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I’ve been doing this refeeding thing for about 2 weeks now. I don’t overstuff, but I definitely finally said screw the diet and started eating what I wanted again, mostly healthy, but with some goodies I haven’t allowed myself in too long also. I was lowish carbing on paleo type diet for some time and not losing weight, but my biggest problem has been horrible insomnia no matter what I tried.
The first week of my refeeding, which basically entailed adding starches back into my diet in abundance and dairy as well, my temperature went up over a whole degree (I take it orally) from 96.5 – 97.7. I was very excited despite the 3 pound weight gain. I am into week 2 and I have gained another 2 pounds, but my temperature has been creeping back down, this morning it was 96.6! I know it’s early to be complaining, but I am frustrated and panicking; I am still not sleeping well and the weight gain is starting to flip me out, especially if this doesn’t work for my metabolism. Can you give me any tips or advise to encourage me? I have already read “Diet Recovery” and “180 Metabolism” and I am just starting “Eat for Heat” but the diet fanatic in me is really freaking out and a bit perturbed! Thanks for any input!!
I’ve experienced ups and downs with everything along the way. Weight, temperature, pulse, energy, sleep, etc. It’s not a neatly linear process in my own experience. And, as you’ve already hinted, it takes longer than a week to get a good sense of the overall progress. For me it has been many, many months of ups and downs. But it got better and easier, and it’s actually quite wonderful now.
That sounds pretty normal to me… I also have had months of ups and downs and quite a lot of weight gain.. but it’s worth it for the positive changes in my health and how I feel in general. These changes seemed to happen in fits and starts. Matt says a lot about weight gain, it will happen to most of us especially if there’s been a lot of restricting. Even if you’re overweight to begin with.
I could deal with some weight gain if I was seeing some positive results, but I am one of little faith right now that this will actually work for my health problems. Besides the insomnia not getting better, I feel incredibly fatigued throughout the day, more so than ever, and I feel very foggy brained along with some bad muscle aches and tendonitis flair ups; all the things I went paleo to fix. Is it normal for these things to get so bad for a time before they get better?? When I say fatigued, I mean I can’t get my butt off the couch to do anything, it is really bad. While on lower carb paleo, I had a lot of energy to be active throughout the entire day, despite insomnia issues. To the Paleo crowd, this is a big reason they say to give up all the starchy carbs and grains. I do very much appreciate the feedback! Thanks!!
There’s a theme that runs throughout much of the “health” scene that goes something like this: “if you’re feeling terrible it’s probably just a detox phase or an adjustment phase.” Frankly, that sort of thinking leads a lot of people down a lot of really terrible paths. Most of us probably have first-hand experience with this.
And so, if you are honestly receiving no benefits and only seeing negatives from your dietary change then I would have a hard time recommending that you continue. However, my understanding of the basic recommendations offered here are: stop restricting and eat the foods that you desire in the quantities that you desire. That seems like sound and sensible advice no matter what.
Do you have reason to believe that your metabolism may be slowed? What is your basal temperature? What is your resting pulse? Apart from insomnia, do you have other symptoms? Cold hands and feet? Moodiness? Digestive problems? Any of the other common low metabolism symptoms? If you have reason to believe that you have a low metabolism then eating as described in diet recovery 2 and eat for eat might be helpful.
I can also say that for me the benefits have far outweighed the downsides of eating a lot more calories. There have been downsides along the way – fatigue at times, aches and pains at times, bouts of depression, and other symptoms. But for me, these occurred alongside other benefits and general trends of increased energy, less aches and pains, improved mood, etc. I personally started seeing benefits right away, and so I had reasons to continue through the unpleasant experiences because I believed that they were passing and insignificant in comparison with the benefits.
Low-carb is infamous for having a “honeymoon phase” that can last anywhere up to a year for most people (and much less for many) during which the person can experience weight loss and increased energy. The increased energy is thought to be due to stress hormones – and once the body is completely wrecked from the chronic stress the honeymoon ends and fatigue sets in. So, I’m not sure if it is fair to compare your experience on low-carb diets to anything else.
Basically, my two cents is this: listen to your body, listen to your intuition, and do what is right for you and your body. Eat what your body wants, not what you think you should eat.
This is all such good and helpful information for me; thank you!
I do have a host of health issues that I am starting to believe are related to metabolism, the sleep being one of the most aggravating to me right now. I am 43yr old female. I have had chronic acid reflux, heart palpitations, both of which actually have cleared up in last 2 wks refeeding. I have chronic digestive issues, but that is related to having a total colectomy 9 years ago. I have rosacea, which gets pretty bad sometimes, thought it was gluten intolerance, now I think the chronic dieting and extreme changes to my diet have made me so sensitive to everything. I have fibromyalgia, which did get better on paleo, I had my neurotransmitters tested that showed all out of whack, so I have been on GABA, Taurine, 5HTP and a few other amino acids to balance them out and moods have gotten tremendously better. My oral temperature in morning has been running around 96.5-96.7 except for a few days after refeeding it shot up to 97.7, now back down again. Resting pulse, right now anyway is around 64. I’m on digestive enzymes and HCL as well as probiotics to help with the never ending chronic digestive issues due to no large intestines. Hands and feet always cold, especially feet. It just seems the cleaner I try to eat to help my health issues, especially digestive, the stricter my diet becomes and the more sensitive I react to so many foods and environmental substances, and the more these health issues become increasingly bothersome as well as the incredible food obsessions without ever being able to just eat and enjoy the food. My life has shrunk to sleepless nights in a tiny little obsessive box never really feeling healthy. I just started reading Eat for Heat, and I will read Diet Recovery 2, but so grateful this forum is here to help get to some answers in the meantime while I experiment with some food freedom.
Wow, you’ve got a lot going on… what kind of diet was recommended to you post colectomy? I’d guess that soft, easily digested foods would be the most helpful for you. I have fibromyalgia too and the most relief I’ve had from any diet has been from eating anything and everything. That seems to be fixing my chornic (years!) insomnia and the extra sleep is allowing my muscle tissues to heal as they should.
Two weeks is not a long time to be doing this… great that the palpitations and reflux have cleared. Extreme diet changes/restrictions do make a person more sensitive to different foods but it’s possible to eat them again by easing into it.
Have you by chance started your period around the same time as your temp dropped? The two weeks of higher temps followed by sudden lower temps sounds like normal cycle temp changes if you have recently started your period. The progesterone post ovulation raises your body temperature until menstruation begins. It can also drop a day or two before the bleeding actually starts.
If that’s not the case then pay attention to your fluid intake and make sure you’re eating often enough. Sometimes having a snack before bed helps with sleep and morning temps. When I first started I ate a big spoonful of honey each night before bed. Now I munch on homemade coconut oil chocolates throughout the day and I’m noticing improvements in my waking temps.
I also had a hysterectomy about 4 yrs ago, so I don’t get a period and am not sure what my cycle would be, but good point about the hormone changes. I also just finished Eat for Heat and realized that, although I have added starches back in, I was eating oatmeal with water and fruit, drinking way too much water and mistakes like that I will try to rectify going forward and see how it goes.
@finngarian, I had a temporary ileostomy after my surgery for about 6months, so I ate very little at that time (about 6mths) Doctors did recommend a low residue diet and had me on immodium 4 times a day, which after years, caused more trouble than good. I started researching health and diets about 5 years ago and have gone from low residue to all raw vegan to fruitarian to paleo back to low fat vegan then paleo every other week or so until I drove myself crazy. One type diet helped with the chronic diarrhea, but my cravings and mood swings were insane, the other helped with moods and cravings, but digestion was a mess; I have not yet found a perfect balance.I think if I heal my metabolism and adrenal glands and start sleeping well for some time, then I can slowly go back to a simple healthy whole foods diet and do well in a balanced way; fingers crossed!!
On to reading “Diet Recovery 2” Thank you Matt Stone!
Definitely agree with the person above on Reading Diet Recovery 2 it’s helping me so far and definitely is interesting and entertaining at the very least.
What helped me raise my body temp was Eddy’s Chocolate Ice cream a few bowls in the morning and then more throughout the day if needed to keep body temp up above 98 degrees. Also Butter seems to help.
Hope you have success.
If they left in your ovaries, you could still be having hormonal cycles. Track your temps for a while and see if you notice a pattern. As others have said, though, it’s not a linear progression.
I don’t have the same physical issues as you, however I did have sleep problems. I think I went at least two years without ever remembering a dream and waking up feeling like I had not even really slept. My doctor had me take 5mg Melatonin, 50mg Vitamin B6, 500mg Magnesium Citrate (in capsule form or magnesium oxide), and one Valerian Root pill (or one Kava Kava pill) before bedtime for two weeks straight. That was almost two years ago, at 48, and I sleep really well now. If none of those are off limits to you, you might want to try.
Limiting fluid intake has helped a bunch with the 3am wake up too. As well as the sugar/salt bedside “snack”.
Good luck! Sleep is so important!
The real truth is that we are all guinea pigs here. Unfortunately this is all based on speculation and anecdotal evidence. Although a lot of research has been done by Matt and others there is no long term evidence of how well this works. I read tons of ” research” on the paleo sites and all I got was a lot of feeling great and stuff followed by the biggest crash of my life back in March. Now I am walking that fine line of trying this on for size without making it another orthorexic adventure in search of the answer for everything wrong with me. That is the paradox here, diet recovery along with… Well a diet of sorts. So in short don’t take anything here too seriously. If your willing to take a gamble and can erase the worries of putting on ten, twenty, thirty or more pounds then cast your lot in with the rest of us and join us in this grand experiment. If not then at least do yourself the favor of not taking diets or a bit of extra weight too seriously. Life is to short to waste to much more time on that path. I have read Matt’s posts going back a couple of years and have seen his evolution. There is no reason to believe his thoughts and methods will not continue to evolve. It will be interesting to see we’re this is all at in another two years. One thing is for sure though there are so many people on here who have such similar stories that it leaves little doubt in me that heavy dietary restriction of any sort has caused a lot of problems for a lot o people. Good luck!
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