Need advice on getting alternative from Levo! Can't lose weight.....

[mummyG]

I'm 5.1 and am 13 St... i just can't shift it!! I have been eating meat/ fish veg n salads. NO processed foods.. No white carbs .. No. Bread

Sugar and caffeine ... Gluten free!!

Now after all that I STILL can't lose! So the only answers must be meds stopping it !

So I'm on 100mic Levo.

How do I get T3 as I'm thinking perhaps I'm not converting! I am sooo fed up with it all .. Will be getting my last bloods this week and will post if that helps x

Thanks x

[greygoose]

Hi mummyG, sounds like a reasonable diet. But diet has little to do with hypo weight gain. It's due to low metabolisme, due to low t3. You could very well be right that you're not converting.

BUT do you also have nutritional deficiencies? Most hypos do. And those in themselves can make you put on weight. Have you had your vit d, vit b12, folate, iron and ferritn tested? These all need to be optimal for your body to be able to use the hormone you're giving it - not just converting it, but absorbing it.

Are you getting enough vit C? Salt? Fat? All necessary for the well-being of the adrenals and production of hormones.

It's not likely to be the 'meds' stopping you losing weight, but more likely that you are lacking something which will promote weight-loss - magnesium, T3, etc. So, do you have any recent blood test results to share with us? With ranges. That will give us a better idea of what is going on.

Hugs, grey

[Hidden]

Hi, I used to be anorexic and I'm pretty sure that's what has caused my difficulties...I was fine before then! So I have heard that restrictive diets (particularly low carb) always lower thyroid function. It maybe that your diet is just too little nutrition for your body to trust you enough to stop suppressing your thyroid. Obviously the right supplements are key but they won't do anything if your body thinks it's starving. Better to take a more balanced approach, keep the processed stuff low but don't cut calories or food groups. I am having to learn to do this and it's annoying, but I think I feel better about food because of it. Also if you are stressing about losing weight it seems to prevent it happening at all relax, eat and get lots of rest.

[1133]

YOU NEED CARBOHYDRATES FOR YOUR THYROID TO WORK!

Sorry for the all-caps but I can't emphasize that point enough.

I went on a ketogenic/paleo/clean-food/VERY Low Carb diet 15 years ago. Dropped 120 pounds. Stayed on that diet for several years. But before I could keep the weight off, it began coming back, and I developed all sorts of horrendous symptoms. Years later, I find out it was because the body needs carbohydrates in order for the thyroid to work. I've since gained back 160 pounds, and most of that was while still on a very low carb, low calorie, clean-eating, ketogenic diet. I wish I was kidding or exaggerating, but sadly, that has become my story.

Here's the thing. Despite eating lots of protein - without enough carbohydrates, your body becomes protein deficient. By that I mean, have your albumin levels tested. Albumin needs insulin. If you are not secreting enough insulin, your albumin levels stay low. If your albumin is low - because it transports thyroid hormone - among other things - to the rest of your body - then your thyroid hormone cannot get to where it needs to go. You can take all the thyroid hormone supplementation in the world - but if your albumin is low, it will not go anywhere. If you're not eating carbs or sufficient calories (and I do mean 2500 calories per day MINIMUM) - your hypothalamus is going to put the brakes on all your metabolic output because it thinks you are in a famine.

In my case, I had to begin eating upwards of 3800 calories a day MINIMUM to get out of starvation/famine mode. I had to add a LOT of carbs - I started eating bread again, pasta, sugar, you name it. You need to give up the fear of foods AND the fear of gaining weight or being unable to lose weight. It needs to be accepted that the body may have to put on a bunch of fat in order to convince itself that it's in feast mode and that it's OK to rev up metabolism again.

Think of it this way: when eating insufficiently causes the body to go into famine mode, the way to cure that is to go into feast mode. Just as the hypothalamus senses famine/starvation when not eating enough calories (energy) and macronutrients (including carbs), it slows down metabolism, so it also speeds up metabolism when it senses that you are CONSISTENTLY in a feast state. In my own case, I still gain weight when I eat less than 2000 calories a day for more than a couple of days, but the weight loss begins when I eat 3800 calories a day for more than a couple of days. I know it seems counter-intuitive - but remember, our autonomic nervous system is ancient, and it's a hell of a lot smarter than we are, and it's built to survive.

Please consider reading "Diet Recovery" and "Diet Recovery 2" and "Eat for Heat" by Matt Stone for more on this. Also, please google Ray Peat and read a few of his articles. Enlightening stuff - and for me - the beginning of healing.

Like you, I also took thyroid hormone, with absolutely no results. The only thing that helps me is eating a LOT of calories, a LOT of protein, plenty of GOOD fats, and lotsa, lotsa carbs... reducing my water intake, and increasing my salt (I use Himalayan), basically upping the energy (calories) and all the macronutrients, and adding supplementation for the micro-nutrients.

[mummyG in reply to 1133]

Hi thanks for advice and I do get what u say... I've taken a lot of notice of nutrition since I've been unwell.... I do eat carbs but not things like .. Cereals / white bread / potatoes. I eat sweet pots , basmati rice / white n brown .... I eat coconut oil and cook with it too... I

Will read those things u said , I just feel like it's a minefield ! I'm sure I'm going to find the answer !!

I'm thinking of taking all my results to see a private endo

My doc is not very helpful at all ... When she told me my cholesterol had gone up .. 6.2. I said how can that be ? I'm eating healthy ... So on and so on...

She said " well something's sending it up!"

To my mind that must be thyroid / thyroxine related so perhaps she should have looked into that side of it ? U get me ? Some say it won't go down until u optimally medicated! So I'm just not happy really , I feel at a loss! X thanks to all of you tho. Will def post my last bloods xx

[Marz in reply to mummyG]

...cholesterol is made in the body and is there for a reason Over 80% is made internally and VERY little from food. In years gone by - Docs treated patients with raised cholesterol - with Thyroid treatments....before thyroid testing messed things up ! Docs went by what they knew - rather than figures on a screen

When we see your blood test results lots of people will rush to help you..... so will look out for them

PS I too would love to be slimmer - but having a good spell at the moment. Have stopped weighing myself ( at least two months ) and am going by how I feel. Today a pair of crops were decidedly baggy ! Out comes the sewing machine

[1133 in reply to mummyG]

Yes - my cholesterol also went up. I added saturated fats, more dietary cholesterol, more salt, gave up all my food restrictions (except pork, I just don't like it, and it's so toxic unless it's free range and organic, and even then, you just can't be too careful about it)... and that reversed the cholesterol issue for me as it raised my body temperature up from 95.6 degrees F to 98.7 degrees F. Getting onto high dose bioidentical progesterone (prescribed by my doc) helped a lot too, as all the water retention began to be relieved.

Inflammatory markers need to be investigated, as well as the serum protein levels. You might also want to check your spine. Yes you read that right. Pinched cervical nerves can most definitely compromise the thyroid, and that could be behind thyroid issues as well. In my case, that's part of it, as my cervical spine shows a reversed curve, but for me it was equally malnutrition, as evidenced by my blood tests, as well as severe hormone imbalance, as relating to the estrogen : progesterone ratio and low cortisol. It's all related. Hypothyroidism is just as often secondary as primary.

I'm glad to know you are eating some carbs... I just hope that it's enough - not just carbs but also calories. Believe it or not, it actually took eating fast food for me to begin to show signs of recovery. Yep, the dreaded "junk food." I thought I'd lost my marbles at that point, coming from such a strict clean-foodie mentality... but that was exactly what I needed to do. I did avoid the french fries though - that polyunsaturated omega 6 oil - yuck! But oh yeah, bring on the big macs and chocolate shakes. I comforted myself by telling myself it was only temporary, until my body could once again handle real nutrition. It worked.