Are you still gaining weight and did your Dr. increase your thyroid medication again? Why does it seem like the thyroid medicine is NOT improving ANY of your thyroid symptoms? We will discuss this in full in this blog post.
The Keto Girl Method works to get to the root cause of your weight gain and to help you improve labs and get off of thyroid medications like Levothyroxine. So what is currently wrong?
The Thyroid Conversion
Testing only TSH to assess thyroid function is not enough. The pituitary gland in your brain releases TSH, which tells your thyroid gland to make the thyroid hormone T4 (it only makes a tiny bit of T3 here).
However, your body must convert T4 into T3 (the active form) in order to use it. When the conversion of T4 to T3 is poor, a lot of hypothyroid symptoms will begin to occur.
The Issue
There is a conversion issue of T4 to T3.
Most of the T3 conversion happens in the gut and liver. However, the conversion can be impaired due to poor gut health, impaired liver health, stress, under-eating, and nutrient deficiencies.
When the conversion isn’t working well, one will usually see a high TSH, normal T4, low T3. You can get all the T4 you need (i.e. Levothyroxine and Synthroid), but if you’re not converting it to T3, you will still have all the symptoms. In my clients’ case, these include weight gain, low energy, fatigue, body aches, increased thyroid medicine, etc.
What’s Preventing the Conversion of T4 to T3?
Stress
During times of constant stress, your body releases higher amounts of the stress hormone called cortisol.
As a result, T4 is converted in higher amounts to Reverse T3, which is the opposite of the active T3. Reverse T3 puts the brakes on things so the body can deal with the stress.
Your body requires a gentle balance of Reverse T3. Too much of this hormone due to constant stress can slow the metabolism resulting in weight gain, no matter how little you eat.
Poor Liver Function
The majority of the conversion of T4 to T3 occurs in the liver. As a result, impaired liver function may affect the conversion, even if the liver enzymes appear to be at normal levels.
Poor Gut Health
The gut is the other location where the conversion takes place. Disruptions in gut health may reduce your body’s ability to convert T4 into the active T3 hormone. Common gut health issues are dysbiosis (an imbalance of gut bacteria), inflammatory bowel disease, or leaky gut due to inflammation. When there is a lot of inflammation, the body is unable to properly absorb the nutrients in food, which leads to nutrient deficiencies commonly seen in Hypothyroidism and Hashimoto’s.
Low-Calorie Diets
Eating too little can be damaging to thyroid function and may reduce T3 concentrations significantly (by up to 50% according to sources).
When you significantly undereat, your body will redirect your thyroid hormone (T4) into the reverse T3 version, which causes your metabolism to drop. This is a protective mechanism to prolong your survival in times of famine and food restriction. This can also inversely lead to high-stress levels which cause gut inflammation. All of these consequences can result in weight gain and worsening thyroid symptoms.
How The Keto Girl Method Helps the Conversion of T4 to T3
The goal of the Keto Girl Method is to decrease inflammation and reset gut health while keeping the metabolism optimal (i.e. guessing). This is where the anti-inflammatory approach of my method differs from regular keto.
In addition, it is a mindful approach, meaning I advocate listening to the body and focusing on the right portions of macronutrients without using a carb tracker, weighing or measuring food.
The goal of the Keto Girl Method is not to be in Ketosis, but to reverse the thyroid imbalance. Some clients may actually do better low carb, high fat vs keto (as they discover their carb tolerance and decrease inflammation).
As inflammation decreases, gut health will reset and liver health will improve. It then becomes easier for one to listen to their body and eat the proper foods that are healing to their thyroid. This will allow for consistent weight loss and improved thyroid symptoms.
All during this time T3 is finally converted efficiently due to resetting the gut health, and full absorption of the T4 from Levothyroxine.
My Keto Girls are closely monitored by their physicians, and many have been able to not just lose the weight, but are able to decrease their dosage of Levothyroxine or even able to get off of it completely. Join Today!
