Hey Guys,

A few years ago I had my thyroid removed because of thyroid cancer (on 200mg if lethothyroxine). I am really struggling to lose any body fat over the past few years, would my thyroid history have any effect on this? 

I am 6ft, 22 year old male, weighing in at 70kg, I don't know my body fat percentage but I would hazzard a guess at somewhere around 12-15% (I'm not overweight by an means, but I want to get as cut as possible)

Currently I am macro cycling:

Day 1: 100 carbs | 150 protein | 70 fat

Day 2: 200 carbs | 150 protein | 40 fat

Day 3: 50 carbs | 150 protein | 100 fat

[REPEAT]

My workout schedule is to do full body resistance training on the 100 carb day, and 20min of Hiit on high carb (200g) day, rest on the low carb day. 

But my main question is about whether my thyroid history may effect my ability for fat loss? Or do I just need to rethink my workout plan. 

P.S: I've been trying on and off to lose body fat for the past 3years, this current plan I am on I have been doing for 2 months now

As far as I understand your thyroid plays a HUGH roll in fat loss.

If it's out of wack or in your case gone!! you basically need to learn YOU. having no Tyroid puts you in a catagory that is not the norm, so it will be harder to find a baseline for you to work from. I would try and figure out you r maintinent calorie amount and adjust from there. If you have to go lower than a -500 calorie restriction to lose weight I would check with your DOC to see if what your doing is okay!!

~Mike

Take Care

To be honest it looks like to me you are not even eating enough food for your height. at 6ft you should be over 3,000 calories.

did your doctor dramatically reduce your diet to compensate? I dont know much about what happens when you dont have your thyroid. Can you fill me in a bit more?

Can you give us your workout?

also... glad you made it to the site from YouTube!!! WOO!

Nick,

Sorry to hear of your situation. Mike Misiulis is 100% correct - Your thyroid has a huge effect on your metabolism. People with hyper-thyroidism (overactive) lose tons of weight, can't sleep, have bulging eye balls, and are constantly "wound up". People with hypo-thyroidism (underactive) experience the exact opposite.

As you are new to thyroid hormone replacement therapy, I would talk with your doctor. Matching the right amount of meds to your body and body chemistry is not an exact science as everyone is different. I would discuss your situation with him/her and see if maybe they can "tweak" your meds.

I will say that if in general you are feeling fine but just having a challenge losing bodyfat, the doctor will more than likely not tinker with your dosages. At that point, it will be up to your nutrition plan, macro counts, and exercise program tweaking to get you in a muscle-building/fat burning state. This site has a plethora of info on how to build all these components of your fitness journey.

I agree with Scott. Your calories are too low for someone of your age and height. Contrary to popular belief, if you don't eat enough and exercise too much - especially when adding in HIIT - you stress the body so much that you stop all fat burning and most muscle building. This is due to 2 things:

1) Increased release of Cortisol - the stress hormone. This increases fat storage, decreases testosterone, and sends all your blood away from your digestive system. This is your "fight or flight" hormone and it make sense. When threatened, you want to be alert and ready to run not building muscle, digesting food, and burning fat.

2) When your daily calories fall below 1500/day for a male, your body thinks it is starving and slows the metabolism to protect itself which stops body fat loss.

You need to get your nutrition plan solidified first and slowly work in the HIIT training once your body adapts to the proper calorie intake and your training.

John

Thanks for the help guys, much appreciated.

It looks like the best thing to do would be to rethink my nutrition, am I best increasing my carb, fat or protein intake? Or all 3? I was aware of stravation and overtraining but I thought I was ok with my current macros, but doing the math now, you're right I'm only on about 1700 cals a day.

Scott - about you're question reguarding thyroid: since I have had a total thyroidectomy I rely solely on thyroid replacement (levothyroxine) which as far as I know is a synthetic version of thyroxine (T4). I have regular (biannual) blood tests to ensure that my hormone levels are all balanced and correct for someone of my age. Also, I have never discussed weight loss with my doctor, I think i mentioned it once to which they replied "you don't need to lose weight", but thats not the point if you get me :p

Carbs looks pretty low, so I would increase them a bit. If you're going to keep on carb cycling, then you can go to 300g on your high carb day.

Like Scott said, your calories look pretty low - 1700 is really low.

Have you calculated your BMR on the @mealplan page?

Hey, brother in levothyroxine.

I lost mine to cancer some years ago. The people who wrote before are correct. The thyroid is the major metabolism gland. That's why your energy goes away when you go hypothyroidism (why they call it hypothyroid hell)

You have to pay more attention to diet now to keep a balance between keeping up your energy for training and life needs and overfeeding and getting fat. I did the latter and got up to 350. My endo helped me out with appetite suppressants as a kick start and I was fortunate enough to be able to diet and train down to 173 pounds.

I've been on a 200 mcg dose before (down to 137 now) . It seems like they're keeping you at a pretty high level of hormone also. I weigh about 20 pounds more than you and am on 30 mcg less hormone. Then again I'm also 30 years older.

If I can help at all, let me know.

Loosing fats from the body is very important. I always surf on web about fat removal methods. I found an esay way to remove fats from the body. An appareil cellulite can be used for easy fat removal. I think it works without causing any side effects.

You can also carry regular exercises.