What are your stats? TDEE, BMR?

What everyone says in the regular MFP forums: you have to be super-strict about your eating, weighing everything, and guessing on the high side. Drink water like it was your job (my favorite maxim ever).

I'm 5'6" at 157, BF% 30, low thyroid. Things are going really slowly this time, but I just have to keep on. I have a Fitbit (highly recommended for determining your *actual* TDEE), and since I've started going by its estimate of how much I should eat every day (as opposed to TDEE-20% or MFP's recommendation), I've both felt better and seen the scale move more regularly. (That was moving, btw, from ~1500+exercise calories to 2000+sometimes exercise calories.)

What everyone says in the regular MFP forums: you have to be super-strict about your eating, weighing everything, and guessing on the high side. Drink water like it was your job (my favorite maxim ever).

I'm 5'6" at 157, BF% 30, low thyroid. Things are going really slowly this time, but I just have to keep on. I have a Fitbit (highly recommended for determining your *actual* TDEE)

^^ This.

All I can really say is I am on the same plateau as you. I haven't moved the scales since I started weight training back in the fall, and only a few articles of clothing are looser. I train hard, but I know that if I want to see a significant change (i.e., that 28% BF of jiggle I see every morning) I'm going to have to bite the bullet and

A. actually buy a calorie tracker. My TDEE could be way off from all the calculators' estimates, and I should probably invest in a Wirthings or FitBit
B. weigh EVERYTHING that goes into my mouth. I still am very lazy about bread ("Oh, I just had 1 slice" even if it was a bigger slice than the recipe allows for), cooked meals from other people, etc.

If you're doing both of these things, I would say just wait (or weight...? hehe, I love puns). Women especially can hold around 10-12lbs of water weight over their monthly cycle (and maybe even more if you're lifting regularly), so even if you're losing fat, you won't see it on the scale for some time.

Keep up what you're doing, try to hit your protein and step levels everyday, and DON'T STRESS. Eventually things will shift. Sometimes the body needs to take its damn diva time to drop that weight like it's hot.

I've been losing pretty slowly over the last couple of months since I've been lifting, but my clothes are all getting looser, so I'm happy with that. Like Diane, I also have a Fitbit so knowing what my TDEE is greatly helps in figuring out how much I should eat. The less often that I go out to eat, too, the better since I log more accurately (and yes, I weigh EVERYTHING that I can).

No loss on the scale may also be due to the times in which you are weighing yourself. First thing in the morning for me isn't always when I'm at my lightest (case in point - I weighed myself on Sunday morning and got 188. Weighed again first thing Monday morning and get 194. Weighed in at about 7pm last night after dinner and got 189). So, screw the scale. Measure your body fat and inches lost. It will make you go less crazy.

Are you currently using a food scale and logging everything (even weekends, holidays, condiments, etc)?

What are your macro settings (in grams)?

I feel the pain here, I don't have any issues, perfectly functioning thyroid and all that. But I have to be strict with my nutrition or I will just put on weight no matter how much effort I put in at the gym. Although as I am actively trying to lose weight to drop into a lower weight class I have been weighing myself more regularly and have found that TOM add 1.5-2kg over the week then its gone again and morning after a cheat meal is always a good 1-1.5kg then its gone the next day.

So my advice is unless you want to compete in a sport with a weight class don't worry too much about the scale weight, unless you tell everyone you see your weight no one will know. If your measurements are going down eventually the scale will catch up and make sure you are consuming enough dietary fats for hormone support

First off don't stress...that is inherently bad for scale weight...cortisol levles raise with stress causing water retention which mask weight loss, then you stress...and around and around you go.

2nd choose great strength gains or weight loss. I found 3-4 months in I was stalling on my lifts and asked in Eat Train progress what should I do...Sidesteel told me choose your priority...weight loss or plate gains...because unfortunately when you are in a 15-20% deficet you wont make as many plate gains as TDEE-5-10% or maintenance.

I did choose weight loss...stayed with TDEE-15% which was about 1700 calories a day and on average lose 3/4lb a week. I have gone weeks without losing too...4 weeks max and then I would lose consistently 1-1.5lbs a week...or a big whoosh...I just keep going and usually stay away from the scale when I see that crap happening.

http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/fat-loss/of-whooshes-and-squishy-fat.html


AS well if you choose weight you have to log meticulously, food scale, choosing the correct entries etc. And if you continue to lift watch your macros...protien then fats then carb. Make sure you are getting in 1gram of protien for every lb of LBM..which can be hard sometimes...I am about 23% BF which means 120g of protien a day...

If you choose strength gains do a smaller deficet and stay away from the scale....use a tape measure and pics to track progress. I even went to the point of choosing one of those websites to track decrease in BF%...I didn't believe the number but it showed the decrease based on measurment.

As girlie said scale weight is something you see...no one else and chances are you don't look like you weigh what you weigh...

Chin up, be patient, don't stress...and use other things for measuring success. As I mentioned tape measure, pics, clothing, BF% even to the point of using the weight going up on the bar on any lift as a measure of success...

Glad you found out about the TSH! Hopefully you and your doctor can get that back under control and you can start seeing more from your hard work!

I have recently done some reading on the fact that BMR calculators may not be completely accurate for those with low thyroid, or thyroid issues due to metabolic slow down caused by this disorder. Given the fact that I have been struggling for a couple months, I would tend to agree with this idea. I read that sometimes our BMR could be as low as 300-400 calories less than the average person. That is a BIG difference.

After reading this, getting tired of no weight moving on the scale, I decided I needed to do something about it. My solution was to add in more cardio. Starting last week, instead of my normal 2 mile walk at 2mph, I also added in an evening walk for 2 miles at a rate of 3mph a couple times a week. I seen a difference on the scale.

I have lost inches with weight training. I look better, clothes fit better but it doesn't seem as satisfying as that number on the scale AND my mid section wasn't decreasing much at all. This week after adding in that extra cardio, which results in an additional 200-250 cal burn for me, as well as the after burn, its made a difference of a 2in loss in the midsection as well as 2lbs on the scales. I'll take it. LOL.

My endo, thankfully, agrees that TSH is just a number compared to a group of numbers from others with an estimated range of what is normal. She uses the numbers as well as my symptoms to determine what is the best dosage.

I think if you are still having symptoms of being really tired, or seem colder than others, then your thyroid is still running on the slower range of things and the only way to overcome that on the scales is to eat less or exercise more. Obviously you don't want to cut in to your BMR too much, especially without an accurate way of determining the BMR for a person with hypothyroidism, so the better solution is to exercise more.

For me, I had to finally give up on the idea of having a bodybuilder shape at the moment, and accept that I can only do what I can do with the body I have. This said, I can't build great deals of muscle and lose weight. So I have switched my focus more on to getting that number on the scale down more, and retaining LBM and then as I get closer to my goal weight, examine where I am at, and adjust.

I am 43
5'8
223.4 (started at 248.8)
Goal is 170
Graves Disease/PCOS
I fluctuate every few years from hypo/hyper/normal. It is truly never ending. LOL.

Hi amethyst that all makes a lot of sense. I do a lot of cardio though. I run an average of 40 minutes a day, sometimes more, and bike and walk a lot that I don't record. I am very active. That is why I was originally dx with hashis - my doctor *believed me* that I was this active, ate well and yet was suddenly gaining crazy amounts of weight. My TSH was never higher than 3.5 but a physical exam and ultrasound of my thyroid triggered treatment. I had other symptoms like weak fingernails and hair and a very low BBT.

I was almost 270 pounds when I started taking Synthroid and am now around 218 with a GW of somewhere in the 170-180 range.

With the exercise I feel like my body is fairly resistant to quick weight gains, but loss feels impossible suddenly. Dr. called in an increase in synthroid so we'll see what happens next.

I am never sure about fatigue symptoms. I have a crazy job where I regularly miss a day or two of sleep and I have terrible sleep habits otherwise. So who knows. I'm sure that is part of the problem....

Funtimes.

I feel ya. It sucks all the way around. I also added in front squats, which seem to be helping inches in my mid section go down. Overall I am happy with the way things are going but my stomach is a never ending story. LOL.