I’ve seen an old post from 2007 that people had success with losing weight & general well being greatly improved but any find anything newer.
I’ve been on keto for 4 weeks & feel like me for the first time since I got Ill & diagnosed with hypothyroidism. I’m also losing weight & inches.
I know it’s not sustainable for me as I’m getting most of my fats from double cream as I just can’t eat fatty meats, don’t like avacado & can’t eat too many nuts!
I’m thinking of changing to the 5:2 or fast 800 & am interested to hear others with Hashimotos who have had success with it both for feeling better & weight loss.
Many thanks
Kate
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Kateefc
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It isn't necessary to eat fatty meat - or any meat for that matter. They do cater for non-dairy, non-meat, vegetarian, even some vegan (I think), plus probably a few others.
I was after people who have done 5:2 or fast 800 opinions on how it worked for them as I have researched them so just individual reviews I’d like to hear.
I love cream, Greek yoghurt etc I couldn’t live eating on them for ever.
Fatty meat I just hate that fatty texture, it makes me heave to just look at it never mind eat it.
I’ve made my mind up as after a month I know it’s not a woe for me so I’m wanting to hear from people who’ve experience of 5:2 / fast 800 to help me decide which way to go next.
I'm not trying to persuade you to do keto forever. How you eat has to be your choice, however, I would like to make a couple of points.
Fatty meats don't have to be slimy, fatty texture. It can be crispy, whether that be a crispy coating on lamb, crackling on belly pork, or even fabulously crispy skin on chicken thighs or salmon skin.
As I've said, I'm low carb, but I actually do end up eating a lot of calories to maintain my weight. I'm 160cm tall, weigh 49kg and these days need to eat 2500-3000 calories a day to maintain my weight.
For me, calorie restriction would cripple me over time. Hunger is extremely unpleasant.
Roughly, I have home made full-fat (usually with added cream) Greek yoghurt, with a few raspberries, or rhubard a breakfast.
Lunchtime is a ginagerous salad with home made mayo. The salad will usually have cheese, cold cuts. I'll quite often have some pork scratching or chorizo crisps alongside too.
Evening meals are usually meat and veg. The veg will be with butter, or sour cream. Sauces will almost always be enriched by cream or cheese. For example, a cheese sauce will just be cream cheese with more cheese.
I do have an excellent appetite and have always eaten more than my OH, who is the one toiling over the stove, so I can't complain.
My food is always nutrient and calorie dense. Like anyone else, I have hungry and less hungry days. On the hungry days I can polish off pork scratchings (around 600 cals a bag), and/or home made clotted cream, or even hot chocolate made with double cream and hot water.
I don't count calories every day or even regularly. After a time, I eat to my hunger. I've only really checked when someone has commented on my way of eating.
Very low calorie diets affect your T3 levels, so wouldn't be recommended:
pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/234...
I think the best thing to do is to work on easing up your carb allowance until you find a balance that works for you. I personally found that the weight fell off me when I followed a paleo diet, which is higher in fat and lower carb, but not at either extreme. I didn't have to count calories on it at all either.
I lost a bit on the 5:2 and then it stopped. I now do the "intermittent fasting" thing [which came next] where you eat all your calories in a time-limited window [in my case between mid-day and 7pm]. I haven't lost but weight is stable. It's a way of life and very easy to adapt to after the first few weeks of missing breakfast. I lost 4 kg last summer on OMAD [one meal a day] which I have since kept off - but can only do that when it's hot and after 4 weeks my blood pressure was very low, so I went back to IF.
The Two Day diet combines two low carb days with five days Mediterranean diet. It's based on nutritional research from the Manchester Genesis cancer prevention protect and is well researched, nutritionally evidence based, sustainable and generally sane. It's a bit like 5:2 but not as hard core and spells out how many portions of each food type to have each day. I lost a weight on it an it was very easy to stick to.
I tried the fasting one ie always eating within an 8 hour window, last meal at 4pm then nothing until breakfast. But after a few weeks or so it made my hashimoto’s systems worse so I stopped. I might get round to trying the ‘5 - 2’ but I am not sure any kind of fasting diet is right for metabolic disorders of any kind like hashimoto’s etc. I wonder what Michael Moseley’s suggestion would be for hashimoto’s patients? Interesting. Let us know how you get on with the ‘5 - 2’ please : )
I imagine he thinks it's a one-size-fits-all diet for everyone. His documentaries give the impression he's of the calories in Vs calories out mentality, and doesn't strictly recognise that some of us have minimum caloric needs.
Im not sure actually and I think theres more science to fasting and there are many benefits particularly for our guts, fat burn, boosting immunity, to name a few. I might well message him if he has a fb account! See what he says - why not!
Response back from Michael Moseley.... Not withstanding a medical disclaimer!
“I think some people just don't feel well when fasting and if this does not suit you, you may stick to a slightly longer eating window than 8 hours,
I would encourage you to discuss this with your medical prescriber and make sure you are monitored as you lose weight. Sometimes your medication dose needs to be adjusted.
The metabolism is complicated and how fasting affects the production and absorption of thyroxine is probably quite individual. Sometimes fasting may reduce the thyroid hormone level, but there is also evidence that the thyroid replacement therapy is better absorbed if taken while fasting.
It is difficult to give you individual or specific advice and would not be safe for us to do so. Hope that helps”.
I think what theyre saying is in summary - try fasting for weight loss etc but be careful if youre a thyroid patient, and if it makes symptoms worse, adapt it accordingly to prevent it! : )
Not done 5/2 but have done 16/8 which is actually pretty easy. I did lose weight about a stone when I first started this but have found its tailed off a bit.
You could also try a paleo approach to diet now you are in ketosis and reintroduce some complex carbs and fruit and veg but co to us to avoid refined carbs and sugars. You will probably continue to shed lbs but a bit less extreme.
I lost most of my 8ib loss in week 1, sts wk 2, 1ib loss week 3, so it’s slowed down but I can see a difference in the mirror & my sleep has improved ten fold with regular hours easily, aches, headaches, fuzzy head, drain fog, irritability etc have pretty much disappeared & it’s the closest to me I’ve been in ten years.
My husband and I did the 5:2 and it does work but we found not sustainable. We were doing it when it was 500 calories for me and 600 for him - not many, I think the calories have been increased now in that diet. My husband put on weight again but in February decided to try again, this time on the 800 diet (800 calories). We bought the book and started on it. It was him trying to lose weight, not me - I only wanted a couple of pounds off. It is good but doing it only two days a week he found the weight wasn't coming off quick enough and he didn't look forward to doing it, so he decided to do it every other day and that has been brilliant. We also used an app to count calories. We did buy it (£29 for the year, but it is brilliant - works out portions, you can save recipes). Not sure I can name it, but if I am allowed I can name it in the next post if someone wants me to. He has lost 1 stone 3lbs since February and I have lost about 5lbs even though I wasn't trying! I lost weight because I am eating similarly to him - same food but sometimes I eat a bit more. No need to buy anything special, just what you normally eat, though we have more fish now. What he finds is that on the 'diet day' he WAS sticking to the 800 calories but as time has gone on, and after he lost a stone, he doesn't worry now if the calories are anywhere between 800-1000 on the diet day. He says there is never a chance to say 'I am hungry, I can't do this', as the very next day you can eat again. On the 'eating days' we have even gone back to treats like a chocolate biscuit with our mid morning cuppa. I stopped buying biscuits for the last two years or more, apart from visitors, but now it doesn't matter if we indulge. Similarly, we have a couple of chocs in the evening. We have cut down on wine, just one bottle between us once a week, and I am thinking of stopping that as I have pernicious anaemia and any wine keeps me awake at night with a thumping heart. Ok if I drink at 5pm, say three quarters of a glass. Any later is no good. Doing the 800-1000 cals every other day worked for us.
Pre conditions I used to do a 3 week yearly detox that was raw fruits & veg only for the first 10 days then water & a juice made of olive oil, cayenne pepper, garlic & presses OJ daily for the rest of the time. I was skinny then with no issues at all & I always dropped around 7ibs (that I didn’t need to but it was an effect of the detox) and my skin, improved, bowel movements, and got an extra zap of energy but since I’ve had Hashimotos & pernicious anaemia it’s not worked.
Sounds like you & your husband have found the right balance for you & I hope it continues to work for you both.
I do know a couple of people who have lost weight and very unusually maintained that weight loss for years based on the 5/2 . Fasting is an ancient tradition and I think current reasurch has show that doing so helps remove toxins, the body while fasting consumes lots of decaying cells, it is very cleansing and boosts the microbiome, the diversity of it, including the bacteria that boost weight loss. However I am unable to fast due to my thyroid condition, if my blood sugar drops I am ill and it is advised in Islam, a religion known for its fasting to not fast if you are ill in anyway. I lost weight and maintained weight loss for many years while a member of over eaters anonymous. In this organisation you choose and develop your own plan of how to eat based on shared experince of those in the groups and close observation of how the way you eat affects your own body. The most common food plan that seems to emerge from this is three meals a day, nothing in between and the avoidance of refined sugar. I belive that reasurch has shown that taking even a short break of four hours from eating helps boost microbiome including the weight loss bacteria. The weight loss statistics in over eaters anon done while I was a member showed an maintence of healthy BMI of longer than five years in previously obese people at 40 percent. This is a vast improvement on all other diets available. Groups such and weight watchers and sliimming world coming in at less than 1 percent but other diets too such as atkins,as although laudable in theory, like the keto, they tend to be unsustainable long term. People fall off the wagon with them, for reasons like you clearly identify, people cannot keep eating the same stuff all the time be it cream, meat or copious amounts of fruit. There is a lot more to overeater anonymous than just the 3 0 1 ( 3 meals a day, nothing in between, one day at a time) there is a lot of support, therepy I suppose you could call it in the meetings and accountability. It is not an organisation I belong too anymore for various reasons but I do have huge respect for it, for the fifty odd years of shared experince around the world, the honesty of its members and I think that of anywhere has found the ideal diet for thyroidly people or anybody else it is in those rooms.
I’ve never eaten 3 meals a day in my adult life, as a child I hated breakfast (hard to eat, make me feel a bit sick) so as an adult I dropped it. I eat it if I wake hungry which is rare but always on holiday as I’m up & about for a few hours before going out for breakfast.
I got into bad eating habits over the last 4/5 years of most days having biscuits or cake when I got hungry around 11-12 o clock then more later & lots of takeaways etc as I was so poorly with no energy or motivation etc. I knew it was wrong but I couldn’t stop myself.
Back in the Good days I also only ate when I was hungry so that would mean some days with no food & I never had a single issue with weight. I’m trying to go back to the same way now.
I am 71 and isn't that how we all used to eat, 3 meals a day, no snacking. It seems people now have to constantly graze. I hardly ever eat between meals, apart from now having a choc biscuit as a treat
I decided this year to appoint a nutritionist. I've had hypothyroidism with antibodies for more than 10 yrs, weight could go on kgs at a time and felt thoroughly miserable as well as unwell. I only started Thyroxine in Oct 2018 at which time things started to improve. Less headaches, blood pressure down to what it used to be when I was much younger and more energy. I also had to have surgery in March 2019. They had started me on Ferrous Sulphate and B12 injections. In February I did a GI Map test ordered by my nutritionist and found some problems there which my body tells me she has addressed. I can eat things now I haven't been able to for years and I can eat without feeling unwell. I was a great at not eating infact I felt better when I didn't eat which was a negative cycle. Since March I have now lost 10kg, it's slow but that is fine infact as I have osteoporosis too it is probably better. I eat three times a day, lunchtime more often than not I'll have an organic broth soup with vegetables or houmous with quinoa and salad. I'm not good at counting calories but feel confident I am well within the 1500 calories allocated to me. It's a long haul when you have been a non eater but I now feel well and I will continue to improve my diet to something that has greater nutritional density. I feel more confident at playing a positive role in looking after my health and in area that general medicine can not help. Not eating or fasting doesn't work for many patients with underactive thyroid and is infact inadvisable so my advice would be to change your diet, address any nutritional deficiencies and if you have gut issues get those addressed too. If you want any further details feel free to PM me as always happy to share.
Excellent advice, I reckon. I have been stable weight-wise on a strictly no grain, virtually no sugar diet - plenty of veg, meat, fish, eggs, chocolate, even alcohol (red wine, lighter ones best, fizz good, white wine less well tolerated, some spirits, no beer), not much fruit. Keep off sugar and anything related to grass. Miss or delay breakfast until the morning Thyroxin pill is absorbed and eat when hungry - light lunch/good dinner or vice versa. Snack on nuts and veg crisps. Call it Paleo? I am on a recommended lowish BMI for my height and it works for me. To keep the cortisol up, lots of physical stuff really helps, even if I don't feel like it.
First bit sounded good until you got to the chocolate, wine and spirits - all sugar. I'm not a saint but have an occasional few squares of dark chocolate and several weeks apart, might have a glass or two of red wine. Then straight back to it. Nutritionist says best alcohol to drink is strictly the odd glass of Champagne or a Vodka. Crisps of any variety haven't touched my lips. Not sure I understand your comment about grass? I have one meal per week of red meat, organic grass fed. Most of the other stuff I eat, wherever I can get it is organic in the hope that I can address my low gut immunity and my thyroid antibodies. We all have different aims and goals but I'm keen to cut out sugars as you say, reduce my high levels of uric acid so I have squeezed lemons and lime in warm water with a little ginger and I have a grapefruit, good for fat burning but always away from my Thyroxine in the afternoon and absolutely no ready meals. No dairy except for organic low fat, bio live yogurt sometimes with berries and chopped nuts. My nutritional deficiences have been a concern so empty calories are, except on the odd occasion, out for me. Basically I work on my plate being divided up as half green veg and only small portion of one starchy veg (or none), quarter of the right carb, quarter good protein and in doing that choose nutritionally dense foods. It's a learning curve and to keep eating. I'm too good at not eating which seems to lead to weight increase. Need to do this to justify the nutritionist otherwise it's a waste of time (hers and mine) and money. Important thing I think is to have whatever treat you need but get back on it.
I went on the 5:2 to lose weight and found it very easy to follow; I only did this until I had lost enough weight - I cannot remember the exact amount now but about 24lbs. I take T3 only and, at the time, I was being prescribed this by the nhs (they have since told me that this was a mistake as I’m not hypothyroid and so stopped my T3 without notice). I was losing about 2lbs per week, every week, until I had a ‘dodgy’ batch of T3 and didn’t lose weight at all. I found out about the batch on this site. I switched batches and the weight loss continued as before; which goes to show how important it is to have optimal treatment. To maintain my weight and keep fat off my middle I used to do one diet day a month. I love my food and cook a lot but consoled myself with the thought that I could eat whatever I wished the following day. I adore milk and cream (dairy farmers) and don’t eat anything low fat. Fat doesn’t make you fat. I’m with you on fatty meat, I can’t stand the texture; fine if cooked to crispness but otherwise on a par with egg white. It’s the reason I don’t like smoked salmon - the texture. I’ve not done the 5:2 recently as my weight is pretty stable due to the amount of gardening undertaken in the last 18 months, bad back not withstanding. I will do another few days of 5:2 to get rid of the belly fat but it’s not important to me. It’s probably the homemade bread that does it.
I really like when people find the thing that works for them & can live with. I need to get to that stage 😁
I don’t like smoked salmon either but love salmon fillet, that uses up a lot of my protein & I then struggle for my next meal so usually end up with another salad.
I too have Hashimoto's and find that losing weight is much harder now. Are you optimally replaced with levothyroxine? There is a Thyroid UK section of Health Unlimited which has a wealth of knowledge, and where you can post blood test results for people to comment on.
I saw a nutritional therapist who told me that people with Hashimoto's find it difficult to metabolise carbs. This made sense as the only type of 'diet' that had ever worked for me in the past was the Dukan diet which is very low carb. What I have been doing more recently is a form of Intermittent Fasting which just happens to fit in with my current lifestyle. I have breakfast at 10.30 after exercise and evening meal at 7pm. This is in combination with trying to go pretty low carb as well, which has worked for me.
What I find - (along with many others!) - is that by reducing carbs and replacing with healthy fats/protein, is that my hunger is markedly reduced. Surely a big advantage on any weight loss programme! I don't get the hunger pangs that want me to snack between meals. I haven't actually tried 5:2. I keep meaning to give it a try just to see if it makes a bit of extra difference, but wonder if I might feel too hungry on the fast days.
Why don't you try eggs if you don't want too much meat? A staple of mine is a spinach and feta omelette with salad. Be careful with commercial salad dressings as they contain a lot of sugar. also like a home-made ratatouillle, which can be eaten with lean meat/fish/halloumi etc. For breakfaat I often have a full-fat Greek yogurt with berries, seeds and a few nuts.
There are loads of other ideas and recipes on this site. Hope that is of some help.
This is the thyroid uk forum 😁 and I’ve been a member for many years.
I also did the Atkins in 2012/13 and lost 10ibs which was 20ibs under what I needed to, my husband lost 3 stone.
I too pretty much do intermittent fasting as I don’t eat until 12 and have my last food by 7.
I used to be vegan so any animal bi product is hard for me so I have to really be in the mood for the likes of eggs which is only every few weeks.
I’m absolutely fine with following recipes & have signed up to a 3 month meal plan with carb manager so am going to stick to those (changing meals I don’t like for ones I do with same nutritional values). I love my varied salads in summer but cold days I want stews with potatoes 😫
I did 5:2 for many years and found it easy to stick to but I didn’t lose much weight, it was more for maintenance. However, I do eat absolutely whatever I want on non fast days so there may not have been a huge deficit in calories overall during the week. I find that if I want to lose weight I need to fast for three days a week instead and then it’s a steady 1 to 2lb loss. I also try to have all my calories on those days in a short time frame (between about 4-10 pm). It doesn’t seem to affect the way I feel except for feeling slightly colder on fast days and I sleep more heavily. I think I would normally lose on the 5:2 but I know I am under medicated. I am missing half the gene that converts T4 to T3 (had a private test) but my gp refuses to prescribe T3 as he says my bloods are correct. I managed to persuade a private doctor to refer me to an endocrinologist but that was just before lockdown and I haven’t been able to get an appointment. Good luck with the weight loss.
I did the Fast800 for about 8 weeks last autumn but only after I had gotten my TSH, FT4 & FT3, ferritin, vit D, folate, B12 where they should be (thanks to advise from this amazing forum) and stabilised for almost a year.
When I was diagnosed hypo I was 1lb shy of 12 stone. After going gluten free & getting all of the above stable I got down to 10 1/2 stone.
For me, doing the Fast800 wasn't just about losing weight...it was about re-evaluating my life, learning about what goes in my gob and what it does to the body and trying to set myself up for as healthy a future as I could possibly have. I read a lot and learned A LOT and my eyes were opened. I learnt about cholesterol from the great Dr Malcolm Kendrick, diabeties/sugar/insulin from Dr David Unwin and about dementia (which my mother has).
Anyway...I did the Fast800 and in 8 weeks got down to 9st, which at 5'2" inches and for a woman of a certain age *Cough!* was wayyyy healthier. 10 months on and all my bad habits, cravings have gone. I avoid all the beige foods (bread, pasta, spuds...) I don't crave anything sweet, crisps, I eat healthily without really trying (if that makes sense). I have plateaued anywhere between 9.3 - 9.6.
For me the Fast800 was the best thing I've done in years (apart from finding and listening to the advice on the TUK support network here) and it (and how I now feel) has changed my life.
I highly recommend giving it a go but get everything else right first and don't just do the Fast800 for weight loss. Learn about what you put in your mouth too.
I’ve been doing 5:2 for about 7 years now, works a treat, it’s not a diet in my book because you always know you’re going to eat what you want the day after you’re fasting day and for the next 3-4 days. I was 13st 7lbs before, within 10 weeks I dropped to 12st 4lbs which I’ve stayed at consistently since then. 24hr fast is easy. I do Mondays and Thursdays so nothing interrupts the weekend. Diets are continual misery, 5:2 works.
Kate - I see you have tried Keto. For me, that level of hardcore isn't necessary.
Have you tried just dropping the big heavy carbs, like bread, pasta, pastry, rice, breakfast cereal and spud? Many find that's enough to drop the pounds and also is more sustainable.
For me, that approach (OK, I've had to go gluten-free in the meantime too) had me dropping weight rapidly, to the extent I had to work out how to halt it.
Whilst many folks think they could never give up bread, pizza, cereals or whatever, in reality in my world it just means I get more of the tasty stuff.
For instance, tomorrow is traditionally curry night in this house. These days I might have a spoonful of rice, but whether or not I bother with that, I get much more of the delicious curry. For me, rice is just a carrier.
I can, if I want a carrier, use cauliflower rice, which once it had curry (or whatever with it) is tasteless - a bit like white rice.
If I am using cauli rice, it'll often be cooked with the pilau seasonings, or when using it for "kedgeree", it'll have curry spices through it.
For cauli rice, I just run however much cauli I want through the food processor (I'm lazy, it can be done on a cheese grater), the quickly stir fry it with a little oil and the spices. It only takes a few minutes.
Any leftover (rawa) riced cauli freezes beautifully for another time. Some supermarkets also sell it ready-riced; fresh or frozen.
For me, I think diet labelling can be a bit unhelpful, with a temptation to be stressed by trying to get into and stay in ketosis, rather than eating to results and how well I feel.
Just over 6.5 years in, I feel able to continue this way for the foreseeable future, although who knows what might get in the way in the time to come.
I’m on week 4 & I’m missing all my varied fruit & vegetables so it might be worth me trying to just drop them & eat as normal without them.
I’ve made a few things with cauliflower rice as it’s so versatile & I love it, didn’t know it was good to freeze though, thanks for that.
I’ve decided to carry this on for 3 months following a meal plan & am hoping to see a nutritionist in that timeframe for tests & her expertise on what would be my best plan for good health & a sustained healthy weight for me.
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