thyroid problems

lynndforbes

I have an underactive thyroid which makes it more difficult to lose weight. I also have a wheat intolerance has anyone had weight loss success with these problems. I feel like im getting know where losing 2lb only to put it back on within the week even though i am following a low fat diet.

harper16

Are you taking any medication for your thyroid, and do you use a food scale and count your calories?

kimny72

lynndforbes wrote: »

I have an underactive thyroid which makes it more difficult to lose weight. I also have a wheat intolerance has anyone had weight loss success with these problems. I feel like im getting know where losing 2lb only to put it back on within the week even though i am following a low fat diet.

Your weight will fluctuate all the time, if you are quickly losing and gaining 2 lbs over and over again that's probably just water weight.

Is your thyroid condition well controlled with medication?
How much weight are you trying to lose?
Are you consistently in a calorie deficit?
How do you measure out your portions?

cmriverside

^^What they said. Also, fat doesn't make you fat, it's about eating the right amount of calories. You need fat in your diet.

HeidiCooksSupper

"Underactive thyroid" is treated with synthroid to bring your thryroid levels back to normal. This is something a physician diagnoses through blood tests. If a "weight coach" of some sort tells you that your "underactive thyroid," which they have diagnosed without a blood test, is preventing you from losing weight it is just so much unscientific woo. I have half a thyroid (surgery removed the rest) and take a daily synthroid to keep my thyroid levels normal. When I consume fewer calories than I expend, I lose weight.

Low fat diets for weight loss reflect an older, now superseded understanding of how dietary fats work. A healthy diet requires reasonable consumption of fats, preferably mono- and polyunsaturated fats. As said above, fats don't make you fat. For more up-to-date information on fats, see https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/what-should-you-eat/fats-and-cholesterol and https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/2012/06/21/ask-the-expert-healthy-fats/

AnnPT77

I'd strongly suggest reading the thread linked below. It was written by a scientist who works in the thyroid disease realm, who is himself hypothyroid (surgically removed, so no thyroid gland at all, IIRC), and who sucessfully used MFP to lose weight then maintain that loss.

https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10767046/hypothyroidism-and-weight-management/

It's the straight story, from an experienced expert.

I'm severely hypothyroid, but properly medicated. I don't think it was any harder for me to lose weight than it is for someone without a thyroid problem . . . because it's not necessarily easy for anyone. We who are hypo just have a self-soothing "reason".

For weight loss, as others have said, you don't necessarily need low fat, you simply need to be eating somewhat fewer calories than you burn living your daily life. (Well-rounded nutrition while you do it would be a plus, from a health standpoint, as would some healthy cardiovascular/strength exercise . . . but weight is all about calories, particularly in the short run.)

If you're stressed about the scale moving up and down a couple of pounds as quickly as overnight, all while you're managing calories, I strongly suspect you're being mislead by water weight fluctuations, which are perfectly normal things even in a healthy body . . . and can definitely hide ongoing fat loss on the scale, for days or even sometimes weeks. With hypothyroidism, our water fluctuations can be a little more dramatic than for others, but it's still not fat, so still not worth stressing over. I don't have any food sensitivities like you do, but my understanding is that they, too, can make water weight fluctuations more dramatic and deceiving.

This article below would be good backround information for you, to put water fluctuations and other scale weirdness into its proper perspective, and reduce stress about it (ironically, stress also can increase water retention!):

https://physiqonomics.com/the-weird-and-highly-annoying-world-of-scale-weight-and-fluctuations

Patience and calorie management are your key issue, I think.

Best wishes!

lynndforbes

thank you to everyone for your support your replies have inspired me to carry on trying to lose weight,

sakurablossoms82

I have the same condition and I take medication for it. I always had the same mindset like it's too hard because I have this but since I really did put my mind to it and started tracking what I ate I have been losing weight ever since. Sometimes it's only 200 grams a week but it's something. This in combination with being vegetarian is sometimes a bit hard because I do use soy and such which seems to be the devil when you have this but do far its okay I guess.