The Thyroid Diet: Manage Your Metabolism for Lasting Weight Loss [Paperback]

Mary J. Shomon (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 17, 2004

From patient advocate Mary Shomon, author of Living Well With Hypothyroidism, here is the first book to tackle the weight factors specific to thyroid patients and detail a conventional and alternative plan for lasting weight loss.

An estimated 10 million Americans have been diagnosed with thyroid disease—most of them women—and for the majority of them, losing weight is mentioned time and time again as a primary concern and chief frustration—a challenge made more difficult due to the metabolic slowdown of a malfunctioning thyroid gland. For these thyroid patients, treatment alone doesn't seem to resolve weight problems. Further, they may struggle with raising basic metabolism, resolving underlying nutritional deficiencies, treating depression and correcting brain chemistry imbalances, reducing stress, and combating insulin resistance.

The Thyroid Diet will identify these factors that inhibit a thyroid patient's ability to lose weight, and offer solutions—both conventional and alternative—to help. It will discuss optimal dietary changes, including how a thyroid sufferer should focus on a low-glycemic, high-fibre, low-calorie diet, eaten as smaller, more frequent meals to balance blood sugar. The Thyroid Diet addresses the use of various herbs, nutritional supplements, and prescription weight loss drugs, outlining the necessity of exercise, and drawing together all information into an integrated diet and exercise plan. It contains several different eating plans, food lists, and a set of delicious and healthy gourmet recipes. With handy worksheets to use in weight loss tracking, and a special resource section featuring websites, books, and support groups, here is vital help for the millions of thyroid patients dealing with weight problems.

Mary Shomon has been praised by doctors around the country for her medical knowledge and sensitivity to patients' needs. She will be receiving similar blurbs for this new book. There are no other books on controlling your weight problems if you have a thyroid condition, yet over 40% of overweight people have evidence of a thyroid condition, and the weight loss problems facing them are unique and need a specific approach.

Editorial Reviews

Review

...amazing collection of useful, practical tools to help the 2/3 of overweight Americans finally regain control of their weight. -- Dr. Joseph Mercola of Mercola.com

At last, a magnificent breakthrough in the management of excess weight. -- Richard Shames MD & Karilee Halo Shames PhD, RN

Help and hope for millions who have despaired of ever losing weight and regaining their energy. -- Hyla Cass, MD, author of Natural Highs

Mary Shomon is an outstanding advocate for patient health, and you'll find her book to be outstanding as well! -- Jacob Teitelbaum, MD, author of From Fatigued to Fantastic

Mary Shomon offers practical and effective solutions that will help millions finally conquer their weight problems. -- Steve Langer, MD, Author

From the Author

As a child I was chubby, but at puberty, slimmed out into a perfect size 8. I went through my 20s as a slender woman of 5'6", eating whatever I wanted (but eating quite poorly), and never even thinking about exercise. When I developed autoimmune hypothyroidism, it was a shock to my metabolism, which had already slowly started to add pounds, along with troublesome thyroid symptoms. Months after I began thyroid hormone replacement, I was still struggling with weight gain that seemed impossible to stop, and on my wedding day, I walked down the aisle in a size 16 dress, despite frantic dieting and exercise. Trying to lose the weight was impossible. I even gained weight on 800 calories a day. It was only when I really delved into the issues of insulin resistance and the thyroid's effects on metabolism that I began to understand why it was so hard to lose weight, and how I might achieve this elusive goal. That's why I wrote The Thyroid Diet...to share the results of! years of my own struggle and research to find out why, despite what doctors say, having an underactive thyroid can cause substantial and stubborn weight gain, and the specific ways you can lose it. Interestingly, as many as 10 million people have undiagnosed thyroid problems, and can't lose weight. The book is for them too, helping them identify the symptoms and risk factors, and outlining how they can get properly diagnosed and treated.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 400 pages
• Publisher: William Morrow Paperbacks (August 17, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0060524448
• ISBN-13: 978-0060524449
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.3 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (89 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,896 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

I'm Mary Shomon, and I'm a patient advocate, author, communications consultant, wife and mother. I've tried to transform my own struggle with thyroid disease into an advocacy campaign on behalf of patients with chronic diseases such as thyroid disease, autoimmune conditions, chronic fatigue, among others.

I was diagnosed with Hashimoto's Thyroiditis in 1995, and now research and write about these conditions and their impact on health and weight. Since early 1997, I have served as founder and Guide for the award-winning About.com Thyroid website, and as editor of my popular patient thyroid news report, Sticking Out Our Necks.

In my patient advocacy role, I try yto bring much-needed attention to underdiagnosed and often overlooked health issues. My desire to cut through medical jargon and deliver information to my fellow patients in a form they can understand resulted in my first health-related book, Living Well With Hypothyroidism: What Your Doctor Doesn't Tell You . . . That You Need to Know, which was first published in 2000 by HarperCollins, and has gone to more than 20 printings before a 2nd Revised Edition was published in 2005. The book was a Prevention Book Club Selection, and Amazon Top-Selling health book, and its popularity launched a new series of consumer health books for publisher HarperCollins.

I am also author of the New York Times best-selling book The Thyroid Diet: Manage Your Metabolism for Lasting Weight Loss. (2004) "Thyroid Diet" was also a semi-finalist for the prestigious Quills Awards in 2005.

I am also author of Living Well With Graves' Disease and Hyperthyroidism" (2005) Living Well With Autoimmune Disease"(2003) Living Well With Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and Fibromyalgia," (2004) and the The Thyroid Guide to Fertility, Pregnancy and Breastfeeding Success" (2005). My newsletter for thyroid patients, "Sticking Out Our Necks," was founded in 1997, and has become a popular resource for patients in both its email and print form.

I have served as the Guide for the popular About.com Thyroid site -- now part of the New York Times Company -- launching the site in early 1997, and managing the site and working as its sole researcher/writer since that time. That site, Thyroid.about.com, along with my advocacy site Thyroid-info.com, are the Internet's most popular and visited sites dedicated to thyroid disease.

I've been featured in hundreds of television, radio, newspaper, magazine and web interviews, including appearances on ABC World News Tonight and CBS Radio Networks, and interviews in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Ladies Home Journal, Health, Cooking Light, Elle Magazine, Woman's World, and the Los Angeles Times, to name just a few.

In my decade of consumer advocacy, I have never hesitated to take a stand on behalf of patients, and my independence from drug companies and medical/patient organizations that are funded by the pharmaceutical industry has allowed me to maintain an unbiased, truly patient-first advocacy effort.

In the past, my experience focused on grassroots outreach, and developing consumer marketing and public information campaigns while working in the social outreach, advertising and public relations industry -- designing campaigns for clients as diverse as furniture retailer IKEA, the World Bank, and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Before I began writing in the health area, I also published several humor books. I co-authored the humor book, Scratching the Net: Web Sites for Cats published by Andrews McMeel in 1998, and wrote the Washington, DC bestseller, The Single Woman's Guide to the Available Men of Washington, published in 1993.

I have a Bachelor of Science degree from Georgetown University in Washington D.C.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

323 of 337 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars TheThyroid Diet, February 1, 2005

By 

Nxxxx (Hudson, MA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Thyroid Diet: Manage Your Metabolism for Lasting Weight Loss (Paperback)

I was extremely disappointed with this book. It is about how to know if you have hypo- thyroid, (why would you buy it if you didn't know) how to get doctors to give you the appropriate tests, and then how hard it is to loose weight if you are hypothyroid. I expected a book that described types of food or exercise that would be helpful for people who have hypothyroid. Instead, this author basically said,' Different diets work for different people, try Atkins, weight watchers, counting calories, whatever you think might work, and stick to whatever works for you'
Thanks for the tip! I never would have thought of that.
The bottom line is: Don't bother getting this book.

142 of 148 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars First Time I've Been Able to Lose Weight in Years!, April 19, 2005

By 

Paula Desena "Paula" (New York, NY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Thyroid Diet: Manage Your Metabolism for Lasting Weight Loss (Paperback)

I really am glad I found Mary Shoman's "Thyroid Diet" book. I have been hypothyroid for a few years, and I never had a weight problem in the past. But the weight creeped up and by the time they diagnosed me, I had gained something like 40 pounds. (I never found out the final #, cause I wouldn't even look at the scale at my highest. UGH!) I felt awful, and I tried every single diet program out there, I did no-carb, I did low-fat, I did low-cal, and I just kept gaining weight, or I didn't lose anything.

It was ridiculous. My doctor said that my thyroid had nothing to do with anything, but I knew, I just KNEW that my thyroid had something to do with it, because, for goodness sake, I never had an extra pound on me until the thyroid problems started up and I started with hypothyroidism.

A friend of mine who is also hypothyroid told me that she had some success following some things she'd read from Mary Shoman at her website, and so I decided to get this book. It's been a real godsend, because for the first time in about 5 years, I've actually been consistently losing weight. First it was just a few pounds, really slow, but I LOST!!! I've started taking a couple of vitamins that she recommends, and I think that's helping too, but the overall diet is what's making the difference. I'm eating, but I finally feel like I'm eating the RIGHT things, and believe me, you can go spend 7 a week, or 20 a month, or 2000 a year at a local weight loss program, but if you don't lose weight and you tell them you have a thyroid problem, they're going to tell you you're not "doing the program right." And Shoman doesn't tell you that...she knows how the thyroid affects weight, and she explains it, she interviewed doctors who also talk about leptin, and metabolism, and the impact of thyroid on blood sugar, timing of food, and the best thyroid medicines and such...all things I think are what helped me sort of break the "losing streak" I had at weight loss! I even had a blood sugar test I read about in the book, and the doctor says I could be headed for pre-diabetes, so I definitely am doing the right thing by losing weight!

There is definitely no magic diet cure -- wish there WAS!! -- with a thyroid problem or otherwise, but I feel like with Thyroid Diet, I at least have a fighting chance to figure out what foods, calorie levels, supplements, and other sorts of approaches might actually make a difference for me.

I really recommend this book. I got it January of 2005, and as of April, I'm already down 20 pounds!!!

Can't argue with success, right? ;-)

83 of 85 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Not a diet, July 6, 2007

By 

Sandra Pottorff "Sandy Pottorff" (Southwest Colorado) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Thyroid Diet: Manage Your Metabolism for Lasting Weight Loss (Paperback)

This is not a diet, it is an overview of all the other stuff Shomon has out. It is a recommendation of how to manage your thyroid, if you haven't read anything or are just finding out about a thyroid problem, it has lots of information, but if you have had thyroid problems and know about them, it is the same stuff you've always heard. I didn't learn anything new, and it really isn't a diet............is was disappointed. No new answers for those of us who are being treated with medication. If weight is a problem, as I have with thyroid problems, this is not the answer..........