Everybody wants to know the secret to fat loss. Today, I’m going to reveal it using one of the people I talk to via my Get Help program as an example. I will not show this young gentleman’s face or reveal his name. We will call him Coldmember. He’s Dutch. Age 20.?On the left you can see his impressive and very inspiring before and multiple?after’shots. Now that’s what I?call ripped!
He attained much of this “physique improvement,” in a nutshell, by cycling up and down in bodyweight while doing lots of resistance training/weight training. He would bulk up and build as much?mass and strength as possible, and then reduce calories as little as?was required to?get slowly and steadily leaner. It was a good strategy. Slow, steady, and smart. At one point 
he actually had extremely low body fat while NEVER going below 3,000 calories daily. He describes his metabolism?at that time as being pretty solid with lots of body warmth and a high sex drive – two of the more reliable indicators of a good functioning metabolism.
I would say that this method of fat loss is the safest, most reliable, and least detrimental of all fat loss methods formally known and commonly used. So if you were looking for a big secret to fat loss, well, that’s the secret I guess. Although it’s really not that big of a secret, nor does it happen to be all that safe and realistic of an approach for older persons, people with less than militant 
discipline, or people with a damaged metabolism. This is, of course, why I investigate alternatives that may be better, healthier, and realistic for “normal” people.
But this post isn’t about the big secret to losing fat. This post is about fat loss’s secret – the secret that fat loss doesn’t want?you to know about. And Coldmember has got plenty of secrets not revealed in a before and after snapshot. We’re far from being done with how he got from the before picture to the ripped ones.
The danger with this type of pursuit, in my experience, is that tinkering with your diet leads’to more tinkering with your diet. And tinkering with your diet is like playing?roulette, with the extreme dangers and risks swept under the rug by diet gurus who don’t want to face the prospect that their well-intended?dietary beliefs could be harmful.
Plus, no one ever looks in the mirror and says, “Wow, okay. I think I look exactly perfect!”? Even if’they?did, they wouldn’t necessarily stay looking that way or lose the desire for improvement. And in today’s day and age, with endless dietary philosophies scattered about – all of them “making sense” the more you expose yourself to one line of thinking?(with the added fuel of powerful’short-term testimonies that target your irrational emotional desires)… it’s hard not to?fall prey to?”the next big thing.”
In Coldmember’s case, his first big plunge into the downward spiral of fat loss came when he went from??a relatively sane and effective approach at changing his body composition, and began practicing intermittent fasting in a poorly-designed way. He would feast one day on 4000 to 5000 calories roughly, and then fast completely the next day. He continued alternating with fasting and feasting – his first big step into the world of extremism, until he started to notice some?metabolic problems for the first time.
Next he fell for the strangely’seductive?80-10-10 raw vegan diet (a diet where fruit provides 90% of one’s caloric energy). For 6 months he followed it to the best of his ability, getting extremely lean but also losing a considerable amount of muscle mass as shown in the before and after of his legs. His strength fell approximately in half despite continuiing to do at least some?weight training.
That didn’t work so well, so the next logical step was of course to try a zero carb diet! From fruit only to meat only he went, until he drove himself to the brink of his own extinction.
And I don’t use the word “extinction” lightly. At his low point he had no sex drive of course, but it was worse than that. He had driven himself completely mad with conspiracy theories, developed strong suicidal tendencies, and his body was in hormonal shambles. His diastolic blood pressure reached 35. He could not walk down the street, much less work out. Some days it took him 10 minutes just to get his pants on and buttoned up. His adrenals were shot. He was producing well below the accepted range in cortisol.
Here are some of his more relevant hormone tests. Notice, and’this is extremely important – his maintenance calories?(calorie intake at which your weight stays the same) dropped by more than half, which represents a massive decline in metabolic rate, but his thyroid hormone levels are all?(albeit barely) in the acceptable range. This guy was freezing cold drinking coffee next to a heater in summer with’two jackets on, which is why exterior indicators of metabolic health (body heat, body temp, warmth of hands and feet, biofeedback like sex drive) are?usually?more useful than a snapshot of actual blood hormone values. But?holy peanut balls look at his testosterone values alongside of the reference ranges. Yikes. Click on the image once on this screen and once on the next to enlarge?it to where?you can actually read the thing. No it’s not English but I’m sure?you can decode most of it. ?Coldmember did not send me?an after pic of his balls, but?if he did I would recommend that he?eat the hell out of some food to enlarge that image.
Anyway, thanks to a little hormone replacement therapy, Coldmember?was able to?live. He’s convinced that HRT, cortisone in particular,’saved his life and while that wasn’t’the only thing that could have saved his life, I wouldn’t argue with’that. This was damn close to being a diet death. And all of the after photos?were taken very close to his low point. While some of you, guys especially, may have been really enamored with those lean photos at first glance?- take a moment to realize that?you were seeing?photos?of a suicidal?nearly-dead 20-year?old with no sex drive that couldn’t even walk without?getting lightheaded and almost passing out. This is not health. This is a modern fantasy. Being really lean looks like it would be fun, but it usually isn’t, especially if you use extreme dieting tactics – completely ignoring your body’s signals, to achieve it. What we’re really looking at here?is Auschwitz if they had a nice weight’training facility.
Don’t worry. He’ll be fine. He’s already seeing drastic changes take place since our first talk on Saturday. If you would like I can do a follow-up post on’the general strategy we’re aiming for to get him back on track. Let me know if that’s something you would like to see in a comment, and I’ll see if I can get that post out early next week.
Yes, follow up post please.
Ha I was first! That never happens!
Would love a follow-up!
A follow up article would be awesome. I am tracking bodyfat at the moment. Using only resistance training and no calorie tracking.
I would love to read a follow-up about the strategy your taking!
I would love to hear an update on this guy! I hope he continues to recover.
I tried the low carb thing for like 3 days after reading Taubes. I swear I almost had a psychotic episode. I didn’t sleep a wink during that time and was so depressed and had so much anxiety I had to stop. I don’t know how anyone does it longer than a few days.
I also tried IF for about 6 months. I felt amazing. My blood sugar improved. However I gained about 17 pounds in that time. Has anyone else experienced this?
I keep swearing that I am done manipulating my diet. But it is addictive like drugs. I keep coming back. I hate it.
I definitely don’t do well on low carb. I get so so sleepy and cold.
So, on reddit, someone trying keto said they were vomiting in the morning when on keto, but if they gave in and ate a pile of carbs, they felt fine.
Everyone on reddit told them to see a doctor instead of maybe buying a glucose meter or just not going keto!
Yes, you are right. I have suspected that there was a correlation between weird diets and so many dumb-ass conspiracy theories one sees out there. They both come from a fundamentally similar mind-set: looking for the meaning to your life in all the wrong places. For whatever reasons, I explored the weird diets without ever believing in the dumb-ass conspiracy theories.
“They both come from a fundamentally similar mind-set: looking for the meaning to your life in all the wrong places.”
Ouch…that really hit a nerve, in a past tense sort of way.
A lot of it comes from the excitement of thinking that you have cracked some code in your search on the internet. I think it’s just intellectual treasure hunting or something. Damn internet. Love it. Hate it.
matt please do a full post on this and its different aspect. this connection of poor nutrition with conspiracy theories will be a super duper hit.especially if there is identification of what hormone profiles and nutrition status exactly produce this and maybe with crime too.
do it matty! one for the conspiracy buffs ;)
Well, you know. I’m rather fond of the conspiracies as well. Or at least, I am a full believer that there is far more than meets the eye when it comes to global politics and economics. When it takes over your life and completely steals your conscience it’s a different ballgame though.
right on. especially with things like scientology/soul traps/ETs. would someone with normal nutrition fall for it? how about vegans!
After my brain started recovering, I started integrating the fact that things are not what they seem like in a more rational way. As a fruitarian, I actually managed to get myself sucked into this Alex Jones stuff and some others like that.
quite a ride there… atleast you got it out of the way this young man.. now you know better..
on more question coldmember ….you suppose your brain function is back a 100% how long did it take for things to start lighting up?
2-3 months to get reasonably clear after introducing animal products(0 carb). Still far from 100%, but getting better every day.
cool man… do a post on the emotional/relationship and mental/IQ aspects of your experience. it would be great to read!
Hahaha, when I went low carb for acne, I would sit on rumormillnews.com and divine cosmos everyday. I observed how I started becoming hooked on this stuff.
I was so obsessed with food quality and why we are not able to get perfectly clean foods (which I thought was keeping me from clear skin!) and started looking into conspiracy theories and became secretly really invested in fighting the illuminati so I would eventually get to have great food quality and then clear skin.
I never really thought about it till just now, but being a young dude in college, obsessed with acne, starving on and extremely low carb diet, ignoring schoolwork, just looking up conspiracy theories in the library is actually a pretty sad/hilarious picture. Man, i’ve been through some weird shit, haha.
And don’t forget that Hitler was a vegetarian…
Listen to the recent Joe Rogan podcast featuring former CNN reporter Amber Lyon. You won’t feel so silly about some stuff after all.
I would love to read a follow up post!
coldmember …haaaa good one matt
” began practicing intermittent fasting in a poorly-designed way. He would feast one day on 4000 to 5000 calories roughly, and then fast completely the next day”
poorly designed is right! calorie restriction in disguise will fail every time.
Why didn’t I get the coldmember crack? Damn, that is funny.
Beat me to it Chief. Reminds me of Pilon’s take on fasting where you eat your normal meal after a fast instead of a feast. Call it what you want, but that is straight up calorie restriction.
Yea I’d love to make a movie spoof with a low carb champion …saying …cold… cold… cold like gold member says gold and resorting to eating his own flesh or some other neurotic low carb behavior :)
I was blown away reading Brad Pilon’s book recently when I hit the point where he strongly advised people to not fully give in to their hunger when they break their fast… That’s a major no no in my book and most likely the mindset that causes so many issues when people attempting fasting. I had to stop and reread it, saying to myself are you serious!! why even fast then brad! If your going to starve yourself at the end of it all, then what’s the point of a system that recreates calorie restriction? Counting calories and eating less works just as well in that regard
HAHA. That would be awesome.
When I first started tinkering with IF, this is how I did it. Seemed like an easy way to “skip” calories without working out for hours to burn them off. Like coldmember I was cold, dizzy, miserable, and would have looked the other way if I ran into the Brazilian Women’s Naked Volleyball Team (not sure if that exists, but a man can dream).
Despite my dieting I have not suffered from this lack of sexual desire. Heavens no. I’m sure performance on the other hand would be different. But hey, I’m no Casanova anyhow =P I could be though hehe.
Yeah, awarding the Cold Medal would be pretty perfect. 2nd place would get a Shiver Medal and the third, hmmm, a Yawns Medal maybe?
If you remain Coldmember too long, you will one day wake up to find yourself Mini-Me, without the Tripod effect.
I think the top pic looks the most attractive anyway. He had a pretty good body to begin with. I don’t understand why guys would want to be as skinny as the “afters” – most women would like at least a little flesh over the muscle!
Agreed, why is it that guys think you want to have a super skinny guy?
I preferred the top pic too- and I am always in the gym and fully accustomed to the idea of muscularity and leaness.
But I dont like the over lean emaciated look,
I would rather have a bit of bulk and fullness.
And so many men I talk to are always telling me how they dont like skinny women!
In fact one of the men was saying to one of the particularly skinny female instructors the other day- your like a rack, all bones and no meat!
lol
But this woman runs hours every day to maintain her preferred super skinny state..
top pic definitely works for me! ;) imagine cuddling up next to those other pics? all that muscle and bone? ouch! i like warm and snuggly cuddles!!
I eat good ol’ white sugar by the spoonful and anything I have like having for the past year and have steadily lost weight. I do circuit training (rarely any steady state cardio) for about an hour a day, most days of the week. I also take minerals with every meal and rarely drink water. I have always had a weight problem, but now I have simply given up caring about what I eat or when and I’ve been able to maintain or lose weight when I probably would have gained (stressful year). And I’m an over 40 stress-ed out mom! I sleep soundly and pretty consistently when I have enough sugar during the day. If I need to eat more, I just eat more. If I’m not hungry, which is quite common now, I just don’t eat. My protein intake is pretty low, but I have tons of energy. I can literally feel myself relax when I have a spoonful of sugar! Pop tarts are also amazeballs in the afternoon. I eat one or two and then I feel great for the rest of the day. Thanks sugar!
This is so interesting!
When I got pregnant earlier in the year (right as the on-season for our business started) I started eating sugar by the ton. I have consistently been eating sugar throughout the pregnancy and I have actually lost weight. I am now back to my ‘starting’ weight, but only because I had a week and a half of strict bread eating while my mother was visiting from abroad, something I have never liked consuming.
Earlier today I was tired and pissed off (been dutifully ‘cleaning up’ my diet, orders of midwife) until I gave in and had some wonderful dark butterscotch caramel. Suddenly I was all happy and patient and made of sunshine which promptly shone out of my ass.
Thinking about it the other day, my father has always been a sugar fiend, eating milk chocolate and downing it with coke as long as I remember, and he was always very lean.
I am accepting that quite possibly, it is just meant to be for me to eat sugar daily and staying relatively active during it. Hard life, yes?
I have a similar reaction to sugar…it always makes me smile :)
Back in my Primal Blueprint days when I would consciously try to cut carbs, sugar would always find its way into my body, usually in the form of huge weekend binges. When I relaxed my stance on sugar, I found that somehow my body gets a certain amount no matter what I do. I decide not to have ice cream for a week, but find myself eating a batch of Jell-O every couple of days. I guess my body knows what it needs.
Haha, “Coldmember” here, yes, I sure as heck was cold. When I was doing that IF, it was a bit more like binge->shame and and fast rather than a deliberate strategy. Some weeks, it was nothing but ice-cream, or homemade scones with margarine(PUFA attack). Maybe you can add some pics where I actually had some decent mass while natural and lean, hope to get back there. Still dig the lean look, but will be giving it up for now. My body really really craves calories for rebuilding my organs, bones, brain, and muscles. So, let’s have me a nice PUFA-free homemade 2000 kcal pizza now and enjoy some Halo(yes, enjoyment is actually an option again, I cannot express how much better I have been feeling since overfeeding). I was on an 1800 kcal diet for maintenance up until now.
Hey Coldmember,
I read that you’re Dutch……do you also live in The Netherlands? and if so,where do you live?:)
Ik woon in Zuid-Holland, preciezer dan dat deel ik het hier even niet. En jij? :)
Nee,verwachtte ik ook niet,doe ik zelf ook niet. Ik woon ook in Zuid,maar dan Zuid-Limburg;)
Je bent sowieso nog een stuk jonger dan mij,dus ik neem aan dat je nog op school zit/studie volgt? Nou ja….als je hier vaker komt dan zul je vast wel wat meegekregen hebben van al mijn issues etc.
Studie is gestopt vanwege de gezondheidsproblemen, toen ben ik gaan werken en vervolgens moest ik dat om dezelfde reden stoppen, werd steeds zwakker. Ik kom hier nog niet lang, was specifiek op zoek naar iemand die verstand had van lichaamstemperatuur, want dat was het grootste probleem ondanks de HRT, de endo’s begrepen er maar niets van, inmiddels hebben we het idee dat de hele diagnose niet klopt. Wat zijn jouw problemen?
Je kunt beter vragen wat mn problemen niet zijn,denk dat ik dan sneller klaar ben. Eet vs. beweeg vs. angst om dik te worden-issues(niet meer fatsoenlijk kunnen eten/geen normale maaltijdfrequentie meer,oftewel kweet ni eens meer wat nog normaal is),spijsverteringsproblemen,hormonaal/emotioneel ontregeld(rare angst-aanvallen denk oa bijnierproblemen,schildklier en weet ik niet wat) lijkt voor groot deel met spijsvertering&bad gut flora te maken heeft,Lyme&Co.En dat is dan lichamelijk/mentaal…..heb ik t nog niet over feit dat mn leven op een nulpunt verkeerd waar ik maar niet uitkom/verder in kom. Mijn vertrouwen in reguliere zorg/geneeskunde is totaal afgenomen na alles,hoewel er alternatief ook ontzettend veel kwakzalvers tussenzitten….
Wat deed je voor een studie/werk? (misschien kunnen we beter anders mailen,beetje lullig voor rest hier:))
Als je jouw mail/facebook wilt delen hier zal ik je ff mailen/bericht geven. Zoniet, dan gaan we een superintelligente strategie bedenken om de privacyproblemen te omzijlen. ^^
Nee zet t liever niet openlyk hier. Je kunt mschien matt/rob mailen,die hebbe myn emailadres. w8 vraag wel ff hier…
Matt or Rob,could u maybe sent my emailadress to Coldmember?bc i dont like to write it here openly
En ik dacht dat ik de enige uit Nederland was die hier las. Ik woon op dit moment in de omgeving Amsterdam en wil binnenkort, als de financien het toestaan gesprekken met Matt hebben. Succes jullie !
You looked best in the first picture. In fact I was confused at first thinking that must be the after picture. No offense, but the super-lean pics look yucky to me. Maybe it is just me but I think most women aren’t especially attracted to that look.
The first picture is not my “natural shape”, if there even is such a thing. I started out really skinny at around 12% bodyfat and then bulked up to that in six months. And I agree, on these ”after” pics, the recent ones, I had a lot less muscle mass than I would like to have. I have been in a lot better shape than both of these periods as I stated before. But for now, aesthetics or the amount of weight I can lift are not priorities. All I want is good hormonal health after getting off the HRT, we’ll see about the rest much, much later.
I don’t think you need more muscle… I think you need more fat!
Working on that, and it’s going quicker than expected. ^^ Vains on the abs are gone already and I am slowly exchanging the 6-pack for a 4-pack.
Wow that high SHBG with low T is real bad…. TRT???
You are a hero to all of America! Reviving penises worldwide! I salute you!
It is good to know how people get adrenal fatigue with dieting but it is even more important to learn how to recover from adrenal burnout. Conventional doctors don’t know how to diagnose it and have absolutely no idea how to treat it (I am speaking from my personal experience). Your follow-up post will be much appreciated and hopefully cortisone and HRT is not the only answer.
Neither do alternative doctors. At least the conventional doctors send you home empty-handed. Alternative doctors send you home with a bunch of expensive supplements that don’t work.
Natural practitioners can treat Adrenal fatigue. However it takes up to a year to really restore your health, assuming you take your nutrition, sleep well, look after your diet etc. Also Thyroid may also be underactive in line with Adrenals so that also needs help. Patience. Rome wasn’t build in a day. Your health likewise didn’t deteriorate in weeks so why would you expect instant recovery?
Sorry Marcia. The cure for Adrenal Fatigue is, in my experience, similar to the Search for the Holy Grail.
Quite frankly, as a rule, I don’t trust Alternative Practitoners. They are for the most part liars or so blinded by their own dogma that they can’t see the truth. They deflect from their own inadequacies by criticizing mainstream medicine.
By the way, I have been involved with Alternative Medicine for the last 30 years, so one can not accuse me of not having given it a chance. With very few exceptions, I have found practitioners of Alternative Medicine to be even greedier than their mainstream counterparts. And, for the most part, deluded or at least guilty of exaggerating their capabilities.
Most clients of alternative practitioners collaborate in the lie, probably due to desperation. They always go through a honeymoon where this or that naturopath or diet has fixed them, but then always end up disillusioned. Of course, I am only speaking from my own experience here.
Yes Thomas, it’s collusion and it runs rampant in alternative as well as allopathic medicine. The cure in my mind is to question authority.
The problem with most naturopathic docs is that their dietary advice gives most people adrenal fatigue, lol. No wonder they all think there’s a big epidemic of adrenal fatigue!!!
Adrenal fatigue is not a medical diagnosis, adrenal insufficiency is. It means the output of adrenal hormones is too low. Adrenal fatigue hypothesizes that the cause of this is overuse of the adrenals as far as I know, it’s used by a lot of quacks, that’s for sure. In my case, because I was in such bad shape, I instantly got hydrocortisone, without first getting an ACTH stimulation test to determine whether the problem was actually coming from the pituitary gland. Would have to get off of HC to determine that.
Coldmember, thank you for clarifying the truth about adrenal fatigue: it doesn’t exist. “Adrenal Fatigue” is a dangerous lie that costs suffering, ill people millions and millions of dollars for products that are unwarranted and often medically unsafe. Additionally, because people are convinced that they’ve found an explanation for their problems by the multitudes of alternative medicine folks pushing Adrenal Fatigue as a diagnosis (predominately tied to some “product” – book, supplements, informational DVDs, etc.,) that they stop searching for an accurate diagnosis and treatment.
Adrenal insufficiency (AI) is a life threatening medical condition that should be diagnosed and treated by an endocrinologist who is a specialist in adrenal disease. Even many general endocrinologists are not knowledgable enough to take care of AI. Please refer to this site, from the Endocrine Society for information on the fallacy of adrenal fatigue: (http://www.hormone.org/Public/upload/Adrenal-Fatigue-Web.pdf) and this site from the National Institute of Health for information on adrenal insufficiency:(http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/adrenalglanddisorders.html).
Sorry for the long post, but this is such an important issue. I nearly died from complications of complete adrenal failure and hypopituitarism and know horror stories of people inappropriately diagnosed with adrenal fatigue. People can develop AI from some of the adrenal fatigue “treatments.” And others, who really do have AI, are so distrustful of allopathic medicine that they forgo a treatment that would help them in favor of supplements that will not. So, this is my soapbox! If you have symptoms of adrenal insufficiency, please see a qualified endocrinologist!
Cold member, best wishes to you! I’m glad you are feeling better and admire you for sharing your story so others might benefit from your adversity.
Actually, the same could be said of allopathic doctors as well, gees have you watched Dr. Oz lately. But maybe I’m just bitter because I’m stuck in Loma Linda, with Loma Linda docs who think everyone should eat like Colin T. Campbell.
Matt,
That is the truth! LOL
Wow you have a very negative outlook. There are greedy people in all walks of life, but not all health practitioners are. I’ve been to see many doctors in my life (mostly mainstream) and although several have been a bit incompetent, I would only judge 4 to be greedy (one of these was an “integrative” doc, one alternative, other 2 were mainstream). Everyone has to make a living, and no one method is going to be helpful for all.
IMO, the best alternative docs acknowledge that Western Medicine offers much knowledge and positives but does not have all of the answers. Adjusting your lifestyle and living in a healthy environment is always going to be more helpful than any one remedy. There are many alternative therapies that are helpful, and many that are not, and different things work for different people. It’s important to listen to your own body, gut instinct and feelings and not just listen to the doctor, whether mainstream or alternative,
Should I tell a lie about my own experience for the sake of being POSITIVE? As I said, my opinion is based upon my own (relatively vast for one individual) experience. If yours is different, I can’t dispute it.
No, of course you shouldn’t lie! I just wonder why you have such a negative energy going on. I personally feel (on an intuitive level) that most health care practitioners mean well and want to heal, though some may be misguided. My worst experiences by far have come from mainstream docs, but I still think they meant well. They were times when I went against my gut or didn’t research on my own properly.
Why do I have negative energy going on? I guess you can’t feel my good vibrations or groovy karma.
I have negative energy going on, because I have spent a boat load of money on these assholes who promise you the world and either don’t deliver anything or, worse, screw you up. Now am I supposed to put a “happy smile” on that and visualize world peace?!
Here’s an Italian expression that sums up most Alternative Practitioners: Tanto Fumo, Niente Fuoco. A lot of smoke, no fire. In other words, bullshit.
Haha, love the Italians! Your anger is understandable if this is your life experience. I totally agree with you on the gurus who promise everything, actually. But, I don’t think it’s a good idea to throw the baby out with the bathwater. The alternative practitioners I’ve been to have been very happy to work in tandem with mainstream doctors and haven’t promised the world. They’ve been the only ones who’ve really been helpful for me. But, most of what’s helped me came through personal research and tuning into my body.
Another issue can be emotional stress (i.e., from childhood abuse) or as I mentioned in a post the other day, geopathic stress. Do you know what geopathic stress is? If not. google it. It can make everything else you try moot and is often a factor when medical treatments don’t work. Sounds like pie-in-the-sky at first but it’s legit and is often the answer to mysterious intractable conditions. It’s cheap to have someone check (or free if you do it yourself – you can learn via the internet), and you correct the problem by moving your bed/desk to another position in the room, away from the GS. It’s “alternative” but cheap and helpful. (Although, here also, be careful who you choose to check, and get a 2nd opinion)
Natural practitioners are way more aggravating than conventional doctor’s because they are about a thousand times more sure of themselves. They think they have all the answers just as much as regular docs, but they make sure to top it all off with an eye roll towards all those idiots in conventional medicine, who, despite their obvious shortcomings are actually able to explain what is happening on a physiological level. Most alternative healers are operating from a very slim and specialized concept of the human body, and a little information is a very dangerous thing. I get the impression from the natural folk that they’re irritated whenever I ask pesky questions or when their magical prescriptions fail to yield their enthusiastically guaranteed result. It’s the exact same paradigm as medical doctor’s…some of the treatments are effective, some are not, but just follow the regimen and you should be fine. Yeah right.
Wow you both have had really different experiences than I have had. The last 2 practitioner I saw were a TCM/acupuncturist and a homeopath. Both were very supportive of western medicine. The TCM doc is a fertility specialist and works with tons of people getting IVF and fertility diagnoses, and she has very high success rates. She would ask me about my blood tests, make recommendations on things to ask my MD, etc. The homeopath has never said anything negative on Western med, and I know she’s worked with people on chemo, helping mitigate side effects. They are more expensive, but that’s because they aren’t covered by insurance.
Read “Balance Your Hormones Balance Your Life” by Claudia Welch. It’s wonderful, and she gives great advice for hormone repair and just living a happy, fulfilling life. She believes in TCM and Ayurvedic methods, but says flat out that lifestyle and diet should be addressed first, and gives awesome tips on doing that. Then only if they don’t work, she says some specific herbal remedies can help. She very rarely has to resort to HRT, and if she does it’s only as a stop-gap measure.
Thank you so much, Amy! I’ve read a lot of your comments and find them very helpful so I’m going ahead and ordering the book now.
Let me know what you think! Matt, I think you might be very interested in the book as well.
I will note as an aside, she has some interesting thoughts on diet in there, too…I agree with many but will say am torn on a few. Some overlap with Matt’s, some do not. She is a big proponent of real, whole food, and digestion is key (which I agree with). She’s not too big on eating lots of meat, or saturated fat or refined carbs (these I’m a bit torn on) because they’re harder to digest, and advises not too much or too little food.
Refined carbs hard to digest? That’s the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard of. So I turn to my friend with IBS/crohn’s. Guess what he says:. “That’s the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard of!”
Just my 2 cent…
Sorry, that referred to the meat and saturated fat. Refined carbs she says digest too quickly! And also that white flour can gum things up a bit.
Saturated fat hard to digest? Far from my experience either. Talk PUFA’s, raw vegetables, some grains, unproperly cooked potatoes, some fruit…Now that is hard to digest.
I must admit , more my experience too.
White flour, sugar and fats, go down better than salads and whole grains, fruits, nuts and seeds etc.
Traditional health foods create issues for me that processed foods dont.
Same here. My digestion is far better when I avoid the so called “health foods” and stick to refined grains, saturated fat, berries without seeds, fruit juice and well cooked underground veges.
She addresses this actually, and makes recommendations on making grains and beans more digestible (prep methods and spices), and is absolutely a proponent of well-cooked veggies, fruit juice, white rice, etc.
Is that something similar like “The Mood Cure” by Julia Ross?
Yes I would love to hear about follow up. I too think he looked most attractive in the first shot. Sometimes I wonder if our deep unhappiness with the way we are just comes from a lack of meaning in our modern lives???
The thing is, can we not have a halfway house here? Flexible dieting – a al Lyle McDonald – where you get regular refeeds (lots of carbs) every few days. The guy actually looks pretty good in the first after picture.
Flex dieting, aka metabolic chaos. All these after pics were taken really close together. Just different angles. McDonald’s Flex dieting or the ideas presented in UD2 is only really an appropriate strategy for people looking to shed that last 2% bodyfat that they can’t achieve through the standard, straightforward approach – prior to some competition or something before regaining it. McDonald is a smart guy, but that is precisely his problem in a way too – the over-intellectualization of everything pertaining to diet and lifestyle.
There has been a lot in between those periods, like these:
http://i48.tinypic.com/313q8ls.jpg
http://i50.tinypic.com/ezikat.jpg
Wasn’t always either bloated or starved. Have been 7% with decent mass, metabolism and strength. Hope to get back there some day(last pic).
But the first focus is health, getting the temp up first, getting the libido up and then slowly getting off the HRT.
I was diagnosed with congenital panhypopituitarism by my endocrinologist by the way, she told me diet would have nothing to do with it. She thought I started the diet(801010) because my hormones were getting whacky from the congenital disorder and I was going a bit mad in response to that. Somehow I never fully bought into that, but at first, I accepted the diagnosis thinking someone educated in the field would know better.
Yea i dont know if i would trust that diagnosis. You obviously didnt have a pituitary problem, pre-80/10/10.
As for your HRT, mind telling us what you are on right now? If Matt wants to add this to the follow up, thats fine.
20 mg hydrocortisone
125 mg armour thyroid(actually another brand, but also pig-thyroid, so T3/T4 combo)
50 mg androgel
0.20 mg GH
Also, looking at my blood tests more closely, it seems like most of the problems are not with the pituitary whatsoever. My TSH for example was normal, while my thyroid hormones were low. My FSH was also normal. I really wonder how they came up with this diagnosis. Will be seeing my endocrinologist again tomorrow(thursday). Recently had blood drawn and will ask for blood to be drawn again after two weeks of RRARF(so far practiced in a bit too extreme way, my body sometimes craves up to 7000 kcal of whole food). Let’s see what going from 1800 to more than double on average does to my hormones. Already, I feel like I want to lower my HC, because the cortisol feels somehow overstimulating. Will discuss with my endo tomorrow if I can try 17.5 mg.
“especially if you use extreme dieting tactics ? completely ignoring your body’s signals, to achieve it.”
I’ve had my own personal run-ins with that. Getting healthier isn’t actually all that hard, it’s when you don’t listen to your body’s cues and think you know what’s best instead that can get you in trouble. First hand experience with that one.
That’s not to say manual tweaking isn’t allowed ever, but following extremes and ignoring your body’s cries for help is a recipe for disaster, for sure.
What kind of foods are you eating right now?
Staples are: Ground beef, eggs, sweetpotatoes, rice cakes, cane sugar, rice noodles, white fish, ghee and rice syrup. I eat a pretty clean diet, maybe when I get back running a bit again, I will introduce some more. Have allergies for dairy(strong) and gluten(light) at the moment. And serious digestive problems, making it hard to sleep just from how my stomach feels(has not gotten worse when increasing my calories from 1800 to 3000-4000, but not better either so far). Reduced my water intake from 5 liters to 1-1.5 liters and increased my sodium intake a lot(not measuring it).
how do you expect to grow out of the gluten/dairy problem?
Gluten was not a problem in the past, dairy was. Hope that getting my metabolic rate up will change at least the gluten problem.
if dairy is an issue i thought maybe beef would be an issue too? the guys on 80-10-10 say vegetarian diets increase testosterone, reduce igfbp3 and increase shbg. this helps hair growth. how was your experience in this aspect? was your testosterone shot due to the excess animal protein or due to the 80-10-10? was your sex drive shot during 80-10-10 or atkins style eating afterwards? and how was your hair.. did you lose them on 80-10-10 or afterwards on atkins or no real change there in either diets? thanks.
I had an allergy test, beef is no problem, all forms of dairy are. After the binge-starve phase, I had a decreased but still reasonable libido. When I just started 801010, it increased a bit(the first month maybe), probably because of the consistent carbs. Then, as the months went by, it got to zero(non-functional). Then, on zero carb, it became functional again within a few months, just really low. Same with my hair, first improved on 801010, few months later, it was terrible. Has never been good since(low carb did not fix this).
What good is it to have a sexy body when you don’t want to have sex with it?
That’s the irony of course, that we have glorified a male physique that is usually accompanied by impotence and a disinterest in sex. Likewise in the female category, there has been much glorification of a physique that is usually accompanied by amenhorrea and a disinterest in sex. Maybe this is the intuitive solution to overpopulation haha. The more populated the earth becomes the more attracted we become to infertile people.
Epic population control ! lol Our very own matrixy version of Children of Men, bring on the pursuit of abs…. more horny ladies for me at the buffet.
If you like what you see, put an onion ring on it.
LOL
Yeah the whole body pressure thing sucks…and only adds immense stress…which works against any efforts to obtain the “perfect” body. I have two little girls at home and the oldest (9) is already “aware” of these things. Sad that a 4th grader is already exposed. You tell your kids one things, and the Matrix tells them another…and so the hamster wheel spins on.
My 4-yr-old (boy) wants a “honey sandwhich” for lunch every day- today I tried to convince him to add a bit of butter to it and I said something like, “You need a little fat with all this bread and honey.” And he says, “I don’t like that word Fat. It’s a bad word.”
Damn! No idea where he picked that up. I guess I won’t tell him the raw milk he loves so much is 6% butterfat!
Funny…I know what you mean about not knowing where they pick it up. My oldest has this obsessive thing with her calves. She pulls on them and says they are too big (she means fat but won’t say it).
To me it sounds like he is referring to fat as in fat people as in not nice calling someone fat. In that way fat can be a bad word and a four year old i guess is trying his best to interpret it.
haha, honey sandwhich…cute! I love honey/butter sandwhiches…SO DELICIOUS! the trick is to let the honey soak into the bread and crystalize…yumm…
There may be something to that, too many rats in a cage, and they turn on each other. Are there too many rats in our cage?
It used to be that men were attracted to sturdy, curvy, vivacious women. These days, the ideal is stick thin, emaciated, gaunt looking females. I don’t think that if I was that size I would want to have sex, it would probably hurt.
The number of rats is irrelevant. The number of cages is too great…living with zero cages changes everything.
Chief, what do you mean?
(BTW, Alisha, in my experience men still do love curves! I’m very thin – size 0 – but still have very curvy hips and booty and that is what the men go for every time!)
I concur!
Size 0 with curves and booty. I’m intrigued. Pics please!
Haha I’ll let you use your imagination!! I will say my boyfriend is a happy man ;-)
I can’t get a break around here. How about friending me on Facebook?
Those chicks that are like, fit, or just a tiny bit chub, but then there butts are really big and all that…Jeeeeeeeeeepers Creeepers folks.
He means we live, and are treated, like animals in a zoo. Modern society is a very poor simulation of our natural environment and it is characterized by cages–not just walls and locked doors, but mental cages where crossing invisible lines leads to punishment and everyone is trapped by stress and fear, mostly paralyzed and prevented from behaving authentically and naturally.
At least, that’s what I think he means. Pretty close, Chief? :-D
Pretty damn close Uncephalized, I might actually have to use some of your words in the future! lol I’d add It’s partially about natural environment, but not in a groky/paleo way. Best suited environment would sum it up a little better because we can live much better than this. I would argue that we lived much better in the past in many respects but it doesn’t mean we need to hop in the Delorean and go 88. It’s a Rat Park vs a rat cage kinda thing like I have mentioned in previous comments. Junk food isn’t all bad in all uses and the internet isn’t all bad in all of its uses but they are part of the modern world. We need to separate the good from the bad. For instance not sit on Facebook 12 hours a day! We need to focus on building our own best suited environment.
Excellent way to put it. I didn’t mean to imply that anything modern is bad. But we are not evolved to thrive in the environment most of us inhabit in terms of psychological demands, lack of access to the outdoors and natural settings for R&R, arbitrary restrictions on our movement, constant connectivity, overstimulation by TV and the Internet, externally-imposed schedules, etc. I think all these are characteristic of our modern society and all damaging in the dosage we consume.
Also, feel free to use my words for whatever you want! :-)
I have to say, I don’t like the whole “men love curvy women” thing… Simply because some women who are naturally not very curvy at all can be made to feel like they’re not “real women”, and I don’t think that’s any more helpful than making naturally curvier women believe that men will only find them attractive if they can starve themselves to look like the supermodels.
The reason why I never look at magazines anymore is because if they’re not telling us that “real women are curvy!” then they’re telling us how to lose weight!!
Anyways, that’s my little two cents worth, not directed at anyone in particular, just felt like having a wee rant :)
I pretty much like them all haha. To me, a real woman is one that you don’t have to blow up.
Lol good to know.
Matt, you just reminded me of this song…
http://youtu.be/3lzbss6ZS4E
50% of it is about working what you’ve got, girl!!
I see those women’s magazines when I visit my Mom. The covers are usually the same…some new diet to lose 10lbs in 10 days, and right below that a recipe for triple chocolate thunder cake.
Yeah, Woman’s Day and the like are always good for a laugh. See, you’re supposed to fix these luscious desserts for your family, the be “bad” and have just a little taste while your loved ones demolish it all in front of your eyes. No matter! You’ll have some celery and salt free peanut butter after you hit the treadmill for an hour! And then when you freak out and eat the rest of the fucking cake around midnight when everyone is asleep, you can turn to page 37 for the new miracle plan to lose ten pounds in just ten days!!!!!!!
Guilt is an industry.
Yeah, I think it’s not so much that men’s taste in women has changed, but the marketing telling WOMEN what they should look like is different. I suppose men aren’t immune to this barrage of cultural messages but you hear plenty of men (and women) protesting what the advertisers say they should find attractive.
Personally, body alone doesn’t do much for me no matter how fit. Has to be attached to some more intangible allure like smile, personality, intelligence, etc.
And fashion trends are set mostly by gay men… gay men don’t really find “curves” attractive. They design clothes for models who resemble 10 year old boys.
At my thinnest, in addition to getting winded to go get the mail, I also experienced a complete lack of sex drive for a solid year. It was the single most dehumanizing experience of my life, but I could finally wear “sexy” clothes like short cut offs…hooray. Now I’m back to my sturdy self, the cut offs have been replaced with something with a more forgiving waist band, but my lady parts are back in business, and with vigor. Thank you ice cream.
Can you have low body fat (6-9%) but high metabolism?
Hey Park, high metabolism is relative to what a low metabolism is for an individual and it has a lot of factors to it. For instance someone with 2% more body fat than he had 2 years prior but an identical cellular activity would in theory metabolize a slight bit more food to maintain himself so this would be 2 different “Highs” not necessarily better. What I am getting at is your metabolism at 15 % and 8 % body fat would most likely be different but could possibly be good in both instances one being lower. Now If your asking is it even possible to have a proper functioning body and a strong metabolism with all of the benefits/none of negatives associated with a low metabolism but also have a really low body fat, As far as what I’ve seen so far in training people, I don’t believe it is achievable. I plan on doing some experiments with a large group of people this year to put the nail in the coffin on that one though. I wouldn’t venture far down that road if I were you.
somehow I deleted a bit. should have read : I don’t believe this is achievable for most people.
This topic would qualify for a full blog post :) I wonder what bodyfat% bodybuilders have to get those abs. schwarzenegger for example would not have had metabolism issues and was clearly not lacking in libido .. he still seems to be pretty busy in his 60’s ;)
Steroids are what allow someone to get lean and maintain muscle mass with less repurcussion metabolically. Most people, if they followed a bodybuilders methods, would lose tons of muscle mass while getting lean, if they were even able to get that lean. With really low testosterone. Plus, what one person can “get away with” in terms of stressors (weight loss being a stressor) are highly different. I’ve always suspected that the prime difference between a bodybuilder and a normal guy is an exceptional recovery capacity, and very high stress tolerance.
I have been around 9-10% with a high metabolism, just like in the intro of the blog post. I have also been around 7% with still a pretty decent maintenance calorie intake. Never went below 2500 to get to 7% at the time. And maintained my 110 kg BP, 145 FSQ, and 175 DL. Didn’t lose any strength getting to 7%, did it very, very slowly at the time. After that I got slightly stronger, bulking up to around 15% again, and then I quit for almost a year. This was years ago. The first picture in the article was after my very first, over the top, bulk, probably age 15. I think single digits do take a bit of a toll, but my experience has been that 10% is perfectly doable with a high-calorie intake and takes little effort to maintain if you are healthy.
I wonder what Taylor Lautner and those “shrink-wrapped” guys’ body temp is? Probably pretty low… they are vampires after all…
Could be high, there are actually fit, low bodyfat people out there, but hey, that’s nothing but guesswork. As for vampirism, I became an emotional vampire as well, needing to suck warmth out of everyone and everything around me.
Actually Taylor Lautner is a werewolf and thus supposed to be warm/hot all the time;)
Exactly. You would expect a wolf to be hot, just to survive the cold winter. Ever hear of a three dog night? It wasn’t a 3 cold fish night.
My Dad howls at the moon and is moody during the full moon, he has always been extremely hot (body temp). I wonder if that means he is a closet werewolf.
Reminds me of when I did the Body for Life diet (also at age 20). 12 weeks of hunger and weakness. Didn’t even get “ripped”, just thinner. Not worth it.
Thanks for sharing your story, Coldmember. Hehe, nice name. I am also in the process of recovering my health from eating disorder and diet disaster. I started about 8 months ago and am doing A LOT better. However, during the disaster years, I caused some pretty significant digestive issues. I would appreciate hearing about your digestive issues and if they are improving or changing in any way as you get healthier. Also, do you avoid dairy completely or are you trying to add it in to see fi the allergy will clear as your health improves?
This is interesting. At the height of my no restriction phase with high carb, medium fat, medium protein, RRAFFing at points, eating whatever I wanted, lots of sugar etc, dairy, wheat etc, I came to the end of my tether because whilst I liked the freedom, I had developed acne, eczema, angular cheilitis, and generally felt like a pile of shite. My digestion was totally shot, and I had started to rely heavily on refined sugar, traditional foods like cereal and tortillas and ice cream made me feel wrecking. God knows, it could have been anything that was making my digestion awful, so I am not blaming the advice to eat more and be less strict. It taught me a whole new way of looking at food. But……4 months back on 811 and I am warmer, stronger, leaner and more alert. Adrenal issues have seemed to reduce, and baring some REM sleep issues, which I put mostly down to stress, my day-to-day life is more joyful, simpler and more productive, especially on the days when I sleep well. I find my appetite is so much better on 811, and I it is more regular – whereas I would want to skip meals eating other ways because I would still feel like the food was in my stomach from breakfast to lunch. Angular cheilitis is
gone, finally.
I am not tooting 811’s horn without reservation, though. I am thoroughly open to the day that it becomes a complete failure and I change things up. This blog has definitely taught me to take stock, frequently and see beyond the blindness of the honeymoon period of a new diet. Maybe I should give it another 6 months then see.
Would watch out there, while I think lowish-carb may work if you have no tissue to rebuild, I have seen no exception to the rule that 811 ends in 911.
Abbie, it’s good that you are being vigilant. Please be even more so. There might be something to switching diets from time to time. When I think about Raw Vegan diets and their gurus, I always think about this article which is pretty damning in my opinion:
http://www.chetday.com/rawfooddietnazariah.htm
Keep in mind that these “gurus” have an interest in maintaining their dogma. Same goes for Alternative Doctors. They make money off of it AND what would happen to their poor little old egos if they were to admit that they had been wrong and people had suffered worse health as a result of their advice? After all, they have been posing as AUTHORITIES.
Think about the Macrobiotic guru Michio Kushi. His wife died of cancer. His daughter died of cancer. He had cancer (don’t know if he still does). Yet this was THE ALTERNATIVE CANCER CURE of the 80s. I don’t keep up with it, but I don’t think he ever disavowed what he had advocated. Many people got sick from following that diet. Of course, that’s not raw vegan, but still, be careful.
What age did health guru Paavo Airola die at? Did Paul Bragg EVER tell the truth? What about his so-called “daughter” Patricia?
I tell you. Health gurus don’t have a very good record with integrity or even making people healthy.
I couldn’t agree more Thomas. I am actually kind of annoyed that it works for me. I wanted the no restriction method to work for me more. Like you say, vigilance is everything. And health gurus are not interesting to me at all anymore. I am doing this for quality of life day to day, not really for any long term health goals — but, if it became apparent that I was seriously at risk of long term health complications I’d do it. Plus, I do have plenty of opportunities to rock the boat. Last night, a shot of rum sorted out my REM sleep. Whee!
I have no idea why I typed “i’d do it”. I meant, I’d change what I was doing :P
Good for you Abbie! Here’s a toast to you, although, in my case, it will probably take the form of a bong hit :)
Stop making me jealous in an attempt to quit cannabis after deciding it would me make me somewhat more “earthly” to leave it behind.
Speaking of cannibis, I keep hoping Matt will post an article about its metabolic impact. Also seems like it would be a good topic to question popular thinking.
Dude, you’re Dutch! Isn’t it a crime in Holland to NOT smoke/eat cannabis? If not, it should be a crime!!!!
Besides brother, I believe you need to gain some weight, so you need to go see the Ganja Gourmet: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nNrbOkvOErk
Here’s a bowl to you buddy, actually, a bunch of vaporizer hits. Wow, good god, I feel good on RRARF + Cannnabis. You know this device? http://vapenow.com/images/arizerextreme.jpg
Well, it is suppying me with some hits of widow. I guess I needed to reflect on what is happening in my life right now, because things are pretty wild, and besides, it has been almost two weeks.
Consuming shitloads of starch will probably abate that lazy feeling I tended to get the day afterwards. Consuming starch at night=energy in the morning. Even Durianrider knows that.
And yet, he sticks with fruit only. Why? Why?
I know that device and I have been thinking about getting one of those. I might have to give this to myself as a Christmas gift this year.
This blog post is actually quite relavent to me. I had slowly lowered my body fat and actually increased my muscle mass, but had unknowingly cut my hormone production earlier this year. My estrogen levels had fallen off a cliff essentially. I figured it was my workout habits at the time. 5-7 miles of walking a day, 1-2 weightlifting sessions a week and 10-20 minutes of yoga, dance or Pilates on most days. After doing rrarf, I am a bit zaftig. I’m hoping that a similar approach to excercise, but with solid eating habits, will have the same slimming effect on my figure just with more curves.
@Nira On what diet(Paleo)/foods had you cut bodyfat and increased muscle mass? Were you already eating whole homecooked foods?
And what do you mean now by solid eating?
After I stopped eating gluten, I started eating more meat and unprocessed foods. The muscle gain could have been the extra protein, or cutting out a food that I was having an inflammatory reaction to, I’m not sure. I wound up gaining a couple pounds and losing a dress size. My appetite picked up too. Definitely not paleo, I would still eat cereal by the box-full. I was doing this 10 min solution yoga sessions and after 9 months of weekly sessions, my figure looked astonishingly like Lara Hudson, the video instructor. I’m note sure that’s a great thing, but my back looked awesome, I had this great v going.
I think I went downhill after I started chasing food intolerance some months later and did some other dumb things to try to improve digestion… such as the weekly juice fast.
By solid eating I mean daily :) high in saturated fat, low in pufa. I’ve also decided to avoid certain ‘health’ foods -fiber bars, smoothies, nuts, soy, ect. for the foreseeable future. My body has had enough of that.
By pufa,do you only mean veggie oils or also chickeen with skin,pork and fatty fish?
I’m keeping kosher again for the most part, so no pork. I try to go to halal restaurants too, I like the cleanliness standards. I am avoiding vegetable oils, minimal chicken fat, but I am still going to eat duck with fat once a month. And fish, I just eat whatever I feel like.
Why not use pregnenolone instead of HC?
pregnelone should boost cortisol,dhea, testosterone, progesterone
I wonder if Martin Berkhan has healthy hormones and high metabolism?
yes, I wonder too- he is super lean
Does someone want to send him an email and ask him about his erectile
functioning..
lol
Clearance Bass is extrememly ripped and I think his testosterone levels are somewhat normal
@Coldmember
After your breakdown – do you went directly to an Endocrinologist?
I’m curious, because in Germany it’s often that you need a referral from your regular doc.
Went to several GP’s first before the blood tests were even done…
Coldmember, I’m curious as to how you would treat this normally in Netherlands seeing as here in Sweden the recipe for every “mental” problem is antidepressants. The doctors are basically throwing those pills at you every time. I also wrecked my metabolic and hormonal health with extreme dieting, and finally (after several months of burnout) managed to persuade a doctor to check my cortisol and of course it was shot.
I’m also really curious at how this HRT would work out. I now have an appoitment with an endo. In my 6th month of recovery I think I learned not to stress things even though my family thinks I should take some pills and be done with it. For how long do you plan to stay on the HRT?
Quit TRT today and cut my thyroid dosage by half. Will talk more about that soon. But one week of RRARF seems to have made me hyperthyroid in combination with the really high dose I was on.
Women of Holland, Watch Out! ColdMember had gone hyperthyroid and that can mean only one thing: he’s turned into HotMember!
Everyone!
For someone who has had essentially the same story as ColdMember, which one of Matt’s book would you recommend me investing in first!
Might seem like a stupid question but, while everyone seems to be alluding to the basic principles of the approach (with a bunch of mysterious abbreviations), nobody has really outlined it.
Yes, I know. I am incredibly ignorant.
Forgive me,
I am starving to death.
Hey Clifford,
Probably the best book to start with is ‘Diet Recovery.’ It lays out the RRARF program (Rehabilitative Rest and Aggressive Re-feeding) and is a great entry point into 180D.
Good luck and eat the food!
I’m late (sorry I’m busy and tired everyone!) but follow that shit up! Poor dude, that’s some dedication though. Not to be mean but those lean pictures look kind of nasty. I mean, it’s just a really skinny dude with tone that makes him look kind of muscular, but he’s not muscular at all…
Actually his thyroid levels, although “in range,” were pretty low. T4 should be in the middle of the range and T3 near the top of the range, for optimal function. He had T4 in the lower quarter or so, and T3 was just .01 above the low threshold of “normal.” I have seen people, including myself, with moderate to severe symptoms having a T3 below that top third or so.
I would love to see updates on this guy’s progress. I hope he knows we’re rooting for him.
I’m confused………if all this junk food is meant to be good for you why are so many people ill and out of shape? I am very underweight and trying to put it on. I eat lots of sweet potatoes, plantain, fermented dairy, saturated fat and some meat but I cannot go back to eating junk food which I had eaten a lot when I was younger and it didn’t make me feel good!
I would like to see a follow-up article that emphasizes what you recommend for adrenal fatigue.
Thanks for sharing your story. It is very inspiring.
Were those lab results during HRT?
I thought it was very odd that thyroid stayed within the reference ranges as did IGF-1. I would have expected it to be.