>>Justin wrote:
>>If your thinking about doing the rabbit starvation diet, then you >>may
>>want to alternate periods of high and low calories to prevent >>thyroid
>>down regulation.

>Jean Claude replid:
>could you developp this ! what is the relationship between thyroid
> >activity and low or high calories or high proteins,  low carbohydrate
> >intake?


It is well known that prolonged periods of dieting lead to thyroid
down
regulation.  Those that have thyriods that down regulate quickly will
have
more difficulty losing fat, but they will also maintain more muslce.
If the
thyroid doesn't down regulate, then merely reducing calories would
cause fat
loss ~indefinitely~ and the body would eventually starve to death.
Thyroid
down-regulation is a survival mechanism used to prevent starvation
during
times of caloric restriction, eg cold winter when food wasn't readily
availble.

For most people, thyroid activity is mostly related to carbohydrate
intake.
This is why some have difficulty losing fat with a carb depletion,
ketogenic
appraoch to dieting.  Often, a low carb diet causes more fat loss than
a
carb depletion diet.  I personally prefer to carb around exercise when
dieting, as that is what works best for me.

Here's an example.  Let's say that my BMR (basal metabolic rate) is
2000
calories.  If my thyroid doesn't down regulate, then I should be able
to
merely reduce calories to 1800 calories and I would lose 200cal of fat
per
day (1lb of fat has 3500 cal).  On paper, I would lose fat even
without an
increase in activity.  In application, this simply does not work.  My
thyroid would simply down regulate and my new BMR would be 1800
calories per
day.

Q: So how can someone lose fat if the thyroid down regulates?
A: Decrease calories ~and~ increase cardio and/or weight training
frequency.

Basic Fat Loss Plan:
1. Reduce calories (primarily from carbs to keep insulin low and also
from
fat)
2. Lift weights to preserve muscle
3. Perform cardio to keep the thyroid gland from shrinking (just
enough to
coax to body to burn fat, not enough to eat up all the muscle - amount
of
cardio needed will vary greatly from person to person.)
4. Get plenty of sleep to promote hGH release.  Adequate protein
intake will
promote hGH release too.  Approximately 1g protein per lb of muscle is
ideal
during dieting.  Preferably the protein is of high quality (fish, red
meat,
chicken etc) and not plant sources.
5. Repeat often
6. After about 6-8 weeks of dieting, the thryoid will be in a highly
down-regulated state.  The dieter should return calories to
maintenance for
a week or 2, but continue to do cardio to keep the conditioning level
high.
7. Return to Step 1

Justin Hasselman