It took me all of 2013 to lose 20 lbs. My endo says that b/c I take Synthroid (88mcg), I can lose weight just like anyone else. Yes, I lost, but really, really slowly.

I ate TDEE - 20%. I tried eating more, and stopped losing.

It's taken me about 11 months to lose 21lbs. The first several months, I was undermedicated, so that made it harder.

I second the suggestion to have your RMR tested directly- it's super helpful information.

The other big thing that has helped me is taking a closer look at my nutrition, and working with my Dr to address some nutritional deficiencies so that my medicine could work optimally.

It's a slow road. Still possible to lose weight! I'm 5 5", currently 177, and my current maintenance calories are around 1950/day. I aim for 350-500 cal/day deficit, but consider it a win if I stay under 1850 on days when I'm especially hungry.

I am at maintenance right now, but I feel like my metabolism, even when I'm properly medicated is just slower than normal. I am on Armour, and feel great - my main lingering symptom is being cold 24/7. That being said, the meds can never 100% replace what a healthy thyroid does.

My baseline maintenance calories are currently 1300 (I am 5'3" and very small framed) - I eat back all of my exercise calories on days I do exercise (I use an HRM for cardio and a fitbit to estimate general calorie burn all day). MFP initially set my maintenance baseline to 1,450, which I tried for 5 weeks. Even though I am the food-weighing/portion control/exercise measuring FREAK, I gained up to two pounds each week for those 5 weeks. I gained a little/slowly on 1400 as well. I may try 1350 in a few weeks and see how that goes.

I would love to have my RMR measured - I think I will look into that. It would be interesting to see where I fall vs. the average person my size, vs. MFP's recommendations.

Everybody is different, and I don't think it is possible to lose weight unless you are optimally medicated. But that being said, I think hypo metabolisms are just a little slower than everyone else's, unfortunately.

My endo told me to "eat like a bird," so I guess lowering my calories is the way to go. I just need to be patient, right?

This list has seen me snark this before...my endo told me he's also hypo, same #s as me. Yet, he doesn't take anything for it and just "pushes through" - my point being that endos are sadly not the reliable source of wisdom that they damned well ought to be.

The directions to you were ridiculously unclear.

See, this is a great example of "everybody's different." I had the complete opposite reaction to this. I thought "she's so lucky to have an endo who understands, rather than dismissing her valid concerns." Every 3 months, my endo tells me I can lose weight just like everybody else. Meanwhile, I've been eating like a bird since November 2012, and I haven't even lost a dress size. I started at 1,200 gross (I'm really short, and had a starting BMI of 28). Now I net 1,250 (1,400 gross), and I get snark in my news feed about "certain people aren't eating enough."

Before I was diagnosed w/ Hashi's, I gained 20 lbs. in what felt like an instant. My body (and mind) felt foreign. "Eating like a bird" (and Synthroid) helped me feel like me again.

YMMV, and I hope no one has to eat as little as I do. It ain't fun, but the alternative was (for me) way worse. Now that I've lost the weight, I've changed my focus to getting stronger. Being so patient for such a long, long time taught me that I'm already stronger than I ever gave myself credit for.

I see how you mean, and *I* wasn't very clear myself :embarassed: What irked me was the lack of clarity as to what "like a bird" means. When your metabolism's low, there's so little room for error that I think it deserves quantification - and for that matter, measurement.

Her endo's response was way better than what you got, agreed. What I just don't get is why they aren't uniformly *measuring* and giving fact-based, useful support. I mean, you would hope that we'd all automatically get RMR and an offer for referral to a nutritionist to work with the results, you know? Endos KNOW metabolism is affected, so the collective lack of helpfulness aggravates me no end.
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ETA: on a more cheerful and YMMV note, I net 1310/day (eating back exercise cals). 1200 was gonna get someone hurt - if I didn't freeze & hibernate to death first :bigsmile:

I'm still being tested but feel much better on 100 mcg. I can exercise which would have been impossible to begin with. I'm gaining weight on 1200 cals plus some exercise cals though. My weight had stabilised at about 20 pounds overweight. So not sure what to do. I can't help but think that eating as I was was borderline hypo and continuing to exercise is the way forward. I wasn't overweight when younger but ate alot of calories .

I had my RMR tested at a university hospital's exercise physiology research lab. If you're trying to find a place that will do the direct breath measurement type of test, as opposed to the bodpod method (where they estimate based on body composition, which can be substantially off for hypo folks.)

I love reading all of these success stories! I am in the same position as the OP - we need to remember there is hope :flowerforyou: