Most people don't know they have thyroid issues, the medical system mostly-sucks for this topic anyway, so it's not so unusual that people with the side-effects of metabolic disorder (a thyroid issue) (usually meaning they're fat) are going to find Atkins or LC in general first.
The problem isn't LC I think, although I don't know and I think research is needed. The problems are several, including that LC by its nature allows most people to feel satisfied on far fewer calories (one of, but not the only IMO, reason why it is so good for weight loss). And of course the person is 'dieting' so most people are either pretty happy for the low-cal side-effect of low-carb, or they just aren't even aware because that isn't what they're tracking. And most people were malnutritioned before they came to LC or they wouldn't have been {fat, diabetic, PCOS, or whatever} to begin with, so they are a little bit oblivious to that issue on LC as well.
I suspect a lot of this could be 'headed off' in new people, by more experienced people emphasizing to them the need to maintain sufficient caloric intake and nutritional diversity when they are on LowCarb.
For example I have known people who lost a lot of weight, and did it on low-cal (by accident, it was just easy on LowCarb) and repetitive foods with plenty of diet soda and so on. They were inspiring and so, other people saw that trivial things like supplements, drinking water, staying off chemical pseudo-foods, etc. were non-issues, hey you could live on deli meat and diet soda and lose weight, it works! But later on those same people had really significant issues, including thyroid (and they were thin then! well until those problems kicked in...), that I feel were probably brought on by those habits, but it didn't show up until later.
I think there are some other affective factors. For example once when I was VLC and not losing weight at all, I dropped to 1000 calories a day, which was fairly easy to track (when I am tracking it is to the gram weight and second decimal UDA/label), because they pretty much all came from low-carb slim-fast during that month period in question. I believe that month I lost 1# which returned the day after and I weighed over 400.
What I figured out later was that although the first six months or so on LC I lost a lot of weight, that after that (and the moreso as time went on), I simply would not lose weight unless my calories were sufficiently high (>2200+) and pretty much never, if much slim-fast was involved (it's a huge chunk of casein protein -- designed by nature to make baby cows fat -- this might have some relationship to why. O the irony of it...).
So there I was stalling repeatedly, going off LC repeatedly in frustration that it just didn't seem to be working so why bother, only to realize years later that malnutrition is probably what caused my problems to begin with, so my body was unlikely to be truly healed by continuing that trend, with or without carbs.
Also, over the longer term, I discovered that my lowcarb eating was really lacking in nutrition -- well, you might say it had a lot more than SAD and prior to LC had, thanks to meat, but it didn't have much else.
I'm not saying I think veggies are needed (opinion on that varies), I'm saying that living on store-bought muscle meats is nowhere near the same as living on a really wide variety of natural animal products (as proper paleo for example would), so I suspect supplementing (...or some other natural foods) is necessary.
The larger the person the more this is true, since what research I see on this indicates the larger the body, the more demanding it is on nutrients incoming, which only tends to make the malnourishment problem a snowballing-cycle of doom.
There were other issues or side effects but what amounts to malnutrition (and insufficient calories which may come down to the same thing) was the main thing.
In the last few years I have spent far more time OFF lowcarb than on it, which is the main reason why my weight is a lot higher than it used to be, rather embarrassing (and damn demoralizing to people looking on unfortunately). I've also figured out that I have a thyroid issue (you don't say! like my weight should not have made this obvious right off...).
However, I think that eating a few more carbs and considerably more calories and a lot more nutrition along the way would have made a big difference for me. I do feel that my eating lowcarb (as I was mostly on plan for a long time) contributed to worsening of some body-issues that affect my weight, but I don't think it's low-carb per se, I think it is how I approached lowcarb.
Insufficient calories, particularly insufficient nutrition, are going to be an issue for anyone, but moreso the fatter one is, no matter whether the diet has 10 carbs or 40 carbs or 120 carbs. I suspect the side-effects of 'aggravated existing thyroid issues' might have been improved, not worsened, had I approached the eating differently.
If I had it to do over again -- and advice based on hard experience and repeated weight regain -- I would advise strongly, especially if the person is super-obese but no matter what:
- That people eat sufficient calories; track it and maintain them.
- That people eat sufficient diversity in food; track it and make sure as many animal protein sources as possible are represented. Particularly bone-broth.
- That super-obese people don't stay VLC for more than 3 months max and probably less, and eat more carbs after or maybe ideally, could try carb-cycling one day a week, with the caveat that the 'more carby' day simply have something like milk [if they're ok with dairy] or starchy veg or fruit in it (not crapfood).
- That people eat as much on the Omega 3 vs. Omega 6 oils as possible, learn what is in food (especially factory farmed food). Coconut oil (refined by _not_ hydrogenated, see tropicaltraditions.com, doesn't taste like it and is a great oil for cooking) is good stuff.
- That people supplement; if they are eating a really diverse animal protein diet maybe it isn't needed for all I know, but if they are significantly (let alone morbidly) overweight, and/or if their diet is mostly the same muscle meats from the store, I think it becomes critical. Frankly I think if one was fat/ill to begin with they should supplement, not because it would be needed for someone healthy on an ideal diet, but because there is some years of trying to compensate for gradually needed. I suspect nutrients, like sleep, is not something you can be deprived of over the long term, then expect to make up for immediately.
- That people focus on health which can also mean avoiding sticking toxic stuff in your body (more water than diet soda). That people avoid gluten grains particularly lowcarb flours and bread-ish products which goes with the point about toxins (for anyone, even those not overtly seeing symptoms of intolerance; I'd consider it an offplan treat in that case).
All these things I believe contribute to good health, and usually resultant weight loss -- and all these things done badly I believe contribute to poor health, and often worsening the very conditions one began with (like thyroid), even during weight loss, although regain becomes more inevitable as a result.
None of those are about avoiding LC or about having to treat thyroid first though. They are just having learned to recognize that even within the parameters of low-carb, there is a big variety of "ways to eat."
It should be recognized that anybody with a metabolic condition to start with already has problems, and the more sick and/or fat they are, the moreso, which make these factors of "sufficient nutrition" -- in calories, in nutrients, in reduction of toxins -- even more important.
Best,
PJ
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