02/14/2019
What if weight gain, low energy and increased pain were a sign your health was improving...??
WTF?!?!
It's hard to believe that increased pain, lower energy and weight gain can be a GOOD thing. This is when context is everything. If the person experiencing these symptoms is coming out of a stressed state, then we have to consider what is going on with the body physiologically. When a person is under chronic stress, the stress hormones are elevated. Elevated adrenaline and cortisol will give you energy, increase energy expenditure and decrease inflammation. Therefore, when someone decreases these hormones, they will feel less energy, they will utilize less energy and the anti-inflammatory affects of cortisol will go away.
This will result in being more tired, possible weight gain and more pain.
As you start to move though the healing process, do not assume these symptoms are a bad thing. They are just part of the journey. Nobody likes less energy, more weight or pain so your initial thoughts may be, 'what I am doing is NOT working", when in fact, what you are doing is working, just not in the way you would have assumed.
I think this is one reason people may experience pain, less energy and gain weight when they consume a metabolically supported diet--espeically more healthy sugars. Sugar lowers the stress hormones. As we discussed above, lower stress hormones will produce a lower need for energy, less energy and an increase in pain. Thus, this reduced "stressed state" they may be experiencing is their true metabolic state, not an aversion to sugar.
Remember adrenaline and cortisol can FEEL good. Yet, the chronic stressed state will cause havoc on the system creating more negative adaptions than good feelings.