My Dilemma After 5 Years Of "Peating"

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frant26

frant26

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There's a chance that you could be someone that needs a serious coach.

Absolutely! I've been getting help that way, and made a few realizations. But I need a coach who can help me with tracking & accountability because I otherwise get lost. It's too much information to handle sometimes.

I’ve found this thread to be immensely interesting. I’ve personally moved away from most supplements (occasional magnesium and vit k aside), because I just didn’t feel they helped (but I still couldn’t tell you what I actually wanted help with - more energy? Less belly fat? Effortless errections?). I find it hard to articulate what healthy is because it seems you need to compare it to an unhealthy organism or reduce health to pure aesthetics.

Great point. In my case it's going back (more or less) to where I was just 5 years ago. Effortless erections, less belly fat, a bit more optimistic on life.

I've not seen Peat recommend for most people to eat powders of any kind daily, let alone 8 of them every day. Nor to eat refined sugars daily. Have you?

You're totally right @tara . He has mentioned white sugar can be helpful in certain stressful circumstances, but some people who follow Peat eat a metric ton of refined sugars every day and 8+ supplements. All this personal process is going back to the basics. Appreciate your help.

I was at the beach last week, in a very low stress situation so I tried doing intermittent fasting with bulletproof-style coffees. I think it's slowly working to get rid of stubborn fat. I took extra vitamin E. I slept really well and felt happy. That said I wouldn't do it in winter or any other stressful situation. Now back to normal, feel as usual. Listening to my body much more than the FUD has been a great way to start this year.

Happy 2019 everyone!
 

CDT

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I've been reading Dr. Peat's articles and this forum for 5 years, especially @haidut 's posts and other related books and resources. I have incorporated most of these ideas into my life.

The theory just makes perfect sense to me. And I really enjoy understanding.

In practice though, most of my lab tests are equal or worse. And most importantly, my symptoms are worse.

With "before" I mean when I was eating a standard –albeit not american– diet: coffee, soda, pasta, burgers, cheese, eggs, juice, some fruit (sometimes unripe), quite some meat including pork, fish, potatoes, sushi, salads, regular ice cream, definitely some PUFA but not loads. (I went on a low-carb experience for 4 months, lost a lot of weight even though that was not my intention.)

AFTER:

- gained 25 pounds and I'm at 25% fat – never been so fat in my life
- worse sleep (I had no issues with falling asleep or waking up at night before)
- worse libido (I had zero issues in this department, now ED and PE sometimes)
- same or worse skin, hair & nails (that said I've been balding since I was 20)
- less resilience to psychological stress
- lost all leg hair at the ankle, which became puffier, as well as my face
- digestion slightly improved, not by much
- almost no cloudheadness now – this has been a great improvement
- i'm still a functional human being – so i suppose that's good news :D

In terms of labs, roughly:

- same prolactin levels (around 20) – they were lowest (around 7) when I vitamin D was at 80
- lower total T (980 vs 640), but free T went up from 50 to 150
- TSH down from around 5, to around 2
- liver enzymes are up from 18 to around 30
- cholesterol has always been low-ish, around 160 – but it must've increased as I'm taking thyroid now

In 5 years I always ate sugar, ripe fruits, milk, cheese, meat, potatoes, lot of coffee, sometimes the carrot salad with coconut oil, avoided PUFA, alcohol and cereals as much as possible, etc. And experimented with different quality supplements in different periods, but taking thyroid and aspirin for the longest time.

Not saying it was "perfect" but I am obsessed with observing (and asking about) other people's health markers and symptoms: I see/ask some close people (even in different countries – but not in the USA) about their quality of sleep, their sex life, look at their nails and lunulas, their skin, body composition, hair and body hair, but especially notice their humor and mood.

Most eat a regular diet like listed above and a lot avoid sugar, end up eating some decent amount of PUFA, work at offices, etc. Based on the theory, they should ALL be in a TERRIBLE state of health, especially compared to me! But I'm totally not seeing that. Sure, a few of them are worse off, but most of my friends and acquaintances are doing okay and seemingly better than me.

But I'm making efforts (trying to understand health, remembering about supplementation every day, rejecting some foods in social settings, finding quality ingredients, preparing a carrot salad which is inconvenient) while the rest are spending significantly less energy in this.

What gives?
If I may ask, what is your daily diet consumption? Perhaps we can do a quick analysis based on your food choice origin/sources..
 

bboone

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Jan 5, 2019
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125
this makes no sense. did you try out different macro ratios? basically all you're doing when "peating" is switching to higher quality food sources, so i don't see how your testosterone could possibly have dropped by a third unless you ate way too little fat or little protein.
 
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frant26

frant26

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Messages
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Location
Mexico City
this makes no sense. did you try out different macro ratios? basically all you're doing when "peating" is switching to higher quality food sources, so i don't see how your testosterone could possibly have dropped by a third unless you ate way too little fat or little protein.

You say it makes no sense, and you only bring up the subject of food. (I may have done that too, at some point.)

This thread helped me crystallize the idea that focusing on food is much less important than I believed. (A low stress environment with a lot of coffee and sunlight is much more important in my opinion.)

1.5 months ago I started experimenting with intermittent fasting in a context of friends & family, summertime including the beach sometimes, little work stress, and "less than ideal" food (grilled pizza and burgers, a bit more bread, some pork, some mediocre ice-cream, no oysters, no oxtail, not much calcium - but lots of coffee, coconut oil, meat and fruit). I stopped many of the supplements, and kept just a few that I take sometimes in small doses. D3/K2, thyroid, magnesium glycinate, and very little prog/DHEA.

Let me tell you that, thus far: I feel WAY better, I sleep very well, my libido is much better. Digestion is very good. The pressure in my upper back has lifted. I easily reached 37.1ºC a few afternoons with (a) around 76bpm, and (b) feeling focused and relaxed – so I easily conclude not driven by adrenaline.

I also lost 10lbs.

I'm listening to my body and following my intuition for the first time in a long time. I have no idea until when I'll do this. Not planning to do any IF in the absence of good sunlight, for example. I have no idea how many calories but I do eat a lot in some sittings. I appreciate high quality foods so I always prefer those, but otherwise except avoiding PUFA I don't stress over the perfect food anymore.
 

Bart1

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May 21, 2018
Messages
445
You say it makes no sense, and you only bring up the subject of food. (I may have done that too, at some point.)

This thread helped me crystallize the idea that focusing on food is much less important than I believed. (A low stress environment with a lot of coffee and sunlight is much more important in my opinion.)

1.5 months ago I started experimenting with intermittent fasting in a context of friends & family, summertime including the beach sometimes, little work stress, and "less than ideal" food (grilled pizza and burgers, a bit more bread, some pork, some mediocre ice-cream, no oysters, no oxtail, not much calcium - but lots of coffee, coconut oil, meat and fruit). I stopped many of the supplements, and kept just a few that I take sometimes in small doses. D3/K2, thyroid, magnesium glycinate, and very little prog/DHEA.

Let me tell you that, thus far: I feel WAY better, I sleep very well, my libido is much better. Digestion is very good. The pressure in my upper back has lifted. I easily reached 37.1ºC a few afternoons with (a) around 76bpm, and (b) feeling focused and relaxed – so I easily conclude not driven by adrenaline.

I also lost 10lbs.

I'm listening to my body and following my intuition for the first time in a long time. I have no idea until when I'll do this. Not planning to do any IF in the absence of good sunlight, for example. I have no idea how many calories but I do eat a lot in some sittings. I appreciate high quality foods so I always prefer those, but otherwise except avoiding PUFA I don't stress over the perfect food anymore.
Hey man. I’m wondering how you are doing now. I’ve been learning and doing Peat stuff for over a year. I think I made all the mistakes one could make. I try to learn from my mistakes. My health was not so good when I started. I did IF and heavy lifting before Peat which created more problems for me; high stress, insomnia, insulin resistance. Now peating for some time and my health has only gotten worse. I have gained fat and lost a lot of muscle; extreme bloating. Right now it’s so bad that even walking is difficult (muscle weakness, balance issues). My nails give me bad signs; kidney problems, protein deficiency, malabsorption of nutrients idk.
All this adherence to a strict diet gives me added stress and is anti social. I feel something has to change so that’s why I wonder how you are doing.

For now I hope I can get thyroid through a doctor. Because without proper thyroid metabolism stuffing oneself with sugar is not helpful and can tax liver . I’m also still working on my gut... hope I get some sort of a breakthrough, I’m losing hope..
 

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