BFL and thyroid

[Guest guest]

Sent this privately in response to someone who wanted to know about

doing BFL while hypothyroid, and what's worked for me. It got long,

so I thought I'd post it here as well.

***

Wow! So cool that someone's looking to me for advice.

: ) I'm pretty much following BFL by the book, so

that proves that you can be successful without

modifying or adding extra stuff.

On weights - I'm lifting as heavy as I can, while

still giving myself time to adapt to new and

unfamiliar exercises. For example, my bench press is

currently topping out at 6 reps at 60 lbs, and my

squat is also topping out at 6 reps at 60 pounds. I

could probably go a little higher on both, but I don't

want to risk injury and I don't have a spotter. I try

to do a little more at every work out. I've mixed up

my exercises a few times during the 6 weeks I've been

doing BFL. I alternate between deadlifts and squats

for quads pretty much every time I do a leg workout.

On cardio - I'm sticking to the BFL 20 minutes of HIIT

(plus warmup and cooldown), but I usually alternate 1

minute high intensity, 1 minute low intensity, rather

than building up the way the book says to. I find for

me that works up a greater sweat. My typical cardio

is to alternate jogging, marching in place, shadow

boxing, or abs on the ball with jumping jacks,

mountain climbers, burpees, jumping rope, 14 inch step

ups, and similar. Whatever makes me feel like I'm

going to cough up a lung. I also do recumbent bicycle

or elliptical every so often.

On diet - Again, I stick closely to BFL. My only real

modifications are to sometimes cut the 6th meal (so my

last meal's around 6, but I also go to bed no later

than 9) and to keep my starchy carbs to the occasional

multigrain english muffin and lots of oatmeal (usually

one serving a day, sometimes more). I don't eat

wholewheat pasta or bread (maybe once or twice during

the whole 6 weeks). I also let myself occasionally

have treats on non-free days (following Skwigg's BFL

for cheaters and bingers) so that I don't freak out by

being on a " diet " or binge on my free day. Typical

treats are Skinny Cow icecream bars or a skinny latte

from Starbucks. I don't take any supplements except

Omega 3-6-9 oil when I remember, which isn't often

enough. I'm going to try to add a multivitamin and

calcium at my dr's urging.

Free day - Trying not to overdo it. It's usually

something like lunch OR dinner and a snack (e.g.,

donut, cookie) rather than a whole free day of eating.

I have a tendency to binge, so I have to be very

careful with that.

That turned out to be a novel! Hope it helps someone

out there. My final bit of advice is please, please

don't watch the scale. If I had, I would have given up

weeks ago. I still haven't lost much (any??) scale

weight, but everything is much looser, and I'm back

into almost all of my clothes. I'm also loving how my

upper body looks.

Best,

Megily