ARE YOU STRUGGLING LOSING WEIGHT?!?! It may not be what you think…
I normally point to insulin sensitivity issues as the problem, but this time, I am going to change it up… It might just be your THYROID! This plays a massive role in health and yours might be working against you! If you have issues with your thyroid, your chances of fat loss and proper hormonal function might as well be thrown out the window!
Tell me more about the Thyroid so I understand…
The THYROID is a gland of the endocrine system that is located in the front of your neck controlling your METABOLISM. It makes hormones! For fat loss, the thyroid, by way of hormones, activates oxygen consumption in the mitochondria thus creating heat, which increases your metabolism! What?!?!? Basically, the thyroid produces hormones that increase your bodies core temperature thus allowing for you to burn fat as fuel.
How do you screw it up?
Not to be redundant but there are a few major ones, which tie into all thing’s health!!
Problem 1… Eat way too much highly processed foods
Problem 2… Vegetable & Seed Oils
Problem 3… Low Calorie Diets & Low Protein
Problem 4… Not enough healthy fats
These are just to name a few but these are major! Here are your SIMPLE solutions:
Solution 1… limit eating high amounts of packaged food a lot and choose meats, veggies and other food items that you cook yourself.
Solution 2… only eat / cook with the following fats… Grass-fed Butter, Tallow, Ghee, Avocado Oil, Coconut Oil, Extra-Virgin Olive Oil
Solution 3… Avoid staying on fad diets and/or trying to lose weight rapidly. Avoid these 1500 and below calorie diets! Choose to eat about 1 gram of protein per 1 pound of bodyweight!
Solution 4… Follow solution #2 plus eat grass-fed red meat, salmon, wild caught fish, extra-virgin olive oil and avocados
If you don’t eat enough protein, it can also create issues with your thyroid. Red meat, in particular, has a lot of these essential minerals that are necessary to keep the thyroid healthy. Additionally, the benefit goes in the building muscle category because you have to have an adequate number of calories and protein to generate proteins synthesis (i.e. muscle growth).
As a general rule, if you have more lean mass and are providing yourself with enough to continue to grow, then you’ll have a healthier metabolism and will be burning more fat overall…
What you want to do is research foods that promote thyroid health, particularly built around these FOUR things:
One, get iodine rich foods in your diet, such as cod, dairy, salt, kelp, seaweed eggs and others. We need iodine to increase T3, T4, etc…
Two, ZINC, which increase thyroid health by triggering thyroid hormone receptors, which are in your hypothalamus. Foods such as Red Meat, nuts, eggs and others…
Three, Selenium, which can be found in Brazil Nuts. Just two per day is all you need to eat. Selenium helps buffer hydrogen peroxide, which is created during the thyroid process. Hydrogen Peroxide needs to be buffered so auto-immune dysfunction doesn’t occur.
Four, Vitamin D, which can be consumed in foods such as eggs (the yolk), salmon, sardines and more…. When you have enough vitamin D (it’s a hormone), you will typically store less fat because your cells will not make nor allow excessive fat to enter the cell.
I find by focusing on your food choices and placing a special emphasis on THYROID HEALTH, particularly in women over 35 years of age, to be very helpful in keeping their physique leaner and allowing for them to build muscle. Yes, as always, if you ARE NOT consuming enough protein in your diet your will not provide yourself with the opportunity to grow lean muscle.
Thank you for reading, I hope this was brief enough and simple enough to be informative while not complicating the matter anymore than it has to be.
Your health is 100% up to you, so choose wisely!
