I'm new here, but have been trying to heal my thyroid condition and lose weight for a year or so now. Today I got the news about the insulin resistance.
I need some help with dietary suggestions, what worked for you, made you feel better etc? Before I got sick I ate a diet that mainly consisted of wheat and dairy products with very little produce. Now I can see that affect that deficient diet had on my poor body! =(
I did lots of reading and completely changed my eating style and now eat only fruit, vegetables, beans, nuts, seeds, and sometimes a rice product. I do use olive and coconut oil and seasonings.
Should I now cut out fruit also? Eat more fats? I am desperate to get my weight issue under control and appreciate any suggestions.
Hi, have you been losing with the changes you've made already? Are you vegetarian?
I have hypothyroid (hashimoto's) and IR also. I have been struggling with this too. I found cutting out the grains helped and all the simple carbs. If you eat a lot of high sugar fruits it may not be good for IR. I stick mostly with berries as any kind of sugar seems to affect me.
I'm also wondering what other people have done that works.
I would like to hear more PLEASE! I have been struggling for 4 yrs and I am not getting any better.......... I am working on finding a decent dr but as everyone knows... that's not always easy! I also am a big dairy/wheat eatter and not big on veggies or fruits...... would LOVE to hear more about your progress and where you have learned your information
i have Hashi and am nearly at fully thyroid hormone replacement levels. I just met with an endo this week and got the news that I am also IR. I already ate a lower-carb/low wheat and higher protein diet with lots of veggies and a fruit a day. My plan is to really try to keep to the 40/30/30 diet along the lines of a type 2 diabetic diet (half plate veggies, quarter protein, quarter non-white starch), and because I already was basically in balance with my diet, my endo put me on a starter dose of metformin.
The biggest change I am doing is to really push the daily cardio and walking or some activity after meals along with starting with a muscle building weight training program with a trainer.
This summer the Hashi really came on strong and leveled me with an extra 18lbs despite being on a moderate cardio (2x week, 30 min) and a 1800c diet. I had to change something, so the biggest thing is the weight training and the meds. Not happy about the latter, but I hope that working on the IR is going to be the kick start that I need to finally get the scale moving.
I have hypothyroidism and struggle with losing weight. I have gained 20lbs in the last year. I exercise and eat right, but I think maybe I am insulin resistant. What are the symptoms? How did you get it diagnosed?
I have both these issues, too, including Hashi's (autoimmune thyroiditis).
Try linking protein to any sugar or carbs you eat, including fruit; that helped me a lot in the past to reverse the IR (though I haven't been doing that well enough recently, since I'm not counting nutrients as much, but I do still try to follow the principle of it). Cutting out fruit shouldn't be necessary, if you do this.
The Insulin Resistance Diet book by Hart and Grossman was really helpful in teaching me how to do the linking; check Amazon for more people's experiences -- I checked out a copy from the library and took notes, since I'm a broke cheapskate. If I remember correctly, for every 15 g of carbs, you need 7g of protein at the same meal (please correct me if I'm wrong, someone!). This evens out blood sugar and corrects cellular insulin resistance problems.
Also, NOW makes a Cinnamon capsule that does great things for reducing blood sugar levels and helping to keep it more balanced (less spikes and dips) through the day; Iherb has good prices on it.
With both of these things in effect, my endocrinologist was very impressed with my progress (her Metformin Rx was tough for me to tolerate, so I quit it). I got my IR under control with these methods, and I lost weight pretty easily (for me!); however, being a vegetarian, it got a bit challenging to make sure I had a wide variety of proteins and didn't get tired of one or another at each mini meal.
Good luck!
P.S. Contact me (PM) if you're open to trying alt methods of addressing thyroid disease; that's how I'm handling it now, after taking Rxs for many years. Also, check out 'stop the thyroid madness dot org' for an active forum with great info.
Last edited by laali; 10-08-2011 at 11:08 PM.
Reason: P.S.
Add me to the "me too", but I am able to control by diet. I completely eliminated pasta, rice (any kind) bread and flours. I'll occasionally have a slice of pizza, but it's a rarity. I eat an apple a day, but with peanut butter and a crap load of cinnamon sprinkled on the apple (why take a cinnamon capsule when cinnamon is so scrumptious?)
With meds my thyroid is back in control (reading was near 50 before). And with diet alone, I got my fasting blood sugar from 239 to 90 and my H1C from 8.6 to 5.9.
I can still eat potatoes (for some reason) because my body processes potatoes differently and I don't get sugar spikes from them at all, but that is rare, and if I would have had spikes, I would have eliminated it too.
I eat a high fat, high protein, lower carb diet. I keep carbs at 100 net grams a day and try to keep my fats from things like olive oils. Though I do eat lean meats too.
And I've been exercising 4-5 hours a week and dropping weight steadily.
I actually just got a new blood draw done today, so I'll learn very soon if those levels have improved or gotten worse since my tests 4 months ago.
Hypothyroid AND Insulin Resistant?
