Speeds Up Your Thyroid… Speeds Up Your Metabolism… Burns More Fat!

And does it with less not more exercise and more not less food

You see to burn the fat that’s been accumulating where you least want it you need to have your cells in burn mode not store mode. Unfortunately if you find it a struggle to shed unwanted body fat even when you diet and exercise like crazy then your cells are probably working the other way around. But the Good News is you if you can make a few changes to how you eat and how you exercise it speeds up your thyroid and gets your cells back into burn mode.

The secret to successfully triggering this depends on 3 critical factors. Please let me explain…

1. Turn On Your Fat Burning Switch – If you want your body to burn fat then the number one thing you need to work well is your thyroid gland. That’s because your thyroid gland produces hormones (thyroid hormones) that stimulate your body to burn body fat.

Your thyroid gland produces a particular thyroid hormone called Thyroxine (T4). While T4 doesn’t have a particularly strong fat burning effect on your cells you need to produce plenty of it because it’s the building block of the real fat burning superstar… the thyroid hormone T3.

T3 is the accelerator pedal for your metabolism. The super critical thing to know about T3 is that it’s made from T4.

In the perfect world T4 is released from your thyroid gland and travels through your bloodstream to your liver where it is then converted to the potent fat burner T3. From your liver T3 then travels out through your bloodstream to all the cells in your body.

T3 then attaches to receptors on your cells which stimulates your cells to create energy by burning carbohydrates and fats (metabolism). Therefore the more T3 you have in your body the more that attaches to your cells receptors and the faster your metabolism runs (metabolic rate).

AND SO THE MORE FAT YOU BURN!

However the converse is also true. The less T3 you have the less that attaches to your cells, the slower your metabolic runs…

AND SO THE HARDER YOU FIND IT TO BURN FAT!

Unfortunately without knowing it you have done, are doing things and are eating foods that suppress how much T4 your thyroid gland makes and then also how well your body converts it to fat burning T3.

That’s because the society you live in, the lifestyle you lead and the foods you consume cause stress in your body. And because your body is still biologically primitive, even though your stresses are modern, it responds in a primitive way.

Your body interprets your stresses as meaning you are a famine and so it shuts down your metabolism!

And the way it does this is by suppressing T4 production and T4 to T3 conversion.

Instead of turning T4 into T3 your liver turns T4 into reverse T3 (rT3) which makes your body store fat not burn it. This is a response the human body evolved thousands of years ago to help your ancestors survive famines.

Your problem now is, though you’re not in a famine the stresses in your life signal your brain that you are in a famine, like…

• Waiting too long to eat breakfast or not eating it at all
• Not eating regularly during the day
• Skipping meals and snacks
• Restricting carbs, calories or fats too much or for too long
• Eating processed chemical laden foods
• Eating high refined sugar foods
• Eating nutrient deficient foods
• Worrying paying bills
• Worrying about where are you going to go for holidays or can you afford it
• Worrying about where your kids are going to go to school
• Running kids or grand-kids around to after-school activities and sport
• Not enjoying your job
• Working too many hours
• Worrying about the security of your job
• Not being happy in your relationship
• Feeling lonely or unloved

And so on…

Makes your body think it is in a famine and so it goes into the famine response… make rT3 not T3.

However just because you can’t escape from all your stresses it doesn’t mean you’re doomed to have a sluggish metabolism.

The fantastic thing is you can boost how much T4 your body makes and how effectively it converts it into fat burning T3 with food, herbs, nutrients and lifestyle.

If you eat at the right times and eat the right foods (those that supply ample amounts of thyroid specific nutrients) then it boosts your T4 production and T4 to T3 conversion naturally.

Here’s 7 ways to boost thyroid hormone function

1. Eat more sea vegetables because they contain iodine. Iodine is the mineral your thyroid makes T4 and T3 from.
2. Eat more Brazil nuts because they contain selenium. Sufficient selenium is a critical for converting T4 into fat burning T3.
3. Eat more pumpkin seeds because they are rich in zinc. Like selenium, zinc is crucial for converting T4 into fat burning T3.
4. Eat within 30 minutes of rising because if you wait too long to eat this is puts your body under stress and the lack of food can trigger the famine response… stop converting T4 into T3
5. Eat regularly throughout the day. If you go too long without eating it stresses your body thinks food is scarce and slows T4 to T3 conversion
6. Reduce stress hormones. Even though you can’t avoid stress magnesium, vitamin C, B vitamins and the herbs withania, rhodiola and ginseng can help keep stress hormone release under control.
7. Eliminate reactive inflammation triggering foods from your diet like gluten, corn, soy, dairy, refined sugar, refined vegetable oils and processed foods.

2. Reduce Your Stress Hormones – Stress as you know is impossible to avoid in our society. And the trouble with this is, as I mentioned earlier, it doesn’t just make you feel tired and run down it also puts your body into fat storing mode not fat burning mode.

All stress, no matter the type, makes your body release Cortisol (you main stress hormone). Excess Cortisol acts a metabolic handbrake because it signals to your brain that maybe you’re in a famine. And so Cortisol causes your thyroid to make less thyroid hormone and also causes T4 to be converted into rT3 not T3. Your body thinks it better store fat rather than burn it until the famine is over.

The problem is the stress and cortisol release never let up and so your body gets stuck in the famine response.

Now an important thing to note is cortisol’s effect on your thyroid and thyroid hormones is not a disease. This is why when you go to your GP saying “there must be something wrong with my thyroid because I feel tired all the time and I can’t lose weight” your blood tests come back ‘normal’. You have ‘dysfunction’ not disease.

But dysfunction is enough to slow your metabolic rate so your body holds onto fat instead of burning it.

To speed up your thyroid hormone production you need to reduce the amount of cortisol floating around in your body. Some stresses you can’t avoid but there are many stresses you do have control over such as the food you eat, when you eat, how much you exercise and how much you sleep.

Now when you think about what you’ve just discovered about how your thyroid works you realise that ‘dieting’ might not be the best way to get your body burning fat.

In fact ‘dieting’ will eventually stop your body burning fat!

Chronic dieting slows down your metabolism because your body thinks you’re in a perpetual famine. When you eat too little calorie, carbs or fats for too long your body never gets enough calories, carbs or fats to tell it that times are plentiful and you don’t need to hold onto stored fat.

The signal your body gets is that food is scare so suppress T3, up rT3 and store body fat.

So if you want to speed up your thyroid and metabolism you have to start giving your body more not less. You need to change the signals your brain is getting from ‘scarcity’ to ‘plenty’.

More real foods and less ‘diet’ foods. For your thyroid and metabolism to run faster you need to give your body the nutrients not just energy. When your body is receiving a bountiful supply of vitamins, minerals, carbohydrate, protein and fats from real foods like fruits, vegetables, meats, seafood, eggs, nuts, seeds and unprocessed oils it is happy to let go of its stores.

Another super common stress that is easy to eliminate is going to long between meals. In our society many people are very erratic with their eating patterns. Breakfast, lunch and dinner are not at the same time of the day every day.

In other cultures where they have less weight issues like Europe, they are very consistent with their meal times. Breakfast, lunch and dinner are at the same time every day. Their bodies know when food is coming and so the ‘food is scare’ signal is never activated.

Where as in our culture food comes at different times every day. Some days you might eat breakfast, some days you might not. Some days you might eat lunch at this time then other days another time. Some days you eat regularly and other days you go the whole day without eating.

What eating like this does is it makes your body think food is scarce (a stress) and so cortisol is released and it activates your famine response. Reduce T4 production, reduce T3 production and increase rT3 production. Or in simpler terms…

Store body fat!

So one simple thing you can do right now to speed up your thyroid and metabolism you need to eat within 30 to 60 minutes of waking up. And then eat regularly during the day at roughly the same times each day.

For the stresses you can’t control this is where herbs, vitamins and minerals become really important. The right foods and the right lifestyle are the foundations upon which a fast metabolism is built but because your body has been under so much stress for so long it really needs some extra support.

But before running off to the health food store get yourself some stress support herbs and nutrients you want to know the actual state of your stress system.

How over-activated or burnt out is it?

The way you do this is with what are called ‘functional’ tests not regular blood tests. That’s because as with your thyroid you don’t have a disease so a blood test will usually come back “normal’. You need to do a test that compares your cortisol production with the ‘ideal’ or ‘optimal’ not the ‘normal’.

This great thing is this sort of test is done via a saliva sample. It’s non-invasive, you do it at home and then you post it away.

From the results of this type of test it can then be worked out exactly what herbs, vitamins and minerals your body needs to repair itself. Which means it’s very individualised.

3. Don’t exercise too much – Sometimes less is more. Given, as I’ve already mentioned, your body is already under stress you don’t need to stress it more with lots exercise. Hours spent pounding out the miles running or furiously peddling away in spin classes won’t speed up your metabolism. It’s just going to tax your body more. Too much exercise and long periods of exercise breaks your body down and puts your body under more stress.

And as we now know more stress means more cortisol. And more cortisol means less fat burning T3 and more fat storing  rT3.

So contrary to what you’ve been conditioned to believe exercise isn’t the secret to burn lots of fat. It might make you might fitter but smashing yourself with cardio or weights actually stops you burning fat.

To have a positive effect on your thyroid and metabolism you need to move but not too much or too hard. When you’ve got a suppressed metabolism you need to nurse your body and flog it.

So gentle cardio, just enough to make you huff and puff, some body weight strength exercises and some yoga or stretching are the ideal activities to do.

Now if you’re struggling to burn unwanted body fat because you think stress and cortisol have affected your T4 and T3 levels then to help you speed up your thyroid and metabolism you should give us a call.

Come in for a Fat Belly To Flat Belly assessment consultation and during your 60 minute consultation I will thoroughly assess…

• Your current weight loss problems
• Your diet and exercise habits
• Your previous medical and lifestyle history
• Determine if you’ll need to do special functional (not regular pathology) tests to determine with laser like accuracy if thyroid and cortisol imbalances are holding you back.

Then once I have all this critical information I can develop you an individualised plan to speed up your thyroid and metabolism naturally but also fits your needs and lifestyle.

To schedule your Fat Belly To Flat Belly assessment consultation call Happy & Healthy Wellbeing Centre on 9524 2471. If you are not local we offer phone and online video consultations.