Hey everyone…
I am asking on behalf of my stepmom
She is 32, has been keto for just under 2 years, and carnivore for over last three months. She runs anywhere from 30-70km upwards a week, lifts moderate once or twice a week and eats OMAD mostly and has a long history of alternative day fasting for past decade. 16%BF, BMI 19, good blood lipid profile. She blows a breathalyser of 1.2-1.6mm/L consistently every day.
She has been starting to get very cold after workouts or after eating and often has swelling and puffiness. Her athletic performance is slightly impaired. The coldness makes her quite sleepy and sometimes not able to keep warm despite our very hot climate. Additionally she feels her PM cortisol is creeping up, while her AM is starting to lag and some other changes in mood. She has sensed that this is all hypothyroid or low thyroid functioning symptoms and she identified quite a few other symptoms that go along with that (hPa axis etc).
It is essential for her to maintain some sort of LCHF diet to keep PCOS symptoms at bay, and she greatly enjoys carnivore style eating but she is unsure if it is further causing her thyroid function to drop lower putting her at risk of further conplications. She recently noticed her thyroid is a bit swollen (it happened once also on a long extended fast too in 2016 prior to keto- but it cured itself eating high carb/fruit diet).
When she reverts to normal keto after zero carb carnivore, she does feel comparatively inflamed, bit sluggish, and prefers the satiety of carnivore w/ OMAD. She has tried adding in carbs and feels warmer but still has other thyroid symptoms such as fatigue/mood/digestive issues but she doesn’t feel good overall like she did on the first 8 weeks of carni/ZC
Her concern is that she doesn’t want to further damage her thyroid, and she isn’t sure if she needs to include some carbs to help her thyroid. She doesn’t believe in synthetic drugs and natural thyroid supplement is porcine derived which she would like to avoid due to her faith. So she is determined to rebalance her thyroid through diet and lifestyle but is not sure what is the best path; zero carb/carnivore, keto, or just low carb high fat? She read it might take 3 months? And also it is next to impossible for her to reduce her activity level as she emphasises a need to run/swim/lift regularly.
Is low thyroid rehab possible on ZC/carni - is keto better?
She has read everywhere by cannot seem to find an answer so hopefully someone here who is knowledgeable may be able share some info. Thank you.
Also:
“After carnivore, regular keto with plants makes her feel bloated and inflamed and less regular”