Thyroxine: The Thermostat

Thyroxine is one of the hormones created by your thyroid gland.

The thyroid gland is located on the front of your neck. Right under where the Adams Apple is for men and where it would be for women.

Thyroxine is another powerful hormone which burns fat.

It is called tetraiodothyronine (T4) and  is the main hormone secreted by the thyroid gland.

The function of this and the other thyroid hormone, triiodothyronine (T3), is to increase the rate your body will convert carbohydrates to energy. It also causes protein assimilation.

Thyroxine increases the amount of energy your body spends. This means given the same amount of work or effort you put forth, a greater amount of thyroxine will cause more energy to be spent, and vice versa. When people talk about “spending” or “burning” more calories, this is what they are referring to.

It also makes the cells use more energy per unit of time. This hormone makes the rechargeable batteries that I talked about it “Fat Burning Roadblock #2″larger and makes more of them. So if you imagine your car engine replaced with an engine twice as powerful, you will see your car go very fast but the bigger engine will use a lot more gas. So you will need to fill it with more gas.

This is what thyroxine does to your cells. Instead of gas, you are using food and body fat.

A Few Things Which Increase And Decrease Thyroxine:

• Iodine. Iodine is an element needed for the production of thyroid hormone. The body does not make iodine, so it is an essential part of your diet. If you do not have enough iodine in your body, you cannot make enough thyroid hormone.
• Intense exercise. Any exercise where you are pushing the boundary of how much weight you are lifting or how long you are doing the same exercise will raise this. I will give the specific details in the last section of this book. Doing the bare minimum exercise won’t work. Without pushing the limits, the thyroid hormone amounts do not change.
• Avoiding overtraining or prolonged stress. Stress and prolonged strain will reduce thyroid production.
• Cleaning your Liver. All your hormones pass through your liver before they are used by your body. The liver is the main gland which stimulates your thyroid.
• If your liver is clogged up or fatty or underperforming in anyway, the hormones will be weakened or not be used all together. This can be a case where there is an adequate amount of hormones produced but they cannot be used because of the liver.
• Detoxing. You will read a lot more of this later in the book. Almost every toxin (which is a poison) in the environment and in your foods affect your thyroid and/or prohibits your ability to use them. By removing these toxins you can see a dramatic change in your appearance and in how you feel.