I try to eat all the foods they tell us are good for us, particularly, veggies, limited fruit, lean meats, eggs, healthy fats, whole grains, dairy, etc.
For me, what I don't eat (or what I severely limit) has been as important as what I do eat. Those things are the typical things we hear that we shouldn't eat when we're trying to lose weight - all the "white" things - flour, sugar, rice, potatoes, pasta, etc, along with other processed foods. To put it simply, these are the things that break down quickly in your system, causing your blood glucose levels to rise, which in turn causes insulin levels to spike. Insulin is the hormone that deals with blood glucose and if that blood glucose isn't used for immediate energy, insulin stores it as fat.
Once it's stored, it's a lot harder to get rid of, as we all know!!
I find, too that if I don't eat fat, I don't get satisfied, so an hour after my meal, I'm back looking for something to eat... If I drink a glass of whole milk with lunch, eat butter on my veggies or baked potato, put coconut oil in my oatmeal, fry my eggs in butter, etc, I don't eat near as much at that meal, plus I stay fuller longer, so I'm not looking for a snack an hour later. If I get hungry between meals, I'll often drink a cup of green tea with a little coconut oil stirred into it or eat an apple with peanut butter. I also like Bulletproof coffee - ( 8-10 oz strong hot coffee, 1 tbsp grass fed unsalted butter (I use regular butter), 1 tbsp coconut oil (preferably unflavored), 1 tsp stevia, if you sweeten your coffee (I don't); blend until frothy and enjoy. I do this for breakfast sometimes and I don't eat near as much the whole rest of the day.
Again, I want to stress that I'm not advocating gluten free or high fat diet...everything I eat is in reasonable portions. For instance, if I have a bulletproof coffee, I'm not going to be eating much more fat for the day, but I'll load up veggies (either raw or cooked), with other seasonings because I can have all of those I want. I do eat bread, but in very limited quantities. If hubby talks me into pizza for lunch I'm done eating bread for the day.
The only reason I even tried any of these things was because the dietician I talked to mentioned "anti-inflammatory" diet for my neuropathy and in my research, the bread and bread products, along with sugar and other related processed products kept cropping up as being inflammatory... so I set out to try to eliminate as much of that as I can.
Weight loss was the added, unexpected benefit...
I do run into issues, because my husband is 5'11" tall and thin as a rail (not necessarily healthy), with no concept of hypothyroidism, other than the fact that he saw me (5' tall and very small framed) balloon from 105 lbs to 135 lbs in 3 months and all he said was "if you don't put it in, you won't put it on" (thank you dear, I understand that) while he's eating burgers and fries and I'm eating rabbit food that has no calories... His favorite meals are pizza, burgers, bacon, pancakes; he wants his white bread and it's wasteful to buy 2 kinds when neither will get fully eaten --- I can tell you're beginning to to see what I'm up against... lol
I try not to go into panic mode when we go out to eat and he brings up Five Guys or Pizza Hut as possibilities... I'm learning to calmly remind him that those are no longer on my list. Today we went out and as we were deciding, he mentioned Sonic and said "I don't suppose there's anything there you'd be willing to eat?"... "No, sorry, dear"...He groaned and mentioned a hot dog he'd had there years ago and always wanted to have again; he'd thought today might be a good day for that...(eye roll) LOL We ended up at Denny's where I had grilled tillapia, with salad and side veggies... not the best, but one of the better choices - only ate half of it anyway.
I can't say that what I'm doing will work for anyone else, because, obviously, you aren't me, and we all have to find our "combination", but I think anti-inflammatory "could" benefit all of us... do some research, talk to your doctor and see what you come up with. My doctor had never mentioned anything like it to me, but when I mentioned it to him, the look on his face was like a lightbulb went on and he was all for it- go figure!
I do know that fats (even saturated fats) are not the enemy we've been told they are, because our body needs them, but of course, that depends on your individual situation and medical issues... talk to your doctor about this. Since I've gone back to whole milk and more butter, coconut oil, etc, I've lost more weight and I feel better - more energenic... we'll see what my next blood work says.
Again, I don't advocate my strategy as an "across the board" resolution, because it isn't... It's working for me, but it might not for you... I'm losing about 2-3 lbs/mo. I'd like to lose more, but I can live with this, considering that I've gone for 7 yrs gaining and no losing... :-)
If anyone wants to post on the Weight Loss & Dieting Forum, we can continue the conversation... You can access that forum via the following link:
http://www.medhelp.org/forums/Weight-Loss--Dieting/show/190