Metabolic Efficiency Training™, the concept created by Bob Seebohar, is a system of nutrition interventions and exercise prescriptions that improve the body's ability to use its stored nutrients. Through these dietary and exercise implementation strategies, it is possible to improve the way the body uses carbohydrates and fat at both rest and during exercise, both of which have a significant, positive impact on health and athletic performance.
What is Metabolic Efficiency Training?
The best place to begin is perhaps to explain what Metabolic Efficiency Training is NOT. There are many misconceptions about the concept, including the following:
1. "It's a no carb diet and I have to go into nutritional ketosis." No. Actually, there are five identified dietary strategies that can be used to improve the body's metabolic efficiency. Not one of them includes nutritional ketosis. Metabolic Efficiency Training does not promote extremes and while nutritional ketosis may be useful for some, it is not the preferred long-term dietary strategy to improve the body's ability to use carbohydrate and fat at rest and throughout exercise.
2. "I will just train aerobically and burn more fat." While it is true that you can improve the body's ability to burn more fat through aerobic training, it is only about 25% of the Metabolic Efficiency Training equation. The majority of improving metabolic efficiency lies in daily nutrition changes and the ability to control and optimize blood sugar through eating proper amounts of protein, fat, and fiber, while accounting for proper nutrition periodization planning to support athletes in different training cycles throughout the year.
3. "It's just another diet that I will follow and then stop when I don't see results." There are so many things wrong with this statement. The first is that Metabolic Efficiency Training is not a diet. It is a combination of a well planned and executed daily nutrition and exercise plan that will change as your health and fitness changes. Secondly, adopting a metabolically efficient plan is a journey and one that should be adopted as part of a lifestyle change for improved health, fitness and athletic performance throughout the aging continuum.
The Story
Bob Seebohar created the Metabolic Efficiency Training concept in the early 2000's as a way to help endurance athletes eliminate GI distress. When Bob transitioned from a competitive soccer player to a triathlete during his undergraduate studies in college, he realized just how many differences existed between the two sports, namely the high incidence of GI distress.
Bob suffered horribly with GI distress for a good 10 years but kept training for triathlon and worked his way up to Ironman distance. While extremely satisfying to train for and complete an Ironman, it was extremely painful. There were times when Bob almost threw in the towel because he was so tired of visiting the porta potties every mile during the marathon. He could only take so much bloating, vomiting and diarrhea over the course of 140.6 miles.
However, true to his nature, Bob continued to experiment more and more with his daily nutrition plan to see if he could make any progress. He would try different foods, eliminate others and include the newest nutrition products on the market in hopes that something would work. At the same time, he was trying to do the same with other athletes but found nothing was working.
Bob followed all of the scientific research recommendations and tried everything but it wasn't until he submersed himself again in his past graduate study research in metabolism, nutrition, biochemistry and exercise physiology that he was able to find a sliver of hope.
That sliver blossomed into what you now see as the Metabolic Efficiency Training concept. Grounded and founded in science to eliminate GI distress and used on hundreds and hundreds of athletes, there is finally a method of healing the gut and freeing endurance athletes of the GI distress "monster".
The Facts
Metabolic Efficiency Training can be defined as systematic nutrition and exercise approaches to improving the body's ability to use its internal stores of nutrients, specifically carbohydrates and fat, to optimize blood sugar. The average person has approximately 1,400 - 2,000 calories worth of carbohydrates stored in their body and 50,000 - 80,000+ calories stored as fat.
The body is a very complex system but surprisingly, through dietary changes, it can be taught to oxidize (burn) more carbohydrates or fat in a surprisingly short amount of time. Burning more carbohydrates will allow the body to store more fat. Burning more fat will allow the body to preserve the small amount of carbohydrates it has.
The wonderful thing about Metabolic Efficiency Training is that you can literally teach your body to increase its carbohydrate burning for times when you need to have more carbohydrates to fuel your training and competitions or you can do the opposite and train the body to burn more fat.
The Metabolic Efficiency Training concept is not an "all or none" concept, nor is it a "diet". Because we all have different health, fitness and performance goals, there will be times during your life when using more carbohydrates as energy will be preferred and, in contrast, times when using more fat as energy will be better.
Health/Well-Being
Who cares? You do, or at least you should. What many people do not understand is that uncontrolled blood sugar can have a significant negative impact on health.
When it comes to discussing health parameters, the one that resonates the most is metabolic syndrome. Metabolic syndrome is a series of five risk factors that can predispose individuals to chronic diseases such as diabetes, heart disease, obesity, and stroke. The five risk factors include: 1) a large waistline, 2) high triglycerides, 3) low HDL, 4) high blood pressure, and 5) high fasting blood glucose. Clinically, if you have three of these risk factors, you are classified to have metabolic syndrome and a higher risk of developing chronic diseases. Even though you may not present with three of the risk factors, having even one significantly increases your risk of heart disease and stroke.
According to the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, a person having metabolic syndrome is twice as likely to develop heart disease and five times as likely to develop diabetes as someone who does not have metabolic syndrome.
The great news is that a good portion of disease risk can be controlled by simply following a metabolically efficient way of eating to control and optimize blood sugar.
Fitness/Athletic Performance
Fitness is an interesting term and there are many definitions of it. Overall, being fit is having the ability to do activities of daily living successfully and participating in various exercises to improve the cardiorespiratory and pulmonary system and strengthen the muscular system. It doesn't matter if you participate in athletic competitions or not, adopting the Metabolic Efficiency Training concept will improve your body from the inside out and allow you to move better.
Athletes embrace Metabolic Efficiency Training because the performance improvements can be fairly significant. It doesn't matter the type of athlete (strength, power, endurance), there are countless benefits when periodized and implemented correctly.
Of course, the benefits will be different depending on the athlete but in general, athletes usually experience one or more of the following when they become metabolically efficient: 1) decreased body weight, 2) decreased body fat, 3) improved and sustained energy levels and mental alertness throughout the day, 4) improved exercise recovery, 5) improved cognitive function and less brain fog, 6) improved power to weight ratio, 7) improved running velocity, 8) better digestive health and no GI distress, and 9) better sleep.
This is a short list as each athlete will have different improvements based on their starting point and level of progression. Remember, Nutrition Periodization is the cornerstone of any nutrition program and the nutrition and exercise strategies that accompany the Metabolic Efficiency Training concept are tools that are used throughout the year to help athletes improve health and athletic performance.
Metabolic Efficiency Training Book
This book will provide very specific nutrition and exercise recommendations that will guide you through each training cycle with the end goal of improving your ability to use fat as fuel.
Gone are the days of needing to consume a high amount of calories during training and competition. By improving your body’s metabolic efficiency, it is possible to significantly reduce the amount of calories you need during exercise. The end result will be improved health and performance with significantly reduced chances of GI distress.
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Level I Metabolic Efficiency Training Specialist Certification and Mentorship Program
Earn your certification as a Level I Certified Metabolic Efficiency Training Specialist, which includes a two month mentorship with Bob Seebohar.
The certification is available to health, nutrition, fitness and medical professionals.
Learn moreFind a Metabolic Efficiency Training Specialist (METS) in your area
Certified Metabolic Efficiency Training Specialists (METS) have completed the rigorous three-month certification program and must keep current with their continuing education opportunities while demonstrating continued competency in implementing all areas of Metabolic Efficiency Training and testing.
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