so im confused.

leahcollett1

its been a good few weeks now, where i haven't seen a loss, i exercise 3-4 times weekly and i use the TDEE method.
i have hypothyroid issues however last time i checked my drs said levels were sorted.
i take levothyroxine for this.
i weigh measure all my foods.
i have lost 4 stone to date but since being diagnosed last year things have halted, they go up and down the same 10 pounds.. last week i gained 4lbs, this week i stayed the same,
im unsure as to why its not moving i really am, i feel so much better in my clothes but the scales show im still over 16 stone...
i was sure it was my birth pill so i stopped that last week.
i was sure i was holding water so ive drank enough ( its not any new or extended exercise)
im out of options now. my drs shrug their shoulders, im doing everything right, so maybe its time to pick apart my diary.
all im after is to start losing again, i wouldn't even mind if it was half a pound a week as long as it starts to go down again, its been nearly 10 months.
if people have any advice or comments at all to help me i would appreciate it, my friends are stumped, they are doing the same as me and are losing every week. the fluctuations are crazy, the 4lbs last week was out of no where.

seska422

If you make your diary public, perhaps someone can look through and see where you might tighten up your logging.

You've probably seen this chart but it has good advice that might narrow down where you can investigate:



As for fluctuations, many people have them. It's a general downward trend over months that I'm aiming toward. Here's a recent 3-month chart for me:

leahcollett1

my trend is more of a horizontal line though, ill make my diary public

leahcollett1

im going to try neat methof of MFP this week, i might be doing things wrong with TDEE so im only going to touch the calories that i burn with ,my polar h7 - net calories for saying sitting on the sofa.

seska422

A horizontal trend line over months means that you are eating at maintenance.

Calorie calculator estimates (for BMR and TDEE and things like that) are based upon the average person so they are just a starting point until you can gather your own data. Maintenance for you may be at a lower calorie point than it is for the average person. Also, you may be off on your measurements of your calories in and/or calories out.

Just at a quick glance, I'm seeing a lot of units of serving, slice, biscuit, rather than grams. Weigh and measure everything for a while to see if some of your stealth calories are coming from there. Double-check the MFP database entries that you are using to make sure they are accurate.

tinkerbellang83

leahcollett1 wrote: »

im going to try neat methof of MFP this week, i might be doing things wrong with TDEE so im only going to touch the calories that i burn with ,my polar h7 - net calories for saying sitting on the sofa.

I agree this could be where you are going wrong, perhaps overestimating how much exercise you're doing to come up with the TDEE figure, you will probably be much better to try the NEAT method and go with 50% of the calorie burns for exercise for about 4 weeks and see if you get any downward movement.

Whilst as @seska422 says there are a lot of non-weighed items such as Subway, etc. It's not like you can whip out your food scales and deconstruct a sandwich or salad in Subway, well you could but let's be honest who would. Might be worth quick adding some calories to err on the side of caution. I would also be wary of the nutritional info in the database for a lot of UK supermarket foods, some of them bear no resemblance to the information on the label and it's certainly worth double checking even if you've scanned the barcode.

leahcollett1

Ok brill thank you.. the 1 servings I have are my own recipes as an old sw member I'm notorious with making things from scratch so I do it in the recipe builder. I'll take all your comments on board thank you.

leahcollett1

I started power walking a couple weeks ago would that play a part in water retention you think? Or am I clasping at straws lol

CSARdiver

How much more do you have to lose to hit your goal?

Other than the flowchart I don't know what other variables could be at play. Bodies like routines, so any change such as power walking or any new regimen or diet change will result in a fluctuation. The sharp gains and losses are water and glycogen, so no worries. Just keep it up and tighten up your routine.

I have hypothyroidism as well and see the same stalls, but when I really dig into my logs I find the inaccuracies there and I'm either underestimating calories, forgetting to log food, or overestimating exercise.

Outstanding progress! Good luck and keep up the good work.

cmriverside

Well, if you've been logging for a while and not losing, drop your calories 300 or so. When you aren't losing, you need to eat less...regardless of where the error lies. (Whether it's your calories in or calories out calculation.)

cmriverside

I looked at your diary.

In my experience I don't lose weight as easily when I eat the way you are eating. Unless I get some vegetables and balanced macros, I just don't lose very well. I know you lose when you eat less than you need but I really believe it's a lot easier and definitely healthier to eat some vegetables and enough protein every day. If I was eating all the baked goods that you are eating I would have a very hard time feeling satisfied with my food, as well.

Try balancing your macros for a month and eating a vegetable or fruit or three at every meal and cutting back on the sweets. I think you'll have more energy and will feel much better. Get that protein up. You're eating really low protein and living on sweets, breads and milk with the occasional real meal.

dmwh142

I have Hypothyroidism also. Most people who do not have it do not understand it. Several years ago I learned about taking natural desiccated thyroid drugs rather than synthetic. They problem I had with the synthetic was they made my blood work numbers show me in the normal range but I still suffered many of the symptoms including the inability to loose weight. Please talk to your doctor about making the switch. It made a world of difference for me.

yobigman

I have the same issue. I lost a lot of weight at first, but I've plateaued now. I've stopped weighing myself & am focusing on the process of following my plan every day. The weight will eventually come off- it has to, if you eat fewer calories than you burn! I'm afraid that if I weigh myself I'll get discouraged & quit my plan.

cmriverside

I've been hypothyroid for years. I was able to lose weight and I've kept it off for ten years. She said she was stable, but her food logging is all over the place.

Hypothyroidism may affect weightloss, but it isn't impossible with decent nutrition and accuracy.

leahcollett1

That's brill advice thank you.. your right my food choices are sometimes awful.
I have tried to be better today. Snacking on melon etc.
I will try these changes for this week and see what happens

Psychgrrl

dmwh142 wrote: »

I have Hypothyroidism also. Most people who do not have it do not understand it. Several years ago I learned about taking natural desiccated thyroid drugs rather than synthetic. They problem I had with the synthetic was they made my blood work numbers show me in the normal range but I still suffered many of the symptoms including the inability to loose weight. Please talk to your doctor about making the switch. It made a world of difference for me.

You could also talk to your doctor about adding a T3. The medication you're taking is a T4. Your body should convert T4 to T3, but sometimes it doesn't do a good job. I am on synthetic T4 and T3. The natural thyroid has both. The natural stuff didn't work as well for me. But you need to find what works for you. There are options.

If you're not already, see if you can see an endocrinologist instead of a general physician. There's a normal "range" for a reason and maybe you need to be in a different part of it.

Regardless, ask your doc to run a Free T4 test and a Free T3 test in addition to TSH. Make sure you understand exactly what your numbers are and what range your doc/lab/insurance uses for normal.

Research doesn't show a huge impact on TSH from the addition of a T3, however, most studies show an increase in patient quality of life.

I have also started eating one Brazil nut a day for selenium. My Endo showed me a study about a year and a half ago and suggested I do that and see. My TSH dropped a little more, still in the normal range (it had previously been going up steadily each time I was tested) and has stabilized. He had an RD analyze my diet (via MFP) and I want getting anywhere near the RDA of selenium.

Afura

dmwh142 wrote: »

I have Hypothyroidism also. Most people who do not have it do not understand it. Several years ago I learned about taking natural desiccated thyroid drugs rather than synthetic. They problem I had with the synthetic was they made my blood work numbers show me in the normal range but I still suffered many of the symptoms including the inability to loose weight. Please talk to your doctor about making the switch. It made a world of difference for me.

Are you taking Armor? I've been thinking about asking for that.

I agree with @Psychgrrl if not asking for T3, to make sure they're at least testing both T3 and T4 as they both need to be in range and often they only check T4.

Tighten up that logging and make sure it's accurate (double check entries when you can - entries are user submitted and can be wrong). You can't be 100% sure with restaurants either as there's always going to be some variation in 'the kitchen' and the totals are general (ie they sliced the meat a little thicker than normal, they gave you more mayo than the 'standard').

I'm going to disagree with the comment about eating more XYZ - It's usually about how many calories you eat not what you eat (medical issues withstanding). But I can't disagree with eating more protein. I'd stab someone if I gave up sweets.

CSARdiver

Great advice from @psychgrrl and @afura. Anyone diagnosed with a thyroid disorder should know their full thyroid panel - TSH, fT3, fT4, rT3. Only after review of all these data points can anyone develop a proper diagnosis.

Thyroid disorders have a minimal overall impact on your basal metabolic rate, from clinical testing this averages ~5%. Meaning a person with a 1600 kcal/day budget would reduce this by ~80 kcals/day. Your metabolism is primarily driven by your lean muscle mass, so you may want to incorporate some manner of progressive resistance program.

leahcollett1

My tsh was tested 2 weeks ago she requested a whole panel and got a note back from hospital testing my blood saying it's not a done thing. My levels came back showing 0.02 so technically hyperactive with no symptoms.
I thought that if anything would allow me to lose weight easier?
Anyway for those that asked I still have about 2 to 3 stone to lose. I put on alot of weight with my first child and just trying to get that off.
It's so strange how I managed to get that 4 stone off but now no matter how hard I try it will not budge

kkauz42

Psychgrrl wrote: »

dmwh142 wrote: »

I have Hypothyroidism also. Most people who do not have it do not understand it. Several years ago I learned about taking natural desiccated thyroid drugs rather than synthetic. They problem I had with the synthetic was they made my blood work numbers show me in the normal range but I still suffered many of the symptoms including the inability to loose weight. Please talk to your doctor about making the switch. It made a world of difference for me.

You could also talk to your doctor about adding a T3. The medication you're taking is a T4. Your body should convert T4 to T3, but sometimes it doesn't do a good job. I am on synthetic T4 and T3. The natural thyroid has both. The natural stuff didn't work as well for me. But you need to find what works for you. There are options.

If you're not already, see if you can see an endocrinologist instead of a general physician. There's a normal "range" for a reason and maybe you need to be in a different part of it.

Regardless, ask your doc to run a Free T4 test and a Free T3 test in addition to TSH. Make sure you understand exactly what your numbers are and what range your doc/lab/insurance uses for normal.

Research doesn't show a huge impact on TSH from the addition of a T3, however, most studies show an increase in patient quality of life.

I have also started eating one Brazil nut a day for selenium. My Endo showed me a study about a year and a half ago and suggested I do that and see. My TSH dropped a little more, still in the normal range (it had previously been going up steadily each time I was tested) and has stabilized. He had an RD analyze my diet (via MFP) and I want getting anywhere near the RDA of selenium.

Question for you all! Do you know what test would be labeled as "T3 uptake "? I'm guessing it is my T3 levels in general. I was 1 point below the lowest point in the "normal" range on my last test. I go in next Tuesday for blood work as my endo noticed that and put up a red flag so to speak.

I am on armor and had half of my thyroid removed in July of 2015. I have REALLY been struggling with the weight loss piece. I log and exercise on a regular basis and even paid someone certified to put together meal and workout plans for me. Working out hard isn't an issue as I'm an athlete. I've lost around 8-10lbs since November so I'm sort of starting to get frustrated.

I'm really hoping I can either get a higher dose to get me in the middle or upper end of the normal range or supplement more T3. My endo is great so im hoping she will continue to listen.

Any insight would be greatly appreciated!!

Kayli

deannalfisher

I think RT3 (reverse t3), as well as T3 and free T3

deannalfisher

leahcollett1 wrote: »

My tsh was tested 2 weeks ago she requested a whole panel and got a note back from hospital testing my blood saying it's not a done thing. My levels came back showing 0.02 so technically hyperactive with no symptoms.
I thought that if anything would allow me to lose weight easier?
Anyway for those that asked I still have about 2 to 3 stone to lose. I put on alot of weight with my first child and just trying to get that off.
It's so strange how I managed to get that 4 stone off but now no matter how hard I try it will not budge

The lab says they don't do full panels? Or they are unable to since she requested after the bloodwork had been done?

leahcollett1

they just refused her point blank, she wrote t3 and t4 levels, and then posted my results back on just TSH

CSARdiver

leahcollett1 wrote: »

they just refused her point blank, she wrote t3 and t4 levels, and then posted my results back on just TSH

That is insane - the full panel literally comes from the same test. The technician just needs to add a sample to an assay. Sad state of affairs when doctors are no longer in charge of this process.

As for weight management thyroid disorders do not impact metabolism nearly as much as previously thought. I suspect that this impacts the satiety triggers more than metabolics, but designing such an experiment to prove this is challenging to say the least.

leahcollett1

No neither could myself of my dr, she was like, i actually cant believe they have ignored my requests! anyway im hoping to see a loss this week, ive reduced my cals and reverted back to the NEAT method in hopes maybe eating TDEE minus 25%
might of been not helping ( maybe over estimating?) so im hoping this was the real reason why i wasnt losing rather than my thyroid preventing me if that makes sense

VintageFeline

That could well be it. I can't comment on the thyroid issues as I have no experience there.

I would say you need to give it longer than a week using the NEAT method, more like 4-8 (depends how much your water weight fluctuates, mine is all over the show so I need 6-8 weeks to know what's really happening).

leahcollett1

ok thanks i will, trying to eat cleaner too and i feel better for it, i was just fitting what i could into my calories like biscuits etc, so this week ive changed up my food too, i really hope ive found a solution, if i know what to do to make it work then i can do it, just finding what works for me i guess. im desperate for it to be not my thyroid, because anything else its up to me, my thyroid is up to my body

leahcollett1

hi guys, a little update, so this week went back to cleaner eating, snacked on melon at night rather than filling my calories with biscuits, more important switched from TDEE method to NEAT.

lost 2.8lbs im ecstatic to finally trigger it moving again, thanks for your help.