Fasting & Thyroid

Hi

Has anyone tried intermittent fasting

To help the thyroid ?

[BadHare]

I've done the 16/8 type of intermittent fasting for 6 years.

It's good for timing meds & supplements, & helped me feel better as I could eat more & improve my nutrition, before I started taking thyroid meds.

[Hidden in reply to BadHare]

I’ve been doing 16/8 somedays 20/4 all it has done for me is made me heavier . I’ve not got any benefit at all from doing IF . I got the books and Jason Fung book . I don’t know if it’s anything to do with my sleepy metabolic rate but I’ve decided to just go back to SW. 😊

[BadHare in reply to Hidden]

Have you cut out soy & aerobic exercise?

Nutrients & micronutrients ok?

Would you try a keto/paleo type diet & cut down on carbs?

[Hidden in reply to BadHare]

I don’t have any soy .

I’m not a fan of keto I’m just going to go back in SW tomorrow. Fasting didn’t work for me it made me miserable too .

I found missing breakfast very hard . I was clock watching

[BadHare in reply to Hidden]

As long as I have enough protein, & keep away from starchy foods I don't get hungry during fasting hours. I'm ravenous all day if I eat a carby breakfast as I have Saturday morning off, though stop eating earlier in the evening. My worst issue is forgetting to eat as it messes up supplement timings. I stay the same weight, & carry an extra stone that I'm stuck with, but eating this way allows me to consume much more than I could before so my nutritional intake is better. I feel it helps my joint pain as my body had more repair time rather than digesting.

[rachelleigh73]

Hi reikimaster - it might be worth reviewing what you eat to look for an explanation of why you are hungry. A strong reduction in processed carbohydrates can help reduce cravings. For me - I made the decision to let go of the fear of being hungry and to accept that feeling hungry is something I can well handle. I have some cheese or nuts on standby as a snack if needed but it's rare that I feel the need for them. Do post on here what your eating looks like if you feel some feedback might be helpful x

[Hidden in reply to rachelleigh73]

Hi ,

My eating is rather good , I opened my eating window with porridge

Tea has been salad with jacket potato or home made veggie chilli & brown rice

Before closing my eating window I’ve had a small bowl of nut Muesli. I’ve eaten oranges apples and occasionally bananas. Grapes or strawberries and plain yoghurt. I’ve drunk an average of 2 coffees a day . The rest of the time has been water or Nettle tea.

[rachelleigh73 in reply to Hidden]

Thanks for replying. My first thoughts on reading through it was 'that's a lot of carbohydrate'. There will be others better able to explain it - perhaps do a forum search for a member called TheAwfulToad - but I do believe that a lower carb diet helps to regulate cravings, and that things like porridge and muesli have a strong effect on blood sugars and hormone balance. I feel good on IF but I'm mindful that it can put stress on adrenal function so might not be right for everyone ...

[Hidden in reply to rachelleigh73]

Thanks

The member you suggest is on HU Or another site 😊

[rachelleigh73 in reply to Hidden]

On HU - though probably not the Thyroid forum. There is a healthy eating forum and a LCHF forum under the HU umbrella which are well worth a look - I may be able to find a link or two for you later if you need

[Hidden in reply to rachelleigh73]

That would be great thank you so much x

[Misty2018 in reply to Hidden]

I am with Rachel. Carbs too high. Limit fruit to berries. And to 2 servings a day. Where is the protein? Get it to 30% of your calories.

[Hidden in reply to Misty2018]

I’m vegetarian I do have Quorn . Thank for your post I’ll try anything within veggie limitation 😇

[rachelleigh73 in reply to Hidden]

Eggs and cheese are also good vegetarian sources of protein. It might be worth researching others and also looking at raising fat levels too to help with hunger levels. Below is a link to the forum member I mentioned - he has posted this today. You might find it helpful to look at his past posts too. Good luck reikimaster ...

healthunlocked.com/lchf-die...

[G2G2]

Reducing carbs is the surest way to lose weight & be healthier. If you're adrenals are stressed like many us with hypothyroidism, IF isn't helpful.

[Hidden in reply to G2G2]

I saw that many success stories , I was encouraged to start IF . How silly was I I certainly won’t be doing it again . All it has done for me is made me gain more weight .

I just want to get back to my regular weight but being thyroid resistant isn’t helping with that either .

[No_fixed_abode]

I will add this, not sure if it is useful or not, but it is my experience... I started trying to lose weight as I am type 2 diabetic and had sleep apnea having reached 130Kg.

I did not think I would ever lose it as whatever I did my weight only went up! My first success with weight loss happened after I realized that contrary to common belief and wisdom, carb was the problem and not fat (mainly gleaned from Jason Fung et al) when I stopped eating heavy carb (bread/potatoes/pasta) after midday. Evening meal would be protein and a huge salad. At this time I also introduced more exercise into my lifestyle. I lost 10 - 15Kg.

It was about this time that I saw the Horizon with Michael Mosely, "Eat fast, live long". This inspired me to start 5:2 fasting, again with a little exercise built into my regime. this brought be down the other 10-15Kg so my weight plateaued around 100Kg. There after, despite continuing 5:2 my weight has remained fairly stable, but I probably was not doing the amount of exercise I do now.

After initially struggling to fast, I used to find it quite easy. It is far easier to make the binary choice not to eat than it is to restrict at every meal, that just drove me nuts! And in all the time I was doing the above, I always ate completely freely at the weekend, that was part of the deal to myself.

Roll on to today, now I find fasting almost impossible! I was B12d for many years (caused by metformin I think), that was treated just after Xmas. I am still not right, I query thyroid issues, but as yet do not have the numbers to back that up. Now I find when I try to fast that I get all of the symptoms of hypoglycemia without actually being hypoglycemic! I used to find that eating fat and protein left me feeling sustained for longer, and even seemed to lower my cholesterol. Now I have to eat carbs more regularly in the day not to feel off.

This is all even more annoying as I have gained about 1.5Kg. I have also had to increase my carb intake as my body now seems much more sensitive to it. If I fast for a day now I find that by the evening I am feeling awful, my blood pressure is raised, and my heart rate falls...

Not sure if anyone will find this useful, but I felt moved to write it, so I did!

[Hidden in reply to No_fixed_abode]

Thank you for your input and YES. always wise to learn from other people’s experience .

Have you tried slimming world ?

There pretty generous with free foods and lower carbs it’s a veggies dream. Carnivores too 😊

[No_fixed_abode in reply to Hidden]

LOl, no I haven't. Partly I think my views are a little weird and whacky, I do not believe in calorie control as a method for losing weight, and I have never been one for clubs etc. But also I tend to move around quite a lot with my work and travel a lot.

There are other benefits with fasting which was actually the second part of the reason I went in that direction in the first place, and Jason Fung's experience of it with diabetics. I highly recommend that Horizon I mentioned above, it was part of what put fasting out there in the first place.

[Hidden in reply to No_fixed_abode]

I think my body is just weird . It doesn’t want to do anything other that get fat . I wouldn’t mind if I sat on my backside all day eating dairy milk and walkers crisps I definitely do not . I’m particular what I chew 🤷🏻‍♀️

[AmandaK in reply to No_fixed_abode]

I have had a similar experience - when I first tried IF in 2015 I found it relatively easy and lost around 12IB which was great. I was going to continue with it to lose more weight but I had a freak accident (got hit on the head), resulting in mild concussion. It took over two years to recover and during that time I couldn't tolerate IF so put all the weight back on.

More recently I felt able to return to IF but found it incredibly difficult - I even tried 800 cals (I could never keep to 500 originally but 600 was manageable) - but still felt too ill.

Needless to say I'm at a loss as to what to do as I need to lose weight (starting with arthritis) but just cutting cals has never worked and IF was the only successful way for me.

So, I concur with your experience. I wonder if it's to do with adrenals? Fasting puts far too much stress on the adrenals so feeling ill is the body telling us to stop.

[dtate2016]

Fasting works well for me...have not heard / nor read any of the books / plans mentioned here (interesting though!).

I came upon on my own plan quite accidentally. I began to experiment with proteolytic enzymes after reading several success stories on proteolytic enzymes and how they help with T4 to T3 conversion. (that was the reason for trying them initially - and it worked really well for me) The added bonus (other than now being quite balanced and healthy on less NDT) was that I began to be less hungry. Cravings ended almost entirely (90% less cravings for salty, savory, anything - never had cravings for sweet or sugary things ever). I noticed the less hungry after about 10 days on a fairly gentle proteolytic enzyme by. I was taking a more intense (more expensive) proteolytic enzyme - and again, stumbled upon the lesser expensive more gentle one, which somehow affected the hunger urge more than the first one - and decided to see how long I could go comfortably without eating. It is on average 7 hours. Around 2 or 3 in the afternoon, I begin to feel hungry, not ravenously so, but just like "I could eat something". If I really wanted to push it, I could go for 10 hours, and have a time or two. Results? Loss of inches, loss of weight (slowly). So far, around 15 lbs in 75 days. It was so accidental - I didn't even bother to weigh at first. (Why bother? It's almost always bad news. Ha!) But I did notice clothes were fitting better - much better! My husband began to ask if I was dieting (again!). The enzymes are quite the helper. I'm otherwise fairly unable to go too long without food.

I have not heard of anyone else making any comments about fasting / hunger control with proteolytic enzymes. Nor do know of any scientific / medical foundation for this response. (Isabella Wentz seemed to mention it in one of her books - but I did not order the book) I do know it works for me.

[Hidden]

I am up really early first drink was hot water I stuck to it religiously somedays did longer fasts 18/6 20/4 but when it was cold I stuck to 16/8 because I needed to eat

All fasting did for me was gain weight .

[Murphysmum]

I found 5:2 amazing and in fact I’m about to restart now i feel able!

You mentioned you struggled with missing breakfast and I would too.

I found that if I shifted my fasting time (very like 16:8 I guess), then you don’t have to move breakfast.

So on a non fasting day I would have my last food, evening meal, at say 6pm and then I would start my fast. So nothing before bed that night, then the next day I would stick to my 600 calories and I would be finished at 6pm again (when I would have a small reward like a choc biccie with my cuppa!).

So you actually sleep through the worst of it that way. I still find the first week a bit tougher but that because your resting insulin levels are higher and you’re craving something to feed that, but thereafter, easy peasy, watch those pounds disappear!

[Hidden in reply to Murphysmum]

It didn’t work for me at all. I put weight on 😳

I started in 28 November last year and gained

I didn’t have any benefit at all from it. I didn’t spike insulin levels either by having herbal teas or gum .

Maybe it didn’t work for me because my T3 levels are so low . The endo did say is probably only lose a small amount .

[Murphysmum in reply to Hidden]

How strange!

Oh well, different things work for different people.

I haven’t done it at all for a couple of years now as I haven’t felt well enough - or haven’t felt like I have any energy left in reserve at least.

Now I’m on T3 and feeling better so I’m hoping it might work like it did before 🤞🏻

I don’t need to lose a lot, half a stone to feel better, a stone ideally

Good luck with your weight loss - hopefully SW will work for you 😉

[Hidden in reply to Murphysmum]

Thanks hun xxxx