Hypothyroidism: did I cause this?

lozerrfaceXOmommy

I started my weight loss journey in April and have lost around 80 lbs. (Yippie!) I have been over the moon about my weight loss and have been eager to lose the remaining 10-15 pounds. (Currently @ 165 lbs). However, in the last few months my weight loss has drastically stalled. I have maintained between the same 3 pounds for almost 3 months at a calorie deficient and with exercise. I figured, 'hey, I am burning far less calories now doing the same activity because my weight has changed, it doesn't need as much energy to do the same activity.' I knew this would happen. So I didn't freak.

I went to my doctor, excited about my weight loss, feeling like I was at my best health in 10 years. Come to find out my vision has worsened from 20/20 to 20/70 in the last year and have also been diagnosed with hypothyroidism which the doctor said could be the cause of my migraines. I was bummed.

Now am I wondering, 'did I set myself up for failure? Did losing weight so fast stall my metabolism?'

Curious if anyone has any ideas how help kick start my metabolism or help reach my weight loss goals.

Hamsibian

I don't know about metabolism, but hypothyroidism is autoimmune. Chances are it was building up inside your body years before you experienced obvious symptoms. Don't ever think that it is your fault.

lorrpb

No, you did not cause this. I'm sorry you have to deal with it, but hypothyroidism is a thoroughly studied condition so you should be able to get some help for it.

andrelittle2323

I doubt it. It's an immune deficient illness from what I've read

lozerrfaceXOmommy

Hamsibian wrote: »

I don't know about metabolism, but hypothyroidism is autoimmune. Chances are it was building up inside your body years before you experienced obvious symptoms. Don't ever think that it is your fault.

That's very great sound advice! Thank you.

heybales

You probably put a mighty huge stress on your body, and likely still are.

Depending on genetics, something was probably going to give.

Like some people have no issues eating a certain food when they don't diet.
Then they take an extreme diet, and now that food causes problems.
Sure, they might have been slightly sensitive to it before, but body wasn't stressed out enough that it mattered.

Depending on where the thyroid is going wrong or which part of the feedback system is messed up - you may be able to improve it.

Much like type2 diabetics can.

And it's not always so much your metabolism, but just what the body does to adapt to eating so low for so long.

But - compared to prior - is your hair thinner, skin drier, nails grow slower, colder easier, ect?
Body may have adapted by slowing down some basic functions to conserve calories for energy.

You "kickstart" your metabolism by giving your body a level of food and energy it really wants and can handle.

If you aren't losing fat weight - then you aren't actually in a deficit diet eating level. You are eating at maintenance for the level of activity you do right now.
So hope you don't get sick or injured - or the level of eating then to maintain could really suck.

Now - with eating so little and body potentially stressed, you could have increased cortisol causing water weight gain to slowly happen - can gain upwards of 20 lbs that way.
That'll likely stress you out too.

You could come up to an eating level your body can potentially do, not where it's suppressed now dealing with it.
Your energy levels likely increase, move more, better workouts, burn more daily, while eating more.

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/blog/heybales/view/reduced-metabolism-tdee-beyond-expected-from-weight-loss-616251

spiriteagle99

It also seems to be genetic. My mother had it, I have it, my sister has it. It was diagnosed for all of us in our 40s.

You should be happy. Once you get your medication sorted out and the illness in check, weight loss should be easier. It certainly made a difference for me.

rileysowner

Work with your doctor to get it properly medicated. From what I have heard that can take some time to get the dosage correct, but it can make a huge difference once they do. Keep going. you can do this.

ccsernica

Well... the most common cause of hypothyroidism is an autoimmune malfunction, anyway. There are others. Your doctor ought to be able to give you a definite diagnosis, but situations where it's somehow "your fault", if we were to put it that way for some reason, are very rare.

The weight loss would not have "stalled your metabolism". Hypothyroidism will do that all by itself. Thyroid hormone is what regulates our metabolism. If you're not making enough, yes, you'll find it more difficult to lose weight. You might also feel cold all the time, your skin might get dry, you might get depressed, among other symptoms, or -- as in my case -- you might have no noticeable symptoms at all. With or without symptoms you should get it treated, since complications can be dangerous.

If I were you I'd consult an optometrist or ophthalmologist about your vision. That's not likely to be "your fault" either, and it would be a good idea to rule out serious problems.

paperpudding

Hypothryoidism - basically an underfunctioning thyroid - is quite common and many people have it who have not lost significant amounts of weight.

So extremely unlikely your weight loss had anything to do with it - its is one of those things that just happens sometimes and was , for you, coincidental to losing weight.

Heck, I developed a thyroid tumour after losing weight. (admittedly about 2 years after) and had half my thyroid removed.

No i do not think it was caused by my weight loss.

tiptoethruthetulips

OP - have you still been eating only 1000-1200 calories? Your start weight was about 245, you've lost a lot of weight quickly due to significant under-eating. It's likely that a lot you've lost more lean body mass than is advised.

Your weight loss has stalled for various reasons and it is possible that it will plateau for a while. If you are still eating fairly low calories, I would suggest you increase them over the next few weeks to maintenance level. Give yourself a month or so eating at maintenance. There may be some initial weight gain for the first couple weeks, bear with it. After 4 to 6 week...reduced calories but not below 1200cals and do eat back some of your exercise calories. Use MFP to workout your maintenance and then weight loss calories.

trigden1991

Don't blame yourself for it as no one will be able to tell you if your weight loss caused it and at the end of the day, there's no way of knowing. What you need to focus on is getting your thyroid levels to a good level by working with your doctor.

Pawsforme

I really don't understand your questions.

The overwhelming majority of people with hypothyroidism have Hashimoto's, an auto-immune illness. Being hypothyroid makes it very challenging to lose weight since it slows your metabolism and affects many bodily processes. Before I was diagnosed I was gaining weight on 1100 calories a day. After medication kicked in I was fairly easily able to lose 1-2 pounds a week on that amount (I'm super short, so before anyone says--no, that's not too few calories for me).

Hypothyroidism can definitely cause headaches. I've never been prone to headaches, but I had them frequently before I was diagnosed.

So short answer is -- Your dieting didn't "stall" your metabolism. Hypothyroidism did. Work with your doctor to get your medication right, take it as directed and in six weeks or so you should be feeling a lot better and be back to losing weight.

crackpotbaby

Hamsibian wrote: »

I don't know about metabolism, but hypothyroidism is autoimmune. Chances are it was building up inside your body years before you experienced obvious symptoms. Don't ever think that it is your fault.

Not all hypothyroidism is autoimmune.
There are many causes.

...........

I agree that this is not something caused by the OP through diet.

crackpotbaby

http://www.thyroid.org/hypothyroidism/

Some basic info at the link above, including common causes of hypothyroidism.

courtneyfabulous

Might want to check for deficiencies - did your doctor run a full blood panel to see if you're low in any particular nutrients? I do worry about that for people who have been in a caloric deficit for a long time. If you're eating less food you're getting less nutrients in general, and if you're avoiding certain foods or food groups that could lead to deficiencies too.

I had a protein deficiency for a long time that caused all sorts of issues but was never diagnosed by doctors and I didn't even realize it until I started tracking all my food for weight loss and saw in my nutrients graph that I was always way under on protein. Once I started eating enough all kinds of things improved after just a couple months.

I've also had a diagnosed vitamin D deficiency and severe anemia from iron deficiency in the past- those had some pretty crazy effects on my health as well that cleared up once the deficiency was resolved.

The side effects from deficiencies can range from minor and hardly noticeable to pretty severe- between all of mine I had symptoms like: low energy, dizziness, dry skin, cracked feet, weakness, shortness of breath, fast heartbeat, anxiety, depression, weak immune system, thin hair, brittle nails, cracks at corners of mouth, slow wound healing, trouble losing weight, persistent infections...

Not that you necessarily have any deficiencies but I always like to suggest testing for them and analyzing your diet just in case because they are easy to miss (but luckily easy to fix), and my doctors didn't catch mine until I brought it to their attention and asked for tests. The protein one I don't even think there is a test for, I only figured that one out after fixing my macronutrient intake.

Things like rapidly declining eyesight or autoimmune disease could be completely unrelated to this, but if there is a cause from diet or nutrient deficiency it would be good to at least check.

Also are you still in a caloric deficit or have you switched to maintenance calories? You might want to try maintenance for a while and see if your issues improve. I do know from what I've been reading & reasearching about weight loss that diet breaks are recommended - about 1 to 3 weeks at maintenance calories for every 10 to 12 weeks in a caloric deficit. This helps the metabolism recover. I'm due for a diet break myself. Again this might not even be related to your issues but you could always try it out and see if it helps.

youngmomtaz

Hopefully, treatment will clear up your migraines. Hypothyroid and migraines are conditions that have comorbidity. One does not cause the other, but they often happen together and play off of one another. My doc is still slowly raising my ndt dose but I have noticed my migraines cut by more than half in the past 6-7 months since I have started treatment. From 3/week down to maybe 1/week and it responds to meds better. So far no change in the ease of weight loss for me though. But being awake and feeling human again are awesome!! Good luck with your treatment!

banpluak

Get yourself to an endocrinologist and have them check it out and medicate you. There are more than a few causes and the best way to control it is with medication at first and if possible you will be weaned off it at a later date once stabilized.

Unfortunately any advice on the cause or treatment for this is worth nothing. The only person to advise you is a specialist imho

Hamsibian

lizery wrote: »

Hamsibian wrote: »

I don't know about metabolism, but hypothyroidism is autoimmune. Chances are it was building up inside your body years before you experienced obvious symptoms. Don't ever think that it is your fault.

Not all hypothyroidism is autoimmune.
There are many causes.

...........

I agree that this is not something caused by the OP through diet.

Got it, thanks!

DebSozo

I don't know if this is woo-- so please talk to your doctor and research-- I'm throwing this out there:

I watched a video some time ago where the doctor said that occasionally brominated baked goods can sometimes impact certain individuals' thyroids. He said that bromination speeds up the process of bread rising but that bromides trick the thyroid to uptake it somehow and the body starts attacking the thyroid. Maybe if you switch to slow rising and non brominated wheat that it could help?

Honestly I have no idea about the medical aspects of this, but please research carefully and look at scientific articles as there are a lot of diet myths out there.

lozerrfaceXOmommy

Thank you everyone for your advise and information. It is beyond appreciated!

For those who asked, I currently eat between 1300-1600 calories a day with exercise but haven't seen any real movement in my weight in 3 months.

We are in the mists of discussing meds and I will be starting them shortly and my doc assured me it should somewhat help.

savithny

Just out of curiousity - did you do the Diet Foods Thign and eat a LOT of broccoli and kale? Especially a lot of RAW broccoli or kale? Have you been juicing kale? Have you been relying on cauliflower rice for your "starch?"

Because cruciferous veggies (broccoli, kale, Brussels sprouts, bok choi, cabbage, collards, turnips, cauliflower, etc), , while very nutritious, are "goiterogenic," meaning that they interfere with thyroid hormone production. It is something that SHOULDN'T be a problem for most healthy people eating a balanced and varied diet, but some lose weight by eating a very NOT varied diet.