How Do You Know if Your Metabolism is “Off”?

by | Aug 15, 2020

I will never forget the day I discovered how to assess the state of my metabolism. This was a game changer for me and my weight loss clients because if your metabolism is off-kilter, then your health suffers and it’s hard to get to and stay at your goal weight.

You might be saying β€œI know my metabolism is off because I can’t lose weight, Caitlin!”

And you’d be right. If your metabolism is off, then you won’t lose weight. But instead of guessing how off your metabolism is, I’m going to share how to actually measure it and even more importantly, how to improve it.

Assessing your metabolism is important because you need to get a baseline so that when you start doing the things to help balance your metabolism, you can start to see the improvements in black and white.

And here’s the good news…assessing your metabolism is easy and free. I don’t know about you, but I’m all about NOT adding one more difficult thing to my life and not spending any more money than I have to.

Ok, here’s how to assess the state of your metabolism… 

You need to record your temperature and your pulse. 

I know, it sounds too simple but here’s the thing.

If your temperature and pulse are too low, that means your metabolism (and your thyroid specifically) is not functioning at its highest capacity. 

Your thyroid is your master metabolism gland.

You might be saying β€œCaitlin, my doctor says my thyroid is fine. They check my thyroid labs and they’re all normal.”

I would question that because that’s what my doctor told me, too. But after doing my own research, I have learned that thyroid lab tests are not the best assessment of your thyroid health. 

It’s why so many people still feel terrible even when their thyroid labs are β€œnormal.”

How to Assess Your Metabolism

So here’s what you can do to get a baseline of your metabolism (and your master metabolism gland — your thyroid):

  1. Take your morning temperature under your tongue. Keep a thermometer on your bedside table and take your temp first thing before you get out of bed in the a.m. Do this while still at rest. Do not drink anything hot or cold as that will skew your results.
  2. Then take your resting pulse for one minute. Find your radial artery in your wrist, just below your thumb. Use your clock and count your resting pulse rate for one minute.
  3. You need to do this while you are at rest, so best to do them before you get up and move about. Write down your temp and pulse on a sheet of paper with the date and time.

If your resting temperature is 97.7 degrees F (36.5 C) or lower, your metabolism is slow and you may have hypothyroidism, even if your doctor says your thyroid is fine.

Remember, your thyroid is your master metabolism gland.

And if your resting pulse is less than 70 beats per minute, this is another indicator of a slow metabolism and a sign of hypothyroidism.

So, here’s where some folks get excited…they take their temp and pulse first thing in the morning and they’re above 97.7F and above 70 BPM. But I tell them, not so fast. I want you to take your temp and pulse AGAIN after you eat breakfast.

So 20 minutes after breakfast, take your temp and pulse again, in the same fashion and make sure you’re at rest, not rushing around, and not after you take a hot shower or drink something hot/cold (that can skew results).

Having an infection or fighting a cold will also skew your results. Best to do this after you are healed from those.

So here’s the thing…if your temp and pulse RISE after you eat, then this is a good sign. 

However, if your temp and pulse FALL after you eat, then that means your first-morning temp and pulse were artificially elevated due to morning stress hormones.

If your temp and pulse fall after you eat breakfast, then your 20 minute post-breakfast temp and pulse are closer to your accurate readings.

By this point, after eating breakfast, your temp and pulse should be at 98.6 degrees F (37 C) and about 85 beats per minute. And your temp and pulse should remain there for most of the day.

If your temp and pulse are not in the optimal ranges, then your metabolism and thyroid are not functioning as well as they should. You might even feel comfortable and not cold, yet your temp is still lower than where it should be.

Since this a long post, I’m going to share what you should start doing to raise your temp and pulse in another post. This will start to raise your metabolism and start getting your thyroid hormones where they need to be. 

This will make weight loss so much easier.

Balancing your metabolism has nothing to do with cutting out carbs or going on an extreme diet.

In fact, that’s the opposite of what you need to do to heal your metabolism and optimize your thyroid.

Did you know all of this? If not, it could really explain a lot about why you might be struggling with weight loss resistance.Β 

So, I’m curious…what is your temperature before and after you eat? What’s your resting pulse rate? Let me know because if they’re off, then I want to help you figure out how to improve those metabolism markers.

Leave me a comment below.

— Caitlin

Photo by Dan LeFebvre on Unsplash

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