Nutrition and fitness with hypothyroidism

[fscottmcgowan]

Hi there, I have been diagnosed with secondary hypothyroidism (below normal range T3, low in the normal range T4, but normal TSH). I have put on about a stone (14lb) in weight over the last year, in spite of being on 1,400kcal a day or less, and exercising six days a week. I have the usual hypo symptoms: tiredness, weakness, water retention, weight gain, no libido, loss of mojo etc. Been on Thyroxine for 10 weeks, with no symptomatic improvement. Looking for advice on nutrition and exercise, please!

[greygoose]

My advice? Eat more and exercise less! At least until your levels are optimal. By eating 1400 calories a day, you are making yourself more hypo. Low-calorie diets impact negatively on conversion, so your FT3 will be low, and low FT3 is the definition of hypo - little to do with TSH.

On top of that, exercising uses up your T3 - the harder you exercise, the faster it's used up. Plus exercise uses up your calories, so you will have great difficulty replacing that T3. That is why - or at least two of the reasons - you have T4 in range and T3 below range. The FT3 should be higher than the FT4 in their respective ranges.

Also, the less you eat, the lower your nutrients - and they will already be low because hypos have problems absorbing nutrients. And your nutrients need to be optimal for your body to be able to use the hormone you're giving it. So, ask your doctor to test vit D, vit B12, folate and ferritin.

You're just at the beginning of your journey so it's a little too soon to see any improvement from levo. But, if you've been on it for ten weeks, it's high time you were retested - it should be six weeks after you started. So, if I were you, I would pop along to the surgery and ask for tests.

But, do remember that weight-gain is one of the major symptoms of hypo. It has little to do with over-eating and under-exercising. So, under-eating and over-exercising isn't going to help lose it. What is needed is optimal levels of thyroid hormone.

[Saggyuk]

have they tested thyroid antibodies yet?

have they investigated the cause?

Any inflammation will make conversion to T3 harder so removal of anything that causes inflammation will help. Many of us have gone gluten free and have had significant improvements since (nearly all my health issues cleared up and seems to have been the cause in the first place although I'm autoimmune). if you have any stomach issues, working out which foods you are intolerant too will help also. Maybe an elimination diet.

Low nutritional levels will stop thyroid functioning properly and conversion. Many of us are low in iron, B12, folate and vit D so get tests for these. Also selenium is required as is iodine so have a quick check to see if your diet seems to include enough.

In regards to exercise, this will decrease your T3 levels fast so maybe keep exercise to more gentle types for now until issue improves?

Also, scrap the low calorie diet, your body and thyroid needs the energy to function properly and low calories will have the opposit affect as your metabolism is already off and will just slow it down further and likely increase weight. Low calories will also make it harder for you to meet your nutritional requirements and often cause blood glucose levels to be more unstable and affect cortisol levels as your body needs to get energy from somewhere which will make it harder for your thyroid to actually do what it needs to do and impacts conversion. Low nutrition/calories can actually cause thyroid problems.

Read as much as you can on the subject so you are in a better position to help yourself as docs generally wont

[elvera111 in reply to Saggyuk]

i have same diagnosis as you. i spent years on lettuce diets. Since changing to no carbs no sugar my bloodl

are getting to optimum levels.

[bluebug]

Until you optimise your thyroid hormones quit the heavy exercise. Only do swimming, yoga and walking.

You need to get your TSH 1 or under, Free T4 in the top quarter of the range and your Free T3 in the top third.

[thyr01d]

I love that bluebug recommends yoga as I'm a teacher but watch out, depending upon how it's taught it can use a lot of calories even though feeling like easy exercise. One of my students has a gadget for measuring calories burned and found that in my beginners group, the gentlest, she burned off around 350 calories even though half an hour of the hour and a half was in total relaxation.