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Hi there everyone, this is my first post up on this forum, I have been following matt’s advice for the last ten days after reading his books. Things were going fine for the first week until I started to have heart palpitations and pressure in my chest every night when I go to bed. This lasts for about an hour on and off and it is really scary. When I manage to get to sleep, I have been sleeping all through the night and feel okay during the day, although I have some minor ‘racing heart” feelings during the day esp. after I eat.
My background is 12 years vegetarian then 2 year WAPF then 2 years paleo, then I had metabolic typing tests and have been following a carb metabolic type diet for the last 3 years, so yes, pretty screwed up and orthorexic for many many years. I tried it all. I felt best on the carb diet although I found it very hard to follow as it is very low fat.
In the last ten days I have been eating more of a balanced diet, more intuitive, like I used to eat as a kid, with lots of bread, cheese and milk, some sugar and some red meat. I have cut down on fluid intake.
At the moment I am feeling very depressed as I feel I am stuck. I am frightened to continue eating like this as the palpitations are scary, but I am daunted at the thought of going back to eating the way I was before, as I have no idea what to eat and I don’t want to become obsessional again about it. I do have faith in the long run that my metabolism will crank up and I will be able to have a normal diet and stay healthy at the same time, but this part feels very very scary. So I guess, any advice on what to do regarding the palpitations would be really great.
my temps have not gone higher yet, mornings are around 97f at the moment, dropping to 95f in the afternoons.
I’m not a doctor – and heart palpitations can be serious… so… you might want to make an appointment and talk this over with your doctor.
Can you make any connection to when you have the heart palpitations to what you ate that day?
Are you eating enough fat? (especially wild salmon, avocado, olive oil, coconut oil, butter).
Have you ever tried yoga or meditation?
Maybe some breathing exercises?
How about a slow walk through a park to relax?Just throwing some things out there… I’d be very careful with the heart, though! If you’re worried – talk to your doctor.
Hi Tina, thanks for your advice! you know last night I ate some ice-cream before I went to bed and I was actually a lot better, so I think that this maybe doing the trick, I also ate more intuitively yesterday too, before I had been eating anything and everything I could get my hands on, which was maybe a backlash from restricting myself so much in the past, but I was able to listen to my body more yesterday and I think that has helped. I did not eat so much, but ate more calorific food.
I am wondering if anyone knows whether the palpitations are connected to levels of salt or adrenal activity, I have read about this in the past but I am not sure?
I’d guess it was some sort of adrenal/cortisol/stress deal… possibly hormonal, too, as your body’s systems are dealing with the influx of raw materials and going nuts thinking about all the good stuff it could build with it.
Glad you and your body are reconnecting and communicating. I think that’s a big key with this whole method of eating – feed your body what it wants (it often wants what it needs), and try not to go overboard. :)
Hopefully some other – more educated – people will chime in with more info for you.
I found that over eating and reducing liquids to be a problem. Now I find that listening to my bodies reactions, eating enough fat and salt and making sure I get enough liquids to be very helpful. I try to eat a balanced diet, consuming normal amounts of foods and liquids, spaced evenly throughout the day . Sleeping more and slowly increasing exercise also provided health gains. Actually, what helped me the most was being moderate. Learning not to be dogmatic.
Hi DH, thanks so much for your reply, you know, I have been experimenting with my liquid intake since I googled ‘heart palpitations’ the other day because loads of sites mention dehydration. Unfortunately I am one of those people who take things a bit literally and I fall into the trap of being too dogmatic sometimes and I def. was not drinking enough and eating way too much for my body to handle. I have cut back on the amount of food I am eating, but still eating more than normal for me and upped my intake of liquids and have seen quite a marked improvement with the palpitations,
thanks!!!
Very likely you just had more salt than your body could handle. Easy to test it by just drinking some water
Hi Purl,
when I first started 180D, I got heart palpitiations which were clearly linked to cafeine (coffee) intake. I didn’t use to get that before, but now I know there is a fairly low limit on how much coffee I can drink, especially in times of stress (deadlines at work etc.). I don’t know if that’s my body showing me more clearly what it does and doesn’t want, or if it’s the cortisol thing and I really “only” have a cortisol overdose rather than a coffee overdose (cafeine increases cortisol production, from what I gather). Personally, I find not drinking lots of coffee quite difficult…
Anyway, I share this in case it could be a lead, although clearly palpitaions can have all sorts of reasons.
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