Question From Reader Uma Regarding Ketosis and Thyroid

As I was in the process of typing a response, it occurred to me make this a separate post because my answer was getting longer than I expected, and I figured that other folks may have similar questions.

Hi,

This question is probably not related to article. But I wanted to get your attention and hence this question on your latest post. Thanks for all the awesome detailed info. It really helps people. I read the effect ketosis had on your thyroid. I havent started on this diet but doing my research before getting into it. My family has had thyroid problem and I feel I am sensitive to the issues as well. so far my tests are okay. A lot of reserarch articles out there say ketosis affects thyroid leading to hypothy. I also like to be active. lift heavy weights , cardio, pilates etc.

Considering all this, I am thinking of taking up IF. What do you suggest or think? Have you tried IF? Any thoughts will be helpful. Also read that IF does not impact thyroid in the way ketosis does. I also do not want to deprive myself of fruits, vegies and gluten free carbs.

Considering that I am married and my hubby isnt into all of this… ketosis really does not seem to be a long term thing for me. Off late I put on too much weight due to a lot of stress and study work that I had to do with no time for careful easting and exercise. Sorry for the long post. Please let me know your thoughts. Thanks a lot!

 

Ketosis And Its Variants

Thanks for stopping by.  Let me know if I’m off base at all here, but it seems your ultimate goal is weight loss, is this correct?

True it has been reported that ketosis can affect the thyroid, as you’ve seen with my lab tests, but I don’t think this is the case for everyone, since there are a lot of people who do nutritional ketosis without any problems, Jimmy Moore being one example.

If you really wanted to try ketosis, I would recommend that you experiment with it for a month.  Go all out nutritional ketosis, and then at the end of 4 weeks assess how you feel.  At this time you will be able to answer these questions:

1. Did I lose weight, or rather body fat?
2. Are things moving in the right direction?
3. How do I feel overall?
4. How did I feel before and after my workouts
5. Was I able to perform to the level that I want?
6. Do I have any signs or symptoms of hypothyroidism?

You can also get a blood test to see where your thyroid numbers are after these 4 weeks, with a standard thyroid panel for $49.00 from RequestATest, although this does not include an RT3 level.

After answering these questions, it should give you a better idea of how you choose to proceed from there.

• Maybe you just hate it and it’s not working for you… well then at least you’ve tried it out and found out for yourself.
  • I myself did nutritional ketosis for 60 days and then continued it to 90 days, and found that my prurigo pigmentosa rash got really bad!  Also I too missed carbs and the amount of weight I lost and the body composition change I experienced wasn’t very dramatic.  My thyroid and cholesterol numbers took major hits AND I was running out of gas when doing BJJ.  Now that I know all this, I can say that in my situation, strict ketosis isn’t optimal for me, but I’m glad I experimented with it.
• Maybe it’s working great but you just really miss eating carbs… well then maybe you can explore a cyclic ketogenic approach, staying keto Mon to Fri and then going balls to wall carb-crazy over the weekend.
  • I tried something similar when I experimented with the Carb Nite Solution, and found that while my results were great, my labs still took a bit of a hit, my rash would appear occasionally (though not as bad as when doing strict ketosis), and I didn’t have as much energy when doing BJJ as I wanted.  So this method worked a better for me… but still wasn’t optimal.
• Maybe it’s working great but you aren’t performing as well as you want to with your weight lifting, pilates, etc…  then maybe the targeted ketogenic diet is the correct approach where you eat carbs only after days you train.
  • This is what I’m currently experimenting with Carb Back-Loading… results to remain to be seen.

Intermittent Fasting

This is probably the best write up I’ve come across regarding intermittent fasting.  Dr. Berardi experimented with each variation of intermittent fasting and documented his results in a very systematic way.  It is a great read and I highly recommend spending the 1-2 hours going through it.  He explores:

• 36 hr fast : 12 hr feed
• 24 hr fast 1-2 times per week
• 16 hr fast : 8 hr feed
• 20 hr fast : 4 hr feed

Here are some other great posts on IF from Mark’s Daily Apple, one of my favorite blogs:

 

Now that I’ve linked to all this, I can say that I haven’t come across anything that discusses the effect of IF on thyroid function.

For me, personally, I try to do fast for 12-14 hrs per day.  I’ve pretty much been starting my days in the same way, with a bulletproof coffee (coffee with butter and MCT oil) as a way to jump start my brain.  Most folks agree that this doesn’t count as breaking the fast since the fats and oils don’t stimulate insulin release and initiate other metabolic changes that interrupt the benefits of fasting (autophagy and what not).

This can be done with any of the keto diet variations and in my experience does not interfere with ketosis.

I hope this long winded response was helpful!