Weight gain when trying to heal. Is it what you think?

[Peatful]

Edited for clarity:

“Stress hormones will desensitize the insulin receptor. From birth to now, most of us have had some sort of stress that has shaped our experience of our health. With chronic stress comes many things, all of which desensitizes the insulin receptor.”



“…when you (reintroduce or up your carbohydrates) your body is essentially already in an insulin-resistant state. The stress hormones flooding your system over time, have desensitized the insulin receptor so, insulin cannot drive glucose into the cell anymore”

———————————————————-




This is for all those post carnivore or keto or OMAD or IF or chronic under eaters or restrictive eaters or orthorexics out there that end up here (RPF) and say his principles don’t work.

That you get “fat”



Of course there are thousands of outliers - which is not what im addressing

Im talking to the many that refute eating a robust balanced diet to heal

Im posting this for a healthy conversation and to soothe those who are scared to eat. To essentially heal.

Healing takes courage.
Trust.
A dying to your old self in a way

That person got you sick
Stop listening to them
Stop watching IG

To listening societal dogma on food and exercise and appearance




———————————————————

Going slow is wise
However I didn’t find it necessary to my healing

Once i started to eat again
I realized my body and brain were hungry
Stress hormones started shutting down
Thyroid turning on

So i ate and ate
More symptoms left
Felt better
Kept eating

I absolutely believe i went diabetic

**I don’t recommend this**

But my body miraculously knew what to do
After decades of abuse
I healed


———————————————————-

Some think it’s their new diet that isn’t working
There is a possibility of this partially

But it was your old diet that wasn’t working
And your amazing body (mal)adapted for you


———————————————————

Many on this forum are smarter than me

I don’t have all the biology, physiology or hormonal lingo
But
I have healed

I want that for all

So rather than me backing away from the forum
I want to put this out there

People DM me all the time
Desperate to heal



This is for the really sick

I was really really sick

It’s worth it

 

[Blossom]

Beautiful post @Peatful.

 

[Sheik]

Would you go into a little more detail for us? What was your issue (carnivore or IF, etc.)? How long did this condition last? Did you get fat in recovery, and did you end up losing weight after a certain point of recovery?

I'm overweight at this point and I strongly feel that I still need to eat more (very hungry, low energy). (And now I'm having high blood pressure--I'd like to know if anyone has a good explanation for that). I don't want to be fat but I'm willing to be, if, hypothetically, that's where my metabolism is strongest.

 

[Peatful]

Would you go into a little more detail for us? What was your issue (carnivore or IF, etc.)? How long did this condition last? Did you get fat in recovery, and did you end up losing weight after a certain point of recovery?

I'm overweight at this point and I strongly feel that I still need to eat more (very hungry, low energy). (And now I'm having high blood pressure--I'd like to know if anyone has a good explanation for that). I don't want to be fat but I'm willing to be, if, hypothetically, that's where my metabolism is strongest.

Let me address this first:

Ray Peat, PhD on High Blood Pressure – Functional Performance Systems (FPS)

Im close to my lunch break

Ill return soon

Ive been preaching this shtick for sometime
Thx for the reminder to give context

 

[Peatful]

Would you go into a little more detail for us? What was your issue (carnivore or IF, etc.)? How long did this condition last? Did you get fat in recovery, and did you end up losing weight after a certain point of recovery?

My issue was under eating. Combined with over exercise probably
Then the feedback from society that i was beautiful

I lost myself and any healthy relationship to food

I lost all appetite
I was running on stress hormones
I drove myself into hypothyroidism
But i never connected it all

Not until after my fourth pregnancy
Actually
I had two miscarriages
One early
But one later gestationally
I knew i was broken

I started restricting at age 15
Broken, completely broken, by age 43


Did i get fat in recovery?
Lol
Boy did i

But
I didn’t care
I was so sick
I knew that i knew i had to do it

Every week i was getting better and better
My signs and symptoms were fading away

(Not limited to: periorbital dermatitis, hair loss, melesma, tinnitus, migraine, multiple chemical sensitivity, muscle wasting, no libido, weak, olfactory hallucinations, PMS, amenorrhea, bruising, freezing cold, a b**** to live with)

So i ate for probably a year
Like my life depended on it

Then it took another year to lose the weight
But it wasn’t anything i had to do
It just slowly came off

My biggest area of trouble continues to be a weak digestion
Im a work in progress too


No supplements btw
Nada
They never truly helped me I believe
I get what i need through food the best that i can


Im open to all questions and criticisms…

 

[LizRey86]

Thankyou for this, the weight gain is extremely difficult and feels like my body will never return to its healthy place. What did your Peat inspired dietary protocol look like? You

 

[Regina]

Edited for clarity:

“Stress hormones will desensitize the insulin receptor. From birth to now, most of us have had some sort of stress that has shaped our experience of our health. With chronic stress comes many things, all of which desensitizes the insulin receptor.”



“…when you (reintroduce or up your carbohydrates) your body is essentially already in an insulin-resistant state. The stress hormones flooding your system over time, have desensitized the insulin receptor so, insulin cannot drive glucose into the cell anymore”

———————————————————-




This is for all those post carnivore or keto or OMAD or IF or chronic under eaters or restrictive eaters or orthorexics out there that end up here (RPF) and say his principles don’t work.

That you get “fat”



Of course there are thousands of outliers - which is not what im addressing

Im talking to the many that refute eating a robust balanced diet to heal

Im posting this for a healthy conversation and to soothe those who are scared to eat. To essentially heal.

Healing takes courage.
Trust.
A dying to your old self in a way

That person got you sick
Stop listening to them
Stop watching IG

To listening societal dogma on food and exercise and appearance




———————————————————

Going slow is wise
However I didn’t find it necessary to my healing

Once i started to eat again
I realized my body and brain were hungry
Stress hormones started shutting down
Thyroid turning on

So i ate and ate
More symptoms left
Felt better
Kept eating

I absolutely believe i went diabetic

**I don’t recommend this**

But my body miraculously knew what to do
After decades of abuse
I healed


———————————————————-

Some think it’s their new diet that isn’t working
There is a possibility of this partially

But it was your old diet that wasn’t working
And your amazing body (mal)adapted for you


———————————————————

Many on this forum are smarter than me

I don’t have all the biology, physiology or hormonal lingo
But
I have healed

I want that for all

So rather than me backing away from the forum
I want to put this out there

People DM me all the time
Desperate to heal



This is for the really sick

I was really really sick

It’s worth it

 

[Sheik]

It's very encouraging for me to hear this. Thank you for sharing.

I've gained a crazy amount of weight but I'm also feeling so much better in so many ways. I've recently gotten to where I can eat the minimum calories for recovery (for my age, sex, height, according to Eating Disorder Institute website) which is 3200/day, though I know I need more. It's been a slow process for me. My blood sugar has been slightly elevated a couple times when I've gotten blood work. Not sure what that means but I'm not super worried at the moment.

 

[Peatful]

Thankyou for this, the weight gain is extremely difficult and feels like my body will never return to its healthy place. What did your Peat inspired dietary protocol look like? You

Hi
During my healing i ate whatever my weak digestion would allow.
So surprisingly i had to eat a lot of things that were not considered healthy
I only tried to avoid PUFA during my healing

Now or currently
I eat whatever i want
And in general I don’t want anything with pufa or nuts or raw etc

My rule of thumb is based primarily on my digestion and trying to always eat c/p/f within a meal
I want to feel satiated and warm after


Im not afraid of any food
Meaning
I am not driven by eating peaty or healthy
No obsessing
I had too many years of that
It feels good to be free
Im cognizant of the damaging effects of PUFA and stay away instinctively

I pay attention to how i feel after or how i sleep that night and adjust accordingly

 

[Peatful]

It's very encouraging for me to hear this. Thank you for sharing.

I've gained a crazy amount of weight but I'm also feeling so much better in so many ways. I've recently gotten to where I can eat the minimum calories for recovery (for my age, sex, height, according to Eating Disorder Institute website) which is 3200/day, though I know I need more. It's been a slow process for me. My blood sugar has been slightly elevated a couple times when I've gotten blood work. Not sure what that means but I'm not super worried at the moment.

I will get to you hopefully this evening
Still at work

 

[ms_outrageous]

Thank you for sharing your story!

I've been discouraged with my weight but have been trying to give myself some grace because despite the extra weight I have seen improvements in other areas but still have a ways to go. I found RP's ideas during my second pregnancy after being diagnosed again with gestational diabetes. Frustrated nothing was seeming to work to keep my fasting numbers in range, I somehow stumbled across Ray's ideas and it made sense to me because I had already found my blood sugar responded fine to sugar and I had assumed my high fasting numbers were due to stress and not "too much carbs" as I kept getting told. Long story short, I did manage to get my BS responding well in the mornings using Ray's ideas by the end of the pregnancy but did gain 50-60lbs in the process. (I gained 35-45 with my first). Since then I still haven't managed to lose any of the weight despite the initial loss right after delivery. I think part of it is I just hang on to weight while breastfeeding but it's discouraging still at 14mo pp seeing no changes in weight.

I'd love more insight on what types of food you ate and how much. I know everything is so personal but it's helpful getting ideas from others. I don't think undereating is an issue for me, but I do struggle with elevated cortisol, insulin & fasting glucose still but glucose levels during the days are just fine and so is my Alc. Coming from a perspective of undereating, how did you know you were eating enough and not too much?

I'm hoping my body will heal more and get to a better place before trying for baby #3 as I would like to avoid a GDM diagnosis (If at all possible, I know there are many factors).

 

[LizRey86]

Hi
During my healing i ate whatever my weak digestion would allow.
So surprisingly i had to eat a lot of things that were not considered healthy
I only tried to avoid PUFA during my healing

Now or currently
I eat whatever i want
And in general I don’t want anything with pufa or nuts or raw etc

My rule of thumb is based primarily on my digestion and trying to always eat c/p/f within a meal
I want to feel satiated and warm after


Im not afraid of any food
Meaning
I am not driven by eating peaty or healthy
No obsessing
I had too many years of that
It feels good to be free
Im cognizant of the damaging effects of PUFA and stay away instinctively

I pay attention to how i feel after or how i sleep that night and adjust accordingly

That sounds like a really great plan that is working for you

 

[shanny]

Beautiful post @Peatful.

+1

This is amazing. Thank you for sharing and bringing light to this. People need to trust the process and not expect instantaneous results, the amount of years it took us all to get to a broken place is not going to be fixed in a few months! It's a journey.

 

[shanny]

Would you go into a little more detail for us? What was your issue (carnivore or IF, etc.)? How long did this condition last? Did you get fat in recovery, and did you end up losing weight after a certain point of recovery?

I'm overweight at this point and I strongly feel that I still need to eat more (very hungry, low energy). (And now I'm having high blood pressure--I'd like to know if anyone has a good explanation for that). I don't want to be fat but I'm willing to be, if, hypothetically, that's where my metabolism is strongest.

The link @Peatful sent you about the High BP is super helpful, you definitely should take a look at some of those references. In the meantime, against all mainstream advice, increasing your sodium intake will likely help your BP. It's all part of the HPA axis dysregulation (high cortisol wastes sodium and vitamin C iirc). Not only does sodium improve digestive function, but it will also improve the circulatory issues related to high cortisol. Do you crave salt by any chance?

 

[Peatful]

It's very encouraging for me to hear this. Thank you for sharing.

I've gained a crazy amount of weight but I'm also feeling so much better in so many ways. I've recently gotten to where I can eat the minimum calories for recovery (for my age, sex, height, according to Eating Disorder Institute website) which is 3200/day, though I know I need more. It's been a slow process for me. My blood sugar has been slightly elevated a couple times when I've gotten blood work. Not sure what that means but I'm not super worried at the moment.

I don’t know your gender, age, past dietary history
But i want to add this
Not specifically to you
But a general idea

One can get “stuck” in pseudo recovery i call it

It’s where you feel better
But get discouraged by the weight gain
And you start restricting or what have you again
And your body just isn’t ready to let go of the weight

It’s not quite done healing at a cellular level
Rebuilding bone and restoring hormones etc

If those on this thread are not familiar with the Minnesota Starvation Experiment
Read it and try to connect some basic principles to your own journey
Especially once the experiment ended

The Minnesota Starvation Experiment

Science doesn't support the calories-in, calories-out hypothesis. If you are still trapped into believing that model, it's time to learn more!

heartlandweightloss.com

The Minnesota Starvation Experiment – How it happened and what it taught us – MAZE

maze.wp.st-andrews.ac.uk

(Disclaimer: I did a two second glance at these)


And yes
My journey is not a universal truth
But my reality

However
I do wholeheartedly believe that:
Supplementation is not the way to health
And
Eating and enjoying our food is paramount (ie: having a healthy appetite not IF or OMAD craziness)


A stressed organism can’t heal

 

[LizRey86]

I don’t know your gender, age, past dietary history
But i want to add this
Not specifically to you
But a general idea

One can get “stuck” in pseudo recovery i call it

It’s where you feel better
But get discouraged by the weight gain
And you start restricting or what have you again
And your body just isn’t ready to let go of the weight

It’s not quite done healing at a cellular level
Rebuilding bone and restoring hormones etc

If those on this thread are not familiar with the Minnesota Starvation Experiment
Read it and try to connect some basic principles to your own journey
Especially once the experiment ended

The Minnesota Starvation Experiment

Science doesn't support the calories-in, calories-out hypothesis. If you are still trapped into believing that model, it's time to learn more!

heartlandweightloss.com

The Minnesota Starvation Experiment – How it happened and what it taught us – MAZE

maze.wp.st-andrews.ac.uk

(Disclaimer: I did a two second glance at these)


And yes
My journey is not a universal truth
But my reality

However
I do wholeheartedly believe that:
Supplementation is not the way to health
And
Eating and enjoying our food is paramount (ie: having a healthy appetite not IF or OMAD craziness)


A stressed organism can’t heal

i am in that same boat, “quasi recovery “ for the past 3 years. Im currently working through all that with this lifestyle and yall are very helpful on this forum.

 

[Peatful]

i am in that same boat, “quasi recovery “ for the past 3 years. Im currently working through all that with this lifestyle and yall are very helpful on this forum.

Yes quasi recovery
So great you know and are aware of this

 

[LizRey86]

Yes quasi recovery
So great you know and are aware of this

I think of this forum kind of adjacent to an eating disorder recovery site. People on here for the most part aren’t recovering from eating disorders (like myself) but the ideas and Dr. Peats’ basic principles are very similar.

 

[Deleted member 14744]

This is really encouraging and helpful. I am in my healing phase and feeling better but also I'm much fatter (would like to lose 50 lbs but losing 30 would put me at a good BMI, and yes I realize it could be worse). It has made me realize how much my prior appearance of fitness was really stress, and so I wasn't really fit at all. I feel better than ever and I'm trying not to beat myself up over the weight gain. Healing takes time, I know my body is functioning better, I know my metabolism is up, and in time the extra will fall off. Thanks for the insight and the kind reminder!

 

[Peatful]

how much my prior appearance of fitness was really stress,

Yes


Thx for chiming in