Hypothyroidism

72sxrmndfs

I’ve starting to loose all the bloating due to hypothyroidism. Everyone is telling me I look so much smaller now. I can see and feel the difference myself. I feel like I weight way less but, every single time I step on a scale i weight so much. It’s making me feel defeated…

AnnPT77

Hello,

I can understand feeling discouraged, but you ARE making progress. This is a process and it takes time, patience and persistence. Don't give up.

If you may still have some bloating to lose, consider taking some careful tape measurements of various parts of your body, giving attention to being able to repeat measuring the exact spots again in a month or so. You may see progress that way if there's more bloating to lose, even if the scale is stalled for a bit.

From the way your post is written, I'm tempted to assume that you're in the early stages of treatment for hypothyroidism. Is that right? If so, it takes time to dial in the right dosages of medication (weeks to maybe even months, being honest). That your bloating is reduced suggests there's progress, even though it may not be all that you've hoped for.

It looks like you just joined MFP around 4 days ago. Had you been calorie tracking before that?

I don't intend to be mean when I say this, and I'm speaking as someone who's severely hypothyroid herself: It's easy to blame any weight gain or excess weight on the hypothyroidism. While the health condition can slow loss down, it's not as big an impact as many people assume (or hope). Just getting it properly treated probably won't be enough to create a meaningful weight loss rate all by itself.

There are many of us here, me included, who lost weight while hypothyroid, using MFP. That means getting a calorie goal, sticking pretty close to that goal on average for 4-6 weeks or one whole menstrual cycle if you have those, then using average weekly weight loss over that whole time period to personalize the calorie goal based on that experience. When I did that, my weight loss rate became quite predictable going forward. It does take commitment, patience and work, but it's achievable.

There is a good thread here about hypothyroidism and weight management. It was written by a guy who is a scientist in the hypothyroidism field, himself hypothyroid, who lost weight by calorie counting. Unlike a lot of clickbait nonsense on the web, it's solid, science based information. I recommend reading the thread. It's here:

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

Personally, I lost from class 1 obese to healthy weight at age 59-60 while severely hypothyroid (but fully medicated), and have stayed at a healthy weight for 9+ years since . . . after about 30 previous years of overweight/obesity. The quality of life improvement has been very much worth the effort involved, which honestly was less extreme that I'd anticipated, once I committed to the process.

Hypothyroidism that's not fully medicated may mean a person needs slightly fewer calories for any given weight loss rate than a similar person without this health condition. Fully and properly treated, there should be no difference at all, though superficially similar people's calorie needs always do differ somewhat even without hypothyroidism in the picture at all. That 4-6 week/1 menstrual cycle trial period is important for everyone for that reason. We're all unique individuals, so there's always variation.

Yes, untreated or under-treated hypothyroidism can make loss somewhat harder, but that's true of many kinds of health conditions or life circumstances. Usually, there are ways around, over, through or otherwise past any such bumps in the road, and people here do usually try to help with those when possible.

I'm cheering for you to succeed: The results are worth the effort!