Skinny/thin phenotype who can eat all junk food and not put on weight

fd

Hi,

Throughout the years I have seen some people, including me, who can eat whatever they want and will not put on weight. I am currently 34 and I have tried different things like: eating lot of garbage foods, high fat diet, high carb, high calories (between 5000-7000), vegan, carnivore and never gained weight. Maybe 5-10lbs but that’s all I could do. Also that weight made me look Skinny fat.

After discovering Peat I have learned people with this condition are mostly hypothyroid with low ATP levels (I am always tired), with high adrenaline. Cortisol could be high or low but in my case it’s low.

In the old RPF I read things like “ "Many in the Peat community are unknowingly dealing with chronically high-adrenaline and are wrongly attributing their issues to hyperthyroidism and high cortisol when they're actually hypothyroid and low cortisol/high adrenaline."
Or “ ironic how the stereotypical "good metabolism" person is a person who eats whatever they want but stays remarkably thin. in reality that phenotype is likely characterized by intestinal malabsorption and/or sky high adrenaline/cortisol” or “ Interesting, makes sense. I feel like I often see like high histamine/adrenaline/calorie burning people. Then the real high metabolism people, I imagine, are like high testosterone for guys and just very healthy. Also, don't really gain fat easily, tho.”

Things that helped me drastically with my energy:

T3

Things that helped with energy:

B1 Thiamine
Magnesium
Vitamin D

However my weight is still the same 150lbs, height 5,11, age 34 while eating the most peaty as possible, supplementing high quality fat soluble vitamins (A, D, K, E) in addition of Magnesium glycinate, T3. And ‘every now and then’: Zinc gluconate, Niacinamide, Cypro, DHEA.
Last Prolactin levels test result: 8.3 ng/ml

Recently this post came up to my attention relating it to mostly low ATP, insulin, hypothyroidism and hypoglycemia (which I had in the past): https://selfhack.com/blog/top-10-reasons-why-thin-people-are-more-anxious-and-tired/
I know this blog comes from Joe Cohen and I know he’s not the most reliable person when it comes down to bioenergetics).

Things I am gonna start trying:

Cardenosine (from Idealabs)

Any suggestions, non-medical advice, information that you can provide to help me gain weight and correcting my energy/low atp issues??

fd

@fd I forgot to mention I also heard about taking more Salt. But I take enough salt almost in everything I eat. (particularly Vera Salt) 🧂

fd

@haidut may I ask for your opinion in this matter, please? I'd really appreciate that!

herayclitus

There was this interesting study from John Speakman on "healthy underweight" people in China, which found they had higher circulating thyroid hormones, but also abnormally low appetite.

I think Dr. Peat is probably right that the "hyperthyroid" state (higher circulating thyroid hormones) is one way the body can compensate for magnesium deficiency.

Also, if resting energy expenditure is too high, it makes sense that you would have less energy remaining for physical activity. You could also be overestimating how much you eat.

shedim

Yep this used to be me a few years ago, it was caused by constant high stress exposure leading to being in a constantly activated SNS state. It got fixed after I moved country so I assume it was almost all mental.

thyroidchor27

When you were high carb was it eating starches or almost pure simple sugars like ice cream fruit juices Mexican coke etc?

fd

@thyroidchor27 Most of it was starch. I eat white rice, potatoes and sugars (orange juice, honey, white sugar on coffee) for one year now but I used to it lots of pasta, rice, potatoes back then (almost no sugar).
Despite of the changes my weight remains the same. I look like a 22 year old twink and I am 34. I am just tired of looking that weight. I just want to look like a Man.
Woudl be nice to have more like a bearish type. Stocky, alpha, some body hair.

thyroidchor27

@fd I have that bear boy alpha hairy ape look but I wish I was slender like glenn gould/ Travis bickle in taxi driver. Grass always greener on other side

Mossy

@fd I am none of the medical minds that frequent these forums with their sage advice, but I can offer up my anecdotal experience.

It was impossible for me to gain weight and keep it on until my late 40's, which coincidentally is when I started Peating. If there is a single consistent contributor to weight gain for me, I would say it's milk. Though, it's not only muscle but visceral fat gain as well. If I were to work out and be more active, I think that would reduce to a large degree. Actually, on this same loose version of a Peat diet, when I had an active job, I was about 12-15lbs lighter, which would still be considered naturally muscular and fit. Keyword is "natural" here.

Also, a key contributor all through out my life is creatine, which never failed to put weight and muscle gain on me — if I worked out —, albeit with a bit of water gain, but not much. I can't make any scientific and qualified statements about creatine beyond the fact that it worked for me. And, I don't know the Peat stance on creatine either; so, I'm not certain if it's Peat approved.

fd

@Mossy thanks for your input. You are not the first one that mentioned milk. I do eat a lot of cheese though, and I always been hesitant to drink milk, even when I was a kid. I was always drinking orange juice instead. Maybe I should give it a try..

yerrag

@fd said in Skinny/thin phenotype who can eat all junk food and not put on weight:

Skinny fat

What is skinny fat like?

yerrag

@fd

Which of those diets made you gain 5-10 lbs? If it did so, why did you stop with that diet?

If none of the diets made you gain weight, it could be possible you are hyperthyroid. Otherwise, one of them would at least work.

If you weren't hypothyroid, you would be metabolizing sugar well and what you eat would be utilized in building structure, among other things. Unless the energy is wasted or used up in being hyperthyroid.

If you were hypothyroid and not metabolizing sugar well, then a keto or carnivore diet would allow you to not to build fat as metabolizing fat is easier to do than metabolizing sugar, given efficient sugar metabolism is like doing a very complicated routine in gymnastics and many of us fail to do it well. And a carnivore diet means your muscle and protein stores simply convert to sugar when needed, so there is no chance for blood sugar to spike to high levels where a lot of insulin secreted by rhe pancreas would cause the liver to convert blood sugar to fat. Keto and carni would allow to build structure and gain some weight, however flawed those approaches are.

But you aren't.

What have you done by way of testing to ascertain you aren't hyperthyroid (much less hypothyroid? Are you hypothyroid, euthyroid , or hyperthyroid? This is not an easy question to answer, as most doctor s, even endocrinologists, get it wrong by miseducation by the Flexner Report- gamed medical system.

It's important you get this question answered satisfactorily. Or you're just throwing darts blindfolded.

OTOH, as you had briefly mentioned, you may also want to look if there is something wrong with how well your gut absorbs nutrients. Assuming your nutrition is free from making you deficient in macros, vitamins, and minerals.

Add: Toxins and infection and trauma arw faxtora to consider as well.