Exercise and Stalled Weight Loss with Hypothyroidism

jacquih2981

I have autoimmune hypothyroidism and take T3. I have a Garmain HR do-dad (I think that is the technical term ...) and I have found that when I go to the gym regularly my resting heart rate is up in the 60s and I burn around 100 calories an hour whilst asleep. However when I miss my 1hr cardio and strength on a Saturday morning for 2 sessions my HR seems to drop to the 50s and if I miss a month my resting HR drops into the 40s. My calorie consumption whilst asleep also drops to around 700 calories an hour.

I have lost weight before on a carb free diet, however without the exercise and carbs I have felt so cold and tired. I have started this journey of diet and exercise on 1 May and have so far lost 7 pounds, a little slower than previous times but I am happy with the direction of travel :-)

bluets2011

jacquih2981 wrote: »

I have autoimmune hypothyroidism and take T3. I have a Garmain HR do-dad (I think that is the technical term ...) and I have found that when I go to the gym regularly my resting heart rate is up in the 60s and I burn around 100 calories an hour whilst asleep. However when I miss my 1hr cardio and strength on a Saturday morning for 2 sessions my HR seems to drop to the 50s and if I miss a month my resting HR drops into the 40s. My calorie consumption whilst asleep also drops to around 700 calories an hour.

I have lost weight before on a carb free diet, however without the exercise and carbs I have felt so cold and tired. I have started this journey of diet and exercise on 1 May and have so far lost 7 pounds, a little slower than previous times but I am happy with the direction of travel :-)

I'd love to hear more about your journey. I'm on T3 only. My diary is open. I haven't lost anything since I started. Doing low carb as well

skonger

So I've been living with Hashimoto for over 30 years now, it's a love-hate relationship where you constantly have to watch your diet and exercise. It gets harder as you age and things slow down and the weight takes more time to come off, that is to be expected. I never use Hashimoto as a reason to why I can't lose weight, it's just a 'road block' that I have to overcome physically but more emotionally. If I use it as reason why I can't lose weight, then in my mind, I'm already defeated.

Here are some of the things I do to help lose weight.

TRACK everything!! Get the Garmain HR do-dad which is a great tech term and I also have the do-dad. Get those steps in and climb those stairs, never take elevators! Compete against yourself and make the next day better then the day before.

You need to be more active then the non-Hashimoto person. Non-hash person walks half an hour, you walk 40 minutes and slightly quicker pace. Even going for walks more often will help, go at lunch, go in the evening, hell get yourself a dog to make you walk more!

You know those 'free' exercise calories you get from being active, don't eat those back. Those are freebies to help you lose weight and get to your goal. Also eat less carbs, and gluten free carbs cause supposedly Hashimoto needs to be gluten free but I don't want to get into the scientific arguments. I try to stay gluten free as much as I can.

Also, I take my thyroid pill first thing in the morning same time all the time and I don't eat anything for at least an hour or two after the thyroid pill.

Now this may not work for everyone, I understand that but this has been working for me and I thought I would share as it might just help.

Sophannah2017

Hi, I have Graves' disease...very recently diagnosed. I read horror stories of massive weight gains whilst on the medication as it reduces the metabolism to a very slow pace. I was determined not to gain weight...! I have seriously been logging everything I eat, cut out pasta (white), bread, crisps and everything else that has a high fat and not so good content. I'm at the gym 5 nights a week, doing cardio and weights...and all I've lost in the last 3 weeks is 1 pound. I eat between 1200-1400 calories per day. I've lost a pound and only a pound after a massive amount of effort.....BUT I haven't gained in the 7 weeks I've been doing this, which according to the thyroid forum is impossible on this medication.

I'm down in the dumps as 1 pound is nothing compared to how I once was, but this is the new me...I have Graves, I need to deal with it. So I'll badger on losing a pound every three weeks, and eventually I'll get to my weight goal....might take a few years!!! Lol, but don't give up.

Oh I probably should mention I've also recently stopped smoking, which can (i think) also slow the metabolism, apparently my resting heart rate isn't as fast now as it was when I smoked.

Fuzzipeg

Sophannah2. Graves like Hashi is identified by antiibodies. I wonder if you could benefit from food allergy/ intolerance testing this was how I identified my hashi triggers. Doing this would probably be easier in the US because the tests we used, provided through a BANT registered nutritionist were made in the US. This probably is a more functional approach, they look for underlying causes rather than something as a stop gap. Something causes a body to make these antibodies and if it possible to reduce them like I have the hashi ones, I'm sure you would achieve some relief.

Any problem related to the thyroid is, in my view, about the very worst thing to get treated well.

Congratulation on giving up smoking.

jacquih2981

bluets2011 wrote: »

I'd love to hear more about your journey. I'm on T3 only. My diary is open. I haven't lost anything since I started. Doing low carb as well

A bit of saga really. Autoimmune runs in the family, i quit smoking in my 30s and gained around 6 st in 18 months which finally got me my diagnosis and treatment. I got T4 regularly felt cold and exhausted, my hair fell out and I gained 3 stone over the next 4 years. I finally got a trial on Armour and then had a little more energy and went on Atkins, lost 3 stone but was always cold and exhausted - so much I would sleep for 10-11 hours a night and still nod off mid afternoon. went back to eating carbs and all the weight came back but I wasn't constantly cold

Armour was scarce so I got T3 and only needed around 9-10 hours sleep a night. 18 months ago I got a Garmain HR do-dad and my resting heart rate was in the early to mid 40s and my hands would regularly go blue with cold. However being on T3 meant I stopped having the racing heart rate that I get with T4. I had enough energy to go to the gym so cracked on with cardio and noticed my resting heart rate creeping up to the mid 60s and I had more energy (my weight didn't change though, maybe a couple of pounds down) I got an injury and stopped the gym for a couple of months and my heart rate plummeted again to the 40s so when I recovered I got back into cardio and heart rate increased.

9 months ago I followed an exclusion diet (bloating, gas, horrendous heartburn and icky stuff) and discovered I was lactose intolerant. This has meant a complete change in diet and has thrown me for a loop - I lost 18 pounds, discovered coconut puddings and gain 18 pounds.

I do cardio and strength at the gym - cardio for the heart and weights for the bones (middle aged, lactose intolerant woman who is clumsy as heck - i don't need any of them kind of breaks!) For the last 19 days I have been recording on here and slowly increasing my steps (gone from 5k daily to 8k daily and working up to 10k by the end of the month). I have kept an eye on my calories and lost 7 pounds so far, I have now joined weight watchers so I can learn about nutrition and next month is where I start looking at my nutrition. My weight is going down - not fast but certainly in the right direction. I know me and I need to make small changes one at a time and once one is embedded start on the next one but above all in the very short time I have been here and recorded everything past my lips I have realised that my diet is nutritionally lacking and exercise makes me feel good. Oh and slow and steady is not what I want but, realistically, is what is going to happen

bluets2011

@jacquih2981 thank you for sharing your "saga" with me. I've just sent you a friend request. Maybe we can support each other. I've got my own saga too, mostly mental and hormonal issues but much better on T3 only. We are going to do it! Hashi or not

missuswife

jne79 wrote: »

I've had Hashimoto's since I was 21 (16 years). I was in the Navy at diagnosis and my weight, with a very defined, athletic body was 138 (at 5'6"). My heaviest post-Hashi's weight was 220. Anyway, I've tried SO many times to lose weight, have had a few successes and many failures with a lot of yo-yo weight along the way. I have 4 children and my weight has predictably inched up with each kid.

Recently, I discovered that intermittent fasting combined with calorie recording and ketosis has made me move past a point I haven't been to in 8 years. I'm at 181 right now. Previously (in the last 8 years), 193 was the best I could do. I have been losing steadily with IF for about 6 weeks now. This past week, I decided to add in an honest exercise routine and went to the gym 3 times. Total stall, plus a pound of gain.

At first I reminded myself that muscle weighs more than fat (even though 3 workouts logically haven't made me gain muscle weight). Then I remembered back over the last 8 years or so during many efforts to lose weight - including 2 times working with frustrated personal trainers that, no matter how hard they worked me and tweaked my diet, could not produce a pound of result. I thought of the summer I ate whistle clean paleo and did kettlebell swings religiously every day to no avail. The ONE time I've lost a significant amount of weight between children (50 lbs) I was eating low calorie/carb and only walking my dog and doing some yoga.

I've come to the conclusion that even a regular workout routine must be producing a lot of cortisol in my body that prevents me from losing weight. Has anyone else experienced this? I think I need to go back to what was working and maybe just try taking low impact walks to keep moving but not break too much of a sweat until I'm (hopefully) able to hit goal (155 lbs which is considered a normal weight for my height). This seems so counter-intuitive, but I guess following my body's patterns is the smartest thing to do right now.

missuswife

It's such a relief to read so many others having this problem. I also have hypothyroidism. I stay within calories but never lose weight. The only time I ever had success consistently losing weight was when I lived in a big city and walked everywhere. Proper exercise never worked, although I got fitter and stronger. It's so frustrating to always be the one eating a salad and never lose weight.

Lyrica7

Op you are on a T4 med only which could be your problem. What are your free T3 and free T4 levels? Many of us need Cytomel a T3 med because of poor conversion issues of T4 into T3. Check out those links I posted on why some don't do well on a T4 med only.