Rapid Weight Loss Via IF followed by Low Energy, Fatigue, Low T with Labs

[kristian]

Hi all,

Dealing with some strange symptoms I've never dealt with before including low energy, fatigue, over sleeping, lack of motivation, loss in verbal acuity, loss in abstract reasoning ability, low libido, poor appetite, loss of pleasure from conversation, inability to focus, and disinterest in activities or goals.

To give you guys a brief background on how I got here, I started the year off around 290 lbs and decided to lose some weight. I began walking about 1 - 2 hrs per day and lifting weights 4-5 times per week since around February. At the same time I lowered my calorie intake by eating one meal a day. Not very specific with the meal I ate, could be pasta, could be chicken and rice, could be pizza, steak with potatoes, or some kind of sandwich. I also made sure to take in at least 60 or so grams of protein (in the form of protein shakes, yogurt, cheese) in addition to this meal just to aid with muscle recovery. I steadily lost about 10-15lbs per month and reached around 230 lbs at the beginning of June. While on my way to losing the weight I was constantly increasing in my energy levels, was ultra motivated at work, having successes in nearly every aspect of my life and I attributed all of this to my health actually moving in the right direction. Particularly in April and May my energy levels and focus were better than I've ever felt in my life.

In the beginning of June, I got some sort of upper respiratory virus that I took about 1.5 - 2 weeks to recovery from and that was really the start of the issues I'm facing today. I was fine for the most part during the illness but as soon as I got over it I started experience fatigue, lack of motivation, and lack of interest in life. In July, I traveled a lot which likely worsened the symptoms I was facing as when I got back from traveling in August, for about two weeks I could barely muster up the energy to speak and barely was able to do my duties for my job. My cortisol was definitely out of wack due to traveling stress as I was experiencing night sweats every night and waking up every few hours. I've never experienced these symptoms before as I'm usually a talkative and jolly person, even my family, friends, and coworkers started to take note. I'm not one to go to the doctor easily but I felt something must be seriously wrong so I figured I'd get my blood work done.

Normal blood panel came back fine, but my hormonal panel came back with some issues namely Low T:

TSH 1.58 = ( 0.40-4.50 mIU/L)
T4, FREE = 1.3 (0.8-1.8 ng/dL)
B TYPE NATRIURETIC PEPTIDE (BNP) 19 (<100 pg/mL)

TESTOSTERONE, TOTAL, MALES (ADULT) 290 (250-827 ng/dL)
ALBUMIN 4.6 (3.6-5.1 g/dL)
SEX HORMONE BINDING GLOBULIN 24 (10-50 nmol/L)
TESTOSTERONE, FREE 46.5 (46.0-224.0 pg/mL)
TESTOSTERONE,BIOAVAILABLE 97.7 L (110.0-575.0 ng/dL)

I think its safe to assume that the source of all these issues I've been facing is low T as the symptoms and blood work seem to line up but what should I try. I've been on and off multivitamins, zinc, NAC, and glycine but none of them seem to have made any difference. I just bought some gonadin and pyrucet, its my first day so dosing those at 8 drops and 4 drops respectively to see if they make any difference. But I'm kind of at a loss at this point, not sure why but my T-levels must've plummeted after that virus. Another note on some strange symptoms I've been experiencing, I have a lack of sensitivity to caffeine, nicotine, and even alcohol and my energy and fatigue levels seem to subside and go back to normal bewteen 9pm - 12am every night and are crashed every morning. Any advice on what to try at this point these symptoms are driving me crazy?

Edit: I also want to note that my sleep heart rate is about 52 bpm, waking heart rate is about 60bpm, and my resting heart rate during the day is about 65.

 

[CO2]

Hi all,

Dealing with some strange symptoms I've never dealt with before including low energy, fatigue, over sleeping, lack of motivation, loss in verbal acuity, loss in abstract reasoning ability, low libido, poor appetite, loss of pleasure from conversation, inability to focus, and disinterest in activities or goals.

To give you guys a brief background on how I got here, I started the year off around 290 lbs and decided to lose some weight. I began walking about 1 - 2 hrs per day and lifting weights 4-5 times per week since around February. At the same time I lowered my calorie intake by eating one meal a day. Not very specific with the meal I ate, could be pasta, could be chicken and rice, could be pizza, steak with potatoes, or some kind of sandwich. I also made sure to take in at least 60 or so grams of protein (in the form of protein shakes, yogurt, cheese) in addition to this meal just to aid with muscle recovery. I steadily lost about 10-15lbs per month and reached around 230 lbs at the beginning of June. While on my way to losing the weight I was constantly increasing in my energy levels, was ultra motivated at work, having successes in nearly every aspect of my life and I attributed all of this to my health actually moving in the right direction. Particularly in April and May my energy levels and focus were better than I've ever felt in my life.

In the beginning of June, I got some sort of upper respiratory virus that I took about 1.5 - 2 weeks to recovery from and that was really the start of the issues I'm facing today. I was fine for the most part during the illness but as soon as I got over it I started experience fatigue, lack of motivation, and lack of interest in life. In July, I traveled a lot which likely worsened the symptoms I was facing as when I got back from traveling in August, for about two weeks I could barely muster up the energy to speak and barely was able to do my duties for my job. My cortisol was definitely out of wack due to traveling stress as I was experiencing night sweats every night and waking up every few hours. I've never experienced these symptoms before as I'm usually a talkative and jolly person, even my family, friends, and coworkers started to take note. I'm not one to go to the doctor easily but I felt something must be seriously wrong so I figured I'd get my blood work done.

Normal blood panel came back fine, but my hormonal panel came back with some issues namely Low T:

TSH 1.58 = ( 0.40-4.50 mIU/L)
T4, FREE = 1.3 (0.8-1.8 ng/dL)
B TYPE NATRIURETIC PEPTIDE (BNP) 19 (<100 pg/mL)

TESTOSTERONE, TOTAL, MALES (ADULT) 290 (250-827 ng/dL)
ALBUMIN 4.6 (3.6-5.1 g/dL)
SEX HORMONE BINDING GLOBULIN 24 (10-50 nmol/L)
TESTOSTERONE, FREE 46.5 (46.0-224.0 pg/mL)
TESTOSTERONE,BIOAVAILABLE 97.7 L (110.0-575.0 ng/dL)

I think its safe to assume that the source of all these issues I've been facing is low T as the symptoms and blood work seem to line up but what should I try. I've been on and off multivitamins, zinc, NAC, and glycine but none of them seem to have made any difference. I just bought some gonadin and pyrucet, its my first day so dosing those at 8 drops and 4 drops respectively to see if they make any difference. But I'm kind of at a loss at this point, not sure why but my T-levels must've plummeted after that virus. Another note on some strange symptoms I've been experiencing, I have a lack of sensitivity to caffeine, nicotine, and even alcohol and my energy and fatigue levels seem to subside and go back to normal bewteen 9pm - 12am every night and are crashed every morning. Any advice on what to try at this point these symptoms are driving me crazy?

Edit: I also want to note that my sleep heart rate is about 52 bpm, waking heart rate is about 60bpm, and my resting heart rate during the day is about 65.

You wrecked your thyroid during the weight loss phase and were likely running on adrenaline, which is why you felt so good and motivated. Eventually things go very wrong when you rely on adrenaline for so long. TSH is quite high and remember that high cortisol can artificially keep it down. Heart rate is also quite low, temperature would be important to check here. Focus on repairing your thyroid function. Slowly increase your carb intake, eliminate PUFA and the goal should be to slowly increase calories until metabolism is back to normal. Track your temperature daily in the morning before and after breakfast, and in the afternoon. You might want to look into thyroid supplementation in the future but for now stick to the fundamentals.

 

[Hans]

Hi all,

Dealing with some strange symptoms I've never dealt with before including low energy, fatigue, over sleeping, lack of motivation, loss in verbal acuity, loss in abstract reasoning ability, low libido, poor appetite, loss of pleasure from conversation, inability to focus, and disinterest in activities or goals.

To give you guys a brief background on how I got here, I started the year off around 290 lbs and decided to lose some weight. I began walking about 1 - 2 hrs per day and lifting weights 4-5 times per week since around February. At the same time I lowered my calorie intake by eating one meal a day. Not very specific with the meal I ate, could be pasta, could be chicken and rice, could be pizza, steak with potatoes, or some kind of sandwich. I also made sure to take in at least 60 or so grams of protein (in the form of protein shakes, yogurt, cheese) in addition to this meal just to aid with muscle recovery. I steadily lost about 10-15lbs per month and reached around 230 lbs at the beginning of June. While on my way to losing the weight I was constantly increasing in my energy levels, was ultra motivated at work, having successes in nearly every aspect of my life and I attributed all of this to my health actually moving in the right direction. Particularly in April and May my energy levels and focus were better than I've ever felt in my life.

In the beginning of June, I got some sort of upper respiratory virus that I took about 1.5 - 2 weeks to recovery from and that was really the start of the issues I'm facing today. I was fine for the most part during the illness but as soon as I got over it I started experience fatigue, lack of motivation, and lack of interest in life. In July, I traveled a lot which likely worsened the symptoms I was facing as when I got back from traveling in August, for about two weeks I could barely muster up the energy to speak and barely was able to do my duties for my job. My cortisol was definitely out of wack due to traveling stress as I was experiencing night sweats every night and waking up every few hours. I've never experienced these symptoms before as I'm usually a talkative and jolly person, even my family, friends, and coworkers started to take note. I'm not one to go to the doctor easily but I felt something must be seriously wrong so I figured I'd get my blood work done.

Normal blood panel came back fine, but my hormonal panel came back with some issues namely Low T:

TSH 1.58 = ( 0.40-4.50 mIU/L)
T4, FREE = 1.3 (0.8-1.8 ng/dL)
B TYPE NATRIURETIC PEPTIDE (BNP) 19 (<100 pg/mL)

TESTOSTERONE, TOTAL, MALES (ADULT) 290 (250-827 ng/dL)
ALBUMIN 4.6 (3.6-5.1 g/dL)
SEX HORMONE BINDING GLOBULIN 24 (10-50 nmol/L)
TESTOSTERONE, FREE 46.5 (46.0-224.0 pg/mL)
TESTOSTERONE,BIOAVAILABLE 97.7 L (110.0-575.0 ng/dL)

I think its safe to assume that the source of all these issues I've been facing is low T as the symptoms and blood work seem to line up but what should I try. I've been on and off multivitamins, zinc, NAC, and glycine but none of them seem to have made any difference. I just bought some gonadin and pyrucet, its my first day so dosing those at 8 drops and 4 drops respectively to see if they make any difference. But I'm kind of at a loss at this point, not sure why but my T-levels must've plummeted after that virus. Another note on some strange symptoms I've been experiencing, I have a lack of sensitivity to caffeine, nicotine, and even alcohol and my energy and fatigue levels seem to subside and go back to normal bewteen 9pm - 12am every night and are crashed every morning. Any advice on what to try at this point these symptoms are driving me crazy?

Edit: I also want to note that my sleep heart rate is about 52 bpm, waking heart rate is about 60bpm, and my resting heart rate during the day is about 65.

The stress from the virus was likely what snapped the camels back. Doing a big caloric deficit and fasting for a long time are big stressors on the body.

Perhaps eat at maintenance for 2-4 weeks and consume 3-4 meals. Regain stress resiliency and energy and improve sleep. Then once you feel good again, reattempt the deficit, but at a much slower pace and no fasting.

 

[kristian]

You wrecked your thyroid during the weight loss phase and were likely running on adrenaline, which is why you felt so good and motivated. Eventually things go very wrong when you rely on adrenaline for so long. TSH is quite high and remember that high cortisol can artificially keep it down. Heart rate is also quite low, temperature would be important to check here. Focus on repairing your thyroid function. Slowly increase your carb intake, eliminate PUFA and the goal should be to slowly increase calories until metabolism is back to normal. Track your temperature daily in the morning before and after breakfast, and in the afternoon. You might want to look into thyroid supplementation in the future but for now stick to the fundamentals.

I agree I probably wrecked my thyroid but not sure about the adrenaline part. I feel like the symptoms I had the past month or so have been adrenaline related because of the fight or flight feelings I've been having but before that I'm not so sure. I know the feeling of being pumped up on adrenaline and that just wasn't it, there was no panic everything was just smooth and effortless. Already started upping my calories and actually eating multiple meals a day. I'm interested in the supplementation because I want to accelerate things of course but what do I take? Tyronene, Tyromix, or Tyromax?

The stress from the virus was likely what snapped the camels back. Doing a big caloric deficit and fasting for a long time are big stressors on the body.

Perhaps eat at maintenance for 2-4 weeks and consume 3-4 meals. Regain stress resiliency and energy and improve sleep. Then once you feel good again, reattempt the deficit, but at a much slower pace and no fasting.

I agree but its so bizarre thinking about how my physiology just snapped like that suddenly from the virus. I'm eating 3 meals a day now and upping the calories significantly, don't want to declare victory but I'm already feeling a bit better. Definitely interested in Thyroid supplementation if someone can give me some guidance on what approach to take because I want to accelerate things of course.

Cheers and thanks guys.

 

[youngsinatra]

Your TSH and thyroid markers looks good to me, giving the stress you have been under. High stress (dieting/fasting/lots of exercise) likely increased your reverse T3, giving you hypothyroidism symptoms with otherwise „normal/good labs“.

You need to give your body a break from the physiological stress. Testosterone is very sensitive to stress. Just a bad night of sleep will drastically lower your T the next day. Then imagine fasting, dieting and working out. Natural bodybuilders go through this in their prep and most of them technically have hypogonadism in their „peak conditioning“.

I’d eat 3-4 balanced meals throughout the day, starting with a strong and proper breakfast to lower the overnight stress. At least caloric maintenance. Light walking. Some oral magnesium supplementation might be useful to lower cortisol/adrenaline. (I like Mg-chloride or Mg-malate - I feel weird with glycinate tho)

 

[kristian]

Your TSH and thyroid markers looks good to me, giving the stress you have been under. High stress (dieting/fasting/lots of exercise) likely increased your reverse T3, giving you hypothyroidism symptoms with otherwise „normal/good labs“.

You need to give your body a break from the physiological stress. Testosterone is very sensitive to stress. Just a bad night of sleep will drastically lower your T the next day. Then imagine fasting, dieting and working out. Natural bodybuilders go through this in their prep and most of them technically have hypogonadism in their „peak conditioning“.

I’d eat 3-4 balanced meals throughout the day, starting with a strong and proper breakfast to lower the overnight stress. At least caloric maintenance. Light walking. Some oral magnesium supplementation might be useful to lower cortisol/adrenaline. (I like Mg-chloride or Mg-malate - I feel weird with glycinate tho)

Interesting I didn't know that this could happen. Do you think I even need to stop working out temporarily?

Also a few other notes, started taking my temps, bedtime temp 97.4, waking temp 97.1. Noticed I also have a vertical ridges in my nails which apparently can be a sign of hypothyroidism (Ridges in Nails: Horizontal, Vertical, Causes & Treatment.).