As I was scrolling through some ‘health’ groups on Facebook after, of course, adding a link to my blog (!) I noticed the sheer amount of diets, fads, advice and just plain weird stuff that was out there. I mean really, huge amounts of the stuff! I knew there were loads of diets but really, my mind was blown! It was truly unbelievable! So with the veritable amount of information that comes at you it’s unsurprising that we are all confused, eating strangely, following weird advice, giving weird advice, and all whilst being convinced we know what ‘healthy’ is and that our version is the best!
Let’s stop for a moment and think about animals. Bit random I hear you say! But still, the chubby squirrel at the bottom of my garden is not eyeing the nuts up, sighing, with his little paws on his stomach, willing himself to have the willpower to just ignore it because his waistline is expanding. No, the chubby squirrel grabs all the nuts he can and runs away with them, giving no thought whatsoever to what he looks like! Animals tend to function on instinct, so what has happened to us? Can we not trust our bodies to send us the correct signals? Is nature trying to trick us? Giving us these cravings that, good lord above, if we could just learn to control, life would be fine? In my humble opinion this is a good place to start!
When my life fell apart at the end of my low carb era I was a mess (as already established in previous article!). I had terrible anxiety, insomnia, was cold all the time, and my hair was falling out. I had no appetite to speak of so I had nothing to guide me. Matt Stone’s book informed me that dieting ruins our metabolisms, so in order to recover I would have to fix my metabolism. That was the first I had heard of that, but hey, I was up for anything that might make me better! I’d like to say it all made sense but after 3 years on a low carb diet and hardly any sleep not much about my life really made sense! Anyway, it turns out all the symptoms that I had are indicative of a low metabolism. Your energy metabolism is driven by thyroid hormones which will fluctuate according to caloric intake and external temperature. During starvation and semi-starvation the body naturally lowers thyroid hormones. Thyroid hormones regulate body temperature; therefore one of the (many!) symptoms of low metabolism is feeling cold a lot of the time (just like I was!). For a more detailed description of thyroid hormones, how they function and a long list of symptoms, see Billy’s blog article ‘Thyroid Hormone’ at http://www.billycraig.co.uk/blog/thyroid-hormone.
When my life fell apart at the end of my low carb era I was a mess (as already established in previous article!). I had terrible anxiety, insomnia, was cold all the time, and my hair was falling out. I had no appetite to speak of so I had nothing to guide me. Matt Stone’s book informed me that dieting ruins our metabolisms, so in order to recover I would have to fix my metabolism. That was the first I had heard of that, but hey, I was up for anything that might make me better! I’d like to say it all made sense but after 3 years on a low carb diet and hardly any sleep not much about my life really made sense! Anyway, it turns out all the symptoms that I had are indicative of a low metabolism. Your energy metabolism is driven by thyroid hormones which will fluctuate according to caloric intake and external temperature. During starvation and semi-starvation the body naturally lowers thyroid hormones. Thyroid hormones regulate body temperature; therefore one of the (many!) symptoms of low metabolism is feeling cold a lot of the time (just like I was!). For a more detailed description of thyroid hormones, how they function and a long list of symptoms, see Billy’s blog article ‘Thyroid Hormone’ at http://www.billycraig.co.uk/blog/thyroid-hormone.
It turns out you can easily test where your metabolism is at by using a simple thermometer. So that was my next purchase! I eagerly awaited delivery of my new thermometer so I could take our temperatures. As soon as it came the kids and I tested it out. We were in the process of taking our temperatures when my boyfriend walked in the room and asked what on earth I was doing. On informing him that I was checking all our temperatures (can’t remember if I offered a detailed explanation as to why!) he exclaimed ‘for god’s sake, why can’t you just be normal about things?’ and promptly left. I think he must have thought I was someone else momentarily! Normal? You read my story right? Ha! Anyway, my temperature was a sterling 35.7 °C. This is not a good sign. Once your body temperature drops below 35 °C it’s classed as hypothermia. Human body temperature is supposed to be 37 °C for a healthy metabolism. I needed more calories. Quickly!
Not being a ‘normal’ (whatever that is!) person, and having incoherent thoughts due to a bad diet and low metabolism, I didn’t think it through properly (again!), I just ploughed on in there! I upped my calories, and my carbs, vastly and immediately. The human body doesn’t really like big changes and will strive to maintain homeostasis. Also, the human body tends to need plenty of vitamins and minerals. So my plan to suddenly eat huge amounts of crap was always going to be a non-starter and looking back it’s hardly surprising I didn’t feel any better 9 months down the line, when my anxiety suddenly roared into action. I was just so focused on upping the calories to fix my metabolism that I hadn’t really stopped to think about it. Although in my defence, the human brain lacks fuel stores and requires a continuous supply of glucose. The fact that I starved it of carbs for over 3 years did nothing for my thought processes!!
I did manage to get my temps to rise over those 9 months though, even though I wasn’t feeling great and still had no energy. They were higher in the mornings than they had been (36.7 °C) and I could get them to 37 °C in the daytime, so why wasn’t I feeling better? Well, it turns out that I should have been testing my pulse too. When your body is running on stress hormones (adrenaline, cortisol etc.) then they can drive your temperature up and that’s not a good thing! When I eventually started taking my pulse (just before I saw Billy) it ranged from 96 to 104 beats/minute. Hmmm, rather high! Healthy individuals have been found to have a pulse of around 85 beats/minute. My morning temperature of 36.7 °C was just higher because my body was getting into a stressful state overnight and then just generally a stressful state overall. Your body requires more vitamins and minerals as your metabolism rises. I was trying to go about it all backwards! I had the calories in place but not the vitamins and minerals. I had been living off McDonald’s meals and plenty of sugary sweets to try and get the calories high – not the best idea in the world!
Not being a ‘normal’ (whatever that is!) person, and having incoherent thoughts due to a bad diet and low metabolism, I didn’t think it through properly (again!), I just ploughed on in there! I upped my calories, and my carbs, vastly and immediately. The human body doesn’t really like big changes and will strive to maintain homeostasis. Also, the human body tends to need plenty of vitamins and minerals. So my plan to suddenly eat huge amounts of crap was always going to be a non-starter and looking back it’s hardly surprising I didn’t feel any better 9 months down the line, when my anxiety suddenly roared into action. I was just so focused on upping the calories to fix my metabolism that I hadn’t really stopped to think about it. Although in my defence, the human brain lacks fuel stores and requires a continuous supply of glucose. The fact that I starved it of carbs for over 3 years did nothing for my thought processes!!
I did manage to get my temps to rise over those 9 months though, even though I wasn’t feeling great and still had no energy. They were higher in the mornings than they had been (36.7 °C) and I could get them to 37 °C in the daytime, so why wasn’t I feeling better? Well, it turns out that I should have been testing my pulse too. When your body is running on stress hormones (adrenaline, cortisol etc.) then they can drive your temperature up and that’s not a good thing! When I eventually started taking my pulse (just before I saw Billy) it ranged from 96 to 104 beats/minute. Hmmm, rather high! Healthy individuals have been found to have a pulse of around 85 beats/minute. My morning temperature of 36.7 °C was just higher because my body was getting into a stressful state overnight and then just generally a stressful state overall. Your body requires more vitamins and minerals as your metabolism rises. I was trying to go about it all backwards! I had the calories in place but not the vitamins and minerals. I had been living off McDonald’s meals and plenty of sugary sweets to try and get the calories high – not the best idea in the world!
Shortly after seeing Billy, and realising that I was going to have to start to eat some ‘real’ foods that actually contained some vitamins and minerals, I tried to put a plan in place. I had no appetite or craving for any food at all. I was in a mess. I was constantly retching and it took me around half an hour to eat even a small meal! As I could only eat small meals I had to aim for around 7 of them every day! Most of my day revolved around food as cooking meals and eating them could take almost an hour each time! I can vividly remember the first morning I ate some boiled eggs and a couple of small potatoes (with butter and salt), then as I left the house to take the kids to school, I retched and threw half of it back up down the drain. I remember wondering how I was ever going to get better if I couldn’t even keep that down. Very slowly things started to improve. After 4-5 months the anxiety was down to a manageable level and I was sleeping better than I had been (though still not brilliantly). I started to be able to manage more carbs (potatoes!) without overwhelming my body. After about 12 months the weird cough had subsided and my awful burning indigestion was almost gone. My sleep was much better, my periods were monthly, and I could eat meals much quicker (although I still try not to rush my meals). At around the 14 month mark I noticed my hair was getting shinier and my skin less dry. It’s all totally amazing to me. Sometimes I find myself just running my hands over my hair or feeling my skin (yes, we’ve established I’m weird!!) because it’s so smooth! My body temperature now rises in response to food. I start the day with a temperature of 36.5 °C and it rises throughout the day. It will rise to 37 °C in response to food later in the day but my body still can’t maintain the temperature overnight at the moment. It takes time (plenty of time!) to fix a slowed down metabolism. If I can dig myself out of the huge hole I was in, then I’m sure anyone can get themselves to a better place!
So, if you feel that your diet might not be the best, or your metabolism might be a bit slow, what can you do about it? Checking that you are actually eating enough calories is a good place to start. There are formulas that allow you to enter your details in order to calculate the amount you should be eating, such as http://www.health-calc.com/diet/energy-expenditure-advanced. Obviously it won’t be exact so just use it as a rough starting point. We seem to have a general disconnect between the amount of calories we think we should eat and the amount of calories our bodies actually need. This is probably due to so much dietary advice recommending eating less to lose weight, even silly amounts, such as 1000 or 1200 calories per day. I would imagine it’s very difficult for anybody to actually thrive on that low amount of calories (although they will obviously survive, surviving and thriving are very different things!)
Check your temperature and pulse throughout the day, before and after meals. You want your temperature to go up following meals, not down. If you find your temperature going down after food then you probably had a false temperature in the first place. If your temperature is lower than 36.7 °C for several of your readings then you probably have a low metabolism. Check your symptoms with the list of symptoms in Billy’s article. Though there are many, many symptoms connected with a low metabolism these are some of the more obvious ones.
If you decide to eat a bit more or change your diet around a bit then you can obviously look for signs that things are improving, i.e. getting a nice warmth in your body from eating a good meal. My hands and feet always go nice and warm after eating potatoes!! My sleep is now much better than it ever has been, my anxiety is gone, my hair is thickening up and is nice and shiny, and my skin is much less dry. It’s amazing how many ailments/problems can be sorted out by sorting out your metabolism, yet not really amazing at the same time! If our metabolism is working as it is supposed to, and our body temperature is a normal 37 °C, then it makes sense that we would feel ‘normal’ or better and we would have much more energy.
Try to stay in tune with your body. It will send signals to tell you what it needs. Often a craving for sweet things is just a sign that your body needs more calories (not that you are addicted to sugar! Lol!) Stay relaxed about it all – often easier said than done when we are entrenched in ideas about ‘healthy eating’. Remember stress is your metabolism’s worst enemy! Try to enjoy a variety of foods. If you don’t like brussel sprouts then don’t blooming well eat them! Eating should be an enjoyable experience. Many of us forget that whilst on a mission to eat ‘healthily’. Chill out and don’t make any huge sweeping changes!!
I hope, once again, that you have enjoyed my ramblings! Please remember that they are exactly that, my ramblings, my thoughts from everything I have researched/learnt since going through my dietary hell!! If you have any comments or stories to share please pop them in the comments below. I always love to hear from you. As always, please check in with how you feel and what you think about things. This is just me ‘thinking out loud’. Take care x
So, if you feel that your diet might not be the best, or your metabolism might be a bit slow, what can you do about it? Checking that you are actually eating enough calories is a good place to start. There are formulas that allow you to enter your details in order to calculate the amount you should be eating, such as http://www.health-calc.com/diet/energy-expenditure-advanced. Obviously it won’t be exact so just use it as a rough starting point. We seem to have a general disconnect between the amount of calories we think we should eat and the amount of calories our bodies actually need. This is probably due to so much dietary advice recommending eating less to lose weight, even silly amounts, such as 1000 or 1200 calories per day. I would imagine it’s very difficult for anybody to actually thrive on that low amount of calories (although they will obviously survive, surviving and thriving are very different things!)
Check your temperature and pulse throughout the day, before and after meals. You want your temperature to go up following meals, not down. If you find your temperature going down after food then you probably had a false temperature in the first place. If your temperature is lower than 36.7 °C for several of your readings then you probably have a low metabolism. Check your symptoms with the list of symptoms in Billy’s article. Though there are many, many symptoms connected with a low metabolism these are some of the more obvious ones.
If you decide to eat a bit more or change your diet around a bit then you can obviously look for signs that things are improving, i.e. getting a nice warmth in your body from eating a good meal. My hands and feet always go nice and warm after eating potatoes!! My sleep is now much better than it ever has been, my anxiety is gone, my hair is thickening up and is nice and shiny, and my skin is much less dry. It’s amazing how many ailments/problems can be sorted out by sorting out your metabolism, yet not really amazing at the same time! If our metabolism is working as it is supposed to, and our body temperature is a normal 37 °C, then it makes sense that we would feel ‘normal’ or better and we would have much more energy.
Try to stay in tune with your body. It will send signals to tell you what it needs. Often a craving for sweet things is just a sign that your body needs more calories (not that you are addicted to sugar! Lol!) Stay relaxed about it all – often easier said than done when we are entrenched in ideas about ‘healthy eating’. Remember stress is your metabolism’s worst enemy! Try to enjoy a variety of foods. If you don’t like brussel sprouts then don’t blooming well eat them! Eating should be an enjoyable experience. Many of us forget that whilst on a mission to eat ‘healthily’. Chill out and don’t make any huge sweeping changes!!
I hope, once again, that you have enjoyed my ramblings! Please remember that they are exactly that, my ramblings, my thoughts from everything I have researched/learnt since going through my dietary hell!! If you have any comments or stories to share please pop them in the comments below. I always love to hear from you. As always, please check in with how you feel and what you think about things. This is just me ‘thinking out loud’. Take care x
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