Actually, this is the 1 month and 1-week update to my “Turn Up the Heat” experiment, where I am using ideas from the Diet Recovery 2 book as an attempt to increase my body temperature. I outlined the strategies I would use in the post My Plan for the “Turn Up the Heat” Experiment.
- Drink LESS water, tea and coffee.
- Eat less chicken and pork (PUFA). Eat more beef and lamb (Saturated Fat).
- More cheese. No Nuts/Seeds. (Diet Recovery 2 lists cheese as the #1 warming food)
- Cook stews with less liquid or use coconut milk.
- Since I’ll be eating more red meat, continue with the weekly beef bone broth. Also supplement with gelatin.
- Eat more salt. (see Brian’s comment for ideas)
- More calm time. If higher body temps causes calmness, then the opposite is likely true. Relax to warm up. See this story on monks meditating to increase their temperature.
- More carbs. Not a problem for me. I regularly consume rice and potatoes. Wheat is still evil.
- Eat carbs upon waking. This will be a huge change for me.
- Eat popcorn for salty snack.
With the exception of #9, I have been very good about the items on the list. Because I must eat before going to sleep or else I’ll wake in the middle of the night hungry, I really don’t want to eat first thing in the morning. In one interview, Matt Stone talked about a 12-hour eating window. For me, that means my first meal should be at 10 AM, not at 6 AM when I wake up. Not sure which rule is most important, but I really don’t want an 18-hour eating window. (UPDATE: I meant to say 16-hour eating window – 6 AM to 10 PM)
Cheese by Anne Hornyak
Anyway, my body temperature is EXACTLY THE SAME. This means that either I didn’t follow the advice strictly enough or I need to follow the protocol longer. Another possibility is maybe my body type doesn’t want to be warmer or as Richard Nikoley said, this might be a “parlor trick“.
With the exception of #9, I’m going to continue with the experiment, because they are all still sound ideas. My guess is 20 years of caffeine abuse is probably going to take a while to overcome. Even if it doesn’t help with body temperature, I am confident it will reduce my headaches. My coffee consumption is already down 35% in April from March. My plan is to continue lowering coffee levels as the weather improves.
charles grashow
Apr 21, 2013 — 9:48 am
Have you had your thyroid checked? TSH, FT4, FT3, RT3.
MAS
Apr 21, 2013 — 1:00 pm
@Charles – Not yet, but I will at the end of the summer if I am unable to increase my body temp.
charles grashow
Apr 21, 2013 — 1:04 pm
Why wait till then?
MAS
Apr 21, 2013 — 1:11 pm
@Charles – I looked over the symptoms, and cold body temp is the only one I have.
http://www.buzzle.com/articles/low-thyroid-in-men.html
And even cold temp might be related to be an ectomorph, so I’m not even convinced of that. Plus you know me. I’m a DIY person first. Doctor second.
Charles, I wanted to ask you again about your experiments with protein fasting, since you left those links on an earlier post. I read them all and am very interested. Have you done much protein fasting? Have you noticed any effects? Especially cognitive? Thanks.
charles grashow
Apr 21, 2013 — 3:02 pm
I never did protein fasting – I’ve settled into a routine that is working out quite well. The final piece of the puzzle was my doctor putting me on Amour as well as 100 mgs of Testosterone Cypionate injected subQ every 7 days.
I eat my last meal between 8-9PM and work out the next day in the morning in a fasted state. I’ve experimented with having a scoop of whey protein isolate powder (unflavored) with a tablespoon of instant coffee before working out but I’ve not noticed any difference so I’ll stick with working out fasted.
In January I made 2 changes to my diet – I no longer eat meat (I just lost the taste for it) and I gave up using coconut milk in my PWO shake because it was making me queasy.
My PWO shake is now the following
8 ounces of grass fed Jersey cow milk yogurt (non-homoginezed)
1 ounce of raw sprouted macadamia nuts
1 ounce of raw sprouted almonds and/or walnuts
1 ounce of raw sprouted flax seeds
1/2 ounce – 100% chocolate
2 bananas
1 cup frozen wild blueberries
1 cup of either frozen pineapple chunks, mango chunks, cherries
1 scoop whey protein isolate
mid afternoon I have a 4 egg omelet cooked in grass fed butter with a potato or two mashed with butter and either some yogurt or cream cheese
Before bed I have another shake w/o the nuts and flax seed BUT I add some ice cream
Supplements are 5,000 Vit D, 5,000 Vit C, 100 CoQ-10, Tumeric, Calcium/Magnesium (500/250) and a TwinLab Daily One multi
I’ll probably add a weight gainer to my evening shake – per cronometer I’m consuming appx 2900-3000 calories per day but I’m having difficulty maintaining my weight – in fact I’ve lost a pound or two or three in the last few weeks – perhaps the Armour has sped up my metabolic rate and I need to eat more
Oh well
BTW – if your body temp is cold I would suggest at least getting the thyroid tests to use as a base to see if your regimen works – get testes now and then again in 3 months or so
MAS
Apr 22, 2013 — 8:10 am
@Charles – Thanks for the detailed response. Ice cream helps correct weight loss. 🙂
Ondrej
Apr 22, 2013 — 11:39 am
Did you think of trying just the 7 points of healthy eating in the book? That’s my template right now and one could hardly even call it a template. It’s basically “eat at regular times as much as you want, the basis should be healthy real food and the indulgences are added on top in unlimited amounts. Add snacks if you want.”:-)
Ali
Apr 24, 2013 — 7:14 am
I am interested in hearing how your experiments pan out!
I have always had a lower body temp…growing up, my mom always gave me the “cold hands, warm heart” line, even in the summer. And I’m in Florida!
I’ve always blamed being generally colder than everyone on having borderline low blood pressure and, beyond that, haven’t really given it much thought.
I have noticed that when I exercise regularly, my body temp does tend to rise slightly. Beyond the temporary warming effects of hot liquids (tea, coffee, soup, etc.), I haven’t recognized any eating habits that cause a long-term change…but then I haven’t formally tested this.
On a possibly related note, I occasionally get overheated with no obvious explanation. I’ve gotten these “hot flashes” for as long as I can recall (before puberty even) and have not reached an age where menopause would be a factor, but I assume it’s somehow hormonal.
MAS
Apr 24, 2013 — 8:33 am
@Ali – Exercise and warm liquids will increase body temperature, but then it drops afterwards. These are covered in the Diet Recovery 2 book.
https://criticalmas.org/2013/03/diet-recovery-2-and-the-turn-up-the-heat-experiment/
I am paying more attention to when my hands get cold and when they are toasty. Driving – which can be stressful – often makes my hands cold. being around certain people that have a relaxing nature sometimes makes my hands warm. Still early on this experiment, so I’m not ready to draw any conclusions yet.
Jonathan
Apr 25, 2013 — 9:27 am
Hello,
Being an ectomorph (and tall) like you, I´m very interested in your experiments with HIT. The “unanimity” about free weights always have bothered me, as I have problems in do a deadlift without explode my back (not so much with swings, tough) and, in spite of what everyboady says, don´t see why I must load a barbell and do bench press if I can do a slowest chest press instead. Same for squats and leg press (squats for my back = not good too). So it´s refreshing see what are you accomplishing with HIT.
The whole transition of Pavel´s philosophy to other ones is also inspiring, because these two point of views for training of Pavel and HIT is an ongoing point of debate for me. (I still like very much Pavel´s philosophy for chins and pushups, for example. Perfect for grease the groove, and with results! – Right now considering if it can be combining with HIT training. I suspect that yes.)
Regarding the body heat experiment, I came across a series post about a similar thing a time ago. The author links a higher body temperature with an elevated metabolism. Perhaps you find it useful (I inserted the post with practical items):
http://fitnessblackbook.com/dieting_for_fat_loss/eating-to-increase-your-metabolism-pt-2/
Salute!
MAS
Apr 26, 2013 — 7:26 am
@Jonathan – The more I think about Pavel and his advice, the less I like it for “normal” people. His audience is for people that need to be in top shape daily. Law enforcement, elite military,in-season athletes and ironic to me – personal trainers. These people tend to have superior recovery skills or they never would last in their career.
Grease the groove is about training the skill component of a movement to the point where the movement becomes easier. If you can increase the skill, you can increase the reps. What doesn’t necessarily follow is that strength is increased. In order for me to do 20 chin-ups, I need to make the movement as easy as possible. A fluid movement at a normal – fast pace will accomplish this. Whereas if I do fewer reps at a much slower pace, I can get a deeper level of fatigue with less stress on my joints.
I looked over the link you posted. There is some overlap, but some disagreements with Matt Stone’s book. He likes sugar and I suspect he is right. For me, I’m almost certain my issue is with caffeine. If I fix that – and keep it fixed – then I’ll know.
Matt Stone
May 4, 2013 — 9:00 am
Hey cuz,
I would say that the biggest barrier I’ve seen with people getting their temps up is lack of sleep or inability to get sufficient sleep. Your “18 hours” gave away the fact that you are sleeping 6 hours a night. Sleep is equally, if not more powerful than food, and those with a low metabolism often have trouble sleeping due to the adrenaline excess (which I also feel is the cause of the ectomorph body type – difficulty achieving anabolism). If you’re up for it, you might attempt to slowly increase your average night’s sleep up to 9 or 10, then maintain that for a few months before dropping back down to 8-ish.
MAS
May 4, 2013 — 4:59 pm
@Matt – Looks like you caught an error. I meant to say 16 hour eating window. On a typical night I get 7-8 hours sleep, which isn’t optimal, but it is better than it was years ago when I was sleeping closer to 6 hours and abusing caffeine all day long.
I fall asleep easy around 10 PM, but sometimes will wake up at 4-5 AM and have trouble getting back to sleep. Right now I am experimenting with salted OJ at 4 AM. It actually has helped a few times, but not every time.
I’d love to work up to 9 hours sleep, If I could tackle the early morning awakening, I think I could go the full 8-9 hours.
Dave Asprey
May 7, 2013 — 3:40 pm
8 years ago in 1 week I raised my temp by ~1 degree (it was abnormally low 97.8) for years. Used a protocol with T3 and hot water and showers and parkas. Really uncomfortable. Worked. I will dig it up and share when I am home next.