Thyroid

nattymaccy

Newly diagnosed hypothyroid , menopausal. My recent weight loss has stalled . Is there any hope of rebooting it ? 😩

AnnPT77

I'm confident you can un-stall loss, but in order to try to figure things out, we'd need more information from you.

As background, I'm in menopause and am severely hypothyroid (medicated) myself, lost weight starting 10 years ago when those things were already in the picture, and have maintained a healthy weight for 9+ years since loss of 50-ish pounds.

For how long has your weight loss stalled? It takes 4-6 weeks on a given eating/activity regimen to see a useful trend of bodyweight, so shorter stalls are common and fairly meaningless, mostly about shifts in water retention. Water weight fluctuations can be a bit extra deceptive when hypothyroid.

I see that you've had an MFP account for quite a while, but how long have you been logging/tracking your food this time? What's your calorie goal, and your demographics (age, height, weight, activity level)? Do you exercise, and if so do you add and eat your exercise calories?

You mention a recent hypothyroidism diagnosis. Have you begun medication for that? Someone whose thyroid condition has been fully and properly medicated should lose weight pretty much like anyone else. It can take a few rounds of dosage increases and re-tests to reach that point, though. Until reaching that point, a person may require somewhat fewer calories than typical for their demographics, but research suggests the difference is smaller than many people would assume.

There's a good thread here about hypothyroidism and weight management, written by a guy who's a scientist in the field, himself hypothyroid, who lost weight by calorie counting. I recommend reading it. Here's the link:

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

Unlike a lot of things on the internet, it's solid, science-based information.

I feel confident you can reach a pattern of successful weight loss - I'm not the only hypothyroid woman in menopause who's done so here. It may be a bit of a process to figure out where the sticking points are and find that smooth path, but if you're willing to engage in some problem-solving, I think it can happen.

Wishing you the best, including long-term success!

spiriteagle99

As usual, Ann says it well. Once your meds are adjusted, which can take a few tries to get right, you should be able to lose weight again. I was in the same boat in my mid-40s. I've been taking levoxyl for the past 20+ years and my weight is under control. It did take a couple of tries before I figured out what I needed to do to lose the weight and keep it off, but I've been maintaining a 50+ pound loss for about 10 years now.

AnnPT77

https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/comment/48621535#Comment_48621535

Unless not personally deficient or needed based on well-rounded health assessment.

Just taking supplements because they're supposed to be good for us can be a bad plan. Selenium in particular has a low tolerable upper limit, meaning it's very easy to take enough - in addition to what we get from food - to have bad health consequences. Few people are deficient - at least in the US, and probably elsewhere in the developed world.

Blood levels of most of these things can be tested, and a professional can help us assess our needs in context of multiple health markers and conditions. In some cases, taking supplements will distort blood test results, so it's better to test before supplementing. I suspect OP will be seeing her doctor again because of re-testing thyroid to determine the proper dosage, so nutritional blood tests and possible supplements could be a good discussion point.

I wouldn't say a medical consult is essential for every single supplement, and I do use some supplements myself, including self-selected ones. But I think caution is appropriate for supplements that are easy to get too much of, like the selenium. Some OTC supplements have shockingly high doses of the active ingredients, besides. With some supplements, excess will be excreted quickly. Others build up in the body, potentially to risky levels.

I hate the phrase "do your own research", because it's so often used by people who haven't actually taken a balanced look at research, but instead have gone down some rabbit hole in the blogosphere. In the case of supplements, I do think a person considering them should at minimum check out respected mainstream sources to learn which supplements are relatively low risk, vs. which may have consequences in excess.

I've found the US NIH dietary supplement fact sheets a good example of that type of thing. Personally, I prefer the "for professionals" ones: They aren't confusingly technical IMO, and provide more extensive information and links about the underlying research evidence.

The full list is here:

https://ods.od.nih.gov/factsheets/list-all/