Two months on Keto diet - Thyroid labs

[a_crossfitter]

Hi all,

The day the blood was drawn marked the 2 month time frame being on a keto diet (ABSOLUTELY NO CARBS) while maintaining the following: Blood was drawn PRIOR to injecting that day.
-TRT dose = Test Propionate 50mg Every Other Day (EOD)
-No AI taken

Initially, I lost water weight. I looked less puffy and stayed like that. Felt better quite honestly! The problem I have now is that apparently I am hypothyroid....I really dont understand because my t4 and t3 look ok.

Thoughts please.

 

[Guided_by_Voices]

Hopefully others can jump in with guidance on your Thyroid numbers, however as someone with quite a bit of low-carb experience and a long time observing different eating patterns, I would caution against a zero-carb approach. I suggest reviewing the posts called "Dangers of Zero-carb diets" on the Perfect Health Diet blog. There is a lot of controversy about the topic and there is a widely repeated meme that the body can produce all the sugar it needs, however if ketosis benefits you and you are quite active, you may be able to stay in ketosis at much lower overall risk if you keep net carbs at 50-70 grams a day and add some MCT oils. Many people report thyoid issues at ultra-low carb levels which resolve at slightly higher but still ketotic (or cyclically ketotic) levels of carb intake. I believe the KetoGains site may have some good info on this as well and the issue you raise seem to be much more of a problem with highly active people. Also note that for many people, a vegetable-only carb source is a zero-carb diet since many people do not the absorb vegetables as carbs.

 

[madman]

Ultra low carb diets can reduce t3 levels.

http://www.precisionnutrition.com/low-carb-diets

 

[a_crossfitter]

Thanks for he response! I have started to slowly incorporate carbs back into my diet....adopting more of a paleo diet...

Ill see how it goes.

The doc even put me on thyroid meds. I bought them but haven't taken them.

 

[Vettester Chris]

Definitely agree with the talking points on the depletion of carbs & interaction it can have with the thyroid. I can't say what impact this has had (or is having) with your current labs, unless you ran labs right before your diet routine? I can only comment on what I see in front of me ...

Your Free T4 is below reference range, and Free T3 is at 70%. If both Free T4 & T3 were sitting close at the 70% range, it would probably be a good starting point as we look at other labs. However, FT4 at < 0% of Ref, and FT3 at 70% of Ref., is definitely a marker that there's an imbalance. The TSH provides further reflection of this, as it is at 8.57%!

The demand for TSH is extremely high due to the lack of T4. I suspect the T3 is just pooling at this point, and T4 might be over compensating to Reverse T3 (?). It's just all speculation, that's the only thing we have to work with. A Reverse T3 lab would be in order, as would both antibodies (TPO and TgAb).

Are you supplementing DHEA to get those serum levels? If "no", then I would suggest also looking real close at the adrenals. Even if you are it would be good to see a 24hr Cortisol run with DHEA correlation. The diet situation could be impacting this, I would possibly re-evaluate everything.

 

[Vettester Chris]

Thanks for he response! I have started to slowly incorporate carbs back into my diet....adopting more of a paleo diet...

Ill see how it goes.

The doc even put me on thyroid meds. I bought them but haven't taken them.

If it were me, I wouldn't take any before knowing if T3 is actually pooling?? That's just me though. At the end of the day you would want your FT3 levels increased for purpose of being transported throughout the body. Your FT3 level is NOT Low, it's 70% of reference range! If it's stuck, or call it pooling because of other variables, then adding more thyroid hormone is like adding fuel to the fire! T4 converts to T3, T2, T1 ... Road Block Possibility at Turn T3, proceed with caution!