Are there any secret methods of weight loss. I need to get off 2 1/2 stone. I lost my excess weight of 4 stone 7 years ago via Lighter life, kept it off for 2 years then Doctor cut my T3 meds by 50%. In 6 weeks I was back to sleeping 15 hours a day not able to work or Swim Walk and steadily put back on 1 1/2 Stone. I don't convert T4 to T3 so have to have it instead. But the way I am prescribed 1 x T3 20mcg and I self administer 1 x T3, 25mcg bought from over seas.
I cant afford to go back on Lighter Life and honestly don't fancy going back on it. so are there any other ways people have found that give results please?
HELP!
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Sugarplumb61
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Look at the website of John McDougall MD he has all the information you will ever need to keep you healthy and feeling full. The information you will get there flies in the face of everything that you have ever heard or read. This information is there for free, yes free. There are a host of Drs giving this information out for free to try and get people to take control of their lives and be healthy. Dean Ornish, Michael Greger, Neal Barnard, Michael Klaper and many more. Watch Forks over knives, Plantpure Nation on YouTube or Netflix. See how you can lose weight effortlessly and not be hungry. There is no need for crank diets. Just eat real food not chemicals. My husband has lost 4 stones since last January 2016 along with his arthritis I too have lost 2 stones. Neither of us were big in the first place. I hope you find this helpful. Please look at it it really works.
Wouldn't suit me. I follow a low carb, high fat, medium protein diet. I lost 10kg doing this (down to 64kg). For me it's all about the carbs and the blood sugar. I wholeheartedly agree on the real food not chemicals.
The only way to lose hypo weight, is to not be hypo anymore - i.e. have decent levels of T3. Have you had your FT3 measured lately? Dieting will probably make things worse if your FT3 is still too low.
Just had a peep at the Lighter Life site, and see that their meals are only 600 calories a day! That is not enough to sustain life! And certainly not enough to sustain conversion. Low calorie diets have an irreversible effect on conversion, so that could be why you can't convert well, now. You really don't want to go back on that sort of diet.
You're probably low on nutrients, too. So, get your doctor to test vit D, vit B12, folate and ferritin, and supplement anything that is sub-optimal. You will find it much harder to lose weight if you have nutritional deficiencies.
Are you talking to me? Why do you think I'm a man? lol I'm a goose, not a gander.
My dear, I have been over-weight since I was about 8 years old. Although, as I had Hashi's, I did have some hyper-swings where I lost it all, and then some. But they don't last.
The worst was when I was on NDT. All I could do was lie on my bed like a beached whale! I was huge. And, so brain-fogged, I didn't have the sense to realise that it was the NDT doing it to me, or to come off the NDT and go onto T3 only. I worked my way up to 75 mcg. And, that's when I lost the weight. About 50 kilos just fell off, just like that. But, it wasn't just about the hormones, I also had to optimise my nutrients!
Maybe I was luckier than some - if you call spending your life from 8 to 55 being called Fatty! - and I lost it easily. But, I do know that it won't happen until you get onto the right dose, of the right thyroid hormone replacement FOR YOU, and optimise your FT3 - as well as your nutrients.
And I do know that low-calorie diets like Lighterlife are not sustainable. At some point you are going to put it all back on again, plus a bit more. And then a bit more. And then a bit more... That's how they make their money - return customers.
As I said above, low-calorie diets stop you from converting. You may be taking T3 only, but don't forget that some of that T3 has to be converted into T2, and some of the T2 has to be converted into T1. So, you still need calories to convert. And, apart from that, you put your body into starvation mode, so that it hangs on to every single calorie it can, in the form of fat.
Having said all that, as you are hypo, your problem probably isn't even fat. It's probably mucin. And no amount of dieting or exercising is going to get rid of that. Only optimising your hormones is going to do it. So, sorry to disappoint you, but I do know something about the subject.
Im sorry, but explaining your life story is a help to me.
I was diagnosed at 44, I'm now 61, but no amount of T4 made me feel like a normal person. I put on 4 stone. Lost that weight with LL but have put back on 2 stone. Only when I was introduced to a Private chap in Glasgow, unfortunately now dead, that he said that I dont convert T4 to T3, so have been taking T3 as well for 12 years, until half was cut from my prescription by the Doctor,, but now I buy from Greece. I feel much better taking the higher dose of 40mcg. Unfortunately I do have occasions where I go slightly mad, not sure what its called and I verbally beat hell out of my husband, usually its starts with the shakes and i need to eat something sweet like oranges. then the slightest thing sets me off. Thankfully its not too regular, might you know what that's all about. My Doc is a lovely lady but she admits she does not know anything about the Thyroid and how complex it really is. She has patients who convert well and are fine on T4....... but then there's people like me. I'm interested in that fact you don't take T4 but just T3, how was this determined?
I determined it myself, given that I didn't do well on T4 only, nor T4+T3, nor NDT. But, when I tried T3 only, I felt better. It's all trial and error and how you feel, not blood tests. Blood tests are just a guide. I had to work it out for myself because there aren't any doctors that know much about thyroid. Even the best of them have their little blind spots. And I tried the best. And that's why we have to take charge of our own health, and not just sit back and wait for a doctor to do it for us. Because they aren't going to. Most of them don't even believe that hypo is a problem - one endo even said that to me, when I crawled into his surgery : you're hypo, he said, but it's nothing. I saw three endos and goodness how many GPs, and none of them knew anything. Some of the things they told me would make your hair stand on end. But, I knew more than they did, so I just laughed behind my hand. If I didn't cry, that is.
I was diagnosed when I was 55 - I'm now 72 - and it took me about ten years, going from doctor to doctor, specialist to specialist, to realise that none of them knew anything, and I'd probably make a better job of it on my own. I knew more than they did, anyway - at least I know that women need testosterone, which most of them don't seem to know! So, I tried things out for myself, and finally found out that I was best on T3 only. But it took me a long time to find the right dose. If I'd listened to the last doctor I saw (had to see him for something other than thyroid, but he wanted to meddle, anyway), I'd still be on about 25 mcg T3, as fat as a house and bald (because all my hair fell out!).
So, that's what we have to do, we have to learn as much as we can. Listen to others that have already been through it, without judging them, and be brave enough to experiment. It's all wrong, I realise that, but that's the way it is. There are no magic bullets, it's just all hard slog. Try dropping the T4. It might be that that's holding you back. Try increasing your dose. You can always lower it again, if it's too high. And stop these stupid fad diets that are just designed to ruin your health. Eat a good, clean diet - plenty of good protein and plenty of good fat -- do you eat fat? If not, you are missing an essential ingredient for your hormones. Plenty of fresh fruit and veg, some carbs, not too much fibre, and don't skimp on the salt. Just avoid all forms of unfermented soy, and processed foods and oils. Feed your body so that it can work properly. Your car won't go without petrol, so why would you expect your body to 'go' without food?
I normally do eat a good diet with fat but keep off the sugar and very little Carbs, My Endo Professor Simone Pearce from Newcastle doesn't like LL either and has said to eat Yogurt and fruit for breakfast fruit for lunch or salad and one small meal for dinner. So this is what I'm trying to stick to. But I do the 2:5 as well, so 2 days not always the same day I have Protein Shake for breakfast then another for lunch and then a nice healthy small meal for dinner. I'm happy on that, I also do Aqua aerobics twice a week then swim another once and perhaps 2 classes of Pilates. It helps with my joints, that can be painful. I use to be a professional dancer so my joints have had some hammer. If I have a routine I'm kept less depressed, I live in the country and not a lot to do there, and if I have a nice small meal to look forward to then I'm less likely to eat what I shouldn't. That's the idea!
My lovely Hubbie also has issues that the Endo's cant be bothered to get sorted and just tell him that its genetic! A lot of his symptoms are similar to mine so have had him go to the docs for a Thyroid test. When i was threatened that my T3 was going to be removed I started buying from Greece, because before I was prescribed 2 x tabs of t3 then some while after it was cut to only 1. This was carried out by a doctor who I had never met and who has now retired, lovely man but who condemned all the work I had done by losing 4 stone, withing 6 weeks I was back to sleeping 14 hours a day putting back on 21lbs no energy to swim and brain flog that I could no longer work. Back to buying T3 from Greece- Ive lost the plots there, my hubbie decided, off his own bat, to try one tab per day, his response was excellent and his energy returned. So now he takes it too. I don't have his reading to hand but he certainly has benefited from T3.
So I will try cutting down on the T4 as you suggested a little at a time, and then adding more T3, I will let you know how I fair.
I don't think much of your endo professor's idea of a healthy diet! All that fruit! Too much sugar. It's protein you need for breakfast, to support the adrenals. And l very much doubt there are enough calories in his meal plan.
As a general rule, never, ever take advice on nutrition from a doctor. They know nothing about it! They don't do it at med school. The silly man should realise that hypo weight gain has nothing to do with what you eat. So how is depriving yourself going to get rid of it? It's not logical.
She's a lady and as I recall has the same struggle with her weight that most hypothyroid people have. Hypothyroid from being a child, she also writes the most amusing posts you will ever read. Has zero respect for ignorant doctors who keep us ill.
A few years ago, I trimmed up by reducing my carb intake a bit (so, that's bread potatoes, pasta, rice, sugar), and have kept it off some years on.
Newer research is showing that cards tend to be the issue when folks gain weight as opposed to fats. Of course thyroid issues make losing weight a bit trickier.
Yes, you do need to be optimally medicated, and to have all your nutrients, but even with all that I still failed to lose weight eating a 'normal' low fat diet. Apart from all the carbs, we tend to eat far too much protein.
Take a look at the ketogenic diet. Its very low carb, moderate protein and enough fat to keep you from being hungry. While it seems extreme the science to support it is growing, and it has been the only thing that enabled me to lose weight, although I still have a few kilos to go.
Its also means I now feel fabulous, brain fog, fatigue, broken sleep, heartburn, gastritis, constipation, migraines and anxiety are all in the past.
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