a hypothyroid seeking help

I have hypo too. I think that your calorie goals are set too low. Mine were at 1200 and I wasn't losing, I reset it to 1500 and now I'm steadily losing. I also take meds every day. Good luck!

I'm the same height as you. I'm also hypothyroid, but controlled w/meds. If your levels are in a good range, then having or not having hypothyroid shouldn't make a difference. I agree w/the previous poster that your calories are too low & your body is probably trying to slow its metabolism to hang onto the calories. I have mine set at 1200. I experimented w/not eating back ANY of my exercise calories (either stayed the same or barely lost anything), eating back ALL of my exercise calories (gained), but found that I lose the most when I just eat back my cardio(1-2 lbs/week). But if you're counting ALL the calories that MFP SAYS you're burning, then that's probably too much. Many people just record half of what the calculator recommends. But you should never go below 1200 calories on an ongoing basis.

I'm 5'11" and my hypo is controled with meds. And even though I'm not excerising like I should I'm still losing about a pound a week with a calorie limit of 1700. Think your meds might need to be upped and you need to eat more calories.

I have hashimotos which is a genetic disease that kills your thyroid … in other words I am hypothyroid. My physician told me that at the most my thyroid accounted for 20 lbs. When I became medicated I only lost 7 lbs so being hypothyroid doesn't cause as much weight gain as we wish it did .. only because we like to think we are heavy because of medical conditions beyond our control and if only the dosage or what not was correct the weight would magically melt away. Not True.

With that said my lovely daughter had a baby and in an effort to lose the baby fat she was eating very low calories. She plateaued hard. Only when she upped her calories did she start losing again. I realize that yes you need to eat less you expend to lose which is why calorie deficits are so beloved however your metabolism will slow down if you don't eat enough calories. I am no expert by any standard but I would say you should consider upping your calories especially considering you are exercising so much.


In defense of the hypothyroid causes weight gain camp, because I don't mean to be harsh regarding the at most 20 lbs can be blamed on thyroid, the decreased energy, lack of focus, lack of memory recall {which causes me to ramble on and on when talking because I lose my point and I try to find it while talking} can all contribute to weight gain because you don't have the energy or focus and are too scattered to keep track of what is going in the mouth or what energy is being expended. Plus there is that lovely rage that happens when you forget to eat for a day. I literally will go without eating for days or drinking water because I forget. And I am obese so lack of eating is obviously not causing me to melt away. I am losing and eating twice what you are eating calorie wise. And not exercising because on top of the hypo lack of energy effect I also have degenerative spine disease so any impact, even walking, kills and oh yeah arthritis. I look forward to losing enough that my knees don't hurt as much and I can walk for exercise.

And although I am losing fairly well at the moment I can also say that I have never had real problems losing but I tend to plateau very regularly… about every 10 lbs I get stuck for a few weeks… and gain very easily so as long as I can wait out a plateau instead of getting discouraged I hope to lose a substantial amount this time. You might want to consider how your body holds weight. I know that the 2-3 lbs above and over a ten lb mark are brutal for me because it takes almost a month to lose those 4-6 lbs but I can lose the other 4-6 in a couple of weeks. In other words I know for a fact I can lose 10 lbs in a span of 6 weeks and have done so for 30-40 lbs in the past but by the time I hit that last plateau I get so discouraged I start eating and balloon up. I also need to very carefully watch my sodium intake. Other bodies work differently.