I've read on this site that food restriction and lots of exercise don't actually reduce weight but could in fact increase it because the T4 then doesn't convert properly. I have put on about three stones over recent years and, now that my meds have recently been increased, am keen to lose some of that. But I'm not sure of the best course of action. My doctor recommended the Fast 800 but Dr Isabella Wentz says that fasting is not a good option for hypothyroid patients.
Does anyone know the answer or have good recommendations please? I would really like to know which foods support us but also help us lose some of the extra timber. It's really getting me down
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Have recently been re-prescribed 75mg. Was on it daily for a while a few months ago but then my TSH level dropped a bit too much for my doctor's liking so was put back to 50mg every other day. I had been losing a little weight once on 75mg but the minute this variation in meds happened, I put it all back on.
No Hashi's indicated in my blood tests apparently.
Getting anything other than TSH seems hard work from the NHS. I had vitamin D and Vitamin B12 checked about a year ago and they were in mid range. Folate is pretty low whenever it is checked, despite my attempts to eat plenty of it and sometimes supplement. Ferritin also low/mid range. I don't think T3 has been checked at all and getting a T4 test requires a great deal of nagging. I think I have had maybe two in 18months of diagnosis/titration.
My family has a history of low B12 (and indeed pernicious anaemia) so I have been supplementing methylated B12 sublingually for years. Can't take it just orally, I don't absorb. Have tried Thorne Basic B but I don't seem to get on with it particularly well. Makes me abit hyper. Can't take folic acid without significant skin reaction now. Can just about tolerate methylated folate.
Not gluten or lactose free in diet but have had issues with gluten and many additives over the years so try to eat minimally processed foods most of the time. Can tolerate sourdough bread in small amounts. Dairy doesn't seem to present too much of a problem, so far as I can tell.
Thank you GreyGoose for the water comment. Whenever I exert myself a good deal (say much of a day in garden) my body swells up and I am visiting loo all night. Also, I'm wrecked the next day. So maybe I am not there with the meds yet. I was able to do more on the 75mg orginally and feel better but I also then got TMP which suggested my body wasn't coping going up from 50mg to 75mg in one go?
It's a journey all this for sure, isn't it? I'm 18 months in now but I reckon it's been going on for many years undiagnosed. I started getting tired and putting weight on 15 years ago despite good diet and regular exercise - but no doc would listen and I was only diagnosed eventually because all my hair and eyebrows started falling out and I finally managed to get them to test TSH against T4. Gah! Should have gone private.....but was constantly being told I just needed to go on a diet!
Thanks SlowDragon. I am on Mercury Pharma. Two months ago I had Eltroxin 50's plus 25g plain Mercury Pharma levo. Interestingly, my resting heart rate went right up (and then crashed right down again once I ran out of Eltroxin). I know they are both made by Advanz these days but that was a strange thing. Wondering if Eltroxin is more effective/comes from a different source....I haven't been able to get it since and am currently on straight Mercury both 50mg and 25mg.
As SlowDragon has advised, first focus on optimising both thyroid medication and key thyroid vitamins before undertaking any diet. Obviously try to eat as healthily as posssible, but I wouldn’t recommend a restrictive diet.
I would really like to know which foods support us but also help us lose some of the extra timber.
There are no such foods. No magic bullets. You need the right amount of calories and the right nutrients to be healthy, but whilst you are still hypo you're not going to lose weight. Thing is, the increased weight probably isn't fat, it's water-weight. So, how is food - lack of it - going to help?
Ray Peat/pro-metabolic is definitely worth looking into 😊
Hey, just wanted to share a similar story. I recently went from 75mcg to 100mcg Levo and a bit came off (4kg) with no special efforts on my part. But it’s creeping back in now, I’m only 4 weeks into the dose increase so it hasn’t settled yet. I’m a big Izabella Wentz fan and hubby and I did a few weeks of her autoimmune diet plan, it was delicious and we felt full, but time consuming, a bit wasteful when you realise the portions feed 8 and not 2 🙈 and expensive, not seasonal. We follow the principles now with the odd bag of crisps 🤣
I have however really benefited from sorting out my gut health, I had terrible bilious full feeling after meals and all this has resolved going dairy gluten free after her exclusion diet. Using L-Glutamine, NAC, black seed oil, probiotics, ovex wormer, betain with pepsin etc. many of these are a one time effort not continuous. I have a root cause smoothie for breakfast every day. Took me a while before I realised the recipe made more than 1 and I was having too much!
I’ve always been a bit of a white starch carb dodger anyway and stopped refined/added sugar long before embarking on all this (when I was unmedicated hypo and getting very Reubens like).
For me the ‘eat more fat’ message rings true. I feel fuelled and don’t get fatter. It’s bread, pasta, cake and biscuits that make me fatter.
Have you looked up mucin? Been a few chats about it recently. Worth reading up. I can feel this reducing, my jeans are baggier around my calves and thighs. I think it’s a slow process.
I have somehow not gained weight (fingers crossed) since starting levo about 18 months ago. I am hugely overweight. I am now eating approx one third of what I was eating pre levo. However recently my stomach area has become more ‘solid’, more like other areas of mucin - cant be pinched. No idea how mucin itself weighs but as I say no change to actual weight. Like others I’d love to get rid but I also know my medication is not yet balanced. Before levo I know I constantly ate with a view to trying to jump start some energy. NOW I know that can’t happen so I don’t eat so much. I always eat well. It’s one of my things. So on about a third of previous calorie intake and no weight loss. I am holding out for my medication being balanced.
A low carbohydrate diet is proving very successful in helping diabetics manage their blood glucose and to lose weight and type 2 diabetics achieve remission. The NHS has been very slow to accept this due to their need for good evidence. However, specialist NHS diabetes dietitians (my wife is one) and nurses are now able to suggest a low-carb diet to patients, although many still don't. Although I am not diabetic a low-carb diet has allowed me to reduce my BMI to about 21, despite having Hashimotos and being mildly undertreated by my NHS GPs (latest TSH 2.33 on 75mcg levothyroxine). My motive for doing this has been driven in part by knee osteo-arthritis. I suggest a good place to start would be to eliminate all junk food and drinks and between meal snacks and drinks with a high carb/sugar content. An additional benefit for anyone on a low carb diet is a reduction in the spikes and troughs in blood glucose and insulin levels, and especially transient hypoglycaemic events that can cause a desire to cram yourself with sugary snacks! On a more serious note it should significantly reduce the risk of developing type 2 diabetes. Although exercise is generally good for you it won't cause much weight reduction on its own. I hope this has been some food for thought!
Thanks Dave. I am glad you are having such success. I don't eat junk food or drinks and I'm not (yet) diabetic but I am going to consider not eating between meals, carb reduction and increasing fat and protein as some here have suggested. Guess we'll see if I have the gut enzymes to facilitate that being okay. The NHS by us is very much in favour of the dietary changes you (and your wife) suggest. It would be nice not to have carb cravings but I notice how much less I have them now on my (slightly) increased dose of T4, so maybe they were more related to my body desperate for energy than anything else. Good luck to you and thanks again.
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Hypothyroid/Hashimotos and diet?
Which diet works best for weight loss with hypothyroidism - any thoughts please?
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Hypothyroidism- best diet for weight loss
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