Re: Re: Hypothyroid Metabolism

[Guest guest]

If you have to cut your caloric intake that low to keep from gaining weight the problem is not the amount of food that you are eating but that your metabolic rate is still too low. Plain and simple.

When thyroid levels are low so is the metabolic rate. AND when you don't eat regularly your metabolic rate also drops.

The body is a very complex organism. If you skip a meal it protects you by dropping your metabolism to conserve energy and taps into your fat stores to get the energy that you need. Then, when you eat again, the body's first duty is to replace the fat that it used that last time you went too long without eating.... once that is taken care of it lets you use what is left for energy, if there isn't enough there the metabolic rate stays low. You have to eat regularly, that's every three to four hours. Healthy, nutritious food. To let your body know that it has good healthy food coming in regularly and that it doesn't have to be afraid of starving to death.

When you are dealing with thyroid issues you have to take into consideration that conversion of T4 to T3 occurs at the cellular level, it requires Selenium and energy to perform this conversion. If the Selenium in your system is insufficient and/or the energy/blood sugar is insufficient, your body can not perform that conversion process... that means that you will have low T3, more hypo symptoms and lower metabolic rate.

It a very very very scarry thing to do.. but you have to get your body back to where it is able to function. You need adequate thyroid levels, you need your metabolic rate up to the point where your body is able to perform it's normal function and you need the food energy and nutrition to do all of that.

The longer that you go without adequate amounts of food the more damage to your body... What kind of damage? Well, some of the same stuff that I'm dealing with now. I didn't short change myself on the dinner table... my problem was that I went into thyroid storm. My body started to eat itself, breaking down muscle, tissues, and body organs trying to extract the nutrients that it needed to function. Yes, I had an extremely elevated metabolic rate and was eating in excess of 25 THOUSAND calories a day and still losing weight.. My body was still breaking itself down to survive, even though I was eating everything that wasn't nailed down.

My point is that if you don't take care of your body and get it to where it needs to be to function in a healthy matter.. it will do whatever it has to do to keep alive.. even if that means severe damage down the road.

I think it would be a VERY wise first step to determine what your hormone levels are now and to sit down and do some very serious figuring to get you nutritional intake up and work on increasing your metabolism.

I speak as someone that gained more than a hundred pounds in just a couple of months after I went hypo and then struggled for years and years to slow my gain. I finally found out how to maintain my weight, no more gaining. One year ago I found the final key for me. I took the same food that I was eating in one meal a day (all I dared to eat for fear of gaining) and figured out the number of calories that I was consuming. It ended up being right about the number of calories that I should be taking in to maintain my normal healthy body weight.... So I didn't need to adjust a blessed thing as far as calorie content. So what I did to start with is to take those calories and break them into 5 meals. I started dropping right away.... What it proved is that by showing my body that it had all kinds of food coming in all day long that it didn't have to conserve anything, I could eat and my body could just kick back and burn up calories. It didnt' have to convert anything to fat, it didn't have to convert fat to calories to keep me going when I wasn't eating. It could keep my body temp up... all kinds of good things, just by letting my body take it easy.....

You can give me a holler off list, if you like.. there are formulas for figuring out the calories you need for your healthy weight (I emphasize healthy weight.... not twiggy weight... you need to aim to reach and maintain a healthy weight for you and your body type.... not strive to meet a goal that is not healthy and realistic for you)

We have a support group where we discuss thyroid metabolism too... you can wander over there if you'd like.. we need some new blood over there!!!!

http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/Overcoming_TD_Metabolism/

Topper ()

topper2@...

RE:When I consume a healthy diet (1200+ calories a day), I slowly butgradually gain weight to the tune of 30 pounds a year.________________________Any diet that gets below 1200 calories a day, puts the person in a real bind because it is very difficult to get adequate nutrition on a diet of such low calories. You just can't eat enough to get enough vitamins, minerals and protein.This is just my opinion, but any time I hear of a poor thyroidian person who has to cut their calories down to practically nothing or they will gain weight, I think that their metabolic rate is definitely not high enough. The most common cause for this is not having an adequate thyroid replacement dose in my opinion. I could only eat 900 to 1200 calories or I would put on weight from the age of 18 up untill I was diagnosed with hypothyroidism at age 49. I have been hypo to some extent all my life. Now that I am on 3-1/2 grains of Armour, I can eat easily 1800 calories a day with no problem. I also eat lots of fat, including only real butter and all the chicken skin I can stand. I have lost weight since I got my dose up to one that feels right for me. I have joined the world of the normal eaters.Tish

[Guest guest]

If you have to cut your caloric intake that low to keep from gaining weight the problem is not the amount of food that you are eating but that your metabolic rate is still too low. Plain and simple.

When thyroid levels are low so is the metabolic rate. AND when you don't eat regularly your metabolic rate also drops.

The body is a very complex organism. If you skip a meal it protects you by dropping your metabolism to conserve energy and taps into your fat stores to get the energy that you need. Then, when you eat again, the body's first duty is to replace the fat that it used that last time you went too long without eating.... once that is taken care of it lets you use what is left for energy, if there isn't enough there the metabolic rate stays low. You have to eat regularly, that's every three to four hours. Healthy, nutritious food. To let your body know that it has good healthy food coming in regularly and that it doesn't have to be afraid of starving to death.

When you are dealing with thyroid issues you have to take into consideration that conversion of T4 to T3 occurs at the cellular level, it requires Selenium and energy to perform this conversion. If the Selenium in your system is insufficient and/or the energy/blood sugar is insufficient, your body can not perform that conversion process... that means that you will have low T3, more hypo symptoms and lower metabolic rate.

It a very very very scarry thing to do.. but you have to get your body back to where it is able to function. You need adequate thyroid levels, you need your metabolic rate up to the point where your body is able to perform it's normal function and you need the food energy and nutrition to do all of that.

The longer that you go without adequate amounts of food the more damage to your body... What kind of damage? Well, some of the same stuff that I'm dealing with now. I didn't short change myself on the dinner table... my problem was that I went into thyroid storm. My body started to eat itself, breaking down muscle, tissues, and body organs trying to extract the nutrients that it needed to function. Yes, I had an extremely elevated metabolic rate and was eating in excess of 25 THOUSAND calories a day and still losing weight.. My body was still breaking itself down to survive, even though I was eating everything that wasn't nailed down.

My point is that if you don't take care of your body and get it to where it needs to be to function in a healthy matter.. it will do whatever it has to do to keep alive.. even if that means severe damage down the road.

I think it would be a VERY wise first step to determine what your hormone levels are now and to sit down and do some very serious figuring to get you nutritional intake up and work on increasing your metabolism.

I speak as someone that gained more than a hundred pounds in just a couple of months after I went hypo and then struggled for years and years to slow my gain. I finally found out how to maintain my weight, no more gaining. One year ago I found the final key for me. I took the same food that I was eating in one meal a day (all I dared to eat for fear of gaining) and figured out the number of calories that I was consuming. It ended up being right about the number of calories that I should be taking in to maintain my normal healthy body weight.... So I didn't need to adjust a blessed thing as far as calorie content. So what I did to start with is to take those calories and break them into 5 meals. I started dropping right away.... What it proved is that by showing my body that it had all kinds of food coming in all day long that it didn't have to conserve anything, I could eat and my body could just kick back and burn up calories. It didnt' have to convert anything to fat, it didn't have to convert fat to calories to keep me going when I wasn't eating. It could keep my body temp up... all kinds of good things, just by letting my body take it easy.....

You can give me a holler off list, if you like.. there are formulas for figuring out the calories you need for your healthy weight (I emphasize healthy weight.... not twiggy weight... you need to aim to reach and maintain a healthy weight for you and your body type.... not strive to meet a goal that is not healthy and realistic for you)

We have a support group where we discuss thyroid metabolism too... you can wander over there if you'd like.. we need some new blood over there!!!!

http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/Overcoming_TD_Metabolism/

Topper ()

topper2@...

RE:When I consume a healthy diet (1200+ calories a day), I slowly butgradually gain weight to the tune of 30 pounds a year.________________________Any diet that gets below 1200 calories a day, puts the person in a real bind because it is very difficult to get adequate nutrition on a diet of such low calories. You just can't eat enough to get enough vitamins, minerals and protein.This is just my opinion, but any time I hear of a poor thyroidian person who has to cut their calories down to practically nothing or they will gain weight, I think that their metabolic rate is definitely not high enough. The most common cause for this is not having an adequate thyroid replacement dose in my opinion. I could only eat 900 to 1200 calories or I would put on weight from the age of 18 up untill I was diagnosed with hypothyroidism at age 49. I have been hypo to some extent all my life. Now that I am on 3-1/2 grains of Armour, I can eat easily 1800 calories a day with no problem. I also eat lots of fat, including only real butter and all the chicken skin I can stand. I have lost weight since I got my dose up to one that feels right for me. I have joined the world of the normal eaters.Tish

[Guest guest]

If you have to cut your caloric intake that low to keep from gaining weight the problem is not the amount of food that you are eating but that your metabolic rate is still too low. Plain and simple.

When thyroid levels are low so is the metabolic rate. AND when you don't eat regularly your metabolic rate also drops.

The body is a very complex organism. If you skip a meal it protects you by dropping your metabolism to conserve energy and taps into your fat stores to get the energy that you need. Then, when you eat again, the body's first duty is to replace the fat that it used that last time you went too long without eating.... once that is taken care of it lets you use what is left for energy, if there isn't enough there the metabolic rate stays low. You have to eat regularly, that's every three to four hours. Healthy, nutritious food. To let your body know that it has good healthy food coming in regularly and that it doesn't have to be afraid of starving to death.

When you are dealing with thyroid issues you have to take into consideration that conversion of T4 to T3 occurs at the cellular level, it requires Selenium and energy to perform this conversion. If the Selenium in your system is insufficient and/or the energy/blood sugar is insufficient, your body can not perform that conversion process... that means that you will have low T3, more hypo symptoms and lower metabolic rate.

It a very very very scarry thing to do.. but you have to get your body back to where it is able to function. You need adequate thyroid levels, you need your metabolic rate up to the point where your body is able to perform it's normal function and you need the food energy and nutrition to do all of that.

The longer that you go without adequate amounts of food the more damage to your body... What kind of damage? Well, some of the same stuff that I'm dealing with now. I didn't short change myself on the dinner table... my problem was that I went into thyroid storm. My body started to eat itself, breaking down muscle, tissues, and body organs trying to extract the nutrients that it needed to function. Yes, I had an extremely elevated metabolic rate and was eating in excess of 25 THOUSAND calories a day and still losing weight.. My body was still breaking itself down to survive, even though I was eating everything that wasn't nailed down.

My point is that if you don't take care of your body and get it to where it needs to be to function in a healthy matter.. it will do whatever it has to do to keep alive.. even if that means severe damage down the road.

I think it would be a VERY wise first step to determine what your hormone levels are now and to sit down and do some very serious figuring to get you nutritional intake up and work on increasing your metabolism.

I speak as someone that gained more than a hundred pounds in just a couple of months after I went hypo and then struggled for years and years to slow my gain. I finally found out how to maintain my weight, no more gaining. One year ago I found the final key for me. I took the same food that I was eating in one meal a day (all I dared to eat for fear of gaining) and figured out the number of calories that I was consuming. It ended up being right about the number of calories that I should be taking in to maintain my normal healthy body weight.... So I didn't need to adjust a blessed thing as far as calorie content. So what I did to start with is to take those calories and break them into 5 meals. I started dropping right away.... What it proved is that by showing my body that it had all kinds of food coming in all day long that it didn't have to conserve anything, I could eat and my body could just kick back and burn up calories. It didnt' have to convert anything to fat, it didn't have to convert fat to calories to keep me going when I wasn't eating. It could keep my body temp up... all kinds of good things, just by letting my body take it easy.....

You can give me a holler off list, if you like.. there are formulas for figuring out the calories you need for your healthy weight (I emphasize healthy weight.... not twiggy weight... you need to aim to reach and maintain a healthy weight for you and your body type.... not strive to meet a goal that is not healthy and realistic for you)

We have a support group where we discuss thyroid metabolism too... you can wander over there if you'd like.. we need some new blood over there!!!!

http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/Overcoming_TD_Metabolism/

Topper ()

topper2@...

RE:When I consume a healthy diet (1200+ calories a day), I slowly butgradually gain weight to the tune of 30 pounds a year.________________________Any diet that gets below 1200 calories a day, puts the person in a real bind because it is very difficult to get adequate nutrition on a diet of such low calories. You just can't eat enough to get enough vitamins, minerals and protein.This is just my opinion, but any time I hear of a poor thyroidian person who has to cut their calories down to practically nothing or they will gain weight, I think that their metabolic rate is definitely not high enough. The most common cause for this is not having an adequate thyroid replacement dose in my opinion. I could only eat 900 to 1200 calories or I would put on weight from the age of 18 up untill I was diagnosed with hypothyroidism at age 49. I have been hypo to some extent all my life. Now that I am on 3-1/2 grains of Armour, I can eat easily 1800 calories a day with no problem. I also eat lots of fat, including only real butter and all the chicken skin I can stand. I have lost weight since I got my dose up to one that feels right for me. I have joined the world of the normal eaters.Tish

[Guest guest]

To add a bit of support to Topper here ......... I am also

hypoglycemic, (in addition to hypothyroid, not in addition to Topper)

so her 5 meals become 7-8 a day for me. That sounds like a LOT, but

for example

small sausage biscuit for breakfast at 7

small cup of yogurt at 830 - 9

string cheese or small salad at 11

small sandwich (half of a wrap, for example, or a full one if I'm

hungry) at 12:30

handful of sunflower seeds at 2:30

balance bar or similar at 4:30

kid's size dinner portion at 7 (Usually is meat and veggies -- about

4 oz of meat and a handful of veggies)

and if I get hungry, half a peanut butter sandwich or a string cheese

later in the evening

whew!

Usually I'll throw some veggies into a couple of those, and

occasionally if I've been really careful I can add some fruits in here

and there. When strawberries are in season, I have some with whipped

cream maybe once a week. Otherwise I look for fruits that are high in

fiber, and preferably lower on the glycemic index.

This is working wonders for me, in many many ways. I'd say I noticed

how I felt within a few days ........ and started feeling systemically

better within a week or two.

in LA with two more cents

Re: Re: Hypothyroid Metabolism

To: the_thyroid_support_group

I speak as someone that gained more than a hundred pounds in just a

couple of months after I went hypo and then struggled for years and

years to slow my gain. I finally found out how to maintain my weight,

no more gaining. One year ago I found the final key for me. I took the

same food that I was eating in one meal a day (all I dared to eat for

fear of gaining) and figured out the number of calories that I was

consuming. It ended up being right about the number of calories that I

should be taking in to maintain my normal healthy body weight.... So I

didn't need to adjust a blessed thing as far as calorie content. So

what I did to start with is to take those calories and break them into

5 meals. I started dropping right away....