Restart. IM/ Keto/ Combo?

(Ella Darcy) #1

I low carbed for 2 years. I lost about 8 pounds and put them back on. I fought hunger the whole time. I decided to do some “house cleaning”. After some experimenting I discovered that coffee and antihistamines increase my hunger substantially. I stepped off of low carb to focus on getting off the caffeine, artificial sweetners, dairy (a potential problem) and Claritin.

I have Hashi’s and I also had my “gray fillings” removed. I have bursitis, and it has substantially subsided without the coffee. I am through my “house cleaning” (oi caffeine withdrawal) and am debating how to begin again. I’m a 40 something female with about 20 pounds to loose and some muscle to gain. The previous weight I did lose I attribute to IF.

Should I try Keto again or focus on fasting? I’m confused about the safety of fasting with Hashi’s. I’ve read lots of threads, but nothing really seems clear.

(Katie) #2

The very best thing you can do with hashi is get rid of all the sugar and processed carbs. In fact it is the best thing you can do for your health. Remove all of it from the house and don’t buy any more,

Many people start keto to lose weight and find out that the major benefit is their improved health. Focus on eating clean food.
At first, the thing that you should start with is … if you are hungry, you are doing it wrong. Start with 3 meals a day…add lots of healthy fats. Focus on omega 3 fats. Then, when you are doing good…stop eating breakfast…then later combine the remaining 2 meals into one.

At no time was I ever hungry. I am eating one meal a day, and sometimes I skip that too. I am not hungry.

By adding saturated fats you will find that your brain is satisfied and not sending hungry signals any more,

But, dump those carbs and all processed carbs and sugars. Get your carbs from avocado, leafy greens, berries (not other fruits).

Best of luck. Keep us posted

(PJ) #3

Welcome back Ella.

Can you tell us what you were eating in general last time? Because two years, eight pounds, and being hungry the whole time, sounds like kind of a terrible result, albeit here’s hoping it helped in some other way! I’m thinking there’s got to be something going on that isn’t obvious, since generally, lowcarb is almost ridiculously filling. (There are exceptions – some days – but generally it is.) It’d be great if you could work out, with some of the experts here (I am not one of them! :smiley: ) an approach that works better for you now, especially since you’ve gone off some of the potential problem stuff.

PJ

(Ella Darcy) #4

I actually went 2 years with no sugar or processed carbs. That’s why I started looking at getting other triggers out of my diet.

(Ella Darcy) #5

Every day I had;

4 Jones sausages. Coffee (6am when I wasn’t IF)
Salad with meat + 1/2 ounce of unsweetened) chocolate. Coffee
Meat, cheese, olives and some cooked veggies or similar for dinner (around 4pm before work.) If I was IF, that was it for the day.

Lots of coffee and sugar free gum.

Sometimes snacks of pork rinds, sometimes with butter.
If I ate enough to fill up I definitely had too much food.

(Susan) #6

Welcome back to the forum Ella =).

If you focus on doing the 20 carbs a day, no sugar, careful what processed foods you do have and make sure you get enough Proteins daily so you are not hungry, some healthy fats, lots of water, salt to replace electrolytes, and 3 meals a day to start, and then move to 2 for a while, you should not be hungry, that is no fun, and easily avoidable on Keto.

If you were still feeling hungry, you probably weren’t having enough calories, or were too low in protein and/or fats. I had to eliminate Coffee myself, and you mentioned that it caused trouble for you losing weight too, I find that any sugar substitutes do that for me too. Everyone is different, of course, but if you experiment and see what works for you, you can be successful with Keto and lose that weight you want to shed =).

(Carl Keller) #7

Welcome back elladarcy.

Weight loss can very complicated when dealing with hypothyrodism. Chronically elevated stress levels, the inablity of the body to address inflammation issues and a challenged gut microbiome are just a few things that can make losing weight difficult for you. Dr. Jockers has probably the most comprehensive article on this subject and it might offer you some strategies that will help.

https://drjockers.com/beat-hypothyroidism-naturally/

(Hyperbole- best thing in the universe!) #8

I would try without the sugar free gum. Some people don’t do well with the artificial sweeteners, and in gum it also physically preps your body for food by chewing and salivating, then you don’t actually give your body any food. Gum fills a short term emotional need, but increases the desire for food in the long run. At least that has been my experience. Yours may be different.

(Ella Darcy) #9

Yes about the gum- I’ve dropped all artificial sweeteners.

(Bacon is a many-splendoured thing) #10

@elladarcy Welcome back! I hope your experience is better this time around. By all means, begin with returning to a ketogenic diet. It can only help your thyroid. If I were you, I’d wait until I was fully fat-adapted again before trying to fast. As other people have suggested, be sure to get enough calories. The key to keto is that not eating carbohydrate allows our insulin levels to drop, and that means our fat cells are then free to release the excess stored fat. But even when we’re low-carb, that won’t happen, as long as the body thinks there’s a famin going on. Be sure to eat enough protein and fat to satisfy your hunger. As Dr. Fung says: when we eat sugar, we burn sugar; so to burn fat, eat fat!

Here is an article by Dr. Phinney about keto and the thyroid that you might find helpful:
https://blog.virtahealth.com/does-your-thyroid-need-dietary-carbohydrates/

(Ella Darcy) #11

Thanks for the Dr. Jockers link. I’ve actually addressed most everything he discusses. I don’t do all the supplements, but the ones that are relevant to me. I use Armour. I am Celiac, so no gluten here. I’ve been Hashi’s for 14 years and Celiac for 12. I’m allergic to eggs, too.

FWIW almost all grocery store Selenium supplements have gluten in them, so I ordered mine from Vitacost.

Do you have to have any reliable references for fasting and Hashis?
Thanks!

(Carl Keller) #12

Most everything I’ve read on this subject just states the basics… fasting helps improve insulin function, helps reduce inflammation, improves eating behavior, creates a fat burning scenario etc.

Best wishes on your journey.

(Ella Darcy) #13

Thanks. So the reason there is caution against fasting is because it is “no carb?” I guess that makes sense. That’s a risk I’m willing to take, I think.

I’m hoping my satiety signals will “work” if I try Keto again. Before, they simply did not, no matter how perfect my diet was because of all the other things I needed to remove. I have long had reactive hypoglycemia (enough so that the lady running the fasting glucose test came out to the waiting room to make sure I was still upright), so I suspect that may have been a factor in why my IF worked so well before. No food = no reaction.

(Ella Darcy) #14

Okay… and I’m off. Day 1. I know what I’m eating today, and it’s a busy week so I won’t be tempted to graze mindlessly and I won’t have time do my usual workout classes, which also seem to make me hungry. Being off my routine is a good thing in this case.

I don’t have my usual (dangerous) family dinner at my mother-in-law’s house this week. I’ll have a solid 10 days under my belt before I need to navigate that.