QuestionDear Tanya,
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
AnswerDear Martin,
Let me give you rather short answers and suggest that you ask me further questions about the reasons for my advice.
1) Exercise: "After 10 weeks, those who changed speeds (running faster for a minute, then going a little slower for a minute, then fast again, etc.)lost more weight, more fat and improved their thyroid function." -- Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise, 2001.
Current recommendation regarding exercise routine is: 30 minutes of vigorous exercise or 60 minutes of less vigorous like walking daily, most of the days.
2) Medication: it's completely up to your doctor. But! Nutritional aspect is too often underestimated. Here's a checklist of supplements that can help along with your medication:
Daily Energy Enfusion:
* Iodine -- about 100 mcg (micro-grams) per day
* Selenium -- 200 mcg (micro-grams) per day
* Zinc -- 10 mg per day, plus 500 mcg of Copper
* Vitamin D -- 600 IU
* Vitamin E -- 100 IU
* Vitamin C -- 750 mg
* Vitamin A -- 3,500 IU
* Amino acids -- L-Alanine, L-Arginine, L-Aspartic Acid, L-Cystine, L-Glutamic Acid, L-Clycine, L-Histidine, L-Isoleucine, L-Luceine, L-Lysine, L-Methionine, L-Phenylalanine, L-Proline, L-Serine, L-Taurine, L-Theronine, L-Tryptophan, L-Tyrosine, L-Valine
Can be purchased at:
http://store.yahoo.com/cgi-bin/clink?iherb+jBx8gj+dailyenfusion.html
3) Best diet: I strongly advise that you go to the excellent Thyroid site at about.com and read diet-related articles there, for example: "Lose Weight by Boosting a Slow Metabolism"
http://thyroid.about.com/od/loseweightsuccessfully/a/metabolism.htm
Hope it helps,
Tanya Zilberter, PhD
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