38 - [Metabolism 2 Thyroid] Hormones, Blood Work, and Speeding Up The Metabolism

Johan Vesters: 0:32

What's up guys? Before we get into the episode, I've got some news for you next week of March 29 7pm. Central European Time I'm launching my very first webinar, the body transformation blueprint. In this presentation, we're going to share the exact systems and strategies that you need to sustainably lose body fat to effectively build muscle and of course, do so in a healthy way. So what are your goals to live better, perform better just feel better and be healthier? I think this presentation is going to help you we're not going to overload you with nutritional information. But we're going to keep it more tactical more applicable to you walk away from this webinar, knowing exactly what needs to happen in order to reach your goals. Sounds good. You could join us live on March 29, at 7pm Central European Time, or if you're based overseas, feel free to sign up anyway, because they'll be sharing the replay with you afterwards, you can find more information in the show notes or just DM me and I'll send you the link directly. I also wanted to point out that obviously guys, this podcast is for educational and entertainment purposes only we're gonna get a little bit more specific in terms of medication, thyroid issues, etc. And please do know that this is not medical advice. Net, we're simply sharing our general knowledge on this topic. And let's get into the episode. So that being said, I want to address another question. So he mentioned I struggle with my metabolism. Since I have had my thyroid gland removed. My medication does not seem to have an effect on my body. Sometimes my metabolism is very high. Somedays is very low, or next to nothing. I then gain weight again until my blood levels are back to normal. Our weight seems to be always going back to its comfort zone in a matter of days. I'm in the best shape of my life. That is why I became a firefighter, which is super cool, by the way you congrats. But he says, but my problem is still weight loss, what can I do with my nutritional lifestyle choices to improve my metabolism. So I hopefully can lose some body fat. I've always been a big guy, I'm always going to be one. But I would still love to be a little bit more lean.

Kristine Andali: 2:23

So there's Ooh, self limiting belief right there.

Johan Vesters: 2:27

Yeah, there's just a couple of things to unpack here.

Kristine Andali: 2:30

I've always been a big guy, I'm always gonna be one.

Johan Vesters: 2:34

So that is definitely one already. So I do think before anything like your your mindset is what's going to impact everything. And if we go into this, saying, Hey, I'm always going to be a bad guy, which I will say I know, because I know what to do. He's pretty tall also.

Kristine Andali: 2:50

So is that what he means?

Johan Vesters: 2:53

I don't think so. But he is also taught. But so basically, no, so we need to tell ourselves, what the fuck is going to happen? You know what I mean? Because there's always going to be that self doubt. And there's always going to be people kind of like making comments or whatever, which I'm not even saying that's the case here. But like, we need to start believing in ourselves before anything else and say, Hey, I'm going to make this happen. Sure. I have always been a big guy. But I'm going to do what it takes now to figure out how to get lean, because that is what I want. Yes.

Kristine Andali: 3:30

It's a prime example of a fixed versus growth mindset here. And I pulled up this little thing I've got on fixed and growth mindsets. So fixed mindset believes ability is believes abilities and attributes are innate, believes abilities and attributes can be developed. So this kind of goes right in line with this. You know, if we're, we say we're always going to be like that, or I've always been like that. It's there's definitely some, you know, a fixed mindset going on there. And also just like self limiting beliefs, too, which takes time to like, where Yeah, it's really it's a lot easier said than done on our part. But the awareness to know that you have that is big.

Johan Vesters: 4:18

Yeah. Yeah. So so there's that lesson. First of all, that is one thing we'd want to work on. Also briefly wanting to kind of so there was one thing he mentioned as well, so my weight seems to always go back to his comfort zone. I do believe there was actually a recent study on the what is it called the body fat like it's, you know, what happens people just go back to their old habits. Right and regain fat. Like that's, that's actually what happened. So people tend to use this one as an excuse almost, or a reason, maybe not excuse, but like to say, oh, yeah, it's just my body going back to where it wants to be like. Well, that's your body does. Loose. Yeah, no, but generally speaking, but you can change body. Yes. Generally speaking, the body doesn't want to gain weight, does want to lose weight just wants to stay the same assure in the short term, it'll try to go back to baseline, whatever that is. But we can still work on that as well. And in a lot of cases, it's it is going back to the old habits. It's not the body just doing Uh, you know, we like our tight zation

Kristine Andali: 5:37

Yeah, like, personally, I always sat at like 130 540 pounds. And then I made a lot of changes. And I ended up down. Well, this was through, like, my gut stuff. I ended up down to like 125. And I have remained there for two plus years now. Alright, so technically, like, I changed my body's setpoint

Johan Vesters: 6:09

yeah, that's, that's the thing. So it's, it's, it's a yes and no, you know what I mean? So short term, like, Yeah, sure. But long term, there's always something we can do. And that's really the domain thing I want to drive home here is like, you can always change this stuff, you know what I mean? You're not doomed, you're not doomed to be the bigger guy or the bigger girl or to be the person with a slow metabolism or etc, you know. So, before we move on into the next couple sections, so a couple of things to unpack, wanted to get into the metabolism not necessarily being slow or fast, but more adaptive. How the metabolism slows down during a diet, for example. Basically, how it adapts also on the way up, by the way, so it can also speed up which is good news a little bit about fibroids, because he did mention I have my thyroid gland removed. Which is also crazy story. By the way, maybe I'll tell that but like thyroid bloodwork medication, because we do see some issues there with our clients, both me Kristine, in terms of blood work and what the doctors want to test, and then the factors that affect your metabolism directly in terms of the actual nutrition and lifestyle changes you can make to improve your metabolism.

Kristine Andali: 7:33

So I know, we've talked on this a lot, just with like Don regulations in metabolism on your dieting, which is like a normal process. It's like this metabolic adaptation situation. So again, like as we diet, right, the metabolism decreases, the body just doesn't need to use as much energy because it's it's losing weight, it's getting smaller, essentially. And then again, afterward, after we die, if we increase calories start to increase calories back up, you know, we can see that metabolism. We can see it increasing. And then you mentioned here, there's still people with Okay, yeah. So within dieting, that's what happened. So it's not it's a normal thing to see a decrease, but we can bring it back up, essentially. So again, it's not like this, like, oh, I have a broken metabolism. It's not like this stagnant thing, right, we can work with it. And then there are situations where people may have slower metabolisms slower. But again, like I just said, we can work with it. A lot of that comes down to just like lifestyle factors. A little studies are coming out. Right now, actually, with PCOS, where there really isn't that much of a difference in metabolism. A lot actually does come down to lifestyle factors. And it's similar like yes, people with hypothyroidism will have I guess you could say slower metabolism. That definitely is a factor. But when we're focusing on like, eating enough and moving and X, like proper amount of exercise, and sleep, not chronically dieting, all of that could help the situation.

Johan Vesters: 10:10

Yeah, for sure. Like, that's, that's the thing. That's why I also wanted to mention the the factors that play a direct role there because we, we can still work with, with the cards that were dealt, you know, and I'm sure we might be starting from like a less optimal point and maybe some issues and you know, with PCOS and stuff too, which is often or like menopause, those kind of things like and thyroid issues and the list goes on. Sure, it can have an effect, but we can still figure shit out.

Kristine Andali: 10:40

hoppers, you know. And

Johan Vesters: 10:43

there's also so this idea wrote down but like, there are also people who are more or less adaptive in terms of their metabolism. That's why you see some people over respond. During a reverse diet, for example, overcompensate, as you say sorry, to where their metabolism adapts very quickly, an increase more, and they might start to lose more weight in that scenario. So there's also a difference there. So tying that into bloodwork and stuff. So also, again, going back to the dude who had this question, and I know we both have this multiple, you know, have had this with multiple people. But when we're trying to get some bloodwork done, there's a couple of things we want to look at. But the issue sometimes can be that the doctors don't always check the actual useful markers, you know. So quick, little, little breakdown. And I'll try to keep this because I think it's gonna be a little difficult to explain on the podcast maybe. So your thyroid gland produces what's called T four, which is a hormone, which is not metabolically active on your cells yet. So what needs to happen, it needs to change to T theory that T three sorry, first, before it can actually work on the cell. However, it can also change into reverse T three. So that's basically the opposite. And we'll get into like those two in a sec, but your lifestyle factors affect that conversion. Let's take a step back between the fibroid on your brain. There's what's called the TSH, another hormone, which is basically to signal from the brain due to thyroid gland, hey, we need to start producing thyroid hormone. A lot of the times, the doctor will only test for TSH, which is sure like that's, that's first signal. But it's not going to show us the whole picture. AKA the stuff that we actually need to know. So here's the issue. Right? So we do know, okay, cool. This is what the brain is telling the thyroid gland. But what happens downstream we have no idea. We don't know what the for in some cases. And if we do, okay, cool, you got one. But then what happens below that with that conversion, like I said to either T three or reverse T three before it gets through to sell. That's where we're gonna have to guess I still like I will say though, because we do know the lifestyle changes we can make here and the nutritional changes. And generally even without the markers, we can still do something there. Right? Even if we're still figuring it out or trying to look for a different doctor, etc. But I do I do see that as an issue because a lot of times or at least here in Norway, it's almost like you you're not always getting the hell that you deserve. You know what I mean? I tell people

Kristine Andali: 13:46

all the time. Yeah. Because you got it. You did? Yeah. So well, I'll give you an example. I've had many, many, many clients, testing thyroid. And I'm pushing the doctor to test the downstream. So TSH, T four, T three, reverse T three in antibodies, but they come back and as TSH and T four and this the client is dealing with symptoms. Okay, so this is often where they say, well, sometimes it gets bad, where they're like, Oh, it's just in your head. But all a lot of the times they come back and say oh, you know everything looks fine. Because TSH and T for look okay, because this is a possibility where you can have a normal TSH and normal T four, but the conversion of T four to T three isn't there. So you could have normal markers and then they don't. They say oh no, everything looks fine. And then they don't do further testing. It would be mean Mike Castlereagh, we're talking about this. It's like literally negligence to not test further. Because you have so many people dealing with these issues. And they're like, oh, no, everything looks fine. Anyways, I had a client so I can pull, I can pull labs down with clients. And it's been freaking awesome. And there's a prime example. On a test recently, her her TSH was fine. Her T four looked fine. It was enraged. Actually. Her T four was a little bit low, but technically, the doctor because it's in the standard reference range, probably wouldn't have flagged it. And then you look at her T three and it's just like nothing. Okay, so she's got the symptoms. She's got, you know, cold whole sheet called hands, you know, some hair loss, you know, fatigue, lots of stuff. But it wouldn't have been flagged if that T three wasn't pulled. And so when I pull up labs as clients, I'm pulling all these, and then like her reverse T three was high. So when we see reverse T three, basically what the body is doing is it's taking that active T three hormone, which is which is what like governs your, your metabolism, right. So this is where we see the downregulation. And metabolism where we see that low T three and T four is definitely involved in it. But the metabolically active form, our thyroid hormone is T three. So that's important to look at. And so is reverse T three, because what happens is like when the body is under a ton of stress, so whether it's like, you know, this can happen from chronic dieting, it can happen from sleep, it can happen from gut health, there's, there's so much that goes into to the thyroid, because even with the conversion of T four to T three, a lot of that is happening within the gut. And if we have a compromised gut, we're going to see that affect the thyroid. So anyways, back to reverse T three, when we're under a lot of stress of basically the body will convert your active T three into reverse T three, which makes it inactive. And what that's doing is it's trying to basically calm the body down, it's saying, Well, you're not calming me down. So I'm going to calm myself down. And now it kind of better off your guests, you could say like, it steals that T three. And so we really, we don't want to be making sure that the reverse T three isn't high. So it's so important to be testing that as well. And then also testing antibodies, this is I've had another client case, years and years and years and years, going misdiagnosed getting thyroid pulled, nothing showing, like severe symptoms, like extreme fatigue. And all of that going on, I was like Kay, like we need to get a full panel here, we need to get antibodies, and she came back and she had Hashimotos. And so like, just with that it completely changed her life knowing you know, having knowing that that was a thing she was dealing with, with all of the all of the through all those years, but doctors just didn't do anything didn't pull those lines. So yeah, and it's important to because like, for example, like my mom, same type of situation where TSH, me, TSH was high. And we saw like a lower T four, but they weren't testing T three, and then they just put her on thyroid med with T four. Eventually I got this T three tested and she 100% was hypothyroid. And so she she needed that T three. Right. So that's a mistake that happens to sometimes with medications, and then also 100%, you know, within medications like that the dosage needs to be constantly being monitored. Because like I've had clients where we start to work on all these lifestyle factors, right, and things get into a better place. And now they actually need less. Right. And so the dosage is really important too, because I have seen people actually switch into hyper active thyroid. And so that needs to constantly be monitored.

Johan Vesters: 19:58

Yeah, and that's change the dosage. Yeah, for sure. It should also eventually, like, depending on the case, you know, I want to bring this back to the dude who submitted this question. Because we also we were in touch for a while, and he only got t for and I forgot to mention one important thing for the listener because I do know especially also for me, the first time I heard these hormones, I was like whoa, like, you know, but to put it really simple T three is kind of like the good one that you want to kind of like speeds up the metabolism refers to three does the opposite kind of slows things out. Yeah, want to emphasize that because I did forget to mention that and I do think that's kind of like the easiest way to explain T three and RT three or reverse. But going back to this dude. So he was only getting T four. Yes. He does not have a thyroid client. So he's not producing thyroid there, obviously. So he's getting D four which is good, you know. However, We still didn't know what was going on downstream. So I know also, you know, for a fact that his his dosing never changed. And they would operate sometimes. And still nothing would happen, you know, because they weren't looking downstream. And I tried to get more checked, and they wouldn't do it. And they simply wouldn't do it. And I thought that was very frustrating. And I hope we can help to do a little bit more in the in the near future, but they would not test they are to stay. Yeah, if we're looking at the four, we can not see what's really going on downstream. And we need to figure that out. Because here's the thing, we can influence that conversion. A couple of things here, a couple of factors that influence the conversion, basically, from T four to T three, so which would be good, zinc, selenium, for example, those two micronutrients can improve that conversion. Then there's also factors that can improve basically, how sensitive your your cells are to those hormones, which meet once again, zinc exercise, guess what? Vitamin A also, for example, then looking at other things, and you already mentioned quite a few of them that basically increase the conversion from the four to reverse T three, trauma, low calorie deficit, or three low calorie diet, inflammation, toxins, infections, liver, kidney dysfunction, certain medications, stress, like there's all those things that we work on with our clients anyway. So what I think is important is that we get the right testing done, and work on those lifestyle factors and nutritional factors anyway. But going back to kind of like the T four and his medications, I know that he was only getting T for which, in reality, like we should probably do T four and T three. He's getting less T three because his thyroid is obviously not producing that. But once again, because we didn't have tests, we didn't know kind of like what's going on. That being said, his medication probably needs to be changed. And obviously guys, like on this podcast is not medical advice, either. You know, we're just we're just talking about kind of like how things work here. But what would have been the right move? Would have been testing everything. Seeing Hey, what are the levels? What changes could we possibly make on the nutrition or lifestyle side of things, as well as the medication? What needs to change? If anything, because that those also, in his case, he needs to be on thyroid medications for life because he doesn't have a gland. But also there, they need to make sure to figure out okay, what is the right dose for him? Does it need to be adjusted? And can we continue to test everything to make sure you know, that's kind of like that proactive, you know, factor that we don't always see there? So unfortunately, you know, a lot of people are struggling with stuff. These issues are more common than we think. And yeah, a lot of cases like people are not just not getting the help, which is really sad to see actually.

Kristine Andali: 24:12

Yeah, really is.

Johan Vesters: 24:16

So let's kind of recap everything. What can we do to speed up the metabolism? Kind of like optimize your chances? At least you know,

Kristine Andali: 24:26

I'd say optimize Yeah. All the things we talked about, you know, not chronically dieting periodized thing that spending time, not dieting. Stress Management is obviously a big one there. How are we doing that, you know, doing things that bring us joy, creating boundaries, there's so many avenues you can take with stress management, keeping NEET high so just moving really like outside of exercise, just move like, like not being sedentary or staying out of that sedentary range. Obviously, food like eating enough that kind of ties in with not dieting all the time. But food quality fiber, protein, that's all going to play into like managing hunger, right. So that's what I would say their proper dose of exercise, not too much. Not too little, which is kind of hard to defy. Based off of like, it's just different per person. Yeah,

Johan Vesters: 25:37

that's the thing. So you see, okay, we just kind of nerd out on like hormones and shit. You know, we got very specific with like thyroid conversion and all that. But it goes back, you know, to the same stuff that we usually talk about pretty much every episode, you know, it's the basic stuff. That's that's ultimately what we do need to realize is Hey, sure we can be dealing with so many different things. But there's always something we can do. Yeah, we can't always fix it with just lifestyle, just nutrition. There's a lot we can do. And luckily, a lot of those kinds of things are quite simple. Nothing easy, but simple. Yeah. What do you think Kristine, wrap it up?

Kristine Andali: 26:19

Yes.

Johan Vesters: 26:20

Cool. So thank you for listening. As always, I quickly want to thank our new listeners for joining us as well. So if you guys would do the quick favor, because we we don't do any ads here. No, ads are annoying with podcasts. We, we don't get anything out of this other than helping our clients and the listener. So if you do us a HUGE favor, drop us a quick review on Spotify, if you'd like to do so. And by the way, before we end today, I did add a q&a box to our Spotify now. So if you go to our episode, go to the show notes, you can actually submit a question directly via Spotify, which is really cool. So that being said, thank you for listening. I'll talk to you next week or see. Remember to live on March 29. Next Wednesday at 7pm Central European Time, I'll be hosting my very first webinar, the body transformation blueprint, which I mentioned at the very beginning of this episode. Now that this is something you're interested in, make sure to sign up via the link in the show notes. It's absolutely free and a cool thing you've got to benefit from this presentation. Hope to see you there.