Oxygen Australia — January-February 2018

82 Jan/Feb 2018 oxygenmag.com.au

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Whether it is building muscle or burning

fat, both require a certain degree of

homeostasis that is thrown out of balance

when the thyroid slows your cellular energy

production — there are also the huge

energy demands in the actual process of

synthesising new muscle tissue.

To efficiently burn fat, you need the

lipolytic activities of your thyroid hormones

to be doing their job — if your thyroid isn’t

producing cellular energy efficiently, then

muscle building will be compromised as

nutrient uptake and digestion is hampered.

A slow system affects everything from

your appetite via the actions of ghrelin

(hunger-stimulating hormone) to the

rates of digestion and nutrient delivery/

partitioning, and the elevation of both

cortisol and of oestrogenic activity. Insulin

sensitivity will also suffer.

The cortisol rise alone will see increased

visceral fat storage while promoting muscle

wasting, anxiety, and insulin resistance.

This is a potent cocktail for building fat and

losing muscle!

Your ratio of testosterone to oestrogen

is referred to as your androgen ratio. More

testosterone leads to increased muscle mass,

burning fat at a faster rate, and increased

metabolic activity. Ergo, a slow thyroid

promoting excess oestrogen decreases this

ratio, resulting in fat gain, increased fluid

retention, and decreased thyroid hormonal

output. Again, this will really put a hand

brake on your training progress!

Finally, your gut health is a crucial part

M

etabolism is the most widely

misunderstood system of the human

body. You need to stop thinking of your

metabolism like it’s an ‘on/off’ switch that

certain foods or fads can dial up and down.

Your ‘metabolism’ essentially refers to

the functions of the thyroid gland and the

hypothalamic-pituitary-thyroid axis (HPT

axis) as it regulates your body’s energy

demand in real time through a highly

complex hormonal web.

Essentially, as you move down the chain

of the thyroid hormones from T4 to T3 to

T2, the lipolytic action increases and it is

this mechanism that dictates the rate at

which your body produces cellular energy

— and what your caloric intake must be

to provide said energy. Less input equals

slowed output from your thyroidal activity

means less energy produced and the cycle

continues in a depressed manner, lowering

your basal metabolic rate in the process

and accumulating fat and fluid, causing

hormonal issues, and generally disrupting

homeostasis.

The impact of a slow metabolism on your

training can be devastating, but there are

ways to correct a sluggish thyroid.

Affect of a sluggish thyroid on training

A sluggish thyroid can lead to digestive

issues, gut health dramas, elevated cortisol

levels, and negatively affect hormonal

balancing — in particular, increasing

oestrogenic activity. If you throw together

that cocktail of issues, essentially your

training results can go from hero to zero

scary fast!

How your

thyroid affects

training results

Hypotha

-lmus

(TRH)

Anterior

Pituitary

(TSH)

Thyroid

(T4)

T2 T3

HPT axis process

4

ways to correct

a sluggish

thyroid

Supplements: To correct

hypo/hyperthyroidism, include adaptogens

such as withania, coleus forskoholii, yerba

mate, as well as vitamins, minerals and

trace elements such as selenium, iodine,

zinc, magnesium, chromium, tyrosine, and

vitamins D, A, K, and the Bs. These

supplements can, of course, all be sourced

individually, or they can all be found in one

supplement with PRIMABOLICS thyroid

health product Metabolyz (in the exact

doses your body requires!).

Resistance training: A multitude of

research has shown resistance training at

an intensity of 70 per cent and above

(measured usually by heart rate) will illicit

the most drastic increases in metabolic

activity.

Nutrition: There is massive nutritive

demand in the thyroid conversion process,

so a diet high in nutrient-dense foods is

crucial to allow efficient thyroid function.

Calorie intake: Under-eating for your

energy requirements is a great way to slow

your metabolic rate, so ensure you

consume as many calories as your body

requires in a day.

of the picture for overall health, and especially

training progress. You are not what you eat,

but rather what you absorb!