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  • #14773
    kamberay
    Participant

    Coffee raises my temp significantly after I drink it.. not just because it’s hot – tea doesn’t work the same way. Is this just draining my adrenals though? I’ll be up to 98.5 most of the day, but the next morning, luteal phase temps are low 97’s. Is it good to have a great metabolism during the eating hours of the day, or is it really doing more harm than good?

    #14787
    AnnaB
    Participant

    I don’t have a definitive answer for you, but here are a couple things you could investigate. Do you ever take your pulse along with your temp? For example, take your temp and pulse before you drink coffee. Then, 30 mins or so after having some coffee, check both again. If your pulse was 65 before coffee and goes up above 85 (say 90-100) after the coffee, the coffee might be causing problems. Not sure if you’re familiar with Ray Peat or the practitioners who follow him, but he thinks optimal pulses are 75-85 bpm. So the coffee could be activating your stress hormones if your pulse goes too high, and then the high temp might be faking you out because it’s also increased by the stress hormones.
    Of course you probably have to take your pulse regularly to see what your usual bpm is– that way you can figure out whether certain foods or activities increase or decrease the pulse– a one-time measure after coffee probably won’t give you the full picture.

    Another thing to consider: how much coffee are you drinking? It’s possible if you’re super sensitive, then an ounce or two could cause problems for you. But, it’s also possible that 4-8oz per day could give you a boost and actually help your metabolism. If I understand your post, you’re saying that you drink coffee and your morning temp the next day is in the low 97s? What if you cut coffee out for several days and then check your morning temp. If the morning temp after a coffee-free day (or after several coffee-free days) is higher (and you didn’t change anything else in your routine), then maybe coffee is a problem for you.

    Also, if you’ve been sick or had a low metabolism for a while and you’re drinkg 16oz or more per day, it probably wouldn’t be a bad idea to back off the caffeine for a bit to see how your body and your temps react.

    If coffee only seems to be doing positive things for you (doesn’t make you jittery, doesn’t upset your stomach, doens’t make you crash later, doesn’t send your pulse sky-high), then maybe it’s a good tool for you to use.
    Also, if a full 8oz cup causes some bad symptoms for you, you could even consider sipping an ounce or so every hour (whenever works for you, say from 8am-1pm), instead of drinking 8oz all at once. Your body might handle the small load better and still get the metabolism boost from it.

    #14791
    ErinElizabeth
    Participant

    I’m really glad to get the pulse check reminder. I had an inexplicably high pulse at an appointment a few weeks ago and had everyone worried about me. I wasn’t feeling stressed or anything and it hasn’t happened again that I’m aware of. Of course it was a couple weeks ago so I don’t have a clue what I’d eaten but I wonder if my breakfast was to blame. Some day I will start a food journal so I can actually learn something from these occasions, but at 38 weeks pregnant I’m gonna be happy with just keeping the house running…

    #14794
    kamberay
    Participant

    Anna – Thanks for your response! I find that my body adapts to coffee the more I drink it… after being off of it for awhile, even an ounce or two will affect me greatly. Over the holidays though, when I tend to not worry about anything – I drink a LOT of coffee and eat a lot of carbs.. my cycle is then usually very regular Jan, Feb & maybe March.. then it starts skipping months again when I go back to my “healthy diet”. (I have a very irregular cycle and history of low metabolism).. So that makes me think that in the long term, coffee is an aid. I’ve been increasing my carbs and lowering my fat and protein, which has been helping with overall mood in general.. I feel great so far.. but it’s only been about a week. My morning temp on the 25th was 97.1, the 26th was 97.4, and today was 97.6… so it’s possible my body is finally starting to get over the immediate adrenal effects of coffee and switch to the more long term positive effects.

    Erin – I was a huge proponent of the pulse test and kept very detailed journals.. coffee was actually one thing that didn’t raise my pulse. But I only had about 5 foods that were in the safe zone, and total they equaled about 10 calories, so I was doing a lot of metabolic damage and stressing myself out over trying to follow the rules. On the other hand there were some major offenders, like bacon, which doubled my low 60/65 pulse to about 120 – those I still avoid. I also found that when my metabolism tanked with the low carb diets, my pulse reactions were much more extreme.

    I have undiagnosed IBS, which I’ve had for about 4 years. I have a holistic nutrition background and I’ve tried literally everything, eventually settling on a WAPF diet, which has helped in certain areas but keeps me metabolically low.. it’s also possible I just don’t eat enough food. The GAPS diet and sugar control diets were the absolute worst things for my health.. so I’ve been fixing the downturn I took with them as well. My blood sugar was insane.. my insulin levels were super high.. anyone who recommends these diets to people with low metabolism are NUTS. When I went back to eating carbs, white flour, sugar, etc.. my blood sugar became fairly stable again.

    #14796
    Dutchie
    Participant

    I’ve never been a coffeedrinker,but very rarely nowadays I find myself thinking about Cappucino or Latte Machiato.
    Do you drink anything in your coffee?

    Like people already mentioned….it could be a warmth&pulse of a stressresponse by the caffeine…..but I was thinking the warming effect migth also bc coffee contains some magnesium.
    In my own experience it sometimes seems that magnesiumcontaining foods can warm me…..this is kind of a back&forward cycle that I’m in;the ‘raised metabolism’ being warm and having a higher pulse seems to be a stress to the body,which depletes magnesium…so I crave magnesiumrich foods which arent the most optimal sources digestion/metabolic-wise for me.
    With this ‘raised metabolism’ I feel (unconsciously) like eating foods(PUFAS,grains all kinds of crap) on&on,drinking a lot…anything that makes my temp drop and usually makes me feel bad physically/lethargic.:s

    #14798
    kamberay
    Participant

    Ok, I’m going back on what I originally said about coffee raising my temps (it does, just not long term).. but this is interesting..

    Dutchie – When I drink coffee, I drink it with honey & whole milk.. I suppose that’s because of Ray Peat. He swears you need sugar in coffee when you drink it, and so I use that more as an excuse to drink it with sugar rather than doing it for health reasons..

    Coffee has a lot of magnesium in it.. just throwing that out there. And may that is why nature put it in there, because it pulls from the body’s energy reserves. With that said, I find that when I START drinking coffee, after having not had any in awhile, it will raise my temps drastically. Same goes for sugar I believe. I feel amazing. My temps go up to 98.6, it’s wonderful. This is short lived, however, because I also get a corresponding crash (in temp and energy). After drinking coffee for a few days though, my temps start to level out, and there’s not as big of a gap in between my lowest and highest temps of the day. I would think that means there is not as much stress being produced from the coffee/sugar, and it’s actually helping the body’s metabolism at that point.

    So as of right now, my morning temps are increasing but the difference between my highest and lowest temps is decreasing.. I’m leveling out.. being more consistent throughout the day. So that first day, my high was 98.7.. and I was freaking out that it got that high. But my morning temp that day was 97.1, super low. Today, a few days later, my morning temp was 97.6, but my high was only 98.1.. not as many roller coasters. This is what I think we’re aiming for.

    This is all theory of course…

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