A couple of people have recently asked me about thyroid issues and I just wanted to let you all know that help is at hand, even if you do have low thyroid.
A lot of people with thyroid issues struggle to lose weight and change their body shape. In fact sometimes they even get told that they simply won’t be able to lose weight if they have a low thyroid. Low thyroid = low energy levels = low motivation to work out and the urge to grab “quick fixes” such as caffeine and sugary snacks. When in fact this just sends the hormones into an even more out of control spin!
Like any hormonal issue, having an under-active thyroid isn’t a simple matter. As soon as one hormone is out of whack, the entire hormonal system gets in a pickle. The key to managing a thyroid problem is to ensure that your adrenals aren’t too stressed. Anything that places additional stress on your body will only exacerbate the under-active thyroid. So gorging on unhealthy food, drinking a lot of booze and even doing too much exercise could be at the crux of the problem.
Ironically, when people find out they have a thyroid problem they often feel compelled to start exercising more in a bid to try and lose some weight. Seems sensible, right? But in fact this could be over-stressing the body.
Here are my top three tips for managing your weight alongside an under-active thyroid:
1) Clean up your diet. Eating a clean, nutrient dense diet will give your body the best chance of being able to produce hormones and manage stress. A poor diet high in sugar, processed foods and toxins (such as alcohol) will place further stress on your adrenals. Not good!
2) Get some sleep. Try to get to bed by 10.30pm latest at least 5 nights per week. Our hormones are manufactured during sleep and it’s during this “down time” that our body figures out which hormones should be switching “on” and “off”. Good quality sleep will de-stress the body and you’ll wake up feeling far more energetic.
3) Cut back on your exercise. Yes, really! As I said before, it can be pretty demoralising if you’re hitting the gym for an hour 3-4 times per week and not yielding any results. But chances are your body has simply had enough. If you have an under-active thyroid then hour upon hour sweating it out in long classes will just be wiping you out. My advice, if you’ve been training hard of late, is to take a week off completely just to allow your body to repair itself. Then focus on short, intense bursts of exercise – as little as 10-20 minutes per day. Doing a short, super-charged workout 3-4 times per week, interspersed with days of 20 mins walking(or something relaxing like yoga, thai chi etc) should restore your energy levels and simultaneously have you burning fat at a far great rate.
That’s why a program like my Four Week Fat Attack is ideal for anyone suffering from an under-active thyroid. I’d recommend taking a week off all training before starting, just to allow your body some complete rest, and then hit the clean eating and short exercise sessions prescribed in the program.
Once you’re back on track you can start ramping it up a bit more, but keep it to interval-based, intense workouts with plenty of rest periods (such as the kind of workouts we do at Lovefit Bootcamps).
In fairness, the above advice is good advice for anyone looking to burn fat and change their body shape. So what are you waiting for?
Oh, and if you need some help with this, our residential 6 night Wellness retreat in Periana, Spain could be just the ticket. 23-29th September 2012, just four rooms left all priced at a bargain £895 for single occupancy / £750pp for twin. A week of sun, fun exercise, beautiful surroundings, delicious HEALTHY meals and some much needed R&R! Contact info@lovefittraining.co.uk for further details.
I hope you found this helpful. As always, I’d love to hear your comments.