Slow Metabolism, Thin But Losing Muscles, Tired In The Morning

[Xisca]

I try to understand Little by Little, but evryone is different!
I try to resume my characteristics, so it helps to help me!

I am 50, always worked outside quite a lot, so equivalent to sport.
I never got overweight in my life.
At the momento I have tendinitis, I have lost muscles.

I got tensión in my life for sure, and I am tired.
More over I got a bad flue this summer, the reason of loosing more weight.
Little by Little came some sleep problema. Before, Ii used to sleep super good.
But I have a tendency to be very clear and super awake at night, and tired in the morning. More now, but this is a tendency I have in general.

I have always had a high sugar blood level, and I am at the max of what is considred normal.
My pulse is slow. was 60 as a child, and went down to 45 with sport.
I have 50 now.
I have always had the tendency to be cold, espcially feet and hands.
I have usually a quite low blood pressure.

I started with a CP of 15 and went up to 30 and now 20 more or less.
I was mouth breathing, but now I tend to get up with dry mouth, so... tape would be good....
I usually have to get up at night and pee. It is not the 1st time it happens in my life.

I have hot flashes from premenopause. I take progest-E.
I was tested for thyroid, and also tested reverse-T, both normal.
I have started to take tribulus and some astaxantin from red algae.
I also take msm, vit c and mg, though it tested normal last year.
I take lemon juice and sodium in the morning, I eat fruits and goat cheesse and meat, bananas, no PUFA
i think I have a problema with adrenals and cortisol, what can I do?

 

[marikay]

Hi.

You may want to drop the bananas. Not sure what tribulus and astaxantin are for. I've never ssen Ray recommend them. What was your TSH number when you had it tested? You pulse and cold hand and feet seem to indicate low thyroid.

Also make sure you avoid endurance exercise (long distance running, swimming, etc.)

And are you sure you are getting enough calories? How much do you eat? How often?

 

[PeatThemAll]

If you can afford it (schedule-wise) : complete sensory rest, in a lying horizontal position. Take as much time as you need. It might take weeks, months. Adrenals give you that extra drive, within the frame that you can and will rest later once this or that survival threat has been taken care of. But sooner or later that rest period must come. You might buy more time by masking the energy deficit with coffee or stimulants. But when you "hit the wall", accept it for what it is, a natural consequence, not a character flaw, and give the body what's been put on hold for too long.

 

[tara]

I too wonder what the thyroid test result numbers were, and I agree that the signs seem hypothyroid, and that calories are relevant.

 

[PakPik]

Bananas are a serotonin rich food. Though many are fine with them, it may be a problem to some people.
I agree with the posters above that calories are very important. Do you miss your breakfast or eat too little in the morning? What about the rest of the day?
Strenuous exercise can be a source of lots of stress.

 

[Xisca]

I eat as much as posible, but liver is not good.
I produce lactic acid instead of co2, because Ii have pains and aches with almost no exercise!
This is a life long problema, more intense now....
That is why I posted in metabolism fórum...

 

[Velve921]

A pre bed time meal could be a good place to begin along with an Epsom salt. I like:

Fruit, hard cheese, milk, salt, and gelatin before bed time. If those fail then ice cream with salt is usually a home run for me.

 

[Xisca]

If you can afford it (schedule-wise) : complete sensory rest, in a lying horizontal position. Take as much time as you need. It might take weeks, months. Adrenals give you that extra drive, within the frame that you can and will rest later once this or that survival threat has been taken care of. But sooner or later that rest period must come. You might buy more time by masking the energy deficit with coffee or stimulants. But when you "hit the wall", accept it for what it is, a natural consequence, not a character flaw, and give the body what's been put on hold for too long.

I think that what it is, I have an energy deficit.
It seems that resting when I was ill was not enough.
I am only gardening and walking what is needed to go in and out of my place, but that gives me tendinitis and aches, I think I produce lactic acid.

I will also give more details about the cause of my running on adrenals. I am going to deal with it with somatic experiencing as soon as possible, but this is a story as old as me! I must say, even if this is upseting and not easy to say, that I feel on survival too often.

I will post more details, but my thyroid numbers were nearer to the highest than the lowest of the norm, and I have never put on weight ever in my life, though I eat quite a lot.
I was among the ones who are told at lunch when they see you eat: "but where do you put all this?"

At the moment, I eat may be 6 times per day, start when I wake up and end before going to bed.
I would like to understand better what is the problem with bananas and serotonin.... Thanks for helping this! Understanding is not the end solution but a help for starting the right process and make the adapted and suitable changes. Changes must come with care.

 

[atlee7757]

Discontinue Astaxanthin... I stopped taking this when I realized that it was a very reliable inducer of elbow pain. The pain stopped after about 2 weeks of discontinuing.

 

[Xisca]

atlee, how can you be so sure that it came from astaxanthin, and why only elbow pain? I had tendon pain before taking it anyway....

 

[Xisca]

My labs for thyroid, 1 year ago:

It seems I am nearer to hyper than hypo…. I give you the results with the official spanish norms.

Total t3 1.48 ng/ml (0.55 - 1.60)

Total t4 9.95 mcg/dl (4.20 - 12 )

rT3 0,27ng/ml (0.09 - 0,35)

Glycemia was not low enough, 108 when the max should be 106. But not so bad either…

And I had tested hemoglobina glicolisada. The h.g. NGSP was 5,3% and the norm is between 4.8 and 5.9. The h.g. IFCC was 34 mmol/mol, the norm being 29 - 42. I do not know what it all means, but in the normal range, I am not even officially pre-diabetic, great.

 

[Xisca]

Calories:

I have never counted them. I would not even know how to do it. If I compare myself to others, I think I eat quite a lot, but I do not have the high calories from starches.

I think I often have 6 meals / snacks a day

I wrote what I ate those last 2 days:

1) This morning I ate twice, a 1st real break-fast, and then the spanish breakfast mid-morning.

1st had a mango, an infusion with a table spoon of honey, and a hand-full of macadamias. Then later a stir fry of 4 big bananas in a big spoon of butter, 2 eggs and cocoa.

For lunch I had fish, papaya, some veggies…

Melon in the afternoon. Later some goat yogurt with sugar.

Dinner: white rice and butternut with an avocado, butter and a lot of garlic.

Sugared infusion, also at night.
Woke up 3 times for peeeeee…

2) This morning I was tired. As I felt trembling slightly inside, I did not want to have any coffee. I heated the fish soup 1st (yesterday's fish with carots etc, in water for boiling the bones and skin), and I have eaten it with a granada. Believe it or not, it goes well with fish (1st time I try this!). I also had some grapes and other little fruits and 2 brazil nuts. Then at 10 am I got sweet coffee with coconut oil (I could not feel awake, and it helped!) and a mango. Another mango later….

Then I fried 5 bananas at midday, in coconut oil, with 2 eggs. Plus cocoa.

I had melon in the afternoon. Later 2 bananas…

Supper: a little salad cucumber and goat yogurt, what was left from the night before, a big plate of rice and pumkin with avocado and garlic. No infusion.

This morning I got up at half past six, and had woken up only once!

A mango and then coffee sugar coconut….

Then I had to go awy quick to make profit of myneighbours going out, and I took bananas and an avocado with me, all I could, and bought some cheese and drank a coffee.

I am not sure I understand the role and issues with serotonin, so about eating bananas. I usually eat 4 to 6 bananas, mainly with eggs, butter or coconut oil and chocolate, also often with an avocado.

Thanks to Peat:

I am back to potaoes, as my diet was starch free.

I am back to sugar, but mainly fruits and some honey, and sugar when I have to.

I have always loved best the meat-that-is-no-muscle, but now I know why and look for it more. Gelatine is great!

I eliminated PUFAs.

I learnt about the problem of raw pectine, and can enjoy my own orange juice instead of being almost off oranges!

I am heavy on fruits.

 

[Xisca]

As I said, thanks PeatThemAll for pointing this before I wrote more, I wanted to say more....
I decided to post in the metabolism forum, but hesitated with adrenal/cortisol. The basis of my problem is metabolism for sure, as I feel that exhaustion problems came much much after in my life.

Since I am a child I have a pancreas and liver issue, due to chronic intra-uterin poisoning, caused my mother's job in a lab. It also affected my nervous system and capacity to stand stress, especially social stress.

That is why I have often writen about the nervous system, I have studied what was useful to me! We can learn a lot about what to give our bodies, just to notice that it does, or should, do it all by itself..... When it does not, there is a problem with the orchestra chief, the autonomous nervous system. But of course, supplements and diet help.

As far as I can remember, I was shy, prone to muscle weakness especially in my arms, sensitive to pains and aches.

Only with some fever had I "normal" temps. I usually was 36ºC instead of 37ºC. I remember down to 35.5ºC. If I want to be warm, I have to be physically active. When I was 7, I remember being told at school when we learnt to take our pulse that I did not count properly because I had found exactly 60. Sure that was right.

Also had some sugar in my urine once, and labs showed my glucose was not going down fast enough to be normal. Of course I was told not to eat sugar and reached this goal with time. Then dropped starch, and got much more energy! The only sugar left were bananas and other fruits.

Of course I learnt it with Peat: I produce LACTIC ACID instead of CO2!
Now I want my body to burn sugar properly. If I eat a high fat diet, I am actually better, and I am slim, it seems that my body is ok for burning fat, if I conclude right?

Actually, my mother had the bad idea to believe that sunflower margarine was the healthiest fat in the world… I found Peat when I started to look for fish oil, so that I could balance the omega 6… I was already into coconut oil thanks to mercola, and I was doing my own ghee with organic cultured butter.

I suppresssed all big omega 6 sources but my own home grown avocadoes. Last year I did the 2 weeks diet with almost no fat, only what was in the meat.

I eat some macadamias and some brazil nuts, but only occasional almonds.

I am intolerant to gluten, have been eating gluten free for 15 years, and reduced all grains to be almost grain free, appart from some white rice sometimes.

I went dairy free some years ago, appart from ghee, and back to dairies for 5 years, because now I can regularly eat organic raw goat cheese. Actually, everything is fine with this sort of dairies, except that I can feel something bad for sinus. When I went of cow dairies and sugar some years ago, it supressed all my sorethroats etc, and I am not the only person who experienced this change! So something is not elucidated for me about sugar and dairies. I just know that, for me: more sugar is fine only if no starch. Dairies are ok if not cow, or maybe something else, but ordinary cheese from the supermarket, and worse yogurt, are not fine for me. I try some yogurt now, goat, but pasteurized, and I have some throat irritation again....

As my diet was close to paleo, I have always eaten enough quality proteins, I think. Do you see something I could change that I have not seen, or that I should try?

 

[Xisca]

I had no time to thanks for your 1st answers you all! I can connect irregularly. I try to infirm about your questions now.

Supplements:

Astaxanthin is an anti-oxydant and anti-inflamatory. Tribulus is for hormone balance and helps to make DHEA.
I also take msm for its anti-inflamatory effect.

After some more reading, I decided to take lemon juice + sodium bic. Later in the day. And I take vit. Bs and Mg in the evening instead of in the morning.
I have been taking progest-E for long now, but still not enough for hot flashes, my main problem for sleeping....

 

[atlee7757]

re: astaxanthin
I think all of us here are prone to joint/ tendon pains. However, after beginning to suspect that astaxanthin (after I read a customer review on Iherb complaining of sore elbows) was causing unexplainable increasing joint pain/debility, I stopped it and pain went away. Having invested in a couple of fairly pricey bottles, I was not willing to throw them away and tried taking them again, and the pain returned. After stopping again, and recovering again, I have not taken them since. I would be concerned that something that has such a potent effect on soft tissue, could also have a negative systemic effect that is not as obvious.

 

[PakPik]

Hi Xisca,

from your description of diet it would seem it is pretty short on carbohydrates - and it even seems low calorie overall. Have you tried using cronometer.com to check your caloric/nutrient intake? For example using papaya as the only source of carbs for a meal makes the meal basically low-carb (papaya is extremely low calorie). I eat papaya almost daily and even a huge portion is less than 100 calories. A granada (and fruits in general) is also low in calories, so it renders a poor carbohydrate intake if it is your main carb source in a meal.

Progesterone can't work if there's carb/calorie shortage according to Dr. Katharina Dalton (an expert in progesterone therapy).

 

[Xisca]

ok, thanks for your input, you help me see what I do not!
We are here for this....
Atlee, just one question: does it make a difference if this is a.x. from krill, thus with omega3, or from this red algae "pluvialis something" as I have?
This effect you mention is really strange compared to what it is supposed to be for!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

PakPik: I did not think bananas and mangoes would make my diet short on carbohydrates!
And in the evening I try to have either rice or potatoes.
Cheese has lactose...
But right, I am far from the 30 bananas some fruit eaters take...

Most people get carbs from grains, and I do not digest them well, and Peat is not fond of them, and says that fruits are the best sugar source. As I considere anthropology and what humans can eat a good logical source of information, and as sugar as an extract is very recent, I cannot think of sucrose as the main source of calories!

So should I try more potatoes?

But when I see people eating potatoes or any starch, they do not seem to eat a quantity that is over what I eat with a banana plate.

Sorry, I am fond of fresh orange juice in season, but I do not feel satisfied with canned UHT orange juice.
I also believe that we can change our source of food year round, so that we can find different sort of ways to fulfill our needs.

I have to try this chrono site, because by eating quite a lot of fat, meet or fish plus cheese plus 2 eggs per day, I eat more tan what I see around!

 

[Xisca]

I registered on the cronometer site, and even with only my main foods, I am over 2000 kcal .
They just tell I am low in PUFAs!
%
carbs 48
fat 36
proteins 17

 

[Xisca]

yesterday I did not take any pill with enzymes and betaine hcl, and Ii had to wake up at night to drink vinager....
at least tthis Works perfectly!
I think it is linked to the fact I ate marmelade with cheesse, I think too much sugar is not so good without protein, what do yyou think?

 

[Xisca]

1) Cells, at all cost, must not be deprived from or run out of of sugar
2) Adrenaline is kept as low as reasonably possible, not allowed to spike.
As you may see 1) and 2) are closely related since when tissues are deprived from sugar, there usually comes an adrenaline response. Also, when adrenaline gets high, the blood gets flooded with free fatty acids, which in turn block the cells ability to metabolize glucose (Randle cycle). So 1) and 2) create a vicious cycle.

Dr. Dalton provides the following explanations for the above "rules":

• "progesterone receptors cannot transport or bind to, a molecule of progesterone if there has been a drop in blood sugar"
• "progesterone receptors do not transport progesterone molecules into the nucleus of cells if adrenaline is present".

ok pakpik, I understand better...
maybe it takes time.
I was deprived of glucose BEFORE, because my diet was high fat, mostly saturated fortunately and olive.
The surprise is that I COULD be more energetic than now! I had energy on the long run, it seemed a very good diet.

For NOW:
I am with a group right now, I really eat more than everybody!
And they do not know that I have food extra out of our meals....

But I am not that much on starch, and certainly not so many time a day.
If banana are a problem, then sure I dunno how to solve this....
I cannot eat gluten and fruits make a better snack for me....
Or honey....
potato chips?