Do you wake up with a heaviness in your stomach? …pretty consistently? Or maybe you don’t get a strong “urge” to go in the morning? Or maybe you go 2-3 days without having a normal bowel movement?

If so, these symptoms are a telltale sign of poor thyroid health. 

Aka a sluggish or slow metabolism. (even if all your thyroid labs are normal) 

Your thyroid is essentially like the engine of the digestive system. So, as your thyroid slows down, so does digestion, causing that heaviness, or bloating you experience in the morning & lack of daily bowel movements. 

But as we chat about possible thyroid issues, you’re likely thinking “but all my thyroid labs are always normal?”

Even though you’re making and converting thyroid hormone – you can have cellular hypothyroidism. This meaning, thyroid hormone has a hard time getting into the cell to do it’s job. This making it feel like you have hypothyroidism, despite your labs always being normal.

What causes poor thyroid health or a sluggish metabolism? 

• not eating enough calories/day (chronic dieting, under eating)
• unmanaged stress (all stress) 
• not eating enough carbs or protein (cough cough fad diets) 
• mineral deficiencies (esp. potassium, zinc & iodine) 
• over-exercising (esp excessive cardio & HIIT) 
• poor blood sugar control 
• fasting too often/ too long 
• skimping on sleep 
• poor gut health (aka gut infections, bacterial overgrowth, low beneficial bacteria, parasites, etc)

In addition to blood labs and HTMA mineral testing, I like to use basal body temps (BBT) as another source of data to assess thyroid/ metabolic health. 

Here’s how to track your BBT…

What you’ll need:

• a BBT thermometer (or Ora ring)
• somewhere to track progress (app, note section, excel sheet,etc – I use Natural Cycles)
• patience (it could take a few months to see these numbers improve)

When to track:

• immediately when you get up, take your temperature. Note: take temp before you get out of bed, use the bathroom, etc.
• you want this number to be between 97.8-99. This indicates good metabolic function.
• then you’ll take a second temp around 1-4 pm. (After you’ve eaten) and watch if temps rise throughout the day. Ideally temps should rise to 98.6 (give or take).

If your morning temp is below 97.8, this can be a good indicator of low metabolic function/ sluggish thyroid function. The goal is a morning temperature above 97.8 that rises throughout the day after you’ve eaten (calories = heat).

Common Questions:

What if temps decline throughout the day?

The body is switching form stress hormones (cortisol) to food as fuel. Aka food will end up lowering the temp of someone who is initially warm due to increased stress hormones.

What if you find out you have low basal body temperatures/ temps don’t rise?

Then you will want to refer to the above list of root causes & begin addressing where you may need support! 

Happy temp tracking!