How to Eat to Increase Your Metabolism

Learning to eat to increase your metabolism can be a long and complicated journey. At least, that's what I used to think. It turns out the solution might be a lot more simple than I previously thought.

I'll admit, I've tried a lot of the typical "tricks" to increase my metabolism. You've probably heard of them. Eat more protein. Drink tons of water. Fidget a lot. Hit the treadmill. Take hot baths. Eat a lot of cayenne pepper.

Some of these are founded in logic. Others are dead wrong. And some are just plain silly. And frankly, nothing seemed to make an immediate and noteworthy impact for me.

What was missing from my approach was a simple method of monitoring biofeedback and tweaking my diet accordingly. Incredibly simple. Surprisingly effective.

In my last post about how I got rid of my cold hands and feet, I brought up a few basic ideas about increasing your metabolic rate (which conveniently solves cold hands and feet, as well as quite a few other annoying issues associated with a low metabolism). But a few of my readers asked me for more specifics from Eat for Heat. So here I am to dish out some of the more juicy details...

How to Eat to Increase Your Metabolism

The basic idea in Eat for Heat can be summed up in this excellent quote from the book:

"When you are cold, especially in the hands and feet, your urine is clear, the urge to urinate is strong, or you are peeing frequently… YOU NEED TO EAT MORE AND DRINK LESS.

When you are hot, especially in the hands and feet, your urine is dark or you haven’t peed in a really long time… YOU NEED TO EAT LESS AND DRINK MORE."

So how did I solve my cold hands and feet in one day?

I cut back on my liquids (I was drinking a lot when I wasn't thirsty), and I chose foods that were dense in calories, salt and carbohydrates. 

For me, this meant some snacks of cheese with honey or dried fruit or a few bites of my coconut oil fudge. I didn't have to overeat or even significantly change my normal eating habits (for instance, I ate a typical dinner that evening the same as I normally would). However, even with these minor changes, I noticed immediate signs of increasing my metabolism (i.e. toasty hands and feet!).

Although some specific eating strategies are mentioned in the book, Eat for Heat also advocates being flexible and individualizing the strategies according to your biofeedback. Personally, I just took the general idea and adapted it to what I typically eat and what is already in my kitchen. The fact that I could do this and still get phenomenal results is just plain awesome.

 

Are You Drinking Too Much to Increase Your Metabolism?

If you're taking in too much fluid, you'll notice having to urinate with increased frequency (sometimes even every 20-30 minutes) and your urine will be super clear like water. Some health gurus claim this is a good thing, but I don't buy it. In fact, it could be a sign that you're losing excess salt and other electrolytes through your urine. This can really stress the body--not a good thing if you want to maintain metabolic balance.

After reading Eat for Heat, I realized that I often experience frequent trips to the bathroom at the same time of day my hands and feet start getting really cold! A very intriguing connection. 

So how much fluid is enough?

As you might guess, it's all up to the individual. Your need for fluid is based on a lot of variable factors, like your current metabolic rate, the climate you live in, how active you are, etc. This is where all that biofeedback stuff comes in.

I've found it very helpful to pay attention to two things: 1) my level of thirst and 2) how warm I feel.

Interestingly, I feel more thirsty when I feel warm and my hands or feet are feeling toasty. The two definitely go hand in hand!

And instead of drowning my thirst in tons of clear water, I try a more subtle approach and drink just a few ounces of liquid at a time. Sometimes I choose plain water, but more often I go with diluted juice with a dash of salt to balance it out. In either case, I have about four fluid ounces at a time and simply drink more as needed. This gives my body time to take it in and give me that valuable biofeedback.

 

Warming and Cooling Foods: Achieving Metabolic Balance

An important concept in Eat for Heat is that certain foods tend to warm up (increase) the metabolism and others tend to cool it down.

Warming foods are generally calorie-dense foods. They will normally contain more salt, sugar, carbohydrates and saturated fat (the good stuff of course!). Some examples would be cheese, real butter or cream, coconut products (like shredded coconut or coconut oil), grains, starchy vegetables (like potatoes), fatty meats (I'm thinking quality bacon would be excellent) and real desserts (like ice cream or homemade cheesecake--yum!).

Cooling foods have essentially the opposite qualities. They are less calorie-dense, and contain more liquid in ratio to salt, carbohydrates and fat. These might include water (and other weak beverages like coffee, tea and juice), fruit and vegetables. These foods are not inherently bad, of course. They just tend to promote a slower metabolic rate if used at the wrong time, rather than increase your metabolism like warmer foods.

The idea is not that you eat only warming foods and shun the cooling foods. Not at all. This is not another game of bad foods vs. good foods.

Instead, the idea is to pay attention to how your body reacts to specific foods at certain times. Yep, we're talking about good ole biofeedback again.

Here is an example:

If you tend to feel sluggish and cold in the mid-afternoon, then this is a good time to try out more warming foods and dial it down on the more cooling foods (probably not a good time to have a bottle of water, for instance).

Or perhaps if you're too warm in the evenings, that's a good time for light soups and beverages (like juice or kombucha), with some fruits and veggies as well.

For me, understanding the difference between warming and cooling foods has allowed me much greater control over my metabolic state throughout the day. By listening to my biofeedback, I am able to choose foods that keep me feeling balanced.

If you like this post, you can learn more by reading Matt Stone's eBook Eat for Heat.


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Cold Hands and Feet? It Could Be Your Metabolism!

Do you have cold hands and feet? Are you armed with a stockade of assorted thermal socks and slippers just to keep your toes from freezing? Do your fingers feel like icicles even when other people in the same room are complaining about how warm it is?

It could be your metabolism!

One of the chief signs of a slow metabolism (aka low thyroid function) is cold hands and feet. You might also notice low basal temperature, dry skin, brittle nails and hair, insomnia, low sex drive, tooth sensitivity and a slew of other symptoms associated with a low metabolic rate.

There seems to be a lot of controversy about what affects the metabolic rate (or to put it simply, how your body uses energy). However, when you're walking around all day with cold hands and feet, you know something isn't right. And all you want is a solution that works.

I know because I used to be one of those girls who keeps an extra blanket at the foot of my bed just for my feet. And after sitting at the computer for twenty minutes I felt like I had the hands of a frozen corpse.

Cold hands and feet used to be a consistent and bothersome problem for me, even in the middle of a hot Alabama summer. As I've learned about improving my metabolic health, my cold hands and feet slowly turned into an occasional nuisance rather than an everyday problem.

But no one enjoys icy extremities, and I had to wonder why the problem still sprang up on occasion. And moreover, was it possible to make it go away?

Got Cold Hands and Feet? Read Eat for Heat

Yeah. That totally reads like it came from a Dr. Seuss book. But, anyway, while I spent the afternoon reading Eat for Heat by Matt Stone, I couldn't help noticing my toes were undeniably chilled. It was puzzling, because it was unusually warm for January,  and yet those cold hands and feet were still bugging me!

Luckily, I was reading the right book. Within hours of following the advice in Eat for Heat, my cold hands and feet were toasty warm. I'm not kidding. The difference was pretty much immediate and definitely noticeable.

Eating to Stop Cold Hands and Feet

The funny thing about metabolic health is its ability to change--from year to year, day to day, and even throughout the day. Hormones and other biochemicals certainly vary during the course of our day. What does this mean? Our metabolic needs also change throughout the day.

With this in mind, Eat for Heat offers some practical (though somewhat bizarre from a mainstream view) advice for solving the problem of cold hands and feet--with the side benefit of eliminating other negative symptoms caused by a low metabolic rate. Here's a few tips I learned from Eat for Heat:

1. Biofeedback is critical.

This is number one for a reason. Because metabolic needs do fluctuate throughout the days, weeks, and months, what works for one meal, or one day, or even one month, won't necessary work for every meal, every day for the rest of your life. So pay attention! Notice how your body responds to what you eat, and even when you eat what you eat (if that makes sense). By the way, cold hands and feet are definitely biofeedback.


2. Don't Drink Too Much

Not alcohol, silly (that's another discussion). I mean water. Yes, you can drink too much water. And you can also drink it at the wrong times. This is where biofeedback becomes really important, because mainstream advice is to chug, chug, chug that plain old water until you reach some magical quota every day. Don't get me wrong: dehydration is no good. But gulping water without regards to how your body responds is also not so good. Eat for Heat offers a few handy suggestions for determining how much fluid you really need, as well as when you need that fluid. (Hint: chugging half a gallon of plain water in the morning... probably not helping your metabolism.)


3. Do Eat Some Salt

Here we go against mainstream advice again. Ever wonder why they put saline (salt) solution in hospital IVs? Because salt is essential to our survival! But somehow, even though pumping salt through our veins is supposed to be life-saving, eating salt is supposed to be unhealthy? That just makes no sense. There was a recent study that even attributed low-salt diets to strokes and heart attacks. And it's not the only study that warns against eating too little salt. They're popping up all over the place. Probably because restricting salt lowers the metabolism and then all those nasty diseases of aging start showing up.


4. Eating the Right Foods for Warmth

If you've got cold hands and feet, did you know it might have to do with what you just ate? I didn't. But after reading Eat for Heat, I decided to test this out for myself. Like I said, while I was reading the book, my feet were ice cold. What did I have to lose? So I ate a supposedly "warming" meal, not sure if I should be expecting results right away (if at all). But, wham! It was like my body kicked circulation into high gear. I noticed a difference within 30 minutes, and two hours later my feet were actually warm. Since running the heat, wearing extra socks, and loads of other temporary fixes couldn't even get my feet feeling warm that quickly, I was quite impressed.


5. Timing is Everything

Some people have problems with cold hands and feet in the mornings. For others, it might be mid-afternoon or right before bed. The timing of symptoms (which might be cold hands and feet, but can also include irritability, fatigue, lack of focus, frequent urination, etc.) is important, because this is when you need to bring your metabolism into balance. Eat for Heat provides some examples of what a basic eating/drinking structure might look like for various metabolic states. Matt Stone also seriously encourages you to individualize the ideas so they work for your body and metabolism.

Want to learn more? Find out more about Eat for Heat here.

UPDATE: Some of you wanted to know more specifics about what I did to solve my cold hands and feet, so I wrote a follow-up post that gets into the details. Check it out here: How to Eat to Increase Your Metabolism


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The Water Myth: How Much Water Should You Drink a Day?

This is a guest post by Dr. Michael Teplitsky, author of Nutrition and Your Health. Dr. Teplitsky has no problem busting conventional health myths and bringing you the real scoop on what it takes to be healthy. You can read my interview with him at this post and find out more about his books here.

The myth – drink 8 glasses of water a day to stay healthy.

This is something that we have all heard repeatedly. This is the reason why so many people are walking around with bottles of water. They guzzle it as if their life depended on it. Every “expert” tells you to do it. But is it true? No.

It is true that we all need water. The bulk of your body is water, about 60% if you are a man, 55% if you are a woman. Muscles contain about 75% water, blood is 95% water, and even the hard solid bone has 22% water. About 2/3 of the water is inside the cells and 1/3 is outside, in the blood and other body fluids.

But does it mean that you have to gulp down gallons of water? Absolutely not. In fact, next time you hear someone tell you that you must drink 8 glasses a day, ask them where they got this information. They will not be able to tell you because there is no medical justification for this advice. Let me say that again. There are no medical studies that support the idea of drinking 8 glasses of water a day.

Nobody knows where this idea came from. But I suspect that the bottled water producers have something to do with it. Taking a few pennies worth of water and selling it to you for $1.50 to $2.50 (more if you live in New York City) is a very profitable business. The more bottles of water you buy, the more money they make. That’s all there is to it.

So don’t feel guilty if you can’t seem to gulp those 8 glasses. The truth is that you do not need them!

One recent study in the Journal of American Society of Nephrology (April 2008) has completely debunked the water myth. Nephrology is the study of kidneys, the organs that make urine and control how much water is removed from the body and how much stays behind.

Doctors have examined all the studies about drinking water and health from 1970s to the present. They have not been able to find a single study to support the 8 glasses a day myth. They have also found that other commonly believed ideas about water have no justification in any scientific research.

Many people believe that drinking a lot of water:

• removes the toxins from the body
• makes your organs work better
• makes you eat less and lose weight
• improves your skin

None of this is true and there isn’t a single medical study to support any one of these beliefs.

The researchers did find that as you drink more water, your ability to filter toxins out of the blood actually goes down. They found no evidence that drinking a lot of water improves your skin or any other organ.

You only need a certain amount of water in your body at any given time. If you force more water than your body needs, your kidneys will simply get rid of it by making more urine.

So the more water you drink, the more extra work your kidneys have to do. If you gulp a lot of water quickly you also run a risk of creating an imbalance between different electrolytes in the blood. Too much water can reduce the level of potassium, which can be dangerous.

Now, this does not mean that you should not drink at all, only that you should not force yourself to guzzle 8 glasses if you don’t feel like it.

A few more myths about water and I will tell you how much you really need.

“If you feel thirsty, you are already dehydrated.” This is a bunch of nonsense. Thirst is your body’s way of telling you that you need more water. All animals, including our relatives the apes, drink when they are thirsty and they seem to be doing okay. The idea that you should drink so much that you never become thirsty is insane. Our ancestors have survived for thousands of years without gulping gallons of water every day. They only drank when thirsty, which is the most natural thing to do.

 “Caffeine in coffee and tea can dehydrate you.” This is another lie designed to make you reach for your bottle of water.

Don’t listen to this propaganda. It is designed only to make the bottle water makers rich, not to make you healthier. Here is what you need to know about water.

All the natural things you eat have water in them. Just like your body is made of 60% water, all the plants and animal tissues have plenty of water. Vegetables and fruits have 80 to 95% water, fresh meat up to 75% water. So you can’t avoid getting a lot of water if you are eating natural foods. Of course this is not true if you eat mostly processed foods, such as breakfast cereals, potato chips, etc. In that case you need to drink water (if you are thirsty).

How Much Water Should You Drink a Day?

How much water do you need? The rule of thumb has to do with the color of your urine. If your body does not have enough water your kidneys will try to conserve it, so your urine will be concentrated. It will look dark and may have an odor. If you have enough or too much water, your kidneys will not have to conserve it and your urine will look pale or even white and without any odors. Next time you urinate take a look. If your urine is dark it means you need more water, otherwise you are getting enough.

One final word of caution – avoid plastic bottles. Plastic contains a very harmful chemical called bisphenol A (BPA). Besides being a common component of many plastic products it is used extensively in various food and beverage containers and in other plastic containers. There is so much of it around that it is now possible to measure it in our blood and urine. A recent study in the Journal of American Medical Association (September 2008) has shown that the higher the level of BPA in the blood, the higher the risk of many health problems, including diabetes, heart disease, and liver problems.

This post is part of Real Food Wednesday hosted by Kelly the Kitchen Kop!

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