Diets!!

[beanyjeany]

Determined to lose some of this wretched weight, and I am thinking of doing the Cambridge diet in the New Year. Has anyone with Hashimotos / Hypothyoridism tried this, does it work, and how difficult is it? Happy New Year !

[mummytina]

If u like milk then its ok but if inlike me and I hate milk no good.

I've had friends who have done it and like every diet ok when on it but when you stop. You can't stop otherwise it willl go back on

Good luck let us know how it goes x

[mummyG in reply to mummytina]

Hi, I just wanted to say. .. The shakes are made with water . No milk!

It may be worth a try, I have done it, but u may find it makes u a little tired x

[Lowestoft]

I did it years ago and it caused dreadful constipation. As soon as you stop it the weight piles on as your body has got used to a VERY LOW calorie intake! It completely messes up any metabolism that you may have!

[Hidden in reply to Lowestoft]

Couldn't argue with that... I used low calorie diets to lose big amounts of weight, successfully, but over time I became a low cal low fat HIGH carb addict, and I can only describe it as disastrous!

On a low carb regime, I eat more fat than I have ever eaten, and have not only better weight, but far better cholesterol and triglycerides too!

[JudeC]

Having done the Lighter Life Diet (similar soy-based meal-replacement diet) and experienced the devastating effect that such a hIgh intake of soy has on both the general well being and metabolism of someone with an underactive thyroid, I now avoid anything containing even traces of soya wherever possible.

[Hidden in reply to JudeC]

I'm hypo and totally avoid soya now. Shame I used to love tofu! I'm vegetarian too so I'm having to make everything myself. Not that that's a bad thing!

[Hidden]

Having tried every type of diet, including about 20 years ago a medically prescribed diet very similar to Cambridge (liquid, and it was 600 calories a day!), which I could best describe as pleasant as life in a concentration camp!

I now know the problems such low cal diets cause, (and not just the inevitable "rebound" weight gain) and thankfully I discovered Low carb diets - in particular I use a Low Glycaemic Load diet, which has 100% controlled my insulin resistance, and reactive Hypoglycaemia and I am currently 43kg lighter than when I started, without ANY hunger. Yes its a bit tedious and boring, and it means cooking - there are no low carb ready made meals available, yes I miss bread and rice and potatoes, but it beats everything else I have used for weight loss as well as dramatically improving my overall well being. If I wasn't disabled, I could well have done much better by adding much more exercise, which in the past was really far more effective than than low calorie diets and "starvation" anyway, as all they do is waste away some of your lean muscle tissue instead of just the fat they are supposed to get rid of.

Plenty of information online available, even online forums discussing the various types. Palaeolithic diets sound interesting too, although I haven't gone this route myself.

[Lilian15]

I did Lighterlife all last year. I stuck to it strictly. I did lose weight, albeit two or three times slower than most.

As far as putting weight back on - well if you do what you did you will get what you got. Anyone who 'diets' loses weight and decides to go back to the way they were eating and lifestyle before, whether hypothyroid or 'normal' will put the weight back on again. It has to be a complete change of lifestyle, and a completely different way of thinking about food.

The reason I liked LL is that there is no hassle or thinking attached to it. I hate having to weigh, measure, count etc. Here one knows one has 4 packs a day and that is it. Also, because it has all the nutrition you need in it, and you are then burning your fat rather than carbohydrates (ketosis), I found I was more energetic, not hungry (well most of the time), and actually began to like it.

In fact if someone told me at the start what I would be doing now I would have thought they were having a laugh. My sister went on something similar and her doctor has actually reduced her thyroxine, but in my case I have been on the same dose of T4/T3 throughout. So possibly could have been underdosed when I first started.

I now walk instead of taking the car, even quite long distances (provided it isn't pouring with rain), I joined a zumba class and a pilates class.

I have tried slimming clubs but I used to come home crying. I would stick to their plans 100% and not lose anything and sometimes even gain, yet others were losing anything from 2lb - 4lb a week and confessing to not sticking to the diet either. It was too upsetting and frustrating for me. At least with LL I was losing, albeit very slowly even on 600 calories a day. I would be elated at a 2lb loss where another member would be so upset at it. Most were losing about a stone a month whereas I was losing an average of 6lb a month. But as the months went on those 6lbs mounted up.

With LL though you also have 'counselling'. You learn to know when you are really hungry or emotionally hungry. This came home to me one day when I was on the computer and was thinking to myself "how hungry am I, in the scale of 1 - 5)" I decided that I really wasn't hungry at the time and probably less than 1. Suddenly the computer crashed and I was finding it difficult to get it working again. My first instant thought was "oh I am so hungry". And my stomach felt so hungry too. That was obviously emotional hunger, but it really felt like real hunger and had I not just been doing that exercise I would never have realised. I always thought emotional hunger was when you do not feel hungry but just WANT to eat.

The only problem I found was the cost and not only did it take me three times longer than most to lose the same weight, it cost me three times the amount because of it. Maybe that will be three times extra incentive to keep it off ;).

The groups meet weekly and usually no more than 12 sometimes only two or three of you so you can make some nice friends too. I found that in a group of six at one time four of us had underactive thyroids, on thyroxine, and only one other was a slow loser like me and she was the same age as me, so age could also be significant in weight loss.

Sorry about long message. Hope it will be of help to someone.