Well, I'll try to be brief and complete at the same time (doesn't always work!).

 

I grew up on CapNCrunch and other disasterous cereals and foods.  My mom would start dinner at 4:45 and dinner would be on the table at 5:00, so you can imagine the instant crap that we ate (BTW both of my parents have passed away from different cancers...never made it out their 60's).

 

I was always a gluttonous eater, always finishing everything at every meal...I would take 10 peanut butter and jelly sandwiches to school for lunch when I took my lunch and when I ate the school lunch, I would order 2 lunches...I could eat 10 McD's cheeseburgers but I would regularly eat around 6.

 

Funny thing is, I was always skinny and got picked on, so I started lifting weights in the 5th grade and by 8th grade I never got picked on again. I enjoyed working out so I ran and worked out all the time so I never had to worry about getting fat from eating so much. I wrestled in high school and took a few martial arts too.

 

At 20 yo, I went to the family doc for a checkup and my blood pressure was 180/100 and he was going to put me on meds. Instead I quit McD's and the other fast food places and got it down to a reasonable level to be able to avoid the meds.

 

About 5 yrs ago, while in grad school, working full-time, family etc., I was getting a little heavy but not really able to undertake any kind of training to lose the weight, I stumbled across the Warrior Diet (1 large meal a day) and then intermittent fasting.  I lost a good bit of weight doing this over the course of 3 of the last 5 years. I'm going to be 42 next month).

 

Everything was going OK but then my weight and bodyfat started creeping up again.  I started putting in my food intake into the CRON-O-METER which is a diet tracker program that you can get online for free and I was only eating about 1500 calories a day.  I started looking things up and doing some testing on myself and I had almost every symptom of hypothyroidism. I emailed Ray Peat and he gave me some good advice like eating more frequently, consuming milk and OJ, consuming gelatinous broths, not avoiding carbs, etc. 

 

I asked him about pregnenolone and he said that he used it and it appeared to be safe, so I started taking that. I have my morning temperature up to around 97.4 to 97.7F which is probably just above what indicates hypothyroidism, (it had been in the 96's and was very erratic which indicates an adrenal weakness, so your assessment that my body was being overstressed would seem quite accurate) so I'm doing better now.

 

But now after going from one 1500 calorie meal to eating throughout the day, I'm almost 200 pounds (192 to 196)...I was about 177 in Feb of this year. I'm in kind of a state of confusion as to how to lose the weight. Ray Peat says not to go low-carb because it's not good for your thyroid but when I was a low-carb guy, I used to carry 6% to 10% bodyfat without any trouble at all.  I tried the bodybuilders kind of diet, eating every 3 hours, low fat, mod protein, hi carb but I didn't feel good and I couldn't let go of my beliefs that saturated fat is best, MUFAs are good, and restrict PUFAs, so I couldn't fully immerse myself into that diet anyhow.

 

I'm wandering aimlessly, diet-wise, right now, eating eggs or raising bran or oatmeal for breakfast, a meat, carrots, and some type of potato for dinner, and previous day's leftovers and fruit or macadamia nuts in between. I would like to reduce my meat intake and increase my fruit intake (low meat, high fruit has been associated with a reduced incidence of polyps according to a study from UNC State, http://jn.nutrition.org/cgi/content/full/137/4/999 , my mom died of colorectal cancer) but I don't know how that will work with muscle building and fat loss. According to "The Fiber Menace" maybe I'm not doing the best thing by eating oatmeal or raisin bran. Right now, I'm lost.

 

I haven't eaten pasta in a LONG time so I couldn't tell you how I would respond to it now.

 

So much for brevity...thanks.