So I just wanted to introduce myself :) I have been reading this forum and the works of Ray Peat for almost a month now. I do not really remember how I heard about Ray Peat, but I am pretty sure it had something to do with thyroid health. As I've been reading the stories of people on this forum and Danny Roddy's book I started to notice how eerily similar they are to mine.
My health problems started about 2 years ago when I went on the ketogenic diet, but when I look back it seems as though I've never been completely healthy and the health problems might have started around the time I got my period(I was 13 years old, I'm 18 now). Before I started keto I had awful headaches, often fainted, would get these black spots when I opened my eyes, my digestion wasn't very good(bloat, stomachaches), the doctors finally found I had a cyst on my ovary so I went to a gynecologist. That did not go very well, she was so rude and made me very stressed, prescribed me pills which I didn't know what they were for and recently found out they were birth control pills( I was 15 at this time and knew nothing about birth control). Eventually I told my mom I wanted to stop taking the pills and going to the doctor. The cyst disappeared on it's own. I started keto when I was 16 and most of my problems disappeared. For the first few months I was very happy. My skin was amazing(but I've never had problems with skin), so was my hair, I lost a few pounds(water weight), my digestion was perfect and my depression was non-existent (I've now read that many people experience this honeymoon period).
But after some time things started to get worst. I started craving carbs and would sometimes binge when I couldn't take it any more, which made me think I had a sugar addiction or worst an eating disorder. I started gaining weight, the depression came back, but it crept up so slowly that I didn't notice I was changing, I started getting cold more easily, but I read that it was just a normal reaction to restricting calories and that once you lose weight and start maintaining it will go back to normal(I religiously read reddit at that time and the r/keto forum was something I used for hours every day). I ate about 1200-1300 calories a day, because that's what I got when I used the keto macro calculator. Fed up with my results I started intermittent fasting and later zero carb. I thought my problems were coming from the fact that I wasn't disciplined enough and had a sweet tooth all my life. I went through so many different eating phases- IF 23:1 (which means I ate all my calories for the day(1200) in an hour long eating window and fasted with black coffee and water the rest of the day), 18:6, zero carb with food ad libitum, zero carb with calorie restriction, keto(carbs under 20g), low carb (<100g), paleo. The worst part through all of this was that I thought all carbs were evil and didn't even consider the possibility that you could be healthy while eating them.
Finally, around the end of 2016 I started looking around the internet for information on why the outer third part of my brows was falling out and why I was cold all the time which lead me to articles about low carbohydrate diets ruin your thyroid and how dangerous they are especially for young woman like myself. It's kinda funny how this made me question myself and if I was doing everything right.
So the obvious thing to do was to go paleo
. But I started experiencing the same symptoms as when I would binge on carbs. My skin and hair would get very oily, I would get sooo bloated, I would lose motivation to do anything, my mood swings would be terrible and many more. This has always lead me to go back to keto and search for those feelings I had when I first started it, but this time I refused to do this to myself and started searching for the answer on why I couldn't function like a normal person. I found plenty of sites like Stop The Thyroid Madness and other ones in my language and got blood tests done(TSH, FT3, FT4, TGAB, TPO) +a thyroid scan. This time I knew what I was looking for and what the best ranges were. My TSH came out to be 3.8, both my FT3 and FT4 about 50% and my TGAB antibodies at 160. I don't really understand the ultrasound results.
All the sites I was reading encouraged people to go on the AIP diet or some similar paleo type diet without dairy, gluten, nightshades and other foods which I was already tired of restricting. I knew there must be a better way to heal and that cutting out foods did not help me at all. I think it was around this time I found Ray Peat. I think someone on the paleo forums was making fun of his advice and obviously that got me interested
(my mental fog and memory are so bad I can't even remember something that happened a month ago
). Anyway I found this forum and have been reading it for a few hours everyday since then, I've also read Nutrition for Women and Hair Like a Fox + many articles and interviews with Peat.
I went all in with this diet and eat plenty of fruit, honey, milk, juice, sugar, liver, seafood, sugar, coffee, salt, potatoes, ice cream, coconut oil... At first I was very bloated, started gaining weight and felt weird from all that sugar but at the same time I was warm, happy and felt like suddenly all the thoughts which I though were because of an eating disorder disappeared. My biggest problem right now is the fact that my glycogen stores are virtually non-existent ( I forgot to add that when I was keto I started running and spinning which made me feel good at the time but the consequences that I'm experiencing now are terrible), this makes my insomnia awful and in consequence ruins my entire day and no matter how much sugar I eat I cannot fix the problems from lack of sleep. I've also started getting headaches again and again nothing helps. I still have most if not more hypothyroid symptoms but I believe it might be because I am just now getting off of running on stress hormones and my body is starting to heal. Maybe that's why everything hurts?
I have not started any supplements yet, because I do not have much money for them. I am going to start University in October and my money will be even lower. The only thing I am about to start right now is NDT which I ordered but will probably receive in about a month. I think that I need more thyroid hormones in my body in order for it to heal and start using the calories and nutrients I am giving it. I eat from 2500-5000 calories a day and make sure to hit all my nutrient goals. The only thing which I am not getting enough of according to cronometer is vit. e and vit. k. Do I need to supplement it if most of the fat on my body came from overeating almonds, peanut butter, butter, meat, mayo, which contain vit. e?
I would love to hear any advice from you guys and I am very grateful for this community
. Sorry for the wall of text, but I really wanted to not miss anything in my story. Also sorry if I made any mistakes, English is not my first language. Thank you and hi again
My health problems started about 2 years ago when I went on the ketogenic diet, but when I look back it seems as though I've never been completely healthy and the health problems might have started around the time I got my period(I was 13 years old, I'm 18 now). Before I started keto I had awful headaches, often fainted, would get these black spots when I opened my eyes, my digestion wasn't very good(bloat, stomachaches), the doctors finally found I had a cyst on my ovary so I went to a gynecologist. That did not go very well, she was so rude and made me very stressed, prescribed me pills which I didn't know what they were for and recently found out they were birth control pills( I was 15 at this time and knew nothing about birth control). Eventually I told my mom I wanted to stop taking the pills and going to the doctor. The cyst disappeared on it's own. I started keto when I was 16 and most of my problems disappeared. For the first few months I was very happy. My skin was amazing(but I've never had problems with skin), so was my hair, I lost a few pounds(water weight), my digestion was perfect and my depression was non-existent (I've now read that many people experience this honeymoon period).
But after some time things started to get worst. I started craving carbs and would sometimes binge when I couldn't take it any more, which made me think I had a sugar addiction or worst an eating disorder. I started gaining weight, the depression came back, but it crept up so slowly that I didn't notice I was changing, I started getting cold more easily, but I read that it was just a normal reaction to restricting calories and that once you lose weight and start maintaining it will go back to normal(I religiously read reddit at that time and the r/keto forum was something I used for hours every day). I ate about 1200-1300 calories a day, because that's what I got when I used the keto macro calculator. Fed up with my results I started intermittent fasting and later zero carb. I thought my problems were coming from the fact that I wasn't disciplined enough and had a sweet tooth all my life. I went through so many different eating phases- IF 23:1 (which means I ate all my calories for the day(1200) in an hour long eating window and fasted with black coffee and water the rest of the day), 18:6, zero carb with food ad libitum, zero carb with calorie restriction, keto(carbs under 20g), low carb (<100g), paleo. The worst part through all of this was that I thought all carbs were evil and didn't even consider the possibility that you could be healthy while eating them.
Finally, around the end of 2016 I started looking around the internet for information on why the outer third part of my brows was falling out and why I was cold all the time which lead me to articles about low carbohydrate diets ruin your thyroid and how dangerous they are especially for young woman like myself. It's kinda funny how this made me question myself and if I was doing everything right.
So the obvious thing to do was to go paleo
. But I started experiencing the same symptoms as when I would binge on carbs. My skin and hair would get very oily, I would get sooo bloated, I would lose motivation to do anything, my mood swings would be terrible and many more. This has always lead me to go back to keto and search for those feelings I had when I first started it, but this time I refused to do this to myself and started searching for the answer on why I couldn't function like a normal person. I found plenty of sites like Stop The Thyroid Madness and other ones in my language and got blood tests done(TSH, FT3, FT4, TGAB, TPO) +a thyroid scan. This time I knew what I was looking for and what the best ranges were. My TSH came out to be 3.8, both my FT3 and FT4 about 50% and my TGAB antibodies at 160. I don't really understand the ultrasound results. All the sites I was reading encouraged people to go on the AIP diet or some similar paleo type diet without dairy, gluten, nightshades and other foods which I was already tired of restricting. I knew there must be a better way to heal and that cutting out foods did not help me at all. I think it was around this time I found Ray Peat. I think someone on the paleo forums was making fun of his advice and obviously that got me interested
(my mental fog and memory are so bad I can't even remember something that happened a month ago). Anyway I found this forum and have been reading it for a few hours everyday since then, I've also read Nutrition for Women and Hair Like a Fox + many articles and interviews with Peat.I went all in with this diet and eat plenty of fruit, honey, milk, juice, sugar, liver, seafood, sugar, coffee, salt, potatoes, ice cream, coconut oil... At first I was very bloated, started gaining weight and felt weird from all that sugar but at the same time I was warm, happy and felt like suddenly all the thoughts which I though were because of an eating disorder disappeared
. My biggest problem right now is the fact that my glycogen stores are virtually non-existent ( I forgot to add that when I was keto I started running and spinning which made me feel good at the time but the consequences that I'm experiencing now are terrible), this makes my insomnia awful and in consequence ruins my entire day and no matter how much sugar I eat I cannot fix the problems from lack of sleep. I've also started getting headaches again and again nothing helps. I still have most if not more hypothyroid symptoms but I believe it might be because I am just now getting off of running on stress hormones and my body is starting to heal. Maybe that's why everything hurts?I have not started any supplements yet, because I do not have much money for them. I am going to start University in October and my money will be even lower. The only thing I am about to start right now is NDT which I ordered but will probably receive in about a month. I think that I need more thyroid hormones in my body in order for it to heal and start using the calories and nutrients I am giving it. I eat from 2500-5000 calories a day and make sure to hit all my nutrient goals. The only thing which I am not getting enough of according to cronometer is vit. e and vit. k. Do I need to supplement it if most of the fat on my body came from overeating almonds, peanut butter, butter, meat, mayo, which contain vit. e?
I would love to hear any advice from you guys and I am very grateful for this community
. Sorry for the wall of text, but I really wanted to not miss anything in my story. Also sorry if I made any mistakes, English is not my first language. Thank you and hi again 
