Does anyone know if the Atkins diet will make my low thyroid problem worse or better. I am on the thyroid pill, and doctor say's that is all I can do for myself. Thanks

Well there are quite a few of us ladies on here that are hypothyroid.....I'm loseing slow....but one lady is doing quite well.....Just keep check on how you feel...and get your blood tested every so often. I don't feel bad....some days I feel a bit tired...but I was doing college too.....You should take vitamis a,b,c and e...while your doing atkins.....Maybe some of the other ladies can add some advice.....Hypothyroid sucks...doesn't it....But I know ladies that say you can lose...just takes a bit more work.

Hypo here. I take Twinlab Allery Multis (super vit!), 6000 mg fish oil, Twinlab Calcium citrate and magnesium before bed. I feel great so far. FYI fish oil is supposed to help all sorts of things, including PMS and weightloss. So far, so good! I feel really fabulous and clear headed, which is a new thing for me.

JInx

I am hypo and Atkins is the only thing that I have found that works for me as far as weight loss is concerned. I did a low fat/low cal thing and lost 4 pounds in 3 or 4 months. I am now 7 months into Atkins and have lost 25 or 26 pounds.

I love it.

I thank you all so very much for all your input. I will keep going on the diet and do the best I can.

I do have another question, and that is do I eat all the fat I want and not count the calories?

Most people here keep a 65-70% calories from fat, 25-30% protein and 5-10% carb ratio. Dr. Atkins says you don't really have to count calories, but that they do matter.

Upping your fat and lowering your carb intake will make you less hungry and get you full faster, so that it sort of naturally limits your calorie intake-at least it did for me. Being hypothyroid, I do keep an eye on my calories, but I don't really count them. I try to at least get 1100 a day and I usually end up somewhere between 1200-1450 a day. Sometimes more. I have had a couple of 1600 calorie days. Didn't seem to hurt any.

Two things about being hypo:

One, weight loss might be slower for you than for others. Also, you will probably never get to a really high carb count in OWL and Maintenance. My doctor warned me that I would probably never get above 45-50 g of carbs a day when I got to goal weight and it looks like he is right. I generally eat between 30-40 a day and I am still losing weight, but it has slowed down a lot. You have to be patient with yourself. My doc said that people with hypo lose the ability to process carbs and that they turn directly into fat for us. Mine all went to my butt-Darn those butt carbs! Make sure you measure! I measure several places on my body and keep a record. On the weeks I don't lose actual weight-I lose inches some place. Keeps me motivated. I have lost 6.5 inches in my waist on low carb and 8 inches in my waist overall.

Second, you might want to get a current thyroid panel done. Recent studies have shown that TSH should be lower than 2 and acceptable levels have changed because of that. I had my thryoid medication upped to lower my TSH. Check out this site:


http://thyroid.about.com/mbody.htm

You are also going to have to exercise. No way around it, I am afraid. It will help increase your metabolism, something all hypos need. We have a natually slower metabolism, even on medication.

Rule of thumb for calories is multiply your weight by 10 - 12 and that is the amount of caloric intake for you to keep losing (1550 - 1860). NOT BELOW or above.

The idea is that you will feel the right amount of hunger without having to count calories. That hasn't been the case for me. I can easily go several hundred in either direction, so I keep track at www.fitday.com. That's me.


-Jinx

Thank you for all of your input. I did not know most of the things you told me. I multiplied 157 by 10 and it comes out to be 1540 aday. That is a lot of food for me. Not that I have to eat it all up, but before I started this diet I ate mostly all carbs. Cravings are real bad for me, because my family eats everything I cannot have. Chips, icecream, soda's, cookies, nachos. It is really hard isn't it. How long does it take to stop craving Carbs? At night is the worst for me, because I am used to having a bite before going to bed. A carb snack that is. Last night I had a slice of cheese and a hamber w/o bread of course. It helped, but it was hard to not go for a dish of ice cream I am not used to eating right anyway. Most of the time I ate the above for a meal, because I knew I could not have real food and my favorite food too
Should I multiply everytime I lose a pound?

Damn thyroid!!!!!! Damn periods!!!!!!
Thankyou I feel a little better now

I just have a general questions about thyroids, and you ladies should be the ones to know. On Dr. A's interview with Larry King a lady called in wondering if she may have had a thyroid problem. Dr. A told her to check her temp after she ate (at least I think it was after she ate). How do you tell this way, would you be running hot or cold?

This is sad, my dog has a low thyroid, which he take meds everyday for. I remember before we new what the problem was he would shiver a lot.

You would run below normal temp. I am actually not sure when the best time to measure temp would be, though.

Anyone able to tell me what the symptoms of an underactive thyroid are? I've long been wondering if anything is up with mine! Whenever I'm not carefully watching what I eat, the weight creeps on quite quickly, and it seems to take me a month to lose a pound. (5x a week exercizing, too!) I used to be heavier, but when I lost the weight, I was much younger. Wondering if a thyroid thing has crept up on me, seeing as I'm much more active than I was before. I've been diligently trying to take off the weight I put on last fall, and I feel like it is all happening in super slow motion.

Take your temperature 3 times a day...if it is lower than 98.6 often then its a possibility you need a thyroid check. I think in celcius its 37C?????
Hypothyroid people are often feel cold, depressed, gain weight fast, can't get around to doing stuff, dry skin, hair comes out,....what did I miss girls?

My temp is often low. MY MIL has a thyroid problem (Wilson's) and she had to take her temp all day. So I started taking mine too and it was consistently around 97 and a bit. I'll talk to my doctor.....