Hypothyroidism

[BermudaLongTail]

I'm wondering if anyone in this forum suffers from hypothyroidism and has had success with Whole30.  I'm on day 16, yay!  I haven't gotten my "tiger blood" yet and I haven't seen any real weight changes or changes to my body composition.  What I have gotten is constipation!  I was really weak for a while but now at least I'm able to make it through a fairly normal workout in the morning.  I know a big part of this program is getting your body to rely on its fat stores for fuel instead of sugar and simple carbs but I'm wondering if my thyroid condition is slowing down my progress and rewards!  I take synthroid everyday and I was wondering if there are any success stories out there from others with thyroid disease.  It's seems so hard to move the needle...yes, I've gotten on the scale so done shame me  I've started to be more mindful of calories too because it seems like maybe I'm eating too much.  Today's food as an example:

Breakfast Smoothie (post workout) Spinach and Kale, 1 banana and 2 strawberries, plus almond milk

Lunch (mid-morning because I was hungry) leftover turkey chili, fried egg and half avocado, tea with almond milk

Snack: apple with almond butter plus a handful of mixed nuts

Dinner: 1 pepper stuffed with leftover turkey chili and chicken, 1/2 avocado drizzled with some Habanero Ranch dressing

I haven't been able to drop the afternoon snacking...that is still a problem for me.  Anyway, today I seriously considered quitting but I will not.  I owe it to myself to finish the 30 days but I guess I'm writing on this forum to hear some success stories from women with thyroid issues because nothing seems to work for me...except Isagenix shakes, which worked for a while but who the heck wants to drink their food everyday forever?  Not this lady!!  And by "worked" I do mean weight loss...yes, I want a healthy gut but I also want to drop some inches.  Right now my gut doesn't feel super healthy since I can't seem to go number 2 in a good way!  Sorry for the TMI but it's like I don't have much there...I'm assuming because my body is using mostly everything I'm eating??? 

Would love some advice and success stories  

[ShannonM816]

I can't really speak to the thyroid stuff, although I know we've had other people on the forum talk about different thyroid conditions, so maybe someone else will weigh in on it.

What I will say is that you probably need to do some work on making your meals match the meal template if you really want to see good results. (Download the meal template here:  https://whole30.com/pdf-downloads/)

Ditch the smoothie. You have zero protein in that, which makes it a bad option for post-workout. Eat more veggies. That's where you're going to get fiber, which will help with the digestive stuff -- eat a bunch of vegetables. Leafy green ones, starchy ones, other ones -- tons of vegetables. Vegetarians should look at your plate and say, I don't even eat that many vegetables! Drop the nuts and nut butters, they are notoriously hard on the digestive system.

So each meal should have 1-2 palm-sized portions of protein, the length, width, and height of your palm, or if eggs are your only protein, have as many whole eggs as you can hold in your hand. Add 1-2 portions of fat, in addition to any oil you cooked your food in, from the list on the meal template. Then, pile your plate full of veggies. 2-3 cups at each meal. Most people find they do best with a fist-sized serving of starchy vegetable each day, some people need more.  If you make your meals look like this, you probably won't need to snack between meals, because you won't be hungry for 4-5 hours between meals. If you do need to eat between meals, focus on having a mix of protein, fat, and vegetables, or at least two of the three. If you want some fruit, have it with a meal, not on its own between meals. 

Drink lots of water. Aim for at least 1/2 oz per pound of body weight, so a 120-lb person needs at least 60 oz. If you sweat a lot due to workouts or being out in the heat or whatever, you'll need even more. This will also help with the constipation.

Pre- and post-workout foods are in addition to your three meals a day. If you're active, you need more fuel for your body. Pre-workout would be just a little bit of fat and/or protein. An egg, a few olives, some avocado -- just a little something, especially if you're working out first thing in the morning. Post-workout, have a few bites of protein, and optionally a few bites of starchy vegetable. Some chicken, and maybe some sweet potato, for example. This would be shortly after your workout, and then, if you're working out first thing in the morning, you'd still have a full breakfast shortly after.

(And stay off the scale. Really. It's in the rules. Lots of people -- even people who don't have a wonky thyroid -- don't notice weight loss until the very end of the month. Don't drive yourself nuts looking at a number that isn't really telling you anything useful.)

[slc_melissa]

I've got hypothroidism (Hashimoto's).  I don't know if this is specific to my body or necessarily has relevancy to the hypothyroidism, but:

I tend to start getting non-scale victories in the middle of a Whole30, but don't lose much/any weight.  (Body comp and bloating does improve).  I get energy, better sleep, more mental clarity, better skin, eyes less sensitive to the sun, less likely to have my fingers/toes get cold, etc.

About a month after a Whole30, provided I don't start eating sugar and corn, I start dropping weight.  (I usually add back in some dairy (yogurt/cheese) and rice after reintros.)

During Whole30:

I need to eat cooked vegetables at breakfast.  There's a noticeable energy dip in the afternoon if I do not, even if I get plenty of calories.  (Note: not just carbs like fruit, vegetables.  Specifically cooked.  Favorites are asparagus, zucchini, sweet potato, and arugula.  I try to have leftover roasted vegetables available in mornings for ease.)  If I do need an afternoon something, I eat something high fat, like olives, with some protein if I have it.

Nuts destroy me.  Both digestion-wise (problems), hunger-wise (they make me hungrier), and energy-wise (see you later, energy).  

I eat limited fruit.  I like it, but it also seems to make me hungrier.

I second every one of Shannon's suggestions above: Ditch the smoothie, ditch the nuts, ditch the fruit, salt your food, drink water, add vegetables, vegetables, and more (cooked for me) vegetables.

 

[berry straw]

On 4/19/2018 at 3:28 PM, slc_melissa said:

I've got hypothroidism (Hashimoto's).  I don't know if this is specific to my body or necessarily has relevancy to the hypothyroidism, but:

I tend to start getting non-scale victories in the middle of a Whole30, but don't lose much/any weight.  (Body comp and bloating does improve).  I get energy, better sleep, more mental clarity, better skin, eyes less sensitive to the sun, less likely to have my fingers/toes get cold, etc.

About a month after a Whole30, provided I don't start eating sugar and corn, I start dropping weight.  (I usually add back in some dairy (yogurt/cheese) and rice after reintros.)

During Whole30:

I need to eat cooked vegetables at breakfast.  There's a noticeable energy dip in the afternoon if I do not, even if I get plenty of calories.  (Note: not just carbs like fruit, vegetables.  Specifically cooked.  Favorites are asparagus, zucchini, sweet potato, and arugula.  I try to have leftover roasted vegetables available in mornings for ease.)  If I do need an afternoon something, I eat something high fat, like olives, with some protein if I have it.

Nuts destroy me.  Both digestion-wise (problems), hunger-wise (they make me hungrier), and energy-wise (see you later, energy).  

I eat limited fruit.  I like it, but it also seems to make me hungrier.

I second every one of Shannon's suggestions above: Ditch the smoothie, ditch the nuts, ditch the fruit, salt your food, drink water, add vegetables, vegetables, and more (cooked for me) vegetables.

 

Ditto all of this.  I also have Hashimoto's and started my first Whole30 over a year ago to help.  Fruit kills my energy too (but I LOVE it).  After a Whole30 I moved into the full Autoimmune Protocol and have stayed mostly there since.  That eliminates eggs (not my friends), nuts (not my friends) & seeds, and nightshades (not my friends), in addition to the Whole 30 restrictions.  You follow reintroductions similarly to the Whole30, but I have done them much more slowly.   You eat a lot of cooked vegetables, healthy fats and some good varied animal protein.  I followed the AIP 100% on a 3 week cross country trip this summer - not easy, but doable.

For the constipation, consider trying Natural Calm (unsweetened).  Just go slowly in building up to the recommended dose, because it can give you the opposite problem if you take too much.  I took Natural Calm in a cup of tea at bedtime for about 9 months.  I have been working with an Integrative Practitioner this past year, and now that we are trying some additional medications (T3), my constipation seems to have cleared up.

[-Kara]

I have low thyroid.

Nuts are bad. Nut butters are bad for me. I have a sluggish digestion - and these things are way to hard for my slow sluggish nature to digest. 

The meal template works. If you don't do the template, you are going to end up starving yourself with too few calories or a mix of the wrong foods at times. 

I too had to ditch the smoothie. Even a protein smoothie w/o sugar or substitutes has way too much fiber for me.

I see bananas and apples here. Both are loaded with sugar. I don't each those when I am not on Whole30 for that reason. I echo what others say - lose the fruit and increase the veg. And cook it. 

I really have to watch my water intake and make sure it is solid and I have to eliminate caffeine and coffee. I mix my eggs w/ veg and it is a nice dish. 

 

Good luck...you may also want to get your thyroid checked and look for yoga practices to support your adrenals. Kundalini yoga offers many. 

 

Good luck!

 

[-Kara]

And I would encourage you to also read the books, stay off the scale seriously, and stop the snacking. Just stop. If you are doing a whole30 you do these things. If you are don't do these things you are just dieting and making it up as you go. The only person you are cheating is yourself. Your thyroid doesn't reach out and grab the food and shove it in your mouth. sorry for the tough love but -