Skinny fat

[Tessica]

Hi everyone. I am what is now known as skinny fat. About 1 to 1.5 stones overweight. Have skinny legs and most of weight is on my stomach ! I am hypothyroid also. I have found it nigh on impossible to lose any weight but easily put weight on.

I have found the diet doctor website fascinating and started very low carb last Monday. Have lost 2 pounds which is very promising and not hungry at all. Only problem is for last 4 nights I have woken up at 4 ish and takes hour and half to get back to sleep. Any advice welcome. I am hoping to stay on LCHF diet and persevere. Low fat diets do nothing for me.

[Fruitandnutcase]

Glad you are starting to lose on LCHF. I've been doing it since probably the end of December and I've lost just about 10kg. I was just finishing off a course of steroids for arthritis when I was found to be T2 diabetic. My docs thought it would go away with just diet and exercise but I decided to help it on nits way andI bought a blood sugar meter.

I discovered LCHF and the DietDoctor and now I test before and two hours after meals and record everything I eat. By doing that I've discovered which carbs spike my blood sugars - jacket potatoes, bread, even 'good carbs' like oatmeal so I avoid them and get my carbs elsewhere.

I just discovered tonight when I was looking at my Fitbit logs that I'm still getting quite a lot of carbs - even though I avoid potatoes and grains and obvious carby food.

It can be very difficult to lose weight when your thyroid is underactive so well done.

I waken most nights around three / four o'clock too. I find if I get up and go to the loo that seems to be the best way to get back to sleep, although every now and again that doesn't work. I hate when i lie awake for ages then fall into a deep sleep when it is time to get up. I've just bought camomile tea to see if that helps. Not sure if it does though.

[Tessica in reply to Fruitandnutcase]

thanks for this Fruitandnutcase. Good to know that you have lost weight. That will give me some encouragement. I have a feeling a lot of the time like a tingling pain in my head. Must be body adjusting to low carbs. Are you still doing low carb? Good luck.

[Fruitandnutcase in reply to Tessica]

Oh yes, it's not a diet - it's my new life style from now on

[Fran182716]

I'm no expert and eating reduced carb rather than strict low carb, but having experienced the difficulty sleeping when I did try very low carb, just a suggestion, might be worth trying to save the carbs you do have for your evening meal and see if that helps your sleep? ☀️

[Tessica in reply to Fran182716]

Thanks for this. I switched to taking my Levothyroxine at bedtime so try not to eat 2 hrs before. I have found this easier than taking in morning. If waking continues I will try your idea of having the low carbs in the evening. Hopefully that will help with the middle of night waking 🙂

[Fruitandnutcase in reply to Tessica]

Has your sleep got worse since you changed to taking Levo at night? I find my bloods are lowest if I take my main meal at night. Seems odd that they are low after my largest meal but that seems to be how my body works.

Have to say I was kind of relieved to find that I was actually having a fair amount of carbs, I was surprised to see the percentages. It's just that they are 'better' carbs for me, in that they don't raise my blood sugar then get stored as fat.

[Tessica]

No I had already switched to taking Meds at night over a month before and wasn't waking up. So def the low carbs. Last night I had some cheese at about 8.30. I then took a couple of paracetamol at 11 and slept til 6 without waking. This seemed to prevent waking up feeling spaced and headachey. Will try the same tonight. I don't want to get into this habit. Nothing worse than being wide awake at 4 am knowing you have to get up for work at 7am ☹

[Tessica]

Thanks for the advice. Is VCO virgin coconut oil. I am now using this in stir fries. Cannot cope with too much fat as had to have my gallbladder out 2 years ago due to gallstones. Therefore sometimes I dont digest fat well. 🙁

[Tessica]

Thats interesting to know. Many thanks