Calories or nutrients for conversion?

Hello all,

I have new bloods in 2 weeks time and I still feel under-medicated. I am not anticipating my GP giving me an increase in levo, she's much more likely to try and decrease my dose. So I've been looking at optimising what I can.

B12 is 88 (37.5 - 188) (up from 45 in June)

Vit D is 158 (75-175) (up from 70 in June)

Ferritin is 24 (13-150) (up from 18 in June)

Folate was 9.5 (3-18) in August

B12, and Folate are nearly there. Vit D is fine. Ferritin is being worked on!

I am currently underweight at 9.5st and 6'1", but I have been the same weight give or take, since I was 17, regardless of diet or activity level.

I also have a very low appetite, especially in the mornings. I am also very sedentary, because I'm still quite fatigued and my legs feel like they're made of iron.

I am GF and mostly DF. We follow Dr Gregors 'the daily dozen', so I feel we're eating a varied diet and get plenty of what we need, lots of nutrient rich food. I've just worked out the calories though and it's around 1300 a day.

I'm going to struggle with getting the calorie level up because that's almost a meal again every day.

So eventually I reach my question (!); are calories that important for conversion of T4 or will the fact that I'm eating nutrient rich food be enough?

I'll do what ever it is I need to do to get well, but I don't want to end up stressing about something unnecessarily!

[greygoose]

Calories are very important for conversion. Calories are units of energy, and it takes energy to convert T4 to T3. So, no, just eating a nutrient-rich diet is not enough if you're not getting the calories.

[Hidden in reply to greygoose]

😭 oh, I thought that would be the case.

The thought of finding another 700 calories is intimidating.

Cheese or peanut butter on toast for supper, I guess!

[SlowDragon Administrator in reply to Hidden]

Are you eating plenty of red meat, plus liver or liver pâté once a week too

Ferritin has a long way to improve

[Hidden in reply to SlowDragon]

I'm vegetarian. 😬

I've got an iron panel being done via thriva, with my next lot of bloods. I'm hoping I can take iron tablets when I get the results!

Otherwise, I will look at eating pate to get my levels up.

I've been drinking Spatone once a day for the past month but I've just realised they're an iron supplement as opposed to an 'iron rich food' 😂 so I feel a bit silly, but I do feel an improvement in my SOB, so hopefully that's an indication things are moving in the right direction! 🤞🏼

[SlowDragon Administrator in reply to Hidden]

As a vegetarian you’re almost certainly going to need iron supplements then

[Hidden in reply to SlowDragon]

Dr didn't see anything in my full blood count to suggest anaemia but here's hoping!😂

[greygoose in reply to Hidden]

Certainly fat contains a lot more calories than veggies. Do you put butter, or olive oil on your veggies?

[Hidden in reply to greygoose]

If veggies are cooked in oven they're usually cooked with olive oil.

We tend to have our veggies in the meal as opposed to on the side.

[greygoose in reply to Hidden]

Not quite sure what you mean by that, but OK.

[Hidden in reply to greygoose]

😂 so we might have vegetable soup, or a vegetable bake or something so they're in the food. Rather than, veggie sausage, mash, and peas. (Which is easier to add extra butter to!)

[greygoose in reply to Hidden]

Ah, ok. I see what you mean. Being British, we don't tend to talk about having veggies 'on the side'. lol

[pennyannie]

Hello there :

When my ferritin as flagged at 22 I felt so ill and couldn't stand up long enough to boil an egg, let alone eat it.

You may well be in the NHS range, as I was, but the range is too wide to be sensible especially when dealing with hypothyroidism, low metabolism, and having to rely on your body to convert T4 into T3.

A full iron panel could be run to rule out anything more serious and if you are " just looking " at low ferritin - prescribed supplements will build you up much quicker than Spatone.

I couldn't tolerate the prescribed tablets so purchased Solgar Gentle Iron and ate liver twice a week and took Spatone.

My ferritin doubled after about 3 months, and I kept building as I read for optimal conversion ferritin needs to be well over 70 :

I now know I need to keep my ferritin topped up at around 100 for my optimal conversion and I use 1 tub a week of Asda frozen chicken livers - they are very clean and mild - and once defrosted I flash fry in a little olive oil for 5/10 minutes and then whizz down into a pate and keep it in the fridge.

I take a spoonful a day with a dollop of Hellmann's and this certainly helps this medicine go down and the ferritin and calories up !!!!

I'm not overly keen on meat but prefer iron rich foods rather than rely on tablets.

I'm sure once you get this mineral up and over the 50's you 'll start to feel much better.

I'm with Graves post RAI ablation in 2005 and now manage lingering Graves, thyroid eye disease and hypothyroidism. Finding no help nor understanding with my continued ill health and having been refused both T3 and NDT on the NHS I now self medicate with full spectrum thyroid hormone replacement and am much improved.

[Hidden in reply to pennyannie]

Hello!

GP refused to run an iron panel because 'nothing in my iron panel suggests anaemia' ... Apart from the very low ferritin and a couple of other results in my FBC that were below range. I couldn't convince her so I've had to do it privately. I should get the results today or tomorrow.

I started taking spatone for 2 weeks until I chickened out and decided to wait for my results.

I'm half hoping the GP was wrong so she will prescribe me iron tablets.

Thank you for taking the time to reply to me. It's very much appreciated to hear you're improved! Gives me hope!