Hypothyroid; fat intake and hormones

[Johnsonville]

Hi Robert, I have hypothyroidism and currently take 50mg of tirosint a day to treat it but also have been on a lower fat diet since resuming weight training in October. Both my primary and endo are naturopathic learning and emphasize healthy fat intake in order to promote good hormone levels, but the problem I have is a get fat quick when I eat like that. What is your take on the role of dietary fat in terms of hormone levels, both thyroid and also testosterone? Lately I’ve been feeling like shit assuming it is my hormones and went on a low carb diet for two weeks, and no surprise there, I felt even worse so I’m starting to get frustrated with the whole thing.

[Robert Santana]

Thanks for sharing man and I'm glad yo are getting properly medicated and training effectively. I don't see a clear link between dietary fat intake and thyroid hormones. You do need sufficient iodine, selenium, and Vitamin B6 though. Clearly your body is telling you something when you gain body fat easily and feel crappy when you try to go Keto. Now, to be fair to your providers, healthy fat intake doesn't mean high fat intake. You want to get your fats from fish, nuts, seeds, avocados etc. You don't necessarily need a high amount of these foods though. Lastly, testosterone is produced from cholesterol and cholesterol is produced endogenously, meaning it is mostly a non-essential nutrient. So the whole "low fat is going to kill your T" myth is just that. What I will say is that when calories get low and body fat gets very low, cortisol rises and T likely drops. This is unlikely related to fat intake though and I can attest to that because I experienced some symptoms at age 20 when doing a low calorie ketogenic diet. I ate plenty of fat but was still experiencing some malfunctioning.

[Johnsonville]

Thanks for the answer! It can be hard to find answers to this stuff due to the whole keto craze at the moment so I really appreciate it. My doc has me on iodine and selenium, but I’ll start taking fish oil and go from there. My cortisol has doubled in the past few months to 16 and I am now thinking it’s from under eating along with lifting and training mma 7 days a week.

[Robert Santana]

You are very welcome. You may want to consider just eating a diet higher in seafood, cutting back on the training volume, and eating more. Who knows, you may feel better.