Thyroid based fat burners…Explained!

Yesterday I promised you a part II to the article I wrote on stimulant based fat burners. Today, I’m going to be explaining thyroid based fat-burners, and how they are ideally used. I feel that it’s only responsible to explain what your thyroid is and what it does before we start talking about manipulating it. After you read this, you will understand all about your thyroid, and how to manipulate thyroid hormones (or supplements) to optimize your metabolic rate.

The first thing we’re going to have to do is get a digital thermometer so we can check our basal body temperature when we wake up. A lot of people say they can use a mercury one, and it’s just as good (or better) than a digital, but I don’t like the room for human error that they allow (misreading, misjudging where the mercury level is, etc.). It is of course, up to you, as to whether saving the $5 from buying a mercury thermometer over a digital is worth it. I will leave the choice entirely up to you as to whether you purchase a thermometer for rectal or oral use. I monitored my morning body temp (called basal body temperature or BBT, from here on), a few years ago when I was messing around with thyroid hormones a lot, and found it to be a very valuable tool to give me some kind of indicator as to how my thyroid was functioning. I went the oral route, thank you.

Anyway, what you’ll need to do is take your temperature every morning, before you get up out of bed, for a week without being on any medications (steroids, etc…) or thermogenics (Clen, ephedra, etc.). This will give you a score to work with to tell how much work you need to do in order to bring up your “average” score to “optimal.”

So what score are you striving for? Ideally you’re looking for a score between 97.7F and 98.3F, with the latter being “on the money” ideal. I’m willing to bet that yours is slightly or moderately lower than that.

So what do we do? Well, we want to raise it, ideally. This is relatively easy given the arsenal of compounds we have to work with. You could take supplemental Synthroid, which is a T4 medication. I don’t like going this route, and I’ll tell you why. Your body needs to convert T4 into T3. T4 is converted peripherally into T3 via the deiodinase enzyme. The T3 could then raise your body temperature to the hypothetical “ideal” of 98.3. And if there is something insufficient or deficient with your T4-T3 conversion process, then you are taking a bunch of synthroid, which won’t be turned into T3. It’s simply too haphazard for my liking to take a drug and hope your body does what you want it to do with it. I don’t like leaving things to chance.

Of course there are also thyroid-based prohormones and metabolites available on the supplement market as well (*some are good and some are garbage, but they have the advantage of being legal).

So what we’re going to have to do is buy a whole bunch of tricana, or a bit of Cytomel. I’m going to focus on Cytomel, since it’s the most commonly used (and effective), and it’s currently very easy to get via several different Internet pharmacies and research companies.

Now before you start popping Cytomel like it’s pez until your BBT reaches 98.3, I’m going to explain a bit about your thyroid.

Your thyroid is a very vascular structure with two lobes connected by a broad isthmus. It’s located around your larynx, on both sides and in front of your trachea.

It secretes 3 hormones, only 2 of which will be of concern right now. The first is thyroxine (traiodothyronine) or T4; its molecule contains 4 iodine atoms. The second is T3 also called triiodothyronine (yes, it’s the same word as for T4 with the exception of an “i” instead of an “a”, and yes, you guessed it, there are 3 iodine atoms in T3).

Both of these hormones regulate the metabolism of carbohydrates, fats, and proteins. They increase the rate at which cells release energy from carbs, enhance protein synthesis, and mobilize lipids (fats).

T3 is the more physiologically active hormone, and as I already told you, T4 is converted into T3. Eighty Percent of your body’s T3 comes from this conversion. Thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH) (produced by the pituitary gland) controls the secretion of T4 through release of thyrotropin releasing hormone (TRH), which is produced in the hypothalamus. Another hormone, T2, is then produced from T3.

T2 acts on the mitochondria directly and increases the rate of mitochondrial respiration, with a consequent increase in ATP production (similar to what DNP does), and has similar beneficial effects on your cells’ mitochondria (the cells’ powerhouse). If you have a low thyroid level, you will probably be tired and listless. On the other hand, a high thyroid level can make you energetic. Now hopefully you’ll start to understand why I recommend optimizing your thyroid level. I mean, it’s cheap (a couple of months of thyroid meds will run you under $100), and it’s effective. You get better macronutrient assimilation, a nice fat-burning effect and higher energy levels. You also get a possible synergy with Clen or ephedrine if you should choose to run them with your T3. Using T3 will upregulate the beta-2 adrenergic receptor in adipose tissue (fat). Clearly there is a synergy here between clen, beta-drugs and T3.

As you suspected, there’s a catch. Remember the negative feedback loop that your body has for the HPTA? Well, it has one for thyroid hormones too. When your T3 levels go up, your TSH secretion is suppressed, so there will be a short lag time from when you stop taking thyroid meds until your body recovers. I wouldn’t be too concerned with this, as you can schedule it to happen during the winter months when you’ll be covered up anyway. There have been studies where patients on thyroid medication for 30+ years have quickly recovered their normal thyroid function upon cessation of thyroid hormone therapy. And more recently, several fitness competitors have gone off thyroid meds after several years on them and were able to recover fairly quickly.

Ok, so now we know where we are (because we’ve checked BBT for the last week)  and where we want to be (98.3F), and now we even know what the thyroid gland is.

So, now can you start popping Cytomel like pez? No, not yet. What you are going to do is start taking 20mcg of Cytomel per day for a week, and upping the dose by 10mcg/week until your BBT reaches 98.0-98.1. Try not to go over 100mcgs, though. Then you can start adding in other thermogenics (I told you about them yesterday) if you are trying to get cut or if you are in a pre-contest phase, or you can simply continue adding Cytomel (or a thyroid supplement of your choosing) until your BBT reaches 98.3.