Dietary Advice for Losing Weight

[Laine1707]

I am interested in any dietary advice for managing hypothyroidism, i.e. recommended foods, those to avoid, supplements to consider etc. Really stuggling with being overweight and having no success with popular diets. Now pre-diabetic after being on levothyroxine for 12.5 years, just fed up with it all. Any help or ideas would really be much appreciated. Thank you.

[SeasideSusie Remembering]

Laine1707

When we are optimally medicated, we should be able to lose weight with sensible eating. How much Levo do you take?

Do you take your Levo as advised, i.e. on an empty stomach, one hour before or two hours after food, with a glass of water only (no tea, coffee, milk, etc) and away from other medication and supplements by 2 hours (some need 4 hours) so that nothing affects it's absorption?

What are your current results for

TSH

FT4

FT3

Thyroid antibodies

When on Levo only, the aim of a treated hypo patient generally is for TSH to be 1 or lower with FT4 and FT3 in the upper part of their ranges if that is where you feel well. We need both FT4 and FT3 to see if we convert T4 (a storage/pro-hormone) to T3 (the active hormone that every cell in our bodies need). If T3 is low that causes symptoms and weight loss is difficult.

Supplementing depends on testing nutrients and addressing any low levels or deficiencies. So we also need to test

Vit D

B12

Folate

Ferritin

Optimal nutrient levels are needed for thyroid hormone to work properly.

If you post your results, with reference ranges (eg TSH:2.5 [0.2-4.2] ), and include units of measurement for Vit D and B12, then we can comment and hopefully help further.

[Laine1707 in reply to SeasideSusie]

Dear Susie

Thank you so much for your very speedy reply. I have never posted on a forum before so this is all new territory! I shall do as you recommend and will get the info together. I'm quite happy to try to help myself rather than just rely on the GP's advice who, although very approachable and extremely empathic, is no expert. Although the website is fascinating, the volume & complexity of information is initially overwhelming so your guidance is truly valuable. Thank you for taking the time to reply.

[SlowDragon Administrator]

How much Levothyroxine are you currently taking?

Do you always get same brand of Levothyroxine at each prescription?

You are legally entitled to printed copies of your blood test results and ranges.

UK GP practices are supposed to offer online access for blood test results. Ring and ask if this is available and apply to do so if possible, if it is you may need "enhanced access" to see blood results.

In reality many GP surgeries do not have blood test results online yet

Alternatively ring receptionist and request printed copies of results. Allow couple of days and then go and pick up.

Come back with new post once you have results and ranges. Members can advise on next steps once you have results

[BadHare]

Take a look at Michael Mosley's website for information on reducing the GI value of your foods. Chris Kresser's also good (& free) for information on eating to reduce prediabetes.

Try to add more non-starchy veg to your diet. Avoid sugars & simple carbohydrates that are converted to sugar quickly. Add healthy nuts & seeds for protein & healthy oils, which are good for snacks. Count nutrients in food rather than calories.

[Cornwell]

Ohhh....

Thank you for helping yourself... Trying to manage diet is a very good decision...

First off. You have to quit gluten reach foods..... U can search about the sources of gluten.....

Because they trigger autoimmune disorder which is the issue u have now..

Also keep vitamin c on your menu....

Hop you get better

...

[Hidden]

I would look into the aip diet, it finds out what your personal triggers are, and reduces inflammation, and the side effect is weight loss 😊

[BB001]

Look on the thyrogold website for the 3 free chapters written by the late Dr John C Lowe, the creator of ThyroGold. In particular look at the chapter 'metabolic rehabilitation'.

I lost a stone every 6 months on this diet. Although you will need to have optimised your thyroid meds as well to achieve this degree of success. The other chapters tell you how to monitor your response to thyroid meds

naturalthyroidsolutions.com...

My Treatment Plan

* 1. Eat no sugary foods. Instead, eat vegetables, fruits, lean meats, and only a small amount of grains. Also drink 8 glasses of purified water each day.

2. Walk vigorously for 20 minutes once every day. Before walking, do my stretching regimen for five minutes. When I return from walking, do each of my toning exercises.

3. Take all of my nutritional supplements each day.

4. Take my thyroid hormone dose every day when my stomach is empty.

5. Each Wednesday & Saturday, monitor my symptoms and post the scores to my graph.

6. If my symptoms aren’t improving enough, find and correct or control any obstacles that are holding up my progress.

* I commit to following this treatment plan. The benefits of achieving optimal metabolic health are worth it!

[Karenk13]

Hey Laine1707 the key word here is "popular diet" most of them are only a quick fix short term solution and generally are gimmicks unfortunately.

The most effective method for sustainable weight loss is going to be tracking your calories and making sure that you are in a calorie deficit. What that means is that you are consuming less calories than you are currently using day to day. There is no need to cut out any food groups altogether although people with Thyroid issues are generally recommended to limit their consumption of Soy based products.

Honestly unless you know the exact amount of calories your taking in versus what your burning on a day to day basis you are just guessing as to whether or not you are eating the correct amount for weightloss.

Studies have shown that people massively underestimate the size of their portions and intake so I would recommend downloading Myfitnesspal and starting to track your meals via the app for 2 weeks. That will give you a good baseline of your current intake. Weight yourself regularly and if your weight is not trending downwards deduct 500 calories per day from your maintenance level and this should result in weightloss. I know it can seem time consuming but trust me I have previuosly lost 8kg with an underactive thyroid and have maintained my weight now for the past 4 years with this method so I can definitely tell you it will work.

This calorie calculator can give you a good starting point as to what you should be aiming to eat. But as with all things thyroid related you may need slightly less than the number it gives you to make progress.

calculator.net/calorie-calc...

Other things I would recommend if you can't commit to counting is to use the hand portion guide for all your meals and serving sizes. Here a link to it I would recommend having a look I use it with clients who find it hard to commit to calorie counting

precisionnutrition.com/calo...

Hope this is useful to you. Obviously will power and consistency are going to be the driving factors to tell if you will be successful. It's not a quick fix it's a way of living.

[Hidden]

You do need your thyroid treatment optimal, so take the advice here re blood results. Also helpful to know your resting pulse and temperature. If you are experiencing low blood sugar at times then what has helped me is avoiding caffeine, refined sugar and eating a high protein diet.

[Redlester]

Dear Laine

My advice would be to concentrate first on making sure that your hypothyroidism is being properly monitored treated and controlled. That is the number one priority. As for weightloss, my advice would be to make sure that any methods for that which you use are designed for and suited for someone with hypothyroidism. So what I am saying is almost forget what you see on TV or what is advertised in magazines and in most newspaper articles. I'm not sure to what extent that dietary advice has been researched - and it certainly won't have been researched on someone who is hypo. What might be suitable to a celebrity with no health issues and a dietician on hand won't be suitable to your average hypo person and could actually be harmful. I cannot say for certain [perhaps there are others more qualified here than I who can say one way or the other] but I do not think that for someone with hypo a 5:2 fasting regimen would be beneficial. It is very popular and is being pushed by the media but I question whether it has been researched and studied on someone who is hypo. I recently read a blog post by Tom Brimeyer of forefront health [not really sure what to make of him] who advises some odd things diet wise - for example, he says a lot of the so called "healthy" oils with PUFAs in them are bad for the thyroid - that much I do accept, however he went on to say that avocados should be avoided - because they are rich in monounsaturated fats. I tried eliminating them but found I personally do better on avos than not and I didn't see any explanation for why monounsaturated fat should be harmful. I personally don't think that "diets" are a good idea in themselves - they are associated with denial and deprivation. What anyone with a health condition needs to find is a way of eating which is both healthy and right for their particular condition which they can pursue long term and incorporate into their life - sounds like the holy grail. If anyone can advise of the one which hypo people should be following please pm me !!

[JuliaWM]

try reading The diet myth by prof tim spector. not really diet at all. he also does youtube talk to BMA. what is good eating. but might you really need T3 too? not everyone can convert T4 to T3. difficult to get T3 orescribed. maybe do deal with your Gp, get him to prescribe an dput on your notes and account for in tets, but buy abroad which is about £50 a year abroad and £5000 to the NHS.

[fistpummp]

Hey,

You should try the keto diet and also try to be gluten free. That will help for sure.

[Angelic69]

Chromium good for sugar, l carnitine good for fat metabolism, digestive enzymes good for max uptake of goodies in food and suppliments. I wouldnt eat anything other than light meals, soups for evening meals. Very little carbs unless your energy levels are really bad. If you eat fish that would be good. Seeds, omega mix is really filling and sustaining.

[Annoynomice]

I limit the amount of alcohol I drink, using the drink free days app. I also exercise at least 3 days a week (2x swimming, 1 day body pump and zumba). Because I commute, without any effort, I'll do 9k steps a day

I have porridge every morning or a slice of life changing loaf, 2 litre of water a day, a glass of kelfir. I have a tuna salad, i make up every week which i portion up to eat each weekday. In the evenings, I'll either cook something from scratch or i have home made "ready" meals, batch cooking done on a Sunday. If I need snack around 6pm, then I'll have a natural protein bar or a banana.

I also try and get at least 7.5 hours sleep, although in the week.thats sometimes difficult to achieve.

I've been losing about 1lb a week on this, but if I have a week away with work, I can quickly put on 2lbs so just have to ignore the weight gain and get back on it.

It actually doesn't feel hard as it's a routine and therefore I dont even notice I'm doing it.

Good luck, it is possible the main thing I found was that in the past, I wasnt eating the recommended amount of protein, so had alot of carbs in my diet. None of these were sugars but it meant I was always hungry.