Carbs for Thyroid?

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jamzack
jamzack Posts: 11 Member
in Food and Nutrition
Anyone in here have Hypothyroid? I have been reading and they say to keep the carbs low but not do Keto. My question is, Does anyone know how many carbs are too low for Hypothyroid?

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  • cmriverside
    cmriverside Posts: 33,962 Member
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    I think it's a pretty variable thing. I have been on levothyroxine for 35 years.

    I tend to eat at about the 45% Carbs level. When I was in weight loss mode, it was more along the 35%-40% Carbs, which for me at 1500-1600 calories was between 125-150g a day. Not exactly low carb. Unless your doctor makes some hard limit for you, just experiment. I know I feel a lot better with low sugar and not very much wheat, but I don't know if that's in any way related.
  • yirara
    yirara Posts: 9,398 Member
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    Who is They? People feel full with different amounts of carbs, or protein, or fats. Really, nobody can say what keeps you full. I think you have to experiment what works for your. And with being hypo: the most important thing is to have the right dosage of meds. Not some arbitrary TSH numbers on a blood test, but you need to feel healthy and good with them.
  • jamzack
    jamzack Posts: 11 Member
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    i have been on Levo for over 10 years and the dosage keeps climbing just frustrating! I think 250 carbs a day maybe too much but i don't know if 100 carbs would be too low! UGH lol
  • yirara
    yirara Posts: 9,398 Member
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    Don't see levo as a medication but as a replacement therapy! Normally the thyroids starts producing less and less hormones, and hence you need to replace more and more of it to feel good. Thus don't worry about it. Btw, with weight loss there's a chance that you might need to reduce a bit again as your body might need less hormone overall.

    How much carbs... if you're not doing anything special like keto, or need to restrict carbs due to diabetes then why not use the standard settings for now, log everything you eat for a week or two, and then re-evaluate. Just totally ignore the macro settings and see where you end up, but try to stay within your calories. (assuming you've chosen an appropriate calorie goal). If you're happy and feel full then why not set your macros to what you've eaten on average. If not just experiment: use more fats, or more carbs, or more protein. See what works for you.
  • LisaGetsMoving
    LisaGetsMoving Posts: 664 Member
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    jamzack wrote: »
    i have been on Levo for over 10 years and the dosage keeps climbing just frustrating! I think 250 carbs a day maybe too much but i don't know if 100 carbs would be too low! UGH lol

    100 gr carbs is not too low. I've been hypothyroid for almost 15 years and I did keto for about 2 years way back before it was popular in an effort to shed weight that I thought wouldn't come off any other way. My average carb intake back then was less than 50 grams per day. I would not go full carnivore/zero carbs because our brains need some carbs to function and if you don't ingest it then your body will take it where it can, from muscle degradation, and you don't want that.
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 32,172 Member
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    I've been quite severely hypothyroid for 20+ years, taking generic levothyroxine. Since food logging (which I've been doing for nearly 6 years now), I've pretty much shot for getting certain minimums of protein, fats, and veggie/fruit servings, and given little thought to carb level. (Carbs, or occasionally alcohol, come in to play only with respect to calorie totals).

    Looking backward, I've generally eaten just under 50% of calories from carbs. During weight loss (2015-16, just under a year), that was around 150g carbs most days, more or less. After that, up to now, in maintenance, that's around 250g of carbs, again more or less.

    I've noticed no impact of my dietary composition on my hypothyroidism, or of my hypothyroidism on my dietary composition (or weight management strategy generally).

    One can read stuff that says nearly anything, and some of what's written about hypothyroidism is sensible, and other things are pure woo. I do try to evaluate the validity of sources, but as long as it's not something crazy or super difficult, I try stuff and see how it works for me. 🤷‍♀️

    I admit, I haven't personally experimented with carb levels, because my eating was keeping me happy, and didn't seem to create any obstacles or problems for me personally. YMMV.
  • Safari_Gal_
    Safari_Gal_ Posts: 1,461 Member
    edited March 2021
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    Ive been hypothyroid for years .. I typically eat under 50-75 carbs a day (rarely over 100) and it hasn’t affected my personal levels.
  • Priasmama416
    Priasmama416 Posts: 103 Member
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    I've been told by my doctor to stay under 125g a day, however I usually do between 80-100
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 32,172 Member
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    I was curious, did a little reading about this, with so far unsatisfying results.

    It sounds like some amount of carb intake may be necessary in order for T3/T4 conversion to work properly, which might be a reason to avoid keto. However, the sources I found (so far) saying that have some red flags that make me doubt their scientific cred, like saying white flour is a simple carb (nope). I don't think there were specific percents/grams in those sources, but I'm not sure I'd trust them even if there had been.

    From personal experience, I'm quite certain that low carb eating is not universally necessary for hypothyroid people for either thyroid control or weight management, because n=1 counter example is enough to say it isn't universally necessary, and I'm that n=1 (and others have said similar things above).

    I wish @CSARdiver were still here and active in the forums, because he's just the guy who might know something about this, but I haven't seen him here in a long, long time.

    Speaking of him, if any of the hypo folks here haven't read this thread, it's worth your time, for reasons other than carb intake:

    https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10767046/hypothyroidism-and-weight-management

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