Hypothyroidism and Weight Loss?

SaraLynnFiske
SaraLynnFiske Posts: 38 Member
edited November 14 in Health and Weight Loss
Hi! I've been struggling with weight problems my entire life, (I'm 20 btw), and I am now 230 pounds. I cannot get myself back down to a normal weight. Even if I stay below my caloric intake for the day. I don't know how to fix this at all, and I am not sure if it is because of my hypothyroidism that it won't come off, or what? I know I eat high carb foods which isn't great, but I have a job where I'm moving around and pushing, pulling, + lifting. I don't really know what else to do, but I'm supposed to be around 120 pounds, (By the BMI scale anyway.)

Anyone know what to do? I do take Levothyroxine daily.
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Replies

  • GottaBurnEmAll
    GottaBurnEmAll Posts: 7,722 Member
    SaraLynnFiske wrote: »
    Hi! I've been struggling with weight problems my entire life, (I'm 20 btw), and I am now 230 pounds. I cannot get myself back down to a normal weight. Even if I stay below my caloric intake for the day. I don't know how to fix this at all, and I am not sure if it is because of my hypothyroidism that it won't come off, or what? I know I eat high carb foods which isn't great, but I have a job where I'm moving around and pushing, pulling, + lifting. I don't really know what else to do, but I'm supposed to be around 120 pounds, (By the BMI scale anyway.)

    Anyone know what to do? I do take Levothyroxine daily.

    I take Synthroid daily and have lost 94 pounds. I'm also post-menopausal.

    As long as you eat at caloric deficit, you will lose weight.

    Eating carbohydrates isn't bad unless they don't leave room in your diet for proper nutrition.

    Have you read the stickies at the top of the forums to learn how weight loss works and how to use My Fitness Pal to lose weight?

    I used to think I couldn't lose weight either and I came to learn it was because I was always eating too much food. Once I learned how to account for how much I was eating, and to eat the proper amount of calories, I had no trouble losing weight.
  • SaraLynnFiske
    SaraLynnFiske Posts: 38 Member
    @GottaBurnEmAll I've read the stickies and I'm always under my caloric goal for the day.. Some days they say I don't eat enough + that I need to eat more to safely lose weight. I am not losing weight though :/
  • GottaBurnEmAll
    GottaBurnEmAll Posts: 7,722 Member
    SaraLynnFiske wrote: »
    @GottaBurnEmAll I've read the stickies and I'm always under my caloric goal for the day.. Some days they say I don't eat enough + that I need to eat more to safely lose weight. I am not losing weight though :/

    Are you using a food scale? How long have you been trying to lose weight? Are you using correct data base entries?

    Look over this chart and see if something helps:

    bizbibnr80k3.jpg
  • SaraLynnFiske
    SaraLynnFiske Posts: 38 Member
    @GottaBurnEmAll I got down to "You may need to investigate further" :/ The only things wrong with me, digestion and food related are : Hypothyroidism, Acid Reflux Disease, Caffeine intolerance, and a general intolerance of most water based foods like lettuce, watermelon, and celery...
  • GottaBurnEmAll
    GottaBurnEmAll Posts: 7,722 Member
    edited December 2016
    Can you open your diary and post your height? Sometimes experienced users can spot things.

    How many calories are you eating a day?
  • Grammytryingtogetfit
    Grammytryingtogetfit Posts: 672 Member
    I've been taking Synthroid as well for over 5 years now, and have managed to drop almost 30 lbs since August. You can do it!!!!
  • SaraLynnFiske
    SaraLynnFiske Posts: 38 Member
    @GottaBurnEmAll I'm not finding a height change area in the diary..??
  • SaraLynnFiske
    SaraLynnFiske Posts: 38 Member
    @NicholeAckerman thank you :smile:
  • GottaBurnEmAll
    GottaBurnEmAll Posts: 7,722 Member
    SaraLynnFiske wrote: »
    @GottaBurnEmAll I'm not finding a height change area in the diary..??

    I'm just asking what your height is so I can calculate how much you should be eating!
  • SaraLynnFiske
    SaraLynnFiske Posts: 38 Member
    @GottaBurnEmAll it says I'm 5'1'' on my profile, not sure why I'd change it. I am 5'1'' :lol:

    my caloric intake each day is between 930 and 1300 calories most days.
  • not_a_runner
    not_a_runner Posts: 1,343 Member
    I'm 23 and hypo, been on medication for almost 10 years. When I was about 18 years old and 198 lbs I lost over 60 lbs and was down to the low 130's in about 6 months of exercise and calorie counting, eating whatever I pleased within my budget.
    In the years since then I gained the weight back (which I attribute entirely to my eating habits/lifestyle, not my thyroid. I simply ate too much and did too little and struggled with binge eating a lot.)
    I hit a new heavy weight of 215 lbs, and I am now back down to 185 now through calorie counting and exercise. For me, losing weight has been basically as simple as it is for a "normal" person when I really try.
    I will say it takes me many weeks of consistency to see the scale really start moving, but I think that goes for everyone. I've found that even one "eat what I want" day per week can be enough excess calories to cancel out my deficit.
  • GottaBurnEmAll
    GottaBurnEmAll Posts: 7,722 Member
    edited December 2016
    SaraLynnFiske wrote: »
    @GottaBurnEmAll it says I'm 5'1'' on my profile, not sure why I'd change it. I am 5'1'' :lol:

    my caloric intake each day is between 930 and 1300 calories most days.

    I'm not asking you to change it :) Can you make your diary public, though?

    Fellow shortie fistbump! We're the same height.
  • Tacklewasher
    Tacklewasher Posts: 7,122 Member
    SaraLynnFiske wrote: »
    @GottaBurnEmAll I'm not finding a height change area in the diary..??

    It was 2 questions.

    Can you open your diary so someone like GBEA can see what you are eating?

    Can you post your height so someone can get a better idea of what your stats should be?

    Listen to @GottaBurnEmAll She know her *kitten*.
  • birdtobe
    birdtobe Posts: 105 Member
    I know a lot of people here might not agree with me, but I think cutting carbs will make a huge difference. I also have hypothyroidism--have for 12 years--and struggle to lose. 5 weeks ago I cut out sugar and carbs and have lots 14 pounds so far. I know it sounds very difficult (believe me, I was the word's biggest sugar fiend) but once you don't eat it, you stop craving it. There's a lot of research out there about what carbs do to your insulin levels and I found it compelling enough to give it a try. Might be worth it a try?
  • SaraLynnFiske
    SaraLynnFiske Posts: 38 Member
    @GottaBurnEmAll how do I do that? Let me go look.
  • SaraLynnFiske
    SaraLynnFiske Posts: 38 Member
    @TresaAswegan I eat what I want but I'm always under my caloric goal. I don't get it :/
  • SaraLynnFiske
    SaraLynnFiske Posts: 38 Member
    @GottaBurnEmAll I made it public :D
    @Tacklewasher I didn't know that "Open" meant make public, my bad. Maybe you're all from a different area :joy:

    @birdtobe I really think cutting carbs would be good..I eat a LOT of pasta..
  • SCoil123
    SCoil123 Posts: 2,111 Member
    I'm perimenopausal with hashimotos and am losing slowly. For me I found that staying active plays a bigger role than for a lot of my friends. I have to work out. I can increase my deficit but if Im not active I still stall in weight loss. Keep playing with your routine and you will find what works for you.
  • Susieq_1994
    Susieq_1994 Posts: 5,361 Member
    edited December 2016
    @SaraLynnFiske Taking a look at your diary, I have to say that things don't look quite right to me. None of your foods are weighed, and you used a LOT of "homemade" generic entries. Five cups of mac and cheese is usually a lot more than just 1200 calories, for example... Did you make these entries and calculate how much cheese and how much butter and how much milk and how much pasta was in your macaroni and cheese?

    My diary is also public. Have a peek at it and you'll notice that all of my entries, down to my bread and my pasta, are weighed in grams and on a food scale. Some of the very few non-gram entries are pre-weighed cheese slices (I weigh them and they match the 21g weight posted as a serving, so I just log one slice), and my very own recipes that you're only allowed to log as "one serving", which I still weigh religiously. :)

    Editing to add: Going back, I see that some of them ARE weighed... But where did those entries come from? Again, even the weighed ones say "homemade" and appear to be whatever you may have found on the food search list while searching for something like mac and cheese or eggplant parmesan.
  • GottaBurnEmAll
    GottaBurnEmAll Posts: 7,722 Member
    The recipe entries in your diary? Are you inputting them yourself to calculate the calories or are you just finding generic entries from the data base and using them?
  • Susieq_1994
    Susieq_1994 Posts: 5,361 Member
    Another thing I've picked up on: You eat a lot of meals out. I see a large amount of Taco Bell, KFC, Burger King, Whataburger, etc. Nothing wrong with eating out in general, of course, but the calorie estimates given by restaurants can often be waaaaaay off. Like, off by 500 calories kind of off. That can definitely put a kink into your weight loss plans!
  • SaraLynnFiske
    SaraLynnFiske Posts: 38 Member
    @Susieq_1994 The taco bell ones are because I made my own tacos and thought the taco bell ones are similar enough. Same with KFC, at work I had some potato wedges and didn't know how to enter it correctly. + I don't have a Whataburger around here, I had some fries at work.
  • SaraLynnFiske
    SaraLynnFiske Posts: 38 Member
    edited December 2016
    >:)
  • SaraLynnFiske
    SaraLynnFiske Posts: 38 Member
    edited December 2016
    >:)
  • SaraLynnFiske
    SaraLynnFiske Posts: 38 Member
    edited December 2016
    >:)
  • Susieq_1994
    Susieq_1994 Posts: 5,361 Member
    Here's one example from your food diary:

    q0a3h9ychu23.jpg

    How many grams are in a medium apple? What exactly is a medium apple to you? "Medium" is a very subjective term. Won't say anything about the carrots, because carrots aren't so high in calories that they'd be off by too much... But that 1.4 pyrex is a completely useless entry. What was in the potatoes? How much did you have? How many grams is 1.4 of a Pyrex?

    The red beans and rice is similar. A whole lot of cooked rice can be stuffed into a cup. It's probably more accurate than the potatoes, but how much rice was really in there? No way to know. :)
  • Susieq_1994
    Susieq_1994 Posts: 5,361 Member
    quiksylver296 wrote: »
    Susieq_1994 wrote: »
    SaraLynnFiske wrote: »
    @Susieq_1994 When I put in the exacts of what I've eaten, the calories actually generally went down, so that makes this whole thing a bit MORE confusing unfortunately.

    So I went and had a gander, but I gotta say it only confirmed my original statement, which is that most of your food is measured in cups. 0.25 cup, 0.6 cup, 1 cup of cooked pasta... Let me tell you, I can shove A LOT of pasta into a cup! ;) I don't mean to be unkind or to doubt you, but I can't put any faith in a "0.6 cup" of this or that. It can mean just about anything. @quiksylver296 Could you post that video about cups vs. grams that I saw you post in another thread? Pretty please? It would be very informative here. :)

    My advice to you would be to really tighten up your logging, weigh everything raw on a food scale, in grams. Confirm your entries against USDA data (if you Google "calories in -insert food here-" the USDA info for that food will come up). Don't snack at work, try not to eat out if you can possibly eat at home. Create your own recipes for foods you cook that contains exactly what you put in them. Do that for a few weeks and then re-evaluate. If you still don't lose any weight, it may be time to go back to the doctor and evaluate your thyroid levels and whether your medicine dosage is correct.

    Yes, ma'am!

    Thanks a million! :smiley:

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