By Matt Stone
Having a high metabolism doesn’t come without consequences. Here are some of the common inconveniences one may notice with a significant rise in metabolic rate…
1)????? Menstruation
Life was good with a low metabolism. No time of the month. But then you raise that metabolism and uh oh, not again. Freakin? progesterone production goes up, LH and FSH regulate properly, and the next thing you know you’re bleeding, and once again dealing with the embarrassment and expense of buying ?feminine products? and having to ask your boyfriend every time you get out of the car if there are any spots showing through your pants. Sucks.
2)????? Sweat
Life was good with a low metabolism. You could go get in a workout and not even have to change clothes to go out after. Wear the same shirt for a week. Maybe even same socks. Hell, once I even climbed up 2,000 vertical feet with a 50-pound backpack in a half hour without breaking a sweat. Not anymore Schwetty Betty. I work out in a gym with about 50 other people working out around me, and I literally sweat five times as much as the 2nd sweatiest Eddie in there. Everything I lean over I drip on. Thankfully I take the advice of Milli and Vanilli and blame it on the rain.
3)????? Ruined Clothes
Life was good with a low metabolism. With no sweating you didn’t have to worry about changing your shirt at all, much less getting that thing totally salt-stained. But damn, now every time you do so much as get up and go to the bathroom you sweat. And when you sweat, it isn’t just some ordinary sweat. The stuff is so full of minerals and salt as the concentration of your extracellular fluid goes up, that now your sweat is like water from the Dead Sea. I used the same black t-shirt (shown right, demonstrating outdoor survival skills being taken to new heights) for a few days on a backpacking trip this summer and even after a half dozen washes it still has crazy mineral stains all over it. Looks like a tie-dye. Hats of course look disgusting. But the worst, by far, has been the crotch rot. I can literally corrode the crotch out of a brand new pair of pants and have franks and beans slipping out in two weeks flat. I’m going to have to start wearing underwear again, which will make me even more uncomfortably hot. Or even worse, a cup.
4)????? Toilet paper expenses
Life was good with a low metabolism. With one poop every few days that was the consistency of Kingsford charcoal a single roll would last a month. Now look at you. With a drop in bowel transit time to less than 24 hours and a massive bump in stool volume you might as well go ahead and get a part-time job at Costco.
5)????? Laundry expenses
Life was good with a low metabolism. A single Kleenex was enough to clean up after ejaculation for a whole week. That’s a total of one Kleenex per week, or 52 Kleenexes per year. A totally manageable expense. But you’ll be Ancel Keyed when you start needing a beach towel, and other beach gear like a mask and snorkel just to survive orgasm. He was right about the parallels between metabolism and the volume of ?emissions.? For women, you better hope Santa stuffs your stocking with undies. You’ll need a dry pair every few hours peri-ovulation.
6)????? Nail trimming
Life was good with a low metabolism. No more having to trim toenails and fingernails with that super low rate of keratinization. There’s enough to keep us busy without having an additional couple of chores added to the mix. Not now though. Now your nails grow like that creepy old guy in Krull. ?And to answer Napolean Dynamite’s unanswered question, the size of a chicken’s talons probably relies, in large part, on its rate of metabolism.
7)????? Grocery bills
Life was good with a low metabolism. Grocery bills were next to nothing. A couple eggs fried in lard with some low sugar berries only ran you a couple bucks in the morning. My girlfriend and I and her 7-year old daughter spent $700 at Publix in September, and only have a couple of Cornish Game Hens in the freezer at the moment to show for it. Please help. Buy an eBook or something while visiting the site today. We don’t want to have to force the 7-year old to have to eat School Lunch Approved sized lunches. She already eats more than the allowable calorie levels for a 200-pound Senior linebacker. No really, she does. She’s on her 5th cookie right now as I type this. I keep hitting the ?refresh? button on my bank account online and wiping tears out of my eyes.
8)????? Snuggling
Life was good with a low metabolism. You could enjoy the tenderness of snuggling with a loved one. Forget that now Buster. If you can’t sleep with even a sheet on top of you, a warm arm or leg draped over you starts to feel like a plastic bag in 20 seconds. And worst of all, if you are the only one in bed with a high metabolism the coldies won’t get off of you. Fortunately, their hands and feet will cool you down somewhat at first. But after they fall asleep you have to either wake them up and throw them off of you, or bite your arm off and slip away (the ?coyote?) to keep from dying of heat stroke in your sleep.
9)????? Enhanced Fertility
Life was good with a low metabolism. You could stay out late. Save your money. Go on vacation. Do drugs. Sleep until noon. Watch Terminator 2 at 7pm every night. You only had to see poop voluntarily, out of your own curiosity. Now you’re watching Blue’s Clues at 7, you’re face to face with a bowel explosion every few hours, and there’s another on the way. But you do learn some cool things watching Blue’s Clues, like what the hell colors Vermillion and Chartreuse are.
10)? Relocation
Life was good with a low metabolism. You could live in Tropical Paradise like a runaway 80-10-10 raw vegan. It was never too hot. 85 degrees felt like heaven. Now you’ve gotta live in the God-forsaken ?country? of Canada. Those people never shut up, and their sense of humor is light years away from being funny. They probably don’t even know who Dave Chappelle is up there. They are all pale as marshmallows and embroider red Maple Leafs on their backpacks to travel so that no one will confuse them for being cool, athletic, funny, and good-looking (I love messing with Canadians, precisely because their sense of humor is so damn good).
Anyway, don’t get too excited about having your cells produce energy properly, and your body’s systems function the way they were intended to function. It’s not a walk in the park. It’s a hole in the wallet, the crotch of your pants, and some other kind of hole that I couldn’t cleverly think of.
Honorable mentions?
- Droopy balls. They stretch out a damn mile away from your body to try to keep cool. And they are more exposed to injury, such as getting them caught in the spokes of your bicycle wheel.
- Oily skin. Dry skin is a common feature of a low metabolism. Raising metabolism restores the oils to your skin and then some. Could wring out?your pillowcase and solve the energy crisis.??
As of December 1, 2012, discover some of these inconveniences for yourself by applying the basic concepts in the book Eat for Heat.
Maybe if you were RVAF you wouldn’t have those problems, js.
Or if you had Grave’s… though the information in this article helped me, I will say that, for a person who only just recently realised this ish was tryna kill me, your chipper tone falls a bit flat.
Every one of these is true. I have to cut my nails once a week now, and now I can barely cuddle at all with my husband because I get too hot! And I sleep with my feet hanging out of the bed, which can be bad if there happen to be any mosquitos in the house. I am finally starting to lose the weight I gained after crash dieting last year.
I remember when I was a teenager always thinking that my skinny sister who hardly ate and was always cold must have high metabolism, lucky her! I was a healthy weight (though at the time i was sure I was fat) and always toasty warm (except at school but they kept the school at near freezing temps). I wish I could go back and pinch my own head off. :-P
Thanks for mentioning the weight loss – that’s the part I wonder about and hope for. I just keep hoping and believing that will be an eventual result of this noticeably higher metabolism.
This is exactly what I needed. I was starting to think I was the only one. Just 2 weeks ago I almost died of heat stroke watching my son’s soccer game, no shade in sight. At the same time, another parent strolled up in a sweater vest, cool as a cucumber. Yes, a SWEATER VEST. I couldn’t stop staring.
I’ve noticed every symptom you listed for the last 5-6 months, and haven’t been that happy about most of them. One thing you missed – increase in plucking and waxing. My eyebrows, legs, underarms and other unmentionables sprout like crazy.
I will note that while I have been trying to increase my metabolism per your ideas for the last 2 years at least, I did not see these changes happening all together and with such vehemence until I drastically scaled back my water consumption. I’ve been eating like crazy for 2-2.5 years, but until I cut back on the water, nothing consistently changed.
Oh and another change from the last few months that wasn’t there before – I want to move. I literally can’t sit still like I used to. Sometimes that means fidgeting, but other times it means getting up, walking around, dancing, or going outside for a walk. Occasionally I want to so Pilates. Completely weird for me.
And it’s spooky that you mentioned not being able to abide sub-tropical climates. I’ve been jokingly telling my husband that we need to move from middle Georgia to somewhere, anywhere cooler. Maybe Alaska.
P.S. I didn’t literally almost die at the soccer game. I figuratively almost died.
I totally should have put something about shaving and plucking. My girlfriend hates how much she has to shave her legs now that she ETF’s! Amen on the water thing too. Eating doesn’t work if you dilute it all out with excess fluids.
Would your girlfriend be willing to post her story of ETF on here? what she ate and started eating/eats now? exercise? (maybe with some succesful before&after pics?)
Btw…..reading this topic,I was sure Bob Dean would be one of the first to comment/testimony;)
Hello Matt, and Dutchie, and Rob, and Corena, and John, Tony and everbody else. I’ve just been busy! But I like reading Matt’s articles so much that its the first thing I did when I woke up this morning before work =) Awesome aricle. I believe I still have a water intake issue. I do things to the extreme sometimes, and chugging is in my blood. Used to be with alcohol too. Bad news bears…I’ll get some time eventually =) The cuddling thing is spot on, I really have to wrestle my lady off of me (that is when we get the chance to cuddle =( ) and omg I sweat balls so bad this summer (work outside) it was unfucking believable, and I know I’m probably not as hat as Matt yet. OR maybe cintas pants are more durable as far as swamp ass corrosion. LOL I would look at other dudes not even dripping and I’m seriously drenched by standing still, evening before the sun is all the way up. It’s not fun…
Really Matt? I would write that your lady friend (is this the same gal with the jaw problem?) has a hormone imbalance and I would be interested in where that goes and how is it that “excess” water interferes with the digestion of food?
My experience with excessive sweating is that it’s the body’s way of discharging toxins. Over time that function may stop as poor health sets in. Good luck.
I did the high carb thing for many years, unknowingly and now at high fat, moderate protein and low carbs I have energy that I never had before. No excessive sweating, more endurance and sleep very well.
At high fat, moderate protein and low carbs I had energy that I never had before, no excessive sweating, more endurance, and good sleep. For about 6 months.
In Chinese medicine, excessive sweating is seen as “disharmony” within the body.
I don’t sweat excessively. I sweat hard when I engage in physical exertion, and after eating a lot late in the day. My thermostat stays hot – 78 degrees F. So it doesn’t take much to get sweaty at that temperature, and with the Florida humidity.
Regardless of what Chinese Medicine says, I have been at every notch on the metabolism scale at some point or another. And it’s much better to be at the top than the bottom, or even the midway point. Sex is better, sleep is better, mood is better, digestion is better, asthma is better, allergies are better, pain is lower, body odor is better, teeth are stronger, immune system is stronger, and food freedom is vastly superior. Just to name a few of the virtues.
Definitely agree it’s better to be at the top metabolism-wise! I just don’t think sweating (particularly the crotch rot and shirt staining) is a good health indicator – more detox and imbalance. If you only sweat from exertion that’s different (and it’s good to sweat a lot from exertion), but the post didn’t make it sound that way, and a lot of commenters sound like they have excessive sweating, just from hanging around.
The shirt staining and clothing corrosion comes from increased mineral content, sodium in particular, of the sweat. This is probably a direct reflection of the strength of the extracellular/interstitial fluid – the concentration of which is weaker the lower your metabolism gets (and less sodium/minerals in urine as well). I think that’s all it is.
I think some people got the wrong picture in their minds with this post in regards to sweat. I don’t consider my sweating excessive at all. Everyone else is abnormal being too cold, I’m not too hot I’m “normal” temperature. As long as I’m not trying to live/work along side metabolically fucked people I’m not sweaty unless I’m hitting it hard working’ or I’m on da’ beach mon. Everyone in my house eats/works out/lives as I do ( no weight/ health issues) so the ambient temperature is lower than a Raw vegan’s house but none of us are sweating like crazy.
Thanks Matt for the reply.
I will continue to review things and I have been eating this way for only 4.5.
Years.
What exactly do you think happens to the calories if they’re diluted Matt? Do you not even absorb some of it in the gut, does it all get stored as fat? Hmm..You should do a post on how to help people cut back on fluid consumption. I get this fucking thirst, like, sometimes its not even the dry mouth kind. Like idk it’s in my head and in my neck I don’t know how to explain it…I had it yesterday and it messed me up. Also, do a post on how Why Howard from killswitch engage has diabetes.
I know I know, just sip…but it’s sooo hard..Like I know I’m not even technically thirsty right now but sierra mist or juice sounds so good right now. Maybe I’m just craving sugar, hmm..Sometimes when I feel like this and I try to quench it with Milk it doesn’t help. I’ll try and see if chocolate milk helps, and if so, then it probably is a sugar thing I guess. Which I know I have some stress issues right now and sometimes sleeping or napping is the only thing that can get me warm. I might need to go back to not drinking any water, but in a very smart manner cuz fuck a bigger waist size.
Is this like when you can drink orange crush cuz it tastes really good even though your body doesn’t need any fluid? FINE i’ll just start chuggin reese pieces and and vitamin E instead…
First,there’s the issue of how much is too much?…..to me it seems kinda normal if one has dry mouth/feel thirsty one should drink something. Besides…how can you keep on sweating,digesting food,detoxing etc., if you don’t hydrate the body enough? :s
I also read this theory,a couple of times,that if you feel thirsty/have dry mouth,that would indicate you already waited too long with drinking something. Also thirst can also mask itself as hunger,according to many resources. I think it’s a complicated matter…..
Now for something totally unrelated…..
Matt and others have written about avoiding PUFA,however the Chinese workers at the buffetrestaurant all consume stir-fried sauced food(with soy- or veggie oil) daily(they take the food from the buffets or wok,so no special prepared stuff) and the cuisine is also known for pork,chicken&duck. So basically lots of PUFAS……how is it possible these people are not overweight/obese? What’s the secret these Asian/Chinese people stay so lean?
And yet another sidenote…..Chris Kresser posted this article today; http://blogs.plos.org/obesitypanacea/2012/10/08/systematic-review-short-bouts-of-sedentary-behaviour-consistently-increase-health-risk/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+plos/blogs/obesitypanacea+%28Blogs+-+Obesity+Panacea%29
Suggests we’re really not meant to sit down too much (relax). I do wonder if there’s change in metabolism&maybe extra burning if one stands behind a desk all day? (though you’re actually not moving either,so cant imagine one would burn more).
it’s not calorie dilution Bob, its your whole body being diluted from over hydration.
if you watch this video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o-zFiqWVmzM
they make a battery out of vinegar.
imagine diluting the vinegar with water. Do you think the battery would function properly ? the same principle applies to your body it doesn’t work properly over diluted.
I was going to add the increased time spent on bodily hair, but you beat me to it! I started waxing my legs seven years ago, and every technician insisted that in time I would only have to do it every few months. Sheaahh, now I have to do it more often than in the beginning – like every two weeks. I just choose to stay hairy, let it absorb all that sweat… :)
To my taste, you sound like ideal, totaly my type. Not wishing to sound too forward, but just wanting you to know that there are men who love this. :o)
Matt buddy, that was just awesome on all fronts…
Your saggy-ball, pale-as-a-marshmallow, oily-skinned, friendly Northern neighbour :)
Hilarious!! Love it!
Sweating, having orgasms and nail growth. My goodness. When working out now, I sweat like crazy; it was the first thing I noticed once I started including more carbohydrate in my diet. My nails/hair/lashes seem to grow a lot-lot-lot faster. Last year, I shaved my head bald and my hair is thick as hell, to my shoulders, glossy, ringlettes (and I used shampoo, conditioner, treatments, etc, in 6 months or better). Once I start, um… ‘releasing’, when in the bedroom, sex basically turns into one large orgasm. One thing, I find, however, is we are actually saving a bit of $$$ because I am not spending quite as much on grass-fed meat and the like. I replace a bit of meat with buckwheat cereal, sprouted grain pasta and beautiful fruit. Had a temp of 99.1 yesterday!! Feeling so-so-so good lately, Matt. Thank you for your great site/info!
And what about inability to gain weight above set point? Such a bummer ;-)
Then how is it possible that some people become/are morbidly obese? to the point of getting bedridden?
simple dutchie, the weight set point is adjustable and it has no upper limit.
People enable bedridden obesity and it’s hard for their loved ones to deny these people to them it truly feels like unbearable hunger because everything about it is like starvation.
So that would mean that there is indeed an abillity to gain above setpoint,bc the setpoint can increase…..
I guess addictive opiate behaviour towards certain foods can defenitely increase the setpoint.
Hey Dutchie, This is probably the toughest thing to explain, the weight set point. It can increase/decrease but it does not have anything to do with how addictive the food is, how predisposed a person may be to this addictive property or how many calories they eat at any given time of any particular appetizing food ….or even temporarily eating beyond a calorie threshold determined by the set point (force-feeding). This will cause temporary gains.
Yeah,I think I’ve heard John Gabriel once also speaking about certain hormones involved to shift a setpoint.
Meanwhile I’m getting really anxious as the week is coming to an end,which means no more wokbuffets and eating at home again and this means learning to eat 3meals a day. And I really don’t know how to do it and/or what to eat anymore. I’m feeling caught in such a horrible web.
Eating once a day at the buffet was partly beneficial,as it relaxed my mind temporarily and made me feel like a ‘normal person’ again. Not having to prepare food myself and kinda eat intuitively(though there’s really limited option.Despite of this,I sometimes afterwards feel ‘good/positive’ and/or have sound sleep,yet other days I can go away feeling ‘slightly anxious/depressed’….I still have no idea,where that fine line is regarding this.),being on my own yet not eating at home. Energy&will to exercise(though it is probably also a bit sometimes out of OCD/anxiety). My back&neck are constantly glowing.
Yet I know what I’m doing,having to take supplements along/eating massive/increasing amounts of lemon/apple cider vinegar, it doesn’t do the body good at all bc I’m probably feeding the funghi even more as my faceskin is really dry,some nights I really have itchy scalp/skin,probably bc I’m damaging the gutlining even more,probably Estrogen Dominance etc.
English google
Water. In my experience people are fat because they consume a lot of fluids. When we eat something solid and immediately ingest something fluid they become hungrier, they have symptoms similar to low sugar, even after eating. It is impossible to get morbidly fat when consuming few fluids. A few days without ingesting anything of fluid and food with little water, I would catch fire, I felt that I was able to burn sheets of paper with my hands, after the first few days I did not sleep and felt no effects of sleep deprivation, I still discovered that I could eat My grains with no side effects when I drank no water. I advocate much less liquid than Matt, it’s just my experience.
Whoops. I meant that I currently have said amount of hair and I have NOT used any shampoo, conditioner, etc, etc.
Did your gf have a baby?
7 years ago. Hopefully no more. I can’t handle another couple years of Blue’s Clues.
My Dad had us watch Dr. Who instead, and Sesame St. of course.
I’ll be honest, I have been actively following your blog for a few years (years.. right?!) and I have teetered between thinking you were on to something to thinking you were a total moron. From the time I first found your site up until about 3 weeks ago I was a low-ish carb, paleo-ish eater who exercised like a mad woman. We are talking 6 days a week for 4 + years of exercise. Generally speaking this meant 35 miles of running and 2 days of lifting.. or for a while there I did only Berkhan style lifting and some sprints. Anyway, I found that as the days passed, regardless of how much I exercised, I was gaining weight. I would estimate about 10 pounds across 4 years. Now, the ill informed would say “Well you were eating more to compensate for increased exercise.” Not true. I was also a religious food tracker, diligently weighing my food, logging my macros, etc. I found it hard on Berkhan’s plan to eat more than 2300 calories on my lifting days. But despite the weight gain and constantly feeling stressed out about missing a workout or not eating on my macros, I kept on. Fast forward to 5 weeks ago… I broke out with Shingles, likely due to the amount of emotional stress (I am currently in the process of opening a restaurant) combined with the insane physical stress and there you have a recipe for Herpes Zoster to sneak in and fuck with your life. So, I sat down with myself and tried to figure out where the hell I went wrong. It didn’t take long to realize I had been chronically over doing it for years. I was stressed to the max. Fortunately for me I haven’t caused any thyroid problems, or menstrual issues, but my intermittent anxiety and chronic aches, fatigue, digestive issues and weight gain had either gotten worse or plateaued despite my diligence to be extremely healthy. So, 3 weeks ago I made the wise decision to just stop. Stop exercising, stop counting calories, stop worrying about macros and just eat. Instead of long runs or an hour of weightlifting, I take the dogs for a walk or I do work in the yard (things I was already doing ON TOP of my regular workouts). Instead of worrying about macro ratios of meals, I just eat.. and generally I eat lots and lots of carbs. The other day I ate 7 GF snicker doodles in approximately 3 minutes. I haven’t been tracking calories, but I would estimate I am in the 2000-2500 range of mostly easily digested carbs. I have gone back to having a few drinks with friends a few nights a week.. to doing normal things, like a normal person because I am not a slave to my workout and eating schedule. And you know what? I have lost 7-8 pounds NOT EXERCISING. My clothes are looser, my moods are better, etc. I have a long way to go, as I have a pretty ripe case of IBS, but I am hoping in time I will remedy that too. Anyhow.. Thanks for flipping the script and helping me to wake the fuck up.
Love it, goooo you. Amen to waking the fuck up from low CHO/paleo nonsense
Were you fasting during that time too?
Are you still fasting?
Actually, for me, my cycles were 21 days and now they’re back up to 26 – hopefully heading for 28. I wish they had stopped! That would have been much, much nicer. LOL. So for me, higher metabolism is better in that regard. :o)
I did go out and buy antiperspirant because I can’t afford to keep buying new clothes. LOL
Thanks for the laughs today! I don’t sweat (rarely) and never did. When I was a child and was outside all day playing, running, and able to eat 6 hamburgers in a meal (yes!!) and stay skin and bones, I would have to say my metabolism was super fast. But even then I didn’t sweat. I wonder if that is normal for some people. It takes a LOT for me to sweat. I mean A LOT. I have to sit in my Far Infrared Sauna for over 30 min before beads of sweat appear… and I hate sub tropical climates as well, I hate being too hot (and too cold as well). I wonder if my internal thermostat is just not working properly.
I would say just because you could pound certain food items and be skinny doesn’t mean you have a fast metabolism or that your thyroid is top notch. I have always been skinny and able to eat whatever, although I didn’t pound food, but even now that I’m eating a lot more I still have temps below 97! The other day my morning temp was 95.5! But I also just had a baby.
check check check check… lol, I was thinking in gaining all this weight that all this stuff was bad and something was wrong. glad to know its ok! LOL although I have started biting my nails because they grow SO much! I am cutting them 2x a week and they are STRONG! question…. while I am trying to eat more and often if I have a day where I eat less I start to lose appitite right away :-( anythig causing that? I mean I will go 5-6 hours on a 1/2 pbj! and then feel like crap after a few days but its like I can’t snap out of it. someone said zinc deficiency. any thoughts?
I’m wondering about this too. If I eat a lot for several days, then eat less one day, I lose my appetite, and I feel like crap for several days, like you.
This is me! I never gave it any second thought, but the moment I read this comment the dots connected. I need to figure out a solution, FAST!
YES! Love it. I lost my period, libido and sanity on low-carb, paleo hell and am just now (after months of eating shit-loads of sugar and dairy) recovering. Got my period back a couple weeks ago and hit 98.6 for the first time that I can remember. I shudder every time I visit a paleo blog and read about everyone’s n=1 experiments: “just cut out eggs” “try the auto-immune protocol!” “you should think about minimizing blueberries…” “eat MORE fat!” “BACON!” But then I remember where I was at… shunning fruit because of I thought fructose was a deadly poison invented by the carb gods to tempt us into obesity/cancer/heart disease. Guzzling coconut milk laced coffee and scarfing down “big ass salads” while I laughed at all of the fools eating their OMG gluten and dairy…. denial is a powerful, deadly thing. Bottoming out sucks, but seeing the light totally rules. Now I sweat like a pregnant nun and actually have a sex drive. Thanks for keeping it real Matt! Hopefully many others can find their way out of cold, sexless low-carb paleo land as well.
This is hilarious! Great post, Matt… I personally like having these problems :)>
.. Matt,
As a follow-up to the novella posted above. I recently got a hormone panel done and am wondering if you have a good source to reference my results? Considering the “normal,” ranges aren’t always normal and such.
Thanks!
Ok Ok, but if I am going to start menstruating, I need to re-think this high metabolism stuff :)
HELP!! I’m really confused. You mention that with a higher metabolism you will sweat more, however, I’m Hypothyroid, have body temps below 98 degrees, yet I am a heavy “sweater” (all I have to do is bend down to tie my shoe laces and a rainstorm will be appearing from my forehead”). Why would I sweat so easily if my metabolism is so slow?
The sweating thing is not as straightforward as some of the other elements discussed. It is, after all, a mechanism the body employs to lower body temperature. Some excessive sweating problems are a body’s attempt to keep temperature suppressed. Just like having a fever often makes you feel really cold, some with a low metabolism actually feel hot and sweat a lot.
Having high estrogen, which is often a co-factor in hypothyroidism as I understand it, can lead to weird hot flashes and sweats too. I spent a year so cold and aching I couldn’t get out of bed, dropped 40 pounds for no good reason, but was constantly-constantly sweating.
Yes Ray Peat’s newsletter this month was about hot flashes and estrogen. Sweating doesn’t always mean fast metabolism. Also you could have a disorder where you sweat profusely.
Thanks for replying Matt.
Have you noticed a correlation between higher metabolism and being more attractive to mosquitoes? Seems to be the case for me. I’m thinking the increased vascularity and more CO2 production would make one appear more tasty.
They go for blood sugar, and higher carbs makes for higher metab.
Right no the money with the C02 production Derek higher metabolism = more oxygen in more CO2 out
more C02 makes you more “visible” from far away to a mosquito.
I see it in a lot of trainees that previously had about as much exercise as Neo before being unplugged.
So that’s it? I thought it was maybe because I wasn’t eating as much garlic. I’ve been living in constant dread of West Nile this summer because for some reason, my life long invisible skeeter shield has left me.
wow! glad to read your post.
I don’t know if all of these are good signs. Sure, under-sweating is a sign of a problem, but over-sweating to the degree you’re talking about (the crotch rot and stained t-shirts) doesn’t sound that healthy either. Maybe you’re detoxing something bad. Growing up I was always skinny and ate like a horse, so I can only imagine I had a good metabolism. I’ve never been much of a sweater at all (I do sweat when I work out and get hot, but not while just sitting around or anything). In fact, when my metabolism was lowest, I sweated a lot in my arm pits and feet, I think out of adreneline hormones.
My boyfriend is a huge sweater (always the biggest sweater in the gym, dripping, gets salt all over), and needs to wash shirts after wearing them once, but even he doesn’t get the bad stains and crotch rot. He does have #5. But he still loves snuggling. In fact, I’m usually the one to move away because I’m too hot.
I was wondering this, too- about the sweating. My son was the sweatiest kid ever. His head would sweat like crazy from just running around for a minute. When we figured out he had allergy issues and took gluten out, he immediately stopped sweating like crazy for almost no reason.
I hate comments like these, because some people will then take it as fact that sweating could be a problem and also that gluten is problem. And how do you know it was for ‘no reason’? Also what things did you replace the gluten with? We can’t say for sure that his sweating was a bad thing.
I think comments/ experiments like this have real value. My hypothyroid symptoms dramatically improved when I cut out gluten as well. In my mind, cutting out gluten can be a useful diagnostic tool. It certainly convinced me of the importance of diet.
My sister has overly sweating issues too,yet she is growing a belly and lower backfat over the years.So,I don’t think sweating is always a good sign regarding metabolism&bodycomposition…
It can mean an over burdened liver. If your liver isn’t detoxing properly, your lymphatic system and skin have to take the reigns.
That’s quite funny,bc in my naive pre-health days and was experiencing fatty liver I rarely sweated.
Oh yeah? Perhaps you were iodine deficient. Who knows. Tons of variables.
I guess I probably was amongst others, as I really didnt like fish/seaweed at all back then.
check for vitamin D also. Head sweating can be linked to vitamin D deficiency sometimes.
Hahaha, love it!
Hahaha nicely done! These are all “problems” i have now thanks a lot! My skin used to be so dry in the winter i had to literally lather myself in coconut oil ugh. I had to sleep in a hoody some nights and STILL freezing! Now , pssht im like the human heating pad! I cant even cuddle without burning up at night. Itsa problem :)
I sweat a lot but mostly on the palm of my hands and armpits.. it’s super annoying and doesn’t even stop with prescription antiperspirant. I also feel like I have mild hirsutism as I’ve got a “not so happy” trail and excessive hair in places it shouldn’t be on a lady. My metabolism has been in the upper 97’s to low 98’s lately so now I’m afraid to get any higher if it means more sweat and hair. :/
That sounds like other hormone imbalances, look into estrogen.
That sounds more like adrenal-driven sweating. Stress sweat.
I can unfortunately relate to the symptoms of hirsutism and when I sweat it’s under my armpits but that can vary a lot if I’ll sweat or not. I think my fluids leave the body mostly by peeing.
Sweating out of the hands is different, and more a sign of stress in my experience. The only time my hands and pits got sweaty while nothing else was sweating (and hands and feet were really cold as well) was playing at piano recitals and speaking in public. Definitely some major stress hormone activation for those events. I think of hirsutism as stress-related as well, very direct when female testosterone is produced in the adrenals under stress.
If you want to see a hilarious swipe at health food fanatacism, check this out everybody. Just do it, you are going to roll: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l2LBICPEK6w
Yep- Portlandia made me re-think my life. I don’t want to be that guy.
bummer, it’s not available in australia
I did experience a terrible drop in body temperature when I tried Atkins style induction. The one thing that Atkins did for me was alleviate the fear of protein and fat I had as a teen (I had been a slave to the CICO fad and low fat diets.) I have found that I do best with enough protein, enough carbs, and plenty of happy fats. But, I think that all goes back to the individual. I had a broken finger earlier this year, and subsequently developed terrible ice cream cravings, and my temp took a dive. I also put on about 10 pounds this year. I’m working on increasing my calories through fats and being as happy as possible. I have also increased my yoga practices to 3 times / week. Yoga really helps me warm up. Higher intensity workouts do too (not too long though, watch out for flashes of ‘coldness).
Alisha, can you do yoga when rrarf ing ? Just thinking of all those inversions , twists and back bends makes me feel nauseous . In my paleo/raw food days yoga used to be fun (initially)and you are right, it makes you warmer (improved circulation?) and calmer. I’ll give it another try but on a very empty stomach :)
Definitely on an empty stomach, first thing in the morning before I’m hungry is best.
I would add 1.) shaving the side of your head very frequently/ frequent hair cuts 2.) an increase in people saying your going to get fat eating like that (very annoying ) and 3.) a decrease in friends saying “hey lets go out to eat, my treat”
1.) uncheck
2.) check, always have been this way personally. 100% of my hardgainer trainees see this change after putting on ten pounds of muscle. One was so surprised after a 2 min workout and said damn it used to take back to back soccer games to make him sweaty. lol ( he also dealt with a lot of constipation btw)
3 .) check, this is why I hate receiving white t shirts as gifts.
solution to crotch rot in your pants : wear swim trunks they have built in air conditioning.
4.) check, 24 hour intervals near clock work though not multiple times.
5.) check, no need to ruin the towels and their fluffy factor, you know that stuff isn’t supposed to be used to redecorate the bedroom walls holmes there are better places for it lol I’m glad i don’t deal with the sheets.
6.) check, I used to think I was wolverine weird with the finger nails and toenails till I started training people and noticed this change in other people.
7.) technically check, bills are ultra low, I hunt, fish, grow shit and of course pound the ever cost effective buffets I still eat a ton, just do it outside of the matrix style for the most part.
8.) check, I can only stand so much cuddling, ( 5 mins or so )damn that pissed them off. If I wait a bit sweat happens and they usually back off with a look on their face like I have mutant sweating powers and I just say see I wasn’t lying, told you I’m hot as fuck. You can either have cuddling or a blanket not both at the same time girl!
9.) waiting for the right one but as per #5 If i don’t find the right one maybe I’ll just go for a Guiness world record for babies and give Ol’ dirty bastard a run for his money.
10.) why relocate when you live in the dopest place ever ? florida flights are cheap for a change of pace nothing beats the look of people you pass by when snow is on the ground and your in swim trunks ! ! ! !
Even though my temp has only risen from 95’s to 97’s I am so much hotter! I really don’t like it. I’m always sweating. Doesn’t this equalize somehow eventually?
Since adding carbs, starches and sugar back into my diet I’ve also noticed my hair needs to be washed more often. I used to get by with once a week and now it’s every day (at least). Would greasy hair be a side effect? Either way, it’s driving me crazy.
Kim, some of the sweating can be from your body trying to balance things out and this may subside but maybe its just too hot in your house/office. As far as the greasy hair you may finally be giving your body something it has needed for a long time. Try brushing your hair and spreading some of the oils out a little first. I have long hair and usually it’s brushed twice a day. I wash it because of “dirty work” most of the time not greasiness. I don’t have any issues going long periods without shampooing, people tend to over use shampoo and that leads to an increase in sebum. If you were ultra low metabolically speaking you most likely didn’t have enough stuff going in your body for it to be “wasting it” on sebum when it is in such short supply.
Ha! Except I’m hot EVERYWHERE. Usually I’m the cold one so this is weird. The greasy hair thing is annoying. I don’t usually brush my hair at all because it is curly/wavy (I comb it in the shower) but I guess I can try. Frizzy can’t be worse than grease ball.
When I first went off the pill I felt hot constantly. That can happen when your hormones kick into overdrive. It evened out after a few months. As I mentioned above, I don’t sweat that much anymore (although I do sweat if I get overheated at the gym, on the subway, etc.). My boyfriend does tell me that I’m the hottest (in temp – although also in the other way!) girl he’s ever dated and that I radiate heat.
I’m really confused by this post… I’ve been able to raise my temps nearly two degrees in the month and half since speaking to you and I do feel hotter and am sweating more. Yet, I’m not regular and my sex drive has tanked since stopping a primal diet. I feel awful, I don’t fall asleep well, I’m moody (though much better since I nixed the organic soda and went back to drinking water), my anxiety has come back full force. I’m not sure what I’m doing wrong but I’m still waiting to feel fabulous and energetic. On top of feeling like crap, I’m now chubby. Not happy about any of it.
Yes, the aftereffects of being on a Primal diet are fun. I certainly enjoyed them during that phase as well.
Most people here talk about raising temps by adding back sugars/starch, however I wonder if there are people,especially women,here who did it by eating lots of wheat/gluten? Bc it seems to me that wheat is one of the culprits that keep metabolism low&weightgain in women,bc of hypothyroidism…..
Also it is said that foodintolerances/toxins cause high estrogen,leading to weightgain. However I wonder if a high metabolism cures/diminishes many food intolerances&yeasts/funghi by itself/will it restore the gutlining(or can that only be done by eating broths? and following anti-funghal diet)? Or that one really has to cure their ‘leaky gut’/gutlining to permanently break free of most of the intolerances? Does one also become an ‘everything burner’,meaning being able to burn fat&carbs all the same?or does one tend to shift unknowingly towards one or the other in relation to food?
Wtf?! How is it that my metabolism is noticeably low (obesity, cold hands/feet, temps in low 97s, allergies/asthma) yet I have most every symptom on this list to indicate a high metabolism: sweaty (yes, even the salty crotch syndrome), bowel movements daily, menstruation every 25 days, high fertility (conceived both my kids on the first try), ovulation discharge, long/strong nails, oily hair. The only thing I don’t have is the tendency to be too hot, however, I am extremely sensitive to temperature fluctuations and can’t tolerate anything too cold nor too hot. I eat well so I’m so confused by this list and most of all, why am I still effing fat?!
I honestly think some of the list is not evidence whatsoever of health. When I was at my least healthy, I sweated and had oily skin. Now, today my temp was 98.3 (it is lower in the first half of my cycle so maybe it’s still not optimal – but my boyfriend tells me I radiate heat more than any girl he’s dated). I still have oily skin but my skin looks worse than it used to, my period is every 28-30 days, I sweat if I exercise or get overheated, I throw off the covers at night, but I don’t sweat that much at all during normal circumstances of sitting around and do not stain clothes. I don’t know any healthy girls that sweat that much! My nails have always grown well, but have always been and remain fairly weak.
Sweating constantly and making horrible stains and “crotch rot” doesn’t sound healthy to me, and I’ve seen no evidence of it in the healthiest people I know. To me, it sounds like detoxing, hormonal imbalance, or bodily stress. Or maybe just part of a recovery process. I’m open to being wrong about this, but going by the people I know with golden health, they seem to be pretty comfortable most of the time and not dripping in sweat.
He may have been exaggerating a bit to be funny and make a point….
Intolerance to heat and cold is a sign of hypothyroidism. People with robust metabolisms don’t have to put layers of clothes on, but I don’t think they complain of the heat either. A hot flash is one where you want to open the window and your sweating just sitting there, which is actually a cooling down as shown by the cooler temp, reducing stress hormones very fast via sugar/salt can sometimes cause this hot flushing. Whereas a healthy temp is one where you just feel comfortably toasty, so maybe Matt needs to go further than just saying sweating your balls off is a good thing.
He may have exaggerated to be funny and to make a point. However
I don’t think anyone could say i don’t have a robust metabolism and I complain about people overheating their houses/cars all the time. they only compromise a little when they look over an notices i’m sweating bullets. I can tolerate extreme heat in the outdoors with profuse sweating or large bodies of water nearby so it’s not a complete aversion to heat. A lot of my uber-skinny trainees used to come to the gym with parkas on and now a year later in the same weather have no jacket at all and complain for the heat to be turned down.
As it is impossible to regulate temperatures outside the body in someone else’s house, office, store, restaurant, etc and these temperatures change rapidly for a socially active individual it is impossible to feel comfortably toasty all the time and also have a high level of cellular activity. The body does not down regulate cellular activity back and forth it just uses sweat to solve that issue and keeps on trucking full throttle. If you are comfortably toasty in a car full of raw vegans, salad/cotton ball gorging models, weight watcher jazzercising chubbies that constantly ask for the heat to be turned up Ac turned down, then you my friend do not have a robust metabolism because I’m sweating to the point it affects my vision from the sweat dripping if all of them are comfortably toasty.
Lots of exaggeration. And yes, sweating when it’s warm out is very cooling. It allows for a wider range of comfortable temperatures.
My Dad is one of those people who is always warm. Warm hands no matter the temp, walks around in a t-shirt in the winter, wants to keep the heat low. He just doesn’t seem to be very affected by the cold. However, he is not much of a sweater. Yes, if he exerts himself, he could sweat through a shirt, but not under normal circumstances. And his sweat is not smelly at all – I’ve never smelled BO on him in my entire life.
Yeah,back in the day at HighSchool I had this classmate who’d always wear t-shirts,even in the middle of winter yet he didn’t smell at all!!
Hey, watch the Canadian jokes! I nearly died on the “spokes of your bicycle wheel” joke!! Been RRARFing since February. I am enjoying being warm, but not on top of menopause. Warm and then hot flash, phew!! But a bunch of stuff still isn’t happening, like weight loss, or even gain stoppage. Think I’m going to get my thyroid checked, properly. But I know the constant milk drinking and food eating has made a big difference, just not enough.
Reducing the milk drinking and putting more emphasis on solid food should help.
So the milk can contribute to the weight not coming off? I just drastically cut down on my milk consumption… I got into the raw milk thing 2 years ago, and have been drinking wayyyy more than I ever have. Hmmmmm..
Drinking way too many fluids can keep body temperature and metabolic rate suppressed.
I’m actually glad the sweaty ball thing isn’t just me. Feels like having a second pair of armpits lately. I’m sure the increased fertility is in full effect. Another change after eating the food was having my balls grow about 20-30% larger.
All food intolerances and allergies went away completely. Pollen and dust don’t bother me at all. Psoriasis went away, hands are moist instead of dry and cracking. The sweating is a pretty good trade-off I think! I wouldn’t consider the sweating to be some negative detox, rather that the natural detox mechanisms, such as sweating, are working more efficiently.
I haven’t been losing ‘weight’, but I have been losing fat and building muscle pretty easily working out like once a week. My biggest problem is that it’s been hard to keep my reserves up, because I can drop right down to freezing around 4-5 hours after eating sometimes.
Ha! The growing balls are certainly an issue. Although I was confused when Matt mentioned droopy balls.. Mine just get bigger and stay pretty close to the rest of the apparatus.
The larger ball size is normal as well. I thought of mentioning it. They shrink when there is stress/calorie/carb restriction often. I know that was witnessed in all of McCarrison’s experiments, and presumably Selye’s as well as they were both more or less observing the same phenomenon. In Biology of Human Starvation, Ancel Keys writes…
?The majority of investigators have agreed that the testes are reduced in size in semi-starvation, the average percentage change being rather similar to that of the body as a whole.
There’s the new ad campaign. “Matt Stone will grow your balls.”, “180 Degree Balls”, “Bigger balls than a caveman”
Better set my spam blocker early!
Seriously though, thank you so much Matt for curing me of my manorexia. You’ve really helped me turn my life around. I’ve been lurking and reading for about 2 and 1/2 years or so, and I really appreciate your work and the postings from everyone else. I’m ready to step out from the shadows and hopefully I can contribute and help others like you guys have helped me.
Droopiness in considered a bad in tantra I think, a sign of a sexually weak man. The skin should be firm according to them. But alas, being a tantric master does not have to dovetail with high metabolism!
This happened to my husband a few years back when I took the kids to Europe and he stayed on to work another few months. He was really depressed, ate bad and his testes shrunk, as well as his penis I think. He also got super cold. We had no idea what is was, but then something clicked I guess cause he started eating seaweed and it went away.
Hahahaha… What a great article. I had such a good laugh. Thanks Matt.
Schweddy Balls! Brought to you from SNL! http://www.hulu.com/watch/4156
Schweddy balls – eating sugar and carbs. Teehee
Don’t forget alienating hypothyroid, low-calorie, low-carb, friends/ family-members/ aspiring Internet gurus who’s diet advise had terrible side-effects (from not doing it right of corse).
I have another one, not sleeping as soundly. This one might be just me, but I could sleep through an earthquake before (in fact I did once). My sleep was much deeper before, and occasionally I would walk, talk and otherwise act out my dreams if I was disturbed. I don’t fall asleep as easily now and I wake easier, but I’m more lucid in the mornings.
Sleep quality and sometimes quantity increase with a high metabolism. But hypothyroid creatures like sloths sleep 16 hours a day. Yet, the younger and healthier a person is, usually the longer and deeper his or her sleep – like young people sleeping longer and deeper than the elderly.
Hi, I’ve recently discovered this site after I stopped the low carb madness. Got fed up at low energy and disturbed bowel function. I think that I was very stressed due to a lot of travelling and other issues. Also fed up with constantly waking to pee during the night, a real inconvenience when travelling!
Apart from the digestive and peeing issues with no period, I do not have the other hypothyroid signs. In winter, I go swimming in cold rivers and wear light clothes (unless it is -5 deg Celsius). I have never felt the cold and thrive in a cold climate. Since I come from the mountains, could this be because I am adapted to the cold? I took my temp with a crude cooking thermometer and it appeared ok, but I will have to get a proper thermometer and take my temp more accurately.
Thanks for the site.
You can definetly become more heat or cold adapted. I would imagine you are a small step away from being in great metabolic health. Probably just need a few more calories, a little more salt, and less water/total fluid intake.
yWhat do you people (women) eat??? i want my hair to grow faster too, and really strong nails.
I can eat 3 times a day, tops. Sometimes skip breakfast because not hungry in the morning. seldom have any cravings, seldom even feel like eating until i take that first bite of something. I used to do the eat 5 times a day, chugged down protein drinks as snacks, lifted weights 5 times.a.week and was in great shape. But the fear of not getting enoughprotein had to go. Every weekend, of course, id pig out on everything sweet and chocolatey. Thank goodness i gave that up…for veganism. Felt awesome on a high fruit diet though, i ate all the time when i felt like eating something bundless of energy. Until i had no more energy. Back to meat and 3 squares. Always exercised like a maniac, i loved it!! now, a bit skinny-fat, run or lift a few times .week when i feel like it,.usually morning fasted, with all cravings.gone and not really feel like eating. What happened???? I want my abs back!!! haha
Maybe you’re zinc deficient (and copper overloaded) – that can happen to vegans. I would confirm before just starting zinc supplements, though. Being zinc deficient kills your appetite.
ha-ha, obviously I am not zinc deficient then! maybe zinc overloaded..
Haha my vegan days so ended 4 years ago. Have no symtoms of copper overload really… rbti has worked wonders for me, all cravings.completely gone. Like magic, and so much more energy, anxiety gone, moodswings gone. But darn it… i want my abs back. Ten teeny weeny lbs… and well some cravings fo like, real food, would be nice, instead of all food bring kind of mentality. Meh!
I have a question about metabolism in pets… We have two burmese cats who are 6 weeks apart in age. One has all the symptoms of a high metabolism – has super fast growing strong nails, eats everything in sight, has tons of energy and is strong and lean. The other cat is the opposite. Slow growing nails, eats hardly anything, lethargic, moody and plump in size. What can I do to help this second cat? Thanks!!
That’s a very interesting topic. What do you feed your cats? Are they indoor cats?
my money is on indoor cats
Yes indoor cats. They get a mixture of raw meat (organs and offcuts) as well as some dry food and occasionally tinned food (with ingredients 100% meat).
Yeah, the indoor thing is a problem. But if they must be indoor cats then there’s not much to be done on that front.
I would think adding a lot of saturated fat (like lamb fat), mostly for calories, and a little salt might help. But ultimately giving the cat food it wants is probably going to be a big key. Obviously the cat doesn’t have that low of an appetite if it can plow through yeast and vegemite like that. Just a disinterest in its food.
Why is the indoor thing a problem? She gets lots of sunlight through a big lounge room window.
One thought I had was that the healthy cat was introduced 6 weeks after the first cat and it was pretty stressful for her… Maybe that could have triggered low metabolism?
The second cat doesn’t seem to have any problems from being indoors…
are they both girl cats ? not everyone is fat in human world living in the same environment either ..
Yes both girls – only young 7 1/2 and 9 months. Matt – why would living indoors pose a problem? Lots of healthy indoor cats around. They have a much longer life and get lots of stimulating play inside.
Indoor cats are removed from a lot of outdoor dangers, and have greater regularity and fewer stresses in their life. That’s probably the same reason why animals in captivity also outlive their wild counterparts, generally. But animals in captivity don’t live inside a house, which is a very different environment full of all kinds of metabolically disruptive things, like positive ions, artificial lights and sound, filtered light, and lack of natural stimuli that can lead to low level depression in just about anything I would imagine. I can’t stay in a house all day and thrive, have energy, my best mood, etc.
Still, a cat must be looked at as an individual. Even if most cats did thrive in the indoors, that doesn’t mean that every cat will thrive indoors.
That’s fair enough. We do actually have a lead so she can get some outdoor time too. But being an indoor cat, she gets pretty scared outside, even on a lead, so we haven’t done that much. I don’t think she is depressed, although she does have some quiet/sleepy days where she seems a bit blue. Mostly though she has great fun with the other cat and gets lots of love and natural sunlight through lounge room and bedroom windows. I was mainly concerned that her low growing nails and lack of appetite might indicate low metabolism, but perhaps I just need to vary her diet more to figure out what she likes and help her get used to some outdoor time gradually. She is not overweight, just more plump than cat number 1. Thanks for your response.
Also I just wanted to add that being outdoors doesn’t equate with a happy animal either. There are plenty of dogs that are kept outside alone all day while their owners go to work and they spend their time howling miserably. Burmese cats have been specifically bred to be domestic pets that have beautiful placid personalities and who enjoy human company. They are a far cry from their wild cat predecessors. Just because humans need time outdoors doesn’t mean the same applies to these cats. I agree they need time in the sun, every living thing does, but time outdoors – not necessarily.
The lethargic cat also has a weird craving for all things yeast. She has chewed through numerous packets of Nutritional Yeast we had in the cupboard and last week we found her licking the remains of a near empty vegemite jar (a yeast-based and very salty Aussie toast spread).
it’s because yeast has glutamic acid
A neurotransmitter?
Glutamate,totally forgot about that….despite also highly estrogenic and feeding wrong bacteria,yet another reason why i eat the massive amounts of icecream&whipped cream at the dessertbuffet. And why i loved and kept on eating/wanting more bc i loved all high glutamate food combinations,throw in some fructose occasionally….
I hate that im born with all these detrimental addictions
Nah Dutchie, Your not born that different from everyone else, food addictions can be overcome by everyone.
you do that for the same reason as the cat, it has to do with the mc fake world matrix.. you need to get out of your cage and live in a rat park just like the chubby kitty needs to. I had a big long post going explaining it but I’ll just mix it with a long overdo post and challenge myself to get it posted this weekend.
I’ve been reading a lot of posts on your site but it’s still really beyond me how you’ve been and am able to manage it all. I read somewhere,that you wrote you lost a lot of weight this way but seeing some of your buffet pics etc. it really makes me wonder if you were ever fat? (not that I think you’re lying, the entire thing is just beyond me…..) Were you at that time dealing with certain health issues? for instance Yeasts/Funghi and thus leaky gut? (I know organisms such as Candida can be kept at bay according to some when metabolism is high?however no one ever adresses the fact if that also miraculously’ heals the gutlining otherwise one would constant keep on battling bursts of overgrowth&food intolerances I assume)
not sure I understand this question/comment. The only health issues I have ever had were, insomnia, extreme heart burn acid reflux and of course obesity. I know it’s hard at this point to make heads or tails out of the few posts I have up but I assure it works and it will be easier to understand in due time.
Just watched the new episode of southpark. I didn’t know about Honey Boo Boo. James Cameron, and God help us all…
So I got pretty big and bulky last spring after regaining a bunch of weight lost through bad health (and then some) and simultaneously, I began experiencing really painful fibrocystic breasts. Could all the spiking hormones be causing a precipitous increase in estrogen? Also, last month for the first time ever, my pristine olive skinned back was ravaged with BACKNE. Or is it Back-Ne? Anyway. So I’m exercising more and eating less fat. I’m not into painful boobs. I am into the having a sex drive, but the boobs are no good.
This gave me a much-needed gigglefit as I read through this, lol!
Used to be cold all the time, now I’m generally comfortable. I was 98.9F yesterday, when I was at med clinic, think I used to run around 97. I stopped dieting to lose 60 pounds, got off all but 10. An odd exception is today, for whatever reason, I awoke at 2:30 am, had coffee instead of going back to sleep. Serious lack of sleep makes me unable to be warm at any temperature. Been a cold, sweater wearing day (as opposed to my normal short sleeved t-shirt)
Sleep is the almighty metabolism stimulator. I underestimated its influence in my early work.
Hey Matt, ive read quite a bit of your work before and im looking to get your opinion. I am a real health nut, have my own little health blog and im really into the primal movement. Ive come to agree with you that to a large degree theres no real problem with carbohydrate, but it just doesnt vibe with me on how you speak about just eating anything at all. I try the best i can to eat high calorie, but this always tends to lead me towards huge amounts of meat, although these days i try to get big amounts of veggies and tons of fat, i dont keep my carbs low per se , i tend to eat half of a big ass spaghetti squash in the evening. drenched in bacon fat and coconut oil. The main thing is that a couple of years back when i was told i had gluten and lactose issues, as well as sugar issues, i flipped out and for about 2 yrs went mental on myself. I also did alot of fasting and supplement cleanses and ever since then my stomach has just been royally FUCKED. I also just got back from 4 months in Asia where i just ate whatever, and my digestion is just horrible again. Im bloated from morning to bedtime, my stool has been liquidy for about 3 weeks, and just solidifed the last few days but it still looks like hurricane katrina went through it. My body temp is pretty low, but im judging just from cold hands and feet , and my face is always getting dry-granted this could be from the switch to colder temps outside-im in canada lol. I agree that probably eating huge amounts 3 times a day with all 3 macros can be beneficial to teaching my body to adapt, but i just cant see how my already fucked digestive tract will heal when its having so much trouble with already clean food. And theres just so much evidence against wheat/veggie oils/grains,legumes just in the fact that there nutrient density sucks assballs i dont see how they could benefit me. Do you really think its best to use crap processed foods just to get more cals? or for someone with my digestive problems would it be best to just go balls to the wall high calorie but sticking to the paleo template? right now as i said im trying to get as high calorie as possible, but im doing paleo auto immune protocol. Lots of kale,bacon(not paleo-ish i know lol),meat,salads,fish,coconut oil. probably hitting in the 2500cal range. im a 150pound,511 skinny dude, 24 years oldd. my training varies weekly but im trying to keep it low key for now because i dont want to push my body too much . Ive tried going higher calorie before, but first it was with milk-that destroyed me, although my libido was high enough that i could have impregnated most of thailand at the time. i was doing almond butter and jelly in big amounts when i got home, but i started getting acne and my energy went all over. sweet potatoes seem to cause me intense pressure on my left side, dense carbs seem to always do that to me ever since i fucked myself up with the supplement shit. I really have no idea what i did to my colon with all that crap urgh. Anyway this is already becoming a book, hope you can give me some ideas! thanks!
@ Jason. Matt is right on the money. As much of a health nut that I am, all my symptoms went away once I started eating whatever the heck I wanted. I was fastidious about paleo. I didn’t even mean to go on low carb but it happened since I couldn’t eat anything with grains and/or wheat, sugar, too much salt or processed food. Which basically limited myself to very few things that didn’t require hours of preparation to make or cook. Despite eating carbs like sweet potatoes and white rice, I still had health problems. I stuck with the damn thing because I was stubborn. I thought something else must be causing my symptoms. But they didn’t go away until I started eating carbs (which included *gasp* sugar, salt, wheat and other processed foods). But of course, I’m also eating unprocessed and healthy foods now – as well as sugar and grains. I’m hoping to eventually take on a balance, where I don’t overwhelm myself with junk and don’t go back to low-carb either.
I’m guessing a dumb American wrote this article. Canada > USA
The thing is, I have most of those, aside from good fingernail growth. Yet, my friggin’ body temperatures refuse to rise. Can a thermostat be set on low for so many years (been hypo for 16 years and this is the first year I have gotten proper treatment) that it remains stuck there no matter what? I mean, I am much much warmer now. In fact, oftentimes I am warmer than others and I seem to heat up very quickly. Yet that thermometer is still not my friend. Grr!!
Hmm. It appears all those guys down at the comic book shop playing Magic The Gathering enjoy some rip roarin’ metabolisms! Sweat city!
the part about sweat is completely not true, i have a very high metabolism and i almost never sweat, even though i live in the middle east, even when i cuddle with my partner i rarely feel too hot, this list is kind of accurate.
This has literally got to be the dumbest website ever those are all things that you have to do in daily life to maintain a healthy body, you’re basically saying you’d rather be fat and lazy and not have to deal with anything you apparently consider to be a ‘nuisance’ – fat people feel the heat just as much maybe even worse seeing as they have more insulation, sweating is healthy it shows your body works correctly, everybody goes to the toilet it takes 2 minutes out of your daily life, everybody eats – fat people eat as much as someone with a high metabolism probably more than they should do considering theyre overweight – they just gorge infrequently throughout the day (which leads to more storage of fat) as opposed to graze (which maintains a steady metabolism and energy level throughout the day), menstrual cycle is part of the genetic make up of women if youre not having one thats messed up, i can ‘snuggle’ with my girlfriend perfectly fine i just leave all the covers to her. ruined clothes?! who doesnt change their shirt after the gym thats just gross and again – lazy. Please in the future waste your time promoting health not trying to make out like its more of a nuisance to have a lean, healthy, muscular figure that actually looks appealing, gives you that sense of confidence and well being, and doesn’t make you look like the wasteman that you clearly are. Have fun being fat.
Most of these instances are true, i’m a male so the menstruation i wouldn’t know, but my nails do not grow rapidly and i do sweat allot on occasion but it never stains, i get hot easily and cannot bare heated temperatures, even on the coldest day in England i still feel as if i were in the Caribbean. i mainly live on sweet stuffs and confectionery as well as 2 liters of soft drink / soda a day, its definitely not healthy but it works.
Yep. I sweat like mad, which ruins clothes quickly. I usually am at around 99.5-100 degrees in terms of body temperature. Also eat a ton (on about a 3000 daily calorie diet) and only manage to weigh about 117. It is expensive.
The “country” of Canada? You sir, are an ignorant sack of fecal matter. I suggest you kindly go engage in rough coitus with a large cactus. You are nothing more than a shit. stain on the ass of society.
Tee hee hee.
Ever thought Canadians embroider and put maple leafs on the packs in order for us not to be mistaken for ignorant Americans!
This made me laugh so hard! I am not at full speed yet, but Nature-throid for hypothyroidism has me identifying with everything on this list. I never connected the fingernail growth, it’s true!
I’m not sure just how serious this article is. I have an abnormally fast metabolism and I can tell you that it is more a curse then a blessing. I don’t relate to anything on this list though except maybe the high grocery bills.
There are “inconveniences” of a high metabolism. I carry food with me everywhere, my dorm room, my car, my backpack etc. It’s not so much that I need to eat all the time as it is that I don’t want to get stuck in a situation somewhere. If I stay over at a friends house I don’t want to clean out her fridge for dinner and a late snack.
Also, everyone wants to talk to me about my diet. I guess it is partly because I am a 5’6″ relatively thin girl who doesn’t look like she would eat very much. I actually eat 5500 to 6500 calories a day. Once I was eating dinner with an old roommate and after awhile she said, “I just have to say, I have never seen anyone eat like you. I don’t know where you put it all. How can you eat like that?” Whatever. It gets old. OK, my stomach is weird. Sorry for being hungry.
It kind of annoys me when movie stars claim to have a fast metabolism to cover for anorexia. There is nothing particularly great about a fast metabolism.
Your high metabolism is most likely driven by hyperactivity of your adrenal glands if you are not relating to the other items on the list. You are basically in the same physiological state as someone on speed, which is very different from having a very active thyroid.
Matt,
I’m intrigued. I have never found a reason for my metabolism despite talking to doctors and nutritionists about it. Do you know of something I should check? Is there something to do about it?
I think I was born with a high metabolism. I have been a “big eater” my entire life. Since early high school I have done a lot of sports but that is only part of it.
I took a second look at your list of inconveniences. Although it doesn’t bother me at all, I think I probably sweat more that most people. Not normally, but during sports, yes, I think so. Nails growing fast? Maybe. That’s all I can say, maybe. I totally relate to the hungry kid with the empty lunch tray though! That was me almost every day of grade school.
I have been known for my unusual appetite my whole life. If you have a suggestion please let me know. Thanks.
No major suggestions per se. Some people are higher adrenaline producers than others, and this leads to a general catabolic state (impossible to build tissue), lots of energy, and a general demeanor that lends itself towards nervousness, anxiety, OCD tendencies, and so forth.
One thing you might try to help tighten this adrenaline valve is to make sure you aren’t drinking so many fluids that your urine is clear. Keep it golden yellow for a while and see how that treats you. With such limited information, there’s not really much more I can say, but happy to answer an occasional question to do my best to satisfy your curiosities.
Matt,
Is there test that can be done to find out if I am a high adrenaline producer? I have had my thyroid checked several times and other tests too. Every test was normal. Possibly I did have my adrenaline level tested. I have had enough tests that I don’t remember for sure if that was one of them.
I don’t want to make it seem like a bigger deal than it is but I want to know why my metabolism is abnormal. The symptoms you said higher adrenaline producers might have do seem to fit me.
i was intrigued by “10 inconveniences of a high metabolism” then i was let down that they all seemed myth.
i almost don’t sweat, and unless i’m sick with a fever and sweating profusely, i don’t stink (maybe gross, showering with a labor intensive job is optional)
regular bowel movements ??? once or twice a week
hair and nails, … i dono, what’s normal vs. fast ?
i am described as a heater in bed, but do prefer a heavy blanket
getting comfortably is 75+(25c), very nice is 95+(35c), maybe 105+(40c) is uncomfortably hot, … dono such “hot” weather is rare
your ‘relocation’ section, i would love living in the tropics, i get cold way too easily (anything under 75(25c))
grocery bill is … lasagna says ‘Serves 4’ = meal for one (lunch or dinner, either or)
… now strange part – see bowel movements … truly where does it go ???
oil and greasy foods i have a low tolorance for
high sugar foods, … without i will get sick, migraines, nausea, lethargic, etc.
yes, as susan mentioned, visiting, i do worry about appearing to eat them out of house and home, as the saying goes
i do get tired easily without plenty of fluids and sugars though. and lots to drink is dangerous for throwing off various balances in the blood if i’m not careful, … chocolate milk is like a god-send, too bad it’s on the expensive side of things
…
going to look into your adrenal/adrenaline thing, see where that leads me
blood-pressure is low, but healthy
heart rate is low (56)
bmi is borderline underweight, but healthy
rather great health otherwise
… all things that are the opposite of suggested symptoms
i dono, nothing makes sense
You aren’t hyperthyroid. You’re in fact, on the other end of the spectrum. No wonder your symptoms don’t align with that. That should make MUCH more sense now.
Okay great, thank you for the answers, now how do I reverse it? I’ve had a fast matabolism for as long as could remember, the only problem is I am getting hotter by the day, and when I get real hot that bowel movement has to happen. Hell, like clock work, 5 minutes after I eat nature calls. And the crazy part is I don’t eat nearly as much as what’s coming out. And no matter how much comes out versus how little I eat, this damn muffin top came out of nowhere. Someone please help me understand how to lower my metabolism rate.
In October I carved 4 longbows and shot them for archery driving my body fat down to about 3-4%. My metabolism from hand carving the hardwood Osage Orange 6-12 hours a day was up to about 6,000-7,000 calories. I had to spend $200.00 on Mass Gainer fuel for weight lifters and drink 3,600 calories of shakes a day just to survive the month. All physical activity was halted to slow metabolism down at the same time. I’m buying 1 more 15 pound bag of “Mutant Mass Gainer” to be safe, because who can afford a grocery bill for a 7,000 calorie a day diet?? It’s tough I know, but get those great tasting powdered calorie shakes, they really did save me. Had a shake 3x a day and to be able sleep at night, a 4th sometimes.
Thanks for your work Matt.
It’s been over two years now since finding your work. I began eating everything again, gained over 10kg and waved good bye to a life long affliction of bad eczema. I’m heavier than I’ve ever been before, bigger, definitely, but not really ‘fat’. I have definitely noticed positive effects from simply relaxing and enjoying food and not drinking too much. I lived a very mobile life for hose years so it was a godsend to find permission to just chill out and enjoy the road and the food that came with it.
I now have a stable home and am looking forward to having more of a routine in my life. Eat well, exercise, play sports, read be creative etc. Despite my weight gain and general improvement in health my temps are still rather low. Waking Temps can be as low as 96.0 and during the day only ever reaching 97.6. Anything you recommend for me?
Regarding fluid intake. Just read Scott Abells MET work and he advises plenty of water and clear urine where as your info is completely opposite. I’ve personally gotten on quite well dropping my water intake, but since I’m stuck at this heat plateau I’m searching for a way to warm up! Any advice appreciated.
thanks for the read ive never read a article that made me laugh like this i was concerned with my sweating as i go to a martial arts gym and everyone would do the same workout as me yet i would be soaked in sweat and literally steaming and most people would barely break a sweat. i feel great its good to know that its healthy to sweat that much but it does suck and its not even summer yet…
this article makes no sense at all
I laughed so hard a this! My god today I was walking down the street sweating like hell, wearing the thinest t-shirt I had and as I sat down waiting for the tram a guy with a canada goose sat next to me… like HOW HOOOOOW tell me HOW the hell is that even possible. That not being the worst as I was already almost dead when I reached university and eventually the lecture I was to attend, people actually closed the windows for they were feeling a bit chilly. Oh and also.. these guys could follow up the 4hours lecture without any problem as I was hungry after 45 minutes..
It’s hard…
And it’s killing me because ok genetics play a role but if these guys were not damn sedentary and eating shit all day I would not have to suffer..
Great post! Have nice day ! :) omero