tired of yo-yo dieting

Question
Dear Susan,
I am Martin 30 male from London, England.

I have been overweight for the last 15 years. Right now, I weigh around 210 lbs, my height is 5'8?and my bone structure is medium.

In this long time of struggling with my weight, I have been a human  yo yo and never been able to keep my weight stable.

I have tried different diets and been successful in losing weight but always have put it back on plus some more.

6 years ago, I went on a low calorie diet and lost 50 pounds in 6 months, but gradually started to put it back on. Last year I went on an all organic, wheat free, high fibre and low oil diet, I felt great and my energy level was high but I got bored of it so quickly. The diet was tastefully excruciating and it cost a lot  to but just organic ingredients. By the way, I didn't lose a lot of weight while on that diet, just a few pounds.

According to the Barnes thyroid test, mine is under active. My  T4 level is 15.1 pmol/l and THS is 1.42 mu/l. My testosterone level is 22.2 nmol/l, which I am not sure if it is low.

In this long time of being overweight, I have dealt with some degree of depression and now take 20ml Prozac a day. I know that my depression is directly connected to my eating habits, the more depressed I am the more I eat and of course the fatter, I get.

Unfortunately, now I cannot afford the use of a professional nutritionist services and really need help to tackle this misery once and for all. I feel that I need a very specific lifetime diet and exercise plan, designed for my individual needs. I want to lose weight only to be able to keep it lost for the rest of my life.

Here are my questions:

Do I need to take any medication for my thyroid or is there any other way to solve its under activity?
How much and how regular do I need to exercise?
What is the best diet for me in order to follow for life lose weight and keep it low?


If you have any questions about my condition, please do not hesitate to ask.

Thank you for listening to my life story and hope to hear from you soon.

Martin  

Answer
Hello Martin,

Kiddo, you are typical! 95-98% of everybody who goes on a diet gains it all, and often 25% more within 2 years of going off the "successful" diet. You get at war with your appetite, probably wrenched your thyroid, high protein diets damage kidneys. I did all that for my first 40 years.

FUN exercise is the best anti-depressant. It is also known as play. My fav is kayaking, it used to be inline skating, bicycling.

Eating is supposed to be a pleasure, not a boring battle field. Get into Real Food - fresh produce, whole grains, no refined sugar or refined flour. Eat something as soon as you start to feel hungry. Get active for a total of 30 minutes a day, 3 times for 10 minutes each is fine - do something, walk, run, dance that gets you breathing hard.
Try this, find some fun with your bod, eating and playing, and I bet your thryroid will do just fine, like it supposed to. Please see http://www.premiumfuel.com for details.  

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