Why am I fat? High cortisol from calorie restriction.

I came across a study called Low Calorie Dieting Increases Cortisol by Yomiyama and colleagues 2010 in the journal of the American Psychosomatic Society.

The study was looking at dieting and the effect is has on psychological and physical stress so not immediately related to Hashimoto’s but if you are struggling with your weight at all because of hypothyroidism and you are restricting calories in hopes of losing weight, this is why this study is important.

Aside from that, most of us have been on a diet at one point in time. My mind is way too obsessive to make long term caloric restriction work for me so I never dieted much. I tried once before a friends wedding to fit in to a bridesmaid dress. Other than that if I tell myself not to eat something, that is all I think about. I did do well when I did AIP but my body didn’t really give me much of a choice and I probably felt my best physically and mentally when I was eating as clean as that diet calls for.

The hypothesis of this study is that diets fail because they increase stress and stress can increase weight through the HPA axis which also affects energy metabolism.

They were looking to measure cortisol in dieters and also noted that it has been documented that dieting produces negative emotions like depression, anxiety, low self esteem, nervousness and irritability.

This study was only 3 weeks long so it isn’t a great representation of how much a diet would effect cortisol long term and whether that long term stress would impede weight loss or even cause weight gain. The participants were either monitoring their diet or not OR restricting their diet or not.

Salivary cortisol was measured at the beginning for a baseline measurement and then at the end of the 3 week study. Each time they were measured for two days and 3x each day. First thing in the morning, 45 minutes after waking and 12 hours after waking.

Questionnaires were given asking about potential activities that would affect cortisol such as exercise, caffeine, alcohol, pain, stressful events etc.

Participants in the diet restriction group were told to follow a diet of 1200 calories a day with 50% of that coming from carbs, 30% from fat and 20% from protein. They also completed a food journal to be sure they monitored their intake.

Participants who were just monitoring their diet didn’t restrict calories and just used a food journal. The restricting food only (not monitoring) were given all of their food for the study. The control group didn’t do any of this and just ate their normal diet.

Part of what they were measuring was the cortisol awakening response which is the time between when you wake up and 30-45 minutes later. Psychological stress was also measured by questionnaire. Perceived stress was increased in those who monitored their caloric intake. Just restricting diet and not monitoring did not increase perceived stress but it did increase the amount of cortisol in the body in the evening but not in the morning (so no effect on the cortisol awakening response).

This info is important because one of the main jobs of cortisol is to increase energy via glucose which would also increase insulin. The authors do indicate that their study did not relate the release of cortisol to weight gain and they could not find studies on this in humans but there are mouse model studies showing a relationship between cortisol output and weight gain.

When cortisol is high, we know it increases the body’s own production of glucose as I said. It also decreases the body’s ability to use the glucose it makes or the glucose you take in through your diet which will in turn increase your blood sugar levels.

High cortisol breaks down protein and keeps your body from making it.  This translates to high cortisol breaks down your muscle and can affect your immune system response to offenders or potentially to your antibodies against your thyroid.

High cortisol decreases the immune systems Th1 response and increases Th2 response- these need to be in balance. Having either one high causes inflammation in the body which further increases stress biochemically.

High cortisol also plays a role in bone and collagen loss as well as decreasing absorption of amino acids from the protein we eat.

Signs and symptoms of high cortisol include:

• insomnia or poor sleep

• brain fog, poor memory

• depression, anxiety, irritability

• high blood sugar, high insulin

• craving for sugar

• weight gain, especially around belly

• fatigue

• poor digestion and absorption due to your central nervous system being is sympathetic mode

• night sweats

• high blood pressure

• poor immune system function

• low sex hormones

• bone loss or osteopenia/osteoporosis

• easy bruising, poor wound healing

• weakened muscles

You can test for cortisol via a salivary panel or a Dutch test but the research shows that a single day test is not accurate enough to make any conclusions about someone’s cortisol levels because our cortisol levels vary so much throughout the day. A serum cortisol test done in the morning may be a more cost effective way to see if you are dealing with high or low cortisol at least in the morning. It is more accurate than saliva but you don’t get the cortisol rhythm throughout the day.

Working with someone like myself to see where your body is at, what your diet is like, what your cells need is a great first step to improving your cortisol levels and the only time I have clients do caloric restriction is during a period where we are working on their body’s detoxification and even at that it isn’t for long.

That’s it for this episode. Thanks for listening. Download your free definitive guide to hashimoto’s on my website when you sign up for my newsletter. You can sign up for a free discovery call on my website too under the work with me tab. And if you want your free 3 day meal plan you can get that on the meal plans tab on my website as well. That is help for hashimoto’s dot com.

I created a do it yourself program called Nutrition for Thyroid focusing on hypothyroidism and how to support your body for healthy thyroid function. This is an ideal way to get started on feeling better. Here is what is included:

The Nutrition for Thyroid program gives you access to a library of 4 culinary nutrition lessons to gain knowledge and confidence in preparing simple, delicious meals and snacks you can count on to deliver big health benefits.

Upon completion of this program, you will...

• Evaluate hypothyroidism within the context of common conditions associated with thyroid function

• Propose how nutrition affects thyroid health

• Identify dietary considerations for taking thyroid medications

• Learn how to prepare nutrient dense meals and snacks that support thyroid health

• Understand what your thyroid labs mean

👉 Access to 4 lessons that you can complete at your own pace. 

📚 Nutrition lessons to learn about different foods and their health benefits

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Why does coconut and avocado give me diarrhea?

HI everyone. Welcome. Thanks for joining me today. I want to thank you for listening and for being a part of this. I do this for you whether you are listening to better understand what is going on with someone in your life or you are listening to get information about your own health. You have to be an advocate for yourself and your health and sometimes you have to fight for it. Help me reach others, won’t you? I recently spoke out about keeping our right to have choices in our health care and not be forced to take on any medical procedures for the greater good, especially when those procedures have zero liability. Please leave me a rating and/or review as some trolls have made a point to give me one star on iTunes which means people won’t find the podcast as easily. I would really really appreciate it if you could help me out with that. Let’s keep our right to choose to listen to what we want, read what we want and do what we want with our body. It is important that we don’t start forcing anything on anyone. Some of you know what it is like to only be able to get Levothyroxine when you might feel so much better on a natural desiccated thyroid hormone. We need to work with one another, work together instead of be divided, to keep our freedoms. Especially our freedoms over our own medical choices. Thanks for listening. Now, let’s get to a listener question.

Hi Stephanie 

I have tried to do AIP once (I have hashimotos and low cortisol). So when I tried AIP I got severe diarrhoea, I am pretty sure it's the fat content, I surmise that  it's because I have been on a diet most of my adult life, all of which have been low fat. 

I cannot stomach anything coconut based or avocado. Just the smell makes my stomach turn and if I try to eat either, I wretch. 

Is there a way I can still do AIP without coconut and avocado, and not end up running to the toilet? 

To add to the mix I am recovering from binge eating disorder. 

Thanks in advance 

Sarah

Thanks for writing in Sarah. I have to say, I think you are right about the fat content of the AIP diet. Elimination diets like that one can be a great option to find out just what foods you are sensitive to and it is okay if it’s not working for you. I’ve got some things I want you to think about:

Do you have pain between your shoulder blades? Maybe not all the time but occasionally? If so this is a sign that your gallbladder is not able to do its job, likely due to not having free flowing bile. If you have thick and viscous bile, it will be even more thick and viscous in your gallbladder because it is concentrated there. This is not a 100% for sure sign as pain there can be related to other things like nerve impingements, frozen shoulder, bursitis and more. Just something to think about.

Sounds like your stomach is getting upset. This is again related to bile production and the ability to digest fats or break them down. It might indicate you need some gallbladder support. Maybe some enzymes with lipase in the formulation or even bile acids- often referred to as ox bile. It will help you break down your fats and allow you to consume some of those healthy fats and then make healthy bile in your liver. When your bile can’t emulsify fats (think of how a dish soap can dissolve grease on a pan- same idea with bile and fat in your gut) that can irritate the small intestine.

Are you seeing greasy or shiny stools in the toilet? If so this indicates that there is a decreased output of bile from the gallbladder which will cause fat to remain undigested in the small intestine leading to greasy or shiny stools or floating stools. Again, bile salts can help get things working again.

As far as the coconut and avocado go- you don’t have to eat them. AIP can simply be about eliminating the required foods and then reintroducing them one at a time to figure out which foods your body doesn’t like. It is not meant to be a lifelong diet. When doing AIP, your vegetable intake should be really high. You should be eating veggies at every meal and a lot of them. You can get your fats from olive oil. In fact, you only need less than a tablespoon of fat daily to get enough fat in so you can easily skip coconut and avocado. Now I have said in the past that some people continue this diet long term and you can as long as you get all your nutrients in. Going low carb on this diet can really mess up your energy levels, especially if your body isn’t processing fat very well right now.

Since you are recovering from a binge eating disorder, you are walking a slippery slope with this diet because it is so restrictive it can trigger old thoughts and feelings. Since I don’t know anything about what your current diet looks like, it is hard to tell you where to start, but- I would consider easing in to this if you do it at all. Before you eliminate a bunch of foods, start adding in some nutrients. Add in bone broth, soups, lots and lots of veggies. Then start by eliminating the big gluten grains- wheat, barley, spelt. Get good at that for some time while continuing to fill your body up with those healing foods- broth and veggies. If you can do organ meats, go for it. They are not my thing but they can be good for you too as long as they are from clean animals raised on pasture- low on chemicals in other words.

Work on getting good rest/sleep and managing stress while eating all the veggies. Did I say you need to eat veggies? You do. Women in general need more carbs, especially at certain times of the month. So honor where you have been with your disordered eating and don’t make your life all about the food. If this diet doesn’t work for you, that is okay. There are other elimination diets out there.

I’d like to say too that eliminating the beans and legumes for a time on AIP may be helpful for some people but those foods are really nutrient dense and it’s okay to eat them. Obviously soaking and sprouting beans is helpful but please don’t feel guilty about eating them.

I’ve learned so much about food in the last 9 months in this masters program and I just want you to know that it’s okay if this diet doesn’t work for you and it’s okay if you find another way to heal. I think so many of us, including myself, get caught up in all the social media personalities telling us what works for them. We need to remind ourselves that what works for some people doesn’t work for everyone.

I did AIP- I didn’t feel good on it because I didn’t eat enough of anything except bacon and a lot of coconut and a lot of avocado and not enough protein and definitely not enough veggies. I crashed hard and had really low energy for years. When you have low energy to begin with you get in to this vicious cycle of not enough energy, not enough energy to make the food, not enough energy to eat and so on. On days where I ate enough protein and carbohydrate (in the form of veggies upon veggies), my energy levels started to come up and I started to feel better. Then when I slacked off, I felt like crap. My body, in particular needs more carbs. I feel better on them. I eat rice and regular white potatoes now and my body loves me for it. I’m able to be active again and it feels really good.

Bottom line- do what works for you. That’s all any of us can do. Find your individual version of AIP and go with it.

I hope that helps you! Thanks for writing in.

Do you have a question you want answered about Hashimoto’s or even about nutrition in general? Please send me a message at either helpforhashimotos@gmail.com or fill out the contact form on my website. OutofThewoodsnutrition.com . I look forward to hearing from you!

Again, please leave me a rating and/or a review on apple podcasts to help me reach more people. Let’s take back our health together.

Until next time.