Lulutiger, if you haven’t had your thyroid numbers checked recently, that would be a good place to start; if your TSH is up and you need more thyroid medication that would be the mystery solved. If you are gaining weight while doing what was causing before, your doctor should be willing to do the test, because weight gain is a (admittedly somewhat non-specific) sign of hypothyroidism.

If your thyroid turns out not to be the culprit, other people may have additional ideas.

Hi!

I just posted another version of this in another thread, so I will edit and repost some of the information here:

I just started the Fast Diet last Friday. It’s been one week and I have lost 5.5 kg (total). I fast Monday-Wednesday-Friday with no calorie intake on my fast days. I have fasted in the past and I can do this. My body only starts to complain after about 48 hours, so 36 is not really a problem.

I take iodine and selenium supplements, but I don’t take vitamins. I take 100 µg of Potassium Iodide in the morning and a commerical selenium tablet at night.

Why?

Because I was suffering from chronic depression and I’d been having concentration problems over a longer period of time. Plus, during the spring and summer I’d been exercising regularly, walking up 30-50 km per week (19-31 miles) and just exercise and sensible eating wasn’t contributing to significant weight loss. I was doing up to 160 push-ups against park benches, and becoming none the happier, slimmer or more “with it”. The only positive thing that happened was I had more endurance and lower blood pressure. But I was still fat, still dull-witted, and still pretty much unhappy.

So, a friend lent me her copy of “Attacking Anxiety & Depression” from Lucinda Bassett, and one of the first things they recommended was to get one’s thyroid tested, which I did.

It was within the “normal” range. According to my TSH levels, (2.8) I was with normal levels.

Then I began to wonder what hypothyroidism could possibly have to do with depression, anxiety and possibly weight retention.

So I googled it, and I found this video on YouTube:
http://youtu.be/JY933qdOF_o

I asked my physician that despite my normal thyroid levels, if it would be alright to take iodine supplements. He said that I could try, and to inform him if there were any negative results.

After a couple weeks, I noticed my depression was not so severe. It sort of “weaned” off. I wasn’t full of so much self-doubt.

The negative side was despite my weight level of being down to a BMI of 33.0 at the start of summer, I was hungry all the time. Plus, I slacked off on exercise. The result was gaining weight and having my BMI go back up to 36.4 over a five month period of time.

No wonder, I suppose. If you are going to stimulate your system, but fail to follow that stimulation, then you will most likely suffer the consequences.

Now, I am noticing that with the Fast Diet, I can go from BMI 36.4 to BMI 34.9 in one week.

Before my doctor suspected I might be going into menopause, but now he’s not so sure, because:

– my hair loss has slowed down
– some of my wrinkles are not so visible
– my skin isn’t as dry as it used to be
– my periods are not so “heavy”
– my depression has pretty much faded
– my concentration and ability to remember things has significantly increased
– my weight can sink significantly if I stick to a diet and exercise
– it can also increase just as fast if I don’t stick a diet and exercise!!
– I don’t feel so tired
– moderate exercise is no longer the equivalent of “drudgery”.
– I don’t have the usual fall/winter joint aches and pains
– I’m not cold all the time

I have NO IDEA if a combination of iodine/selenium supplements and intermittant fasting can actually help postpone menopause or reverse aging effects. I haven’t found any conclusive information on this at all.

Just in case my bathroom scale was playing a joke on me, I took my measurements too, and found out that I had lost 2 cm pretty much everywhere on my body, including my neck, bicep, thigh, calf, belly, breast, waist and hips. Even if the bathroom scale is unreliable, how can the tape measure also be unreliable?

The only facts of note are: the average European and North American do not receive enough iodine even in an exemplary healthy diat, due to soil depletion during the last Ice Age, and iodine is essential for a properly functioning metabolism.