Did you know that body temperature affects weight loss?
Do you know what your resting temperature is?
How about 30 mins after you eat food?
Why do all these measures matter anyway?
Well turns out your body temperature and heart rate are like a little window into your metabolic system and give a good indication if it’s cranking properly or spluttering to a halt. Health professionals are using these measures along with blood work and checking a list of symptoms, to give a true picture of what’s working, what’s not and if your hormones and thyroid may be out of whack.
It’s awesome to be aware of your own body and health, so of course, I dashed down to the chemist to buy a thermometer! As soon as I found out that body temperature affects weight loss, I wanted to know what mine was immediately!
So optimal resting temperatures are supposed to be:-
36.7 degrees C (98.0F)
Basal temperature is what we are after, which is first thing in the morning before you get up.
At the start, mine consistently was a low 35 degrees (95F) – which was terrible! It sure explained why I was ticking many of the low thyroid symptoms.
Another measure is your body temperature 30 minutes after food – apparently food that works well with your body will cause your body temperature to increase while it’s digesting. If your temperature happens to decrease after certain food, it’s meant to be an indicator that your body is struggling and it may not be ideal for your optimal health.
Interesting stuff and I need to do more testing myself on this.
The next measure is your heart rate.
Again optimal is supposed to be: 70-80 bpm
Mine came in at 60 bpm.
But athletes have slow resting heart rates I hear you say! And yes, this is true it’s called metabolic conditioning. The body slows everything down, conserving energy to adapt to the intense exercise to which it’s subjected. It’s a survival mechanism, but if weight loss is your aim, you don’t want your body to conserve energy and hang on to your fat stores.
Where I’m at now…
I have managed to increase my resting temperature into the low 36C (97F) consistently, with changes to my diet over the past few month. This is a darn site better than what it was! Also heart rate has gone up to 70 bpm. So it’s totally working. Yay! (See 2019 update below.)
Recent trip to Tassie!
So in a future post I will tell you what I’m eating that’s different, but for now – get measuring and testing and see where you’re heading! Trying to lose weight while your metabolism is damaged is pretty useless. So let’s fix that first!
All this information challenged everything I thought was true so moving forward keep your mind open.
Live and learn!
Kristy x
NB: 2022 update – my body temps are now consistently at 36.7C (98.06F) waking and after eating I’ve reached as high as 37.7C (99.86F). Resting heart rate is 73 bpm, which is still improving as well. Also here is a link to the new Zen Beach Diet book which reveals how to eat for a fast metabolism.
Does it matter what type of thermometer you use? Are you taking by mouth or underarm?
When should pulse be taken and how often?
Thanks!
Hi Cary, I use a digital thermometer, only a cheapie. I take by mouth. Apparently underarm readings are higher for some reason. Your waking temp is the most important one. After that you can use it as a base line to check whether the food you eat makes it go higher or not. (Take temp 30 mins after eating.) If it doesn’t, it often means the food isn’t working well with your body. After exercise too helps determine if the exercise is damaging or not. It’s fascinating stuff when you get into it!
Hi Kristy,
I’ve recently found your blog and have been enjoying reading, an learning and seeing how this way of eating has been working for you.
I have a question however and I’m hoping you may have seen or know the answer to it. I was wondering I am finding that although with my change in diet, my temperature is getting better, however my waking BPM haven’t been shifting much. So for eg, this morning my waking temp was 36.5 D and my BPM 64. Throughout the day they vary quite a lot, but I was hoping to see a waking improvement on that as well. Any ideas why this might be?
Thanks Kristy.
Hi Carla, thanks for stopping by. It’s all really fascinating and even after 2 years I’m still learning more myself every day. Wonderful that you are seeing some improvement – how long have you been Peating? I must say too that my resting pulse rate is increasing more slowly too than my temperature. I think I started at 58 bpm and even now after 2 years I am at about 68 bpm so it’s definitely not the 75-85bpm range that they talk about. I wonder do you do any heavy cardio exercise? I will investigate more into this because I would like to know the answer myself! I’ll get back to you if I find anything interesting. To your health! Cheers Kristy
I’m sitting here in my chair and my heart rate is 103! That can’t be good
Hi Janelle, oh no! That’s too high for sure. Has it come back down now? What could have caused it? Did you feel out of sorts in any other way? Cheers Kristy
It’s at 85, now, my pulse is often high 🙁
Hi Janelle, well 85 is a good level they say for metabolic health. Why does yours suddenly go to 103? I wonder what is happening there?