Allergies & food sensitivities can screw with food absorption as the offending foods often damage the gut. This has the result that the body goes into conservation mode and lowers T3-output.
Avoid offending foods and T3 output will go up again and the boy will lose weight.
Took me years to discover this was true for me. Avoid the offending foods , up the protein intake and even with the same amount of calories (or even more!) I could lose weight as long as there was no gluten, soy & dairy involved. Legumes are bad news too.
BTW, some people have very specific allergies/sensitivities, so they can eat oats, but other people have allergies that aren't so specific. Hence I also need to avoid oats, since oats have a type of protein that is extremely similar to gluten. Sheep's/goat's dairy is possible, but still elicits an immune response. Same for rice that is too processed, like rice protein powder.
It is possible he'd probably fare best on a diet that cuts out all grains, all dairy and all legumes but not fruit & veggies.. so not Atkins but a Paleodiet.
He should also get a complete thyroid panel, w tests of TSH, free T3, free T4 and antibodies (to rule out eg. Hashimotos)
|