I have suffered with acne for the past ten years and I have finally figured out why. Here I will explain how I was able to significantly reduce my acne over the past ten days. Although I am not acne free (yet) I find that my skin is rapidly healing and has cleared up about 85% in the past week and is still improving. My skin also feels much smoother and is producing much less sebum. What I can conclude is that my acne was indeed caused by hormonal imbalances.

I am an athletic male with a slender build. I stand 6'1 and currently weight 150lbs. Typically I excercise 5-6 times per week. Last week I discovered that apparently I was underweight for my height. A male standing at 61 should weigh at least 146lbs according to most sources. I do not intentionally try to lose weight, its just that playing competitive sports is very physically demanding and its difficult to eat enough calories to gain weight. Its possible that excercise pushes the boundary bettween a healthy and unhealthy body fat percentage for me because I am skinny.

About 10 days ago I performed a lot of endurance training and I felt like I trained so hard that I lost weight. The next morning I woke up with 5 cysts and felt extremely tired. Since I felt like I lost weight I ate a huge amount of food for the next two days and rested. The next day I woke up and almost all my cysts were gone and my skin looked and felt much smoother. This is anecdotal, I know, but stay with me.

I did a lot of research over the next few days and discovered the effect that too much exercise was having on my hormones. Since I was already skinny, exercising resulted in burning a lot of fat off my body which resulted in an unhealthy BMI. In order for a typical male to maintain healthy hormone and energy levels a body fat percentage of at least 8% is required. By simply resting and putting on some much needed fat by eating a lot, my skin cleared up because my hormone levels were able to balance themselves out.

You dont necessarily have to be an athlete but if you are skinny and possibly not eating enough and you suffer with acne, it could be occurring because your hormones are being thrown off by an unhealthy body fat percentage. A healthy body fat percentage is critical for balancing hormones such as testosterone and estrogen and storing minerals and vitamins.

I havent found any direct link between a certain food causing acne for me. I actually find that consuming a meal with fats, whether it be from meat, fish, oil, or butter, actually leaves my skin looking better shortly after. The only way I get acne is if I do not consume enough calories. Currently I eat at least 3000 calories per day and I am gaining weight. Once I hit about 160lbs with a body fat percentage of at least 8% ill gradually begin tapering down the amount of calories I consume as that is an ideal frame to ensure hormonal stability.