Production To Go Down?

As described in the previous section, you know you are in a sugar burning Leptin range if...

your Leptin level is 9 ng/ml or greater or if your body fat level places you above the fat burning range (shown in the picture in the preceding section).

If you're in a sugar burning Leptin range, then you also know that your body's cells are being damaged faster than they should be (because your cells will be generating twice as many free radicals as they could and should).

If nothing changes your metabolic mode back to fat burning, the unhappy reality is that cellular damage will occur much faster than might have been. Consequently, you will experience disease and death much sooner than could have been.

That should be an incentive to take action. But, unless you know what to do, it is very unlikely that you will be to get your body back into the fat burning mode. So, learn the fat burning tactics described on this page.

It is possible to stop being a sugar burner if you follow the below tactics.

But, this is only possible if if you take decisive, correct action to change your metabolic mode permanently back to fat burning. That's what you now need to learn.

The first thing to understand is that low blood sugar can significantly reduce the production rate of Leptin in fat cells.
The second thing to understand is that Leptin can be removed from the blood stream during sleep.
The third thing to understand is that damaged Leptin receptors in the Hypothalamus can be repaired.
A fourth thing to understand is that specific types of exercise can temporarily trigger fat burning regardless of all other factors.
Finally, the presence of Human Chorionic Gonadotropin hormone (normally released during pregnancy) overrides Leptin signaling and causes fat burning to occur, regardless of any other factor.

Using those five facts or tactics for overriding damaged Leptin receptors in the Hypothalamus, you can get your body back into fat burning.

We will teach you how to get your Hypothalamus and the cells of your body back to a fat burning mode and how to burn through excessive fat stores until you have the right amount of fat on your body to permanently maintain the fat burning metabolic mode.

Tactics

# 1: The amount of sugar in the blood stream significantly changes the rate of Leptin production of Leptin in fat cells.

There is much more Leptin production with high blood sugar.
There is much less Leptin production with low blood sugar.

Getting more precise:

Keeping blood sugar below 85 will significantly reduces Leptin production.
Blood sugar that is between 85 to 105 will not increase or decrease Leptin production.
The more that blood sugar is above 105 the more that Leptin production will be increased.

To keep blood sugar low, we recommend eating low glycemic foods and eating nutrient-dense food and/or exercising in the evening to remove sugar from the bloodstream.

# 2: Leptin can be cleared from the bloodstream each night so that one starts the day with low Leptin levels. What helps Leptin to clear includes:

No food in stomach for three hours prior to sleeping.
Low blood sugar during the night.
7 to 9 hours of restful sleep.

Getting more precise:

If blood sugar is high during the night, Leptin production will continue in high mode all night and won't be low in the morning. So, even if receptors were repaired during sleep, they will immediately break again because of the high Leptin. So, learn to eat in a way that keeps your blood sugar low during the night.
Little sleep equals less time to remove Leptin from the bloodstream during sleep and, therefore, higher Leptin levels in the morning. So, sleep 7 plus hours each day.
Little sleep equals very little repair of the endocrine system, including the Hypothalamus's Leptin receptors. So, sleep 7 plus hours each day.

If you understood the above, then you will realize that the quintessential secret for lowering Leptin production temporarily (so that you can get Leptin level low enough to get back into a fat burning metabolic mode) is to keep your blood sugar low. Tactics for keeping blood sugar low, then, are what you want to learn!

How Can You Use Significant, Prolonged Exercise To Force Your Body Into A Temporary Fat Burning Mode?

Significant, prolonged exercise forces fat burning to occur.

After about 40 minutes of exercise, blood sugar is depleted and fat burning mode commences regardless of Leptin level and continues for an hour or two.

This happens because the cells that are being told to burn sugar, but can't find enough sugar in the blood to burn, so the cells decide to burn fat despite the signal to only burn sugar. They, essentially, have no other choice because of the energy requirement that the exercise creates.

That's why exercise is huge at stimulating fat burning — if you do it long enough.

Why Does Stress Kick You Out of Fat Burning Into Sugar Burning

Stress hormones (adrenaline, cortisol) force sugar burning to occur.

Sugar burns faster than fat. If there is an emergency, nature wants a person to have “instant” energy. That’s why, when your stress level (adrenaline and cortisol) goes up, your body prepares for fight or flight, and you start burning sugar. So, if you can't manage stress, then it will be difficult to stay in the fat burning mode regardless of Leptin level since the stress hormones will keep pushing the body into sugar burning mode.

Leptin (Fat Burning) Primer

Review of Factors That Enable or Disable the Fat Burning Mode

Elevated Leptin
Pain and Stress
Inadequate Sleep
Excessive Dietary Protein

When trying to predict metabolic mode a few additional factors, other than body fat percentage, come into play:

Pregnancy hormones override Leptin switching of metabolic mode and force fat burning to occur.

Nature does this to ensure a more constant energy supply to the fetus regardless of whether there happens to be a real famine going on and whether the mother is able to eat adequate amounts of food or not. Nature loves babies and rearranges a mother's metabolism to make sure the baby does well. This is the secret behind HCG dieting.

Women's bodies produce less Leptin than do men's bodies for the same amount of body fat.

Click to see body fat percentage graph showing the difference for men and women's body fat to Leptin level.

How to Ensure That You Become and Stay a Fat Burner!

If you’ve come to realize that you are currently a sugar burner and, therefore, permitting extra life-shortening damage to occur to your body, you will undoubtedly desire to get the cells of your body back into the healthy fat burning mode. Here are the things you need to do to accomplish that:

Basics for Fat Burning

Initially (when first changing from sugar burning back to fat burning), reduce eating sugar and carbohydrate rich foods to as close to zero as possible. Once you are solidly in the fat burning mode, you can eat carbohydrate rich foods as long as you don't go back into the sugar burning mode.
It is mandatory to deprive one’s cells of their “habitual sugar fuel” in order to get them to eat fat again.
- Doing this is kind of like forcing a baby to nurse from its mother's breasts (after an interruption in nursing). The baby will fuss at first, and want the bottle (because the milk flows faster and easier). The whole household has to endure the baby's cries until the baby is hungry enough to accept what it is offered. Cells are just like babies. They want quick-to-satisfy-sugar, instead of the healthier fat.
- What we're saying is that both cells and babies will "fight and fuss" for sugar or a bottle until they realize they don't have any other choice.
- We suggest reading the book "the Rosedale Diet" by Dr. Ron Rosedale to learn more about the importance of the fat burning mode and his diet suggestions and recipes. Also, we recommend the WIN powdered drink mix program. It provides a very low carbohydrate nutritional powders that will help one's cells get great nutrition while encouraging the cells to burn stored fat.
It's important for managing Leptin levels to eat during half the day only (less than 12 hours a day) and to get adequate daily sleep so that Leptin is removed from the blood stream each night.
It is, also, quite important that you don’t eat food any closer than 3 hours before going to bed so that your Leptin levels do not rise while asleep. The only exception to this would be drink some herbal tea or eat a small amount of a low carb food such as an egg. If you do eat within the two hours before going to bed, you absolutely must wait at least 12 hours before eating again (this 12 hours includes the time you are asleep).

Additional Tips for Fat Burning

We recommend that one consume Arginine and/or Ricatein in order to help repair damaged Leptin receptors more quickly. When Leptin sensors are healed and able to sense Leptin, fat burning will occur much more readily.
Exercise is helpful for switching from sugar burning to fat burning since 45 minutes of vigorous exercise forces the body to switch into the fat burning for a few hours regardless of Leptin level.
It is helpful if the break-fast meal contain very little carbohydrate — so that the body gets the message at the beginning of the day that fat is the fuel to be burned that day. Great break-fast meal can include nutrient dense meals such as WIN meals or fat-rich meals such as bacon, avocado, cheese-egg omelets, fish, etc.
Excepting a few "party-time" meals per month, the meals one eats should emphasize fat, with ample amounts of low-calorie vegetables and some protein (4 to 6 ounces per meal, depending on body size). To learn to eat this way (and enjoy those meals), we recommend the book by Ron Rosedale called "The Rosedale Diet".
Meditation and stress management can be very important for "stressed-out-people", because if one doesn’t keep adrenaline out of his/her bloodstream he or she will be forced into a sugar burning mode regardless of Leptin levels, since Adrenaline tells the body to immediately burn sugar (to enable fight of flight).

Important Lifetime Habits For Avoiding Sugar Burning Mode:

Don't eat empty calorie foods very often (such celebration foods should be reserved for real celebrations) because empty calorie foods spike blood sugar, producing more Leptin out of whatever fat exists in the body. When Leptin levels spike too high, the Hypothalamus’s Leptin receptors will be damaged and one's metabolism will switch to sugar burning and fat storing until those Leptin receptors are healed. If damaging the Leptin receptors occurs frequently, then it is only a matter of time until one VIRTUALLY ALWAYS BURNS SUGAR AND STORES FAT, and health starts to decline.
Don't eat food close to bedtime. Stop three hours minimum before going to bed. Otherwise, blood sugar Leptin levels will rise all night instead of being cleared out of the blood during the fasting that occurs during sleep. One will then start then day with spiked blood sugar and spiked Leptin. Eating just before bedtime is a huge bad habit.
Don't live in a state of fear, jealousy, constant "rush" or feeling of stress. These feelings can cause one to become a sugar burner because the body can’t tell the difference between these emotions and “real danger”. The release of adrenaline and cortisol switch the body into sugar burning. Sleeping earthed or meditation are two ways to combat such feelings.

Click here to get a free Leptin E-booklet on how to maintain the fat burning mode.

What Can I Expect if My Body is in the Healthy Fat Burning Mode?

Being in a fat-burning body is a great situation, but isn't very common in our modern world. It means that:

You may likely live many years longer than most people.
Your brain will function better and, especially, your memory will remain sharper in your advanced years of life. This is because your brain tissue will NOT undergo excessive cross-linking with sugar (cross-linking makes your memories irretrievable). You will be much less prone to Alzheimer's and Dementia.
You will maintain your muscle tone and bone density years longer than most people because your body will burn fat at night while you're asleep instead of burning your muscles and bones to make energy while you're asleep.
You will be less likely to experience high blood sugar and its hosts of unhappy challenges — cardiovascular disease, joint stiffness, kidney disease, etc.
You will be less prone to addictive behavior, because your Hypothalamus will NOT be constantly stressed through fluctuating Leptin levels.
You will NOT be prone to weight gain.
You will NOT be irritable if you miss a meal because your body's cells will continue to burn fat even if your blood sugar is low.

What Can I Expect If My Body is in the Unhealthy Sugar Burning Mode?

Most people don't choose to be in a sugar-burning body on purpose, but nevertheless become sugar burners because of their lack of knowledge regarding how Leptin determines metabolic mode. If your body operates in the sugar burning mode, this is what you'll get:

You'll likely live 10 or more years less than you could have lived.
You'll eventually experience significant difficulty in remembering things. This is because your brain tissue will cross-link with sugar, making it impossible to retrieve your memories. You may experience Alzheimer's.
You'll eventually lose a great deal of your muscle tone and bone density. This happens because while you're sleeping, your body will dismantle proteins to make sugar to keep your heart beating.
You'll eventually experience high blood sugar and its hosts of unhappy challenges — cardiovascular disease, joint stiffness, kidney disease, etc.
You'll be more prone to addictive behavior, because your Hypothalamus will constantly be stressed (see below) and will seek to remedy this stress through other stimuli.
You'll eventually become overweight (unless you constantly diet or exercise).
You'll be prone to mood swings and addictive behaviors. The reason is that the Hypothalamus controls not only metabolic mode but also mood. When the Hypothalamus is unable to sense Leptin, it won’t be “relaxed” (fearing a famine) and will seek “relaxation” from other stimuli such as alcohol, drugs and sex.

In What Ways is Burning Fat Instead of Sugar Extremely Important to Having a Great Life?

# 1 — Having Cells That Burn Fat Is Important Because It Helps to Avoid Mitochondrial Destruction — You Could Be Young For Decades Longer!

Creating energy by burning fuel (fat or sugar) in our cellular mitochondria is necessary to life, but, also, destructive to our mitochondria. It is destructive because free-radical production occurs while creating energy. Free radicals (oxidants) do damage to our mitochondria and cells. This is very similar to how burning gasoline in an automobile engine is necessary, but destructive to the engine of the automobile (by releasing heat).
Fat burns more efficiently than sugar. In fact, for the same amount of free radicals released, you can get twice as much energy from fat as from sugar. That means that being in the fat burning mode instead of the sugar burning mode will "age" you much more slowly than being in the sugar burning mode. In other words, at age 70 chronologically, you can feel and look decades younger if you had been a fat burner your whole life.

# 2 — Having Cells That Burn Fat Is Important Because It Helps to Avoid Glycation Damage — You Could Avoid Alzheimer's Age Spots, and Senility!

Sugar burning naturally leads to high blood sugar and all of its problems, brain tissue glycation (Alzheimer's and Dementia), age spots on skin, wrinkles on skin (and internal wrinkles where you can't see them on your organs), kidney disease, digestive troubles, etc. Having a healthier and younger functioning body and a life more free of pain and discomfort are two main reasons a person should want to be a fat burner. That's even more important than living longer.

# 3 — Having Cells That Burn Fat is Important Because It Helps to Avoid Mood Swings

When a person is in a fat burning mode, energy is constant because there is always fat available to be burned to create energy.
That is not the case for sugar burners. When a sugar-burner uses up all the sugar in the blood, that person will then experience a loss of energy, or a mood crisis as the body is temporarily unable to supply energy. It takes awhile for the body to access stored energy or start breaking down muscle and bone proteins to make sugar to get energy. This up and down energy creates a moody person.

Can You Boil This All Done For Me? What are the Real Keys to Creating the Kind of Life That Ensures Fat Burning

The main secret of the fat burning lifestyle is maintaining low low insulin, low Leptin, low stress hormones (like cortisol). Here's some keys of that life style:
- Eat meals that don't spike blood sugar. Such meals consist mostly of healthy fats, proteins and non-starchy vegetables. Particularly, uncooked, non-starchy, non-sweet vegetables and sprouts are great to eat in virtually unlimited amounts. Also, uncooked, undamaged, mono and polyunsaturated fats can be consumed in moderate amounts. Proteins are good as long as one doesn't eat too much protein per meal (excess protein can be converted into sugar). A good rule of thumb is to divide your weight by twenty-five and limit the protein for a meal to that many ounces. For example, a 125 pound person could eat 5 ounces of protein per meal.
- Sleep sufficiently for Leptin to be processed out of the blood each night. That means don't wake up tired. The body uses sleep to repair itself and clear Leptin from the blood.
- Fast 12 to 16 hours daily. Having 12 to 16 hours daily of no eating time (including sleep time) helps the metabolic system repair itself. Remember, metabolism (turning food into energy) does damage to the mitochondria and cells. The metabolic system needs daily time to self-repair. 12 hours of no-eating time is doable for anyone. 16 Hours a day is even better.
- Exercise daily. Exercise is very helpful for establishing the fat burning mode, by helping to keep blood sugar very low, which keeps Leptin production low and forces fat burning to occur. Exercise should be significant enough to promote deep breathing and should continue for 30 minutes or more in order to ensure that the body enters a fat burning mode. (When all blood sugars are used up, the body must burn fat to continue its exertions.) The graph below shows the effect of exercise duration in terms of stimulating fat burning.
- Lastly, repairing damaged Hypothalamic sensors (the ones that detect Leptin) can be critical for quickly moving from sugar burning mode to fat burning mode. Two supplements that help repair these sensors include: Embla Arginine and Ricotriene.

Six Habits of Health

If you implement the Healthy-Living six habits of health, you will be on a path that leads to a longer and healthier life. We recommend that you seek to understand the Six Key Habits of Health. Click on each link below to learn why this habit is critical to help ensure that your body stays as healthy as possible for as long as possible:

Keep Your Body in the Fat Burning Mode
Keep Your Body Free of Toxins
Keep Your Oxygen and Hydrogen Levels High
Eliminate Nutrient Deficiencies
Stress Your Body
Keep Learning About Health

Ron Rosedale is an Internationally known expert in nutritional and metabolic medicine whose work with diabetics is truly groundbreaking. Very few physicians have had such consistent success in helping diabetics to eliminate or reduce their need for insulin and to reduce heart disease without drugs or surgery.

Dr. Rosedale was founder of the Rosedale Center, co-founder of the Colorado Center for Metabolic Medicine (Boulder, CO USA) and founder of the Carolina Center of Metabolic Medicine (Asheville, NC). Through these centers, he has helped thousands suffering from so-called incurable diseases to regain their health.

One of Dr. Rosedale's life goals is to wipe out type II diabetes in this country as a model for the world. He also has written a book,"The Rosedale Diet", covering his proven treatment methods for diabetes, cardiovascular disease, arthritis, osteoporosis and other chronic diseases of aging.

being in the sugar burning mode is stressful to the brain. When the Hypothalamus can't detect Leptin it will believe a famine or illness is occurring, and it will feel panicked or stressed and unable to relax. Since the Hypothalamus is at the center of our survival, reward and motivational behaviors, when the Hypothalamus is stressed from not being able to detect Leptin, it is quick to rewire the brain to look for food or “other sources of comfort”. So, anyone who is trying to overcome harmful addictive behaviors, should seek to get Leptin levels into a normal range, almost as a first priority.

Clear Thinking as proposed by several Harvard scienistists requires asking and answering three questions:

What are the downsides of taking or not taking this action?
What are the upsides of taking or not taking this action?
What the long term consequences of taking or not taking this action?

What is going to result has to be understood? And, particularly, the downsides must be understood?

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