So, I spent 5 years going the holistic route trying to clear my skin. Did it all: Paleo, Super low/no carb, gut diet, vegetarian, you name it I tried it. Nothing ever got me clear, until the last few months.
I moved to NYC a few months ago for a new job. The job is quite stressful, I don't sleep enough, eat lots of crap, but am clear. This goes against everything I have been doing for years. I got to thinking what might be the cause of this. The only change is that I haven't been watching my diet, and go to the gym less frequently.
I had always been eating a minimum of 1g/lb Bw in protein, and going to the gym 5-6 days/week. Now I eat anywhere between 80-140g of protein/day (weigh 185lb), and go to the gym every other day. I decided to test this out and see if it really was the cause, so I went to the gym 5 days straight, ate my normal higher protein diet, and sure enough my skin went to hell. I dont know if it just jacks my cortisol levels up too much causing inflamation. When I went back to eating normal amounts of protein and exercising less my skin cleared back up.
I understand that this won't be the solution for everyone (possibly anyone), but I want to point out that this you think are healthy might be the cause of your acne. My diet is actually pitiful right now. Lots of bread, cheese, ice cream, pasta, pizza, candy, etc. After years of not eating any of that stuff out of fear of breaking out, I've sort of gotten a little out of control, and am working to get my diet back in check. I do know peanut butter definitely breaks me out though, which sucks because I love it.
That's the end of my rant. Hopefully this is of some use to someone, in some way. I'm not encouraging eating garbage, but I realized at the end of the day eating perfect never really did anything for my skin. Good luck to everyone. I dealt with moderate/severe acne for over 10 years, and understand the pain.
My diet isn't the greatest but I do spend a lot of time exercising...maybe 2-3 hours a day 6 days per week. Maybe that is my problem!?! Will need to test this one.
Depends on what you mean by exercising. You should move around as much as possible all day everyday. But extreme exertions should be short and occasional activities. Also, hour long workouts several times per week don't really make up for sedentary lifestyles and daily habits of avoiding walking, stairs and physical chores.
Also, regarding the OP's post. Too much protein isn't a perfect diet. And working out too much isn't healthy either. So this statement 'eating perfect never really did anything for my skin' isn't a valid point.
There are reasons professional athletes' careers are short and it isn't only that older people can't compete with the younger ones. It's also that the older ones have worn out their bodies at a pretty early age. They are not healthy.
My diet isn't the greatest but I do spend a lot of time exercising...maybe 2-3 hours a day 6 days per week. Maybe that is my problem!?! Will need to test this one.
Depends on what you mean by exercising. You should move around as much as possible all day everyday. But extreme exertions should be short and occasional activities. Also, hour long workouts several times per day don't really make up for sedentary lifestyles and daily habits of avoiding walking, stairs and physical chores.
Also, regarding the OP's post. Too much protein isn't a perfect diet. And working out too much isn't healthy either. So this statement 'eating perfect never really did anything for my skin' isn't a valid point.
There's are reasons professional athletes' careers are short and it isn't only that older people can't compete with the younger ones. It's also that the older ones have worn out their bodies at a pretty early age.
Today I went for a jog, practiced resistance/core training for about an hour (very intense), and will be going to a spinning class tonight (I sweat like crazy in this class), Tomorrow morning, taking another spinning class and teaching and taking high intensity classes in the evening. I usually do weight training 3x per week, jogging twice a week, spinning 3-4x's a week, and core training every other day. I have upped my workouts and have been breaking out in places I have never broken out before which is why I am thinking maybe I am exercising too much. I usually break out in cysts (very small but painful ones) but now I'm getting non cystic acne which I have never gotten before. 
I used to train very hard (i.e. powerlifting, bodybuilding routines) every other day of the week, rarely did any cardio and tried to eat around 4000 calories a day including around 1.5 grams of protein per lb of bodyweight. Actually had to force myself to work up to that level over many, many months and during that period of time, my acne was some of the worst it ever was. Though I owe this to a ton of different factors, downing a huge amount of ANYTHING is probably not the best of ideas. The OP speaks the truth!
After I dropped that diet (but still worked out pretty hard), my acne issue got much better and I haven't had much of a problem since then. I still try to eat 2500 - 3000 calories a day and get 1 - 1.25 grams of protein. I guess now that my body became used to that 1.5 - 2 grams per lb, 1 - 1.25 isn't so much and doesn't cause as much of a problem! Over my 9-10 year battle with acne, one of the main lessons I've learned is that moderation is key in many ways.
Btw, if anyone is up for reading about workout recovery, micronutrients, macronutrients, etc., here's an oldie but goodie article. Though it's on a "bodybuilding" site, I think it applies to most types of people. Best wishes! [Removed]
My diet isn't the greatest but I do spend a lot of time exercising...maybe 2-3 hours a day 6 days per week. Maybe that is my problem!?! Will need to test this one.
Depends on what you mean by exercising. You should move around as much as possible all day everyday. But extreme exertions should be short and occasional activities. Also, hour long workouts several times per day don't really make up for sedentary lifestyles and daily habits of avoiding walking, stairs and physical chores.
Also, regarding the OP's post. Too much protein isn't a perfect diet. And working out too much isn't healthy either. So this statement 'eating perfect never really did anything for my skin' isn't a valid point.
There's are reasons professional athletes' careers are short and it isn't only that older people can't compete with the younger ones. It's also that the older ones have worn out their bodies at a pretty early age.
Today I went for a jog, practiced resistance/core training for about an hour (very intense), and will be going to a spinning class tonight (I sweat like crazy in this class), Tomorrow morning, taking another spinning class and teaching and taking high intensity classes in the evening. I usually do weight training 3x per week, jogging twice a week, spinning 3-4x's a week, and core training every other day. I have upped my workouts and have been breaking out in places I have never broken out before which is why I am thinking maybe I am exercising too much. I usually break out in cysts (very small but painful ones) but now I'm getting non cystic acne which I have never gotten before.
Yes, that would be too much. Visit Mark's Daily Apple blog and read the posts and research about Chronic Cardio like these: http://www.marksdailyapple.com/case-against-cardio/#axzz2YamrKTwc, http://www.marksdailyapple.com/the-evidence-continues-to-mount-against-chronic-cardio/#axzz2YamrKTwc. And this one: http://www.marksdailyapple.com/the-characteristics-of-hunter-gatherer-fitness/#axzz2YajijqsS About the kind of activity we evolved doing and our systems are designed to fuel.
Training every single day doesn't even make sense from a strength standpoint. Without rest you won't grow. I remember going through a fitness phase like that and it wasn't just acne, my face was pale and completely drained of life. I was convinced I was doing everything I could for my body, but that wasn't true because I wasn't using my brain.
It does feel good while you're doing it though, but so do a lot of things. Glad you found something that works.