Symptoms Of Slow Metabolism But No Idea Where To Start

[Broco6679]

I have so many symptoms of what seems to be a slow/poor metabolic rate, and I have no idea where to even start. There’s so much great information on this forum, but the sheer quantity makes it difficult to actually idefity what interventions I should be initiating first, and what other avenue’s I should pursue if the first line of action fails. I don’t expect the good people on this forum to do everything for me, or even fix me, but I just need a push in the right direction so I can start moving forward with my life.

· Diffuse scalp hairloss, rapid hair shedding, inflamed scalp and thinning eyebrows.

o Started about two years ago. I can gently pull any hair on the top of my head and it’ll release. Under natural lighting I look like I have a perfect head of hair, but under bright light you can see straight through. I’ve also had a lot of forehead wrinkles/skin changes start around the same time, and generally seem like I’m aging appearance rise at a rapid rate.

· Low oral body temperatures and other symptoms of hypothyroidism.

o Oral temps usually fall between 35.8 – 36.2 Celsius, cold hands and feet almost all of the time (I’ve read this could be adrenaline though), poor cognition, dry skin

· Gut inflammation which leads to bloating, gas, cramping and pain.

o This generally seems to be diet related. Certain types of vegetables like broccoli, brussel sprouts, cauliflower ect, and legumes like beans seem to trigger this. Hair loss/shedding seems to get wore when gut issues flare up.

· Sex hormone issues

o This one’s a big one. Had three testicular torsion surgeries during my late teens and was left with 350 ng/dL testosterone. Doctor put me on TRT and I spent three years on it. I’m currently off of TRT because it offered no benefit to any of the issues that prompted me to start; fatigue, low energy, low libido ect. TRT made erections much worse and gave me severe anxiety, felt like I was running on adrenaline most of the time. I suffered from high e2/excess aromatisation despite testosterone levels never being crazy high (usually 800ng/dL doing daily cypionate injections, can provide bloods If needed). I’ve been off for two months now and overall I feel a lot better. My levels are around 450ng/dL without meds currently, but I’ll be getting tested again soon.

I have a two year backlog of blood work for thyroid, sex hormones, liver, lipids, FBC ect if anyone would like to see them.

Apart from cutting out PUFA's, increasing salt/sugar intake and avoiding foods that irritate my gut, what else should I be implementing to improve these issues? Any advice on my current situation would be greatly appreciated! Again, I want to emphasise that I don't expect everyone to do the work/research for me, I just need a push in the right direction. Thanks!

 

[sweetpeat]

I would suggest starting off by making sure you have the basics in place. Here is a great quote from Peat covering the basic causes of low metabolism/hypothyroidism:

“Besides fasting, or chronic protein deficiency, the common causes of hypothyroidism are excessive stress or ‘aerobic’ (i.e. anaerobic) exercise, and diets containing beans, lentils, nuts, unsaturated fats (including carotene), and undercooked broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, or mustard greens. Many health conscious people become hypothyroid with a synergistic program of undercooked vegetables, legumes instead of animal proteins, oils instead of butter, carotene instead of vitamin A, and breathless exercise instead of a stimulating life.”

To expound on his points:

1. Fasting/not eating enough calories. Peat doesn't give a calorie recommendation, but 3000 is probably a good ballpark for a male over 25. More if you are under 25 or very active.

2. Protein deficiency. Peat recommends a minimum of 80 grams protein. For points 1 and 2, you could track your intake for a couple days using something like cronometer.com to see if you are meeting basic calorie and protein needs. You might also be able to see if you are lacking in any micro nutrients.

3. Stress. How stressful is your life? Can you make any changes in that regard if necessary? Are you getting enough sleep/rest?

4. Over training, especially anaerobic exercise.

5. You touched on this already: diets containing beans, lentils, nuts, unsaturated fats (including carotene), and undercooked broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, or mustard greens

Not mentioned in the quote: Red light is also very beneficial for metabolism. Try to get outside and get some sunlight and fresh air each day.

As I said, these are basic things, but they lay a solid foundation to build upon. If you've already addressed these and feel you haven't made progress, then it might be helpful to post recent labs.

 

[Broco6679]

Thank you for such a detailed reply! I'll answer each of your points individually:

1. A lot of my issues, especially the hairloss, started after a period of heavy calorie restriction three years ago. I'm really into weightlifting and was trying to get lean for summer, and ended up eating at a calorie deficit which was too large for far too long. Towards the end I became severely hypothyroid, I felt cold right to my core, heart rate mid-day was as low as 40 BPM, and at times I struggled just standing up because I had so little energy. I now know how stupid it was, but at the time I was just a naive 19 year old who wanted to look good - I would never do it again! After I increased food intake a lot of the issues went away, but not fully, and after a week back at normal calories my hair started shedding like crazy and my hands and feet were/are always cold. These two issues have been every present since that diet despite gaining 30 lbs. I now eat about 2500 - 3000 calories a day; I'm 5'11 and weigh 168.

2. I eat 180 grams of protein a day due to the weightlifting I mentioned above. I eat a lot of whey protein though as I have trouble getting in enough protein without consuming a crazy amount of meat. Regarding chornometer, I've plugged my food in a few times and I'm usually low on a few micronutrients, but I have no idea how to hit them all when the list of peat-approved foods is so small.

3. Stress levels are usually pretty high due to studying an intense degree in a STEM field, and I also have quite bad anxiety. I'm currently going through a breakup after my gf of two years left a couple weeks ago so that doesn't help - it's one of the reasons that I decided I needed to start taking my health seriously. I had a 24 hour saliva cortisol test done recently, and all levels came back middle of the ref range, I can post them if needed. I do feel like I get 'adrenaline spikes' quite often, heart feels like it's pounding and I get a bit shaky/anxious.

4. I do train pretty hard. I lift weights four days a week focusing on powerlifitng and box twice a week for conditioning, the sessions usually last about 90 minutes each and I can feel quite drained towards the end.

5. My diet is quite poor from a Peat perspective, but that's something I'm changing straight away. I eat Brazil nuts everyday for the selenium content, eat a lot of other unsaturated fats and I eat broccoli most nights which always irritates my gut. I'm eliminating the first two and switching out the broccoli for frozen spinach which I put in smoothies - I've never had gut irritation from the spinach.

Thank you for your help. Is there anything that stands out to you about what I've mentioned? I'll start implementing these changes immediately and see where I am in a month or two.

 

[Vinny]

Apart from cutting out PUFA's, increasing salt/sugar

Be cautious with sugar. If you not metabolise it well, you`ll get into trouble.
My 2 c.

4. I do train pretty hard. I lift weights four days a week focusing on powerlifitng and box twice a week for conditioning, the sessions usually last about 90 minutes each and I can feel quite drained towards the end.

Too bad, especially for hypo person.

 

[sweetpeat]

Looks like your protein needs are met, but overall calories might be a little low for your age and activity level. I'm wondering if the shaking/anxiousness and adrenaline spikes could be from low blood sugar. Are you eating to satiety? It's important for recovering from the heavy calorie restriction. More important than trying to have a perfect diet.

Avoiding foods that cause you discomfort is probably a good idea for the time being. A low metabolism can cause digestion to be sluggish. It's possible you can re-introduce those foods when metabolism improves, if you want.

As Vinny suggested above, you're probably overdoing the training in your current state of health. Consider cutting back frequency and/or duration. You might find you enjoy it more by doing it less. You could replace some of the hard core stuff with getting out in nature and taking a walk or going for a swim or whatever you enjoy doing outside. It's a great way to unwind and bring some balance to everything else.

 

[Broco6679]

@sweetpeat thank you for all of teh advice, and apologies for the delayed response.

I took teh advice that you have given me throughout this thread and implemented over the past three months. I completely removed the 90 minute boxing sessions, raised my caloric intake to 4000 calroies a day and cut out all foods that cause gut iritation.

Whilst I feeel less bloated and no longer have severe stomach pain, i have seen no improvments regarding metabolism - my hands and feet are still cold, my heart rate is still low (55 - 60 BPM) and my hair is still falling out.

Do you have any further reccomendations to aid my situaiton? I'm already doing the obvious regarding cutting out PUFA, consuming a large amount of carbohydrate (rougly 500g a day, mainly from white rice as sugar from OJ gives me acne and symptoms of inflamation) and reducing stress levels to teh best of my abiility.

If you need any further informaiton please ask away.

 

[Hans]

Do you get enough vitamin D and calcium? Then B-vitamins and your other minerals are really important for the metabolism. Do you track your food in cronometer?

 

[Tristan Loscha]

@sweetpeat thank you for all of teh advice, and apologies for the delayed response.

I took teh advice that you have given me throughout this thread and implemented over the past three months. I completely removed the 90 minute boxing sessions, raised my caloric intake to 4000 calroies a day and cut out all foods that cause gut iritation.

Whilst I feeel less bloated and no longer have severe stomach pain, i have seen no improvments regarding metabolism - my hands and feet are still cold, my heart rate is still low (55 - 60 BPM) and my hair is still falling out.

Do you have any further reccomendations to aid my situaiton? I'm already doing the obvious regarding cutting out PUFA, consuming a large amount of carbohydrate (rougly 500g a day, mainly from white rice as sugar from OJ gives me acne and symptoms of inflamation) and reducing stress levels to teh best of my abiility.

If you need any further informaiton please ask away.

My thought about this:
Training:Reduce Volume,number of sets,keep intensity high.No loss of mass or Power,but better regeneration.
Decrease further to no more than 2 sessions a week.It is possible that you have stress adaptation syndrome
and need to moderate reduce amount of stress.It wont result in detraining.
No boxing if it is to the Hat.

Diet:Eat (lean) meat and lots of it.you need the contained micros like zinc and yes even iron.Amount of Protein is good.
Foodchoice:lean meat,butterfat,coconut-fat,ripe Fruit like Bananas,potatoes if gutacceptable,no grain,no bread,no dairy,no seeds,no
garbage Carb like plain sugar without accompanying b-complex with B1 surplus.
very low Pufa except low dose high Quality Linseed Oil,like 1-2g,PUFA are Physiologic,Peat,up until now,didnt provided sufficient proof for his remarkable Claim,until this is thoroughly clarified intake should be kept extremely low,but
permitted.
What i never encountered mentioning:Sweat increases ,not to be regulated loss of iodine.for every liter of sweat,
there is a loss of 45-50 micrograms.you can sweat a liter per 45min of fairly intense workout with no trouble.
the trouble comes from induced iodine deficiency.i would advise on these grounds an intake as potassium iodide
of 200-500 micrograms,for a total consumed no more than 800 microgram per day.During that,200 microgram Selenium
as Selenomethionine is of good use and should be taken together.

 

[sweetpeat]

I second what Hans said about checking micros for any deficiencies. After that, if still no improvement, then looking at labs would probably be the next step.

 

[danishispsychic]

COFFEEEEEE with lots of sugar and milk . no supplements, get rid of the whey, do some yoga. when i had fatty liver i had all your symptoms - have you had a liver scan?

 

[lcdx]

Be cautious with sugar. If you not metabolise it well, you`ll get into trouble.
My 2 c.


Too bad, especially for hypo person.

Interested as to why its advisable to be cautious with sugar if you do not metabolise it well? thank you

 

[Vinny]

Interested as to why its advisable to be cautious with sugar if you do not metabolise it well? thank you

Hi,
Just my opinion:
I think that once the sugar metabolism is broken, the ingestion of carbohydrates is becoming poisonous to the body, with all bad consequences.
Diabetes 2 (which, in essence, is a lost ability to use sugar for primal energy production) can not be reversed, but it can be managed to a satisfactory level.
I hope that makes sense.

 

[lcdx]

Thank you for your response its very helpful

 

[redsun]

Hi,
Just my opinion:
I think that once the sugar metabolism is broken, the ingestion of carbohydrates is becoming poisonous to the body, with all bad consequences.
Diabetes 2 (which, in essence, is a lost ability to use sugar for primal energy production) can not be reversed, but it can be managed to a satisfactory level.
I hope that makes sense.

IMO I think a large part of it is appetite regulation the more I research and learn about it. I don't there is anything wrong with sugar metabolism itself for most people but being overweight/obese itself causes the problem because it causes liver problems and creates insulin resistance. If you eat a normal varied diet, you will get all the nutrients you need to metabolize sugar this includes Bs, minerals, amino acids. There are literally people that eat way worse than anyone of us on this forum and yet maintain healthy weight and glucose metabolism while we have super clean eaters here who can't keep weight off. Whats the difference between them and those that end up overweight. In my opinion it is normal appetite regulation which regulates caloric intake.

Seems the excitatory neurotransmitters are heavily involved which includes glutamate, histamine, dopamine and the catecholamines, etc... For example the major reason (not the only) histadelics are known not to gain weight is because the effects of histamine in the brain suppress hunger. Dopamine, noradrenaline, glutamate which excite (stimulate) the brain like histamine reduce hunger.

This is why strong stimulants like adderall can kill appetite because they cause insane amounts of excitation in the brain. Caffeine is way weaker but also works the same way generally through increased glutamate, catecholamines, blocks DAO (breaks down histamine).

I wonder if the uncontrollable need for food and therefore uncontrollable caloric balance that people who are overweight seem to have is merely an instinctual desire for brain stimulation. Low brain stimulation increases hunger, high does the opposite. Just some thoughts.

Btw I am glad carnivore is helping you out. If it is available and affordable to you, seafood is good and I highly recommend it if you like it. Also imo steaks have better amino acid profiles than ground beef but ground is great either way. Helps monotony if it becomes an issue.