Exercise and hypothyroidism confusion

slieber
slieber Posts: 765 Member
edited November 15 in Social Groups
I am hearing and reading so much conflicting advice regarding the kind of exercises I should be doing to keep up my stamina. I have pretty much given up trying to lose weight. But I would like to have more stamina. I have read on the one hand that cardio exercise will make my hypothyroidism worse. I have also read that it will make it better. The same with weight lifting. Does anybody know what the real deal is regarding exercising with hypothyroidism?
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Replies

  • chunt87
    chunt87 Posts: 161 Member
    Do not give up. Do not give up do not give up. As far as exercise until your stuff is straightened out do what you can, even if that means a walk on the treadmill, or just a lifting session.

    Here's the short and dirty version from my understanding with what I have been through. You will not lose weight until the levels are right-- I didnt. I sure as heck gained weight but it was unavoidable. But you will lose body fat, you will, I promise. Since I did and still do heavy cardio you may feel icky for the first 15-20 minutes of a session but after that feel like you can go on for days.

    My metabolism as confirmed by the MDs stopped burning the calories like it should at the rate of a normal healthy adult woman. I think the weight gain could have been much worse if I stopped exercising alltogether.
  • lindsey1979
    lindsey1979 Posts: 2,395 Member
    What I've found works for me is weight lifting and high volume but low intensity cardio (like lots of walking/hiking -- but no running or anything more intense). I weight lift 3x week, walk a lot (I have a treadmill desk) and do a weekly HIIT session of hill sprints. I will say that I find that I can get run down more than the average person so I'll take a rest or deload week more often than most people (usually every 6 weeks or so). I've also found that I don't need the deload/rest weeks as often when I'm following a carb cycling program (high carb on lifting days). Presumably this is because the high carbs on lifting days (in addition to my protein thresholds) helps with recovery.
  • ElizabethKalmbach
    ElizabethKalmbach Posts: 1,415 Member
    I also lift weights and utilize a lot of low intensity/high volume cardio. I spend 30-40 minutes on the treadmill (fast walk) every morning and do free-weights about 2 times a week. Doing so generally puts me at about a pound a week of weight loss, assuming I'm watching what I eat and keeping up with my thyroid supplements.
  • slieber
    slieber Posts: 765 Member
    Elizabeth, that sequence of exercises you just described looks very logical to me.
    To all, I spoke to my doctor about this question yesterday. She told me that because my body does not make t3, when I increase exercise, it does not increase the metabolism the way it would in a normal person. She told me that as I increase exercise, if I start feeling bad to call her, make an appointment, do the blood work, and she will change the level of t3 to match the level of exercise.
    Now it makes sense why I would increase exercise, and then suddenly collapse with exhaustion.
    but your sequence of cross training, Elizabeth, looks like the most logical one that I can use. Thank you.
  • Camilleathome
    Camilleathome Posts: 99 Member
    Any ideas for weight workouts that would work without weights? I live in the middle of nowhere and do not have access to a gym until I can move to the city
  • Fuzzipeg
    Fuzzipeg Posts: 2,301 Member
    Has anyone seen the BBC - truth about fat? There is a new idea to increase your fat burning capacity. It was said, a series of 7, 2 minute exercise which pushes you, so a persons personal state of health is taken into account, with one minute rest in between causes the fat burning rate to continue rather than tail off at the end of the period of exercise.
  • slieber
    slieber Posts: 765 Member
    I use interval training when I do cardio, which is that version. But if the body doesn't have the hormone to up the metabolism, it will still need to be added artificially when the body needs it.

    As for exercise without weights, there are loads of idea out there you can use that are good. Or you can get yourself a small set of weights youse at home. I don't have them because I am not one who likes to work out at home.
  • Camilleathome
    Camilleathome Posts: 99 Member
    I hate working out at home but I live in the middle of nowhere right now so have no choice
  • SuzyH
    SuzyH Posts: 196 Member
    slieber wrote: »
    Elizabeth, that sequence of exercises you just described looks very logical to me.
    To all, I spoke to my doctor about this question yesterday. She told me that because my body does not make t3, when I increase exercise, it does not increase the metabolism the way it would in a normal person. She told me that as I increase exercise, if I start feeling bad to call her, make an appointment, do the blood work, and she will change the level of t3 to match the level of exercise.
    Now it makes sense why I would increase exercise, and then suddenly collapse with exhaustion.
    but your sequence of cross training, Elizabeth, looks like the most logical one that I can use. Thank you.

    Thanks for this info and encouragement! I love working out, but then I get to a point where I get sooooo tired and the everyday stresses get to me and I just crash. Then I end up taking a few days off to rest. My dr is really good and I have another blood test scheduled next month. I also need to eat gluten free and only clean foods. This is so hard to do when it isn't the "norm" in society. Hate feeling like the odd man out (or odd gal out!), but it makes a difference in how I feel. I'm going to mention the exercise to the doc the next time I go in. Thanks!
  • languageSteph
    languageSteph Posts: 25 Member
    I also lift weights and utilize a lot of low intensity/high volume cardio. I spend 30-40 minutes on the treadmill (fast walk) every morning and do free-weights about 2 times a week. Doing so generally puts me at about a pound a week of weight loss, assuming I'm watching what I eat and keeping up with my thyroid supplements.

    what supps do u take?

  • elizabethroyce10
    elizabethroyce10 Posts: 37 Member
    I like what people have to say/ I agree with Chunt87 completely. I have an identical story. I think that we have to work harder to lose/ :( It is so unfair but that is what it is... very easy to gain and very very hard to tke it off. I found that when i got pissed and stubborn and just would not give up it helped. and even when i was not losing weight i would lose inches... It is hard but the other option.... Just never give up.
  • tamaradwyer
    tamaradwyer Posts: 16 Member
    edited April 2015
    Exercise is probably the only thing keeping me healthy! 8 years into this journey ob the hypothyroid rollercoaster. I start each day walking the dogs and mix in some cardio and/or weights a few times a week at lunch or after work. Overall I'm pretty healthy, but when my fingers are blue and I am so cold and exhausted, I need the movement to keep my blood flowing.

    Consider that 20 minutes of gentle arm movements and leg lifts is a good start, and build very gradually. Establish form by moving without weights or resistance bands, then add on as your muscle and balance improve.

    Don't push to exhaustion. Don't overdo.
    Do keep your muscles working and engaged, because that muscle mass is so important as we age.

    I just found this site today and think it's full of wonderful routines - by the way, "bodyweight" is the new fancy term for "calisthenics" if you're pushing 50 like I am :)
    http://darebee.com/
  • grammyhoyt
    grammyhoyt Posts: 19 Member
    I too am having difficulty losing with this thyroid problem, and find it very difficult to get rid of even one pound!
  • allaboutthecake
    allaboutthecake Posts: 1,535 Member
    Getting your levels to match how you feel is critical. For that matter, do see your doctor & have them treat symptomatically.
  • lisemcl
    lisemcl Posts: 9 Member
    Despite having being diagnosed for 7 years, I wasn't aware of this! Treatment in the UK can be patchy and aside from putting me on levothyroxine, and a doctor doing an antibody test when I wanted to try for a baby (4 years after diagnosis!) I've never really had any medical advice on my thyroid.
    It certainly explains why a strenuous couple of weeks in the gym can cause me to completely crash. I'm going to be more careful from now on!
  • slieber
    slieber Posts: 765 Member
    I have so far managed one major gym workout and three really good ballet classes. Sleeping pattern was a bit disrupted but I managed a good night's sleep last night. So far, so good. I am going to try for a minor workout tomorrow and a major ballet class on Saturday. If I get that class in, that'll be the first time in a LONG time I managed to get all my scheduled ballet classes in without a crash!
  • allaboutthecake
    allaboutthecake Posts: 1,535 Member
    Any ideas for weight workouts that would work without weights? I live in the middle of nowhere and do not have access to a gym until I can move to the city

    Missed this first time around...if you want "weighted" excercise w/o weights, use your own body weight for resistance training: pushups, planks, jumps, high jumps, wall sits/squats, lunges, that sort of thing. You can use heavy object to move around without having to "lift' ---think tossing tires, boulders, large pieces of wood. Look around your house/yard, see what you've got. Wear gloves unless your item is relatively free of creepy crawlers.

    For cardio, I love to bike. In your area, wherever you are, out in the middle of nowhere? I bet you could bike easy. Keep your tires from going flat, carry a cell ph with you if you have one, wear a helmet. Bring a water bottle. There's your cardio! :)
  • SigridKayaAndersen
    SigridKayaAndersen Posts: 4 Member
    Hi there...Im also diagnosed with hypotyroism and taking meds since a few months. I started following the Freeletics program and found myself losing weight despites building up muscels..very hard but amazing program can recommend it.
  • qkcam
    qkcam Posts: 67 Member
    these are great suggestions about exercise.. i needed this! i have the same cycle i do and then i crash.. i am having labs drawn this week. i bet ft3 is low...in a major crash now.. and saw an acupnturist he told me not to exericse much at all but i "NEED" to exercise if that makes sense?
  • Fuzzipeg
    Fuzzipeg Posts: 2,301 Member
    There are some stages when forcing yourself to exercise is actually counter productive. I second your acupuncturist because they know more than we ordinary mortals. If your t3 is low as you suspect it means you do not have enough of the "spark", for want of a better word, to make exercise work, all you will do is push yourself further into a deeper crash.

    I know how frustrating it is, not being able to get going, not feeling well. Please take this as a hug, encouragement to give yourself time to recover, may be only a few more days for things to start to improve. I always feel worse when I have to see my doctor and when I have to go for testing. If a dose increase is required you will know soon.

    In the mean time, do what you can, try not to push it.
  • TsamIam
    TsamIam Posts: 34 Member
    I'm confused. I guess I thought once my thyroid levels were "normal" again that I wouldn't feel so tired. I used to sleep the weekend away with 5 hour-at-a-time naps. My TSH was at 80.15 then (T3 = normal, T4 = low, TSH = High). After a month of levothyroxine, my TSH is now 2.64 which my doctor says is normal, but... I will still feel tired at times. I know it could be stress and other stuff, but every now and then I will still spend 12 hours of a Saturday sleeping during the day because I just can't do anything else. I do get up and make myself eat, but I'm still tired.
    I mention being tired to my doctor, but I also just had a pulmonary embolism so I feel like the tiredness complaint gets lost in the noise of that. I'm trying to lose some weight too, to prove it's not being a few lbs overweight or a lack of exercise. I have felt a tiny bit more energetic, but... heck it could be a placebo effect just from knowing I'm taking some meds.

    Have you guys felt significantly better once your thyroid levels were normal again?
  • lindsey1979
    lindsey1979 Posts: 2,395 Member
    edited May 2015
    TsamIam wrote: »
    I'm confused. I guess I thought once my thyroid levels were "normal" again that I wouldn't feel so tired. I used to sleep the weekend away with 5 hour-at-a-time naps. My TSH was at 80.15 then (T3 = normal, T4 = low, TSH = High). After a month of levothyroxine, my TSH is now 2.64 which my doctor says is normal, but... I will still feel tired at times. I know it could be stress and other stuff, but every now and then I will still spend 12 hours of a Saturday sleeping during the day because I just can't do anything else. I do get up and make myself eat, but I'm still tired.
    I mention being tired to my doctor, but I also just had a pulmonary embolism so I feel like the tiredness complaint gets lost in the noise of that. I'm trying to lose some weight too, to prove it's not being a few lbs overweight or a lack of exercise. I have felt a tiny bit more energetic, but... heck it could be a placebo effect just from knowing I'm taking some meds.

    Have you guys felt significantly better once your thyroid levels were normal again?

    Yes and no. For quite a few of us (myself included), it ultimately ended up being more than just a thyroid issue. After about 10 years of suspecting a thyroid issue and seeing several docs, I finally found a doc that looked at the entire picture of my symptoms and not just TSH or even just thyroid. He did a bunch of tests based on my symptoms (fatigue was one of my major ones - I slept hours and hours like you describe too and still didn't feel rested most of the time). In addition to the thyroid stuff (TSH, Free T3, Free T4 and antibodies), he also tested for liver enzymes, adrenals (DHEA, cortisol, etc.), blood sugar issues (AC1) and common vitamin and mineral deficiencies (D, Magnesium, Iron, Iodine, etc.).

    He told me that testing for adrenals was particularly important because if your adrenals weren't functioning properly (which is common for many with a long untreated thyroid problem), you can even initially feel worse starting thyroid meds. This is even in the Physician's Desk Reference, but a shocking number of docs and endos don't check for this at all.

    For me, after everything was said and done, in addition to the thyroid, I had low DHEA and Vitamin D (both of which are super common for women with Hashi's) as well as magnesium deficiency (very common in the population in general) and insulin resistance at prediabetic levels. The last was the big shock to me as even at my heaviest, I was only 30 lbs overweight, and on a 5'9" frame it put me in only in overweight category -- I couldn't believe I had pre-diabetes. He told me that this isn't that uncommon for people with long untreated thyroid issues because like the adrenals, this is one way the body attempts to compensate for the underperforming thyroid (or so they think as they often see them together).

    So, it's totally possible that one or more of these things may be causing you fatigue as well. I know low Vitamin D and low DHEA in particular have the symptom of fatigue. Also, if you have Hashi's (which is the most common cause for hypothyroidism), it's possible that you actually need more thyroid meds because some of your active hormones (especially T3) are being blocked by your antibodies. That's why it's so important to also test for BOTH Free T3 and Free T4 -- TSH doesn't always show the whole picture -- in addition to looking at your actual clinical symptoms.

    Here's a good article that describes the issue: http://www.thyroid-info.com/articles/woliner.htm

    So, for me, I had to get all of these things sorted out until I felt "normal" again -- we semi-jokingly will refer to these things here as getting your personal stars aligned. The thyroid meds alone helped, but I didn't get full symptom alleviation until the other things were worked out too. I also found personally that I do much better on a primal style diet. Dairy seems to be fine for me, but something in grains, especially the highly processed/refined type, just impact me. When I stop eating them and focus on primal foods, I feel a lot better overall, including sleeping a lot better. Occasional oatmeal seems to be okay (pure oatmeal is gluten free), but anything beyond that and I just start to feel really tired, run down, lethargic, bloated, etc. I suspect it's because those foods trigger the Hashi's or other things like a low level gluten intolerance that ultimately result in the fatigue and other symptoms.
  • qkcam
    qkcam Posts: 67 Member
    thank you fuzzipeg. i am learning what the dr's say is "normal" sometimes isn't normal. and what works for some may not work for all. I changed thyroid meds in oct and a month later had horrible diaherra, and although my labs didnt look much different that previous i still had the bad D just the same.. i mean horrible and my cycles stopped.. finally 6months later i went back to naturethroid at the same dose as the other meds and 4 weeks into this the D has stopped and feels like cycle wants to start again..time will tell but i also am in a crash..so i will be really curious to see what my levels look like now! thank you for the kindness-
  • katyconn123
    katyconn123 Posts: 24 Member
    Hi I too have hypothyroidism, diagnosed over 2yrs ago, I slept constantly, so so tired felt I was letting my family down as some days couldn't even prepare a meal for them, since Feb this yr I have been leading a healthy active lifestyle. And I did feel so much better so it I've lost 11lbs but this wk I've hit a crash, got my bloods done it came back they are off so increased my doze of levothyrocine from 100 to 125 go back in six wks to get checked again, I also get 3 monthly bit b 12 injections , I have a lump also on my neck got scan they are unsure, now to go to ear nose and throat hospital for check up, I am not going to give in I am still ging to try and get out walking as much as possible even though I was doing boot camp for 4 wks I think I may have just overdone it , I rest but I definitely will get back to it , my thoughts are it's better to be doing light exercise than none at all , good luck with your journey everyone x
  • ElizabethKalmbach
    ElizabethKalmbach Posts: 1,415 Member

    what supps do u take?

    I'm on 137mcg of levothyroxine and 5000iu of vitamin D per day. I also take magnesium and potassium supplements, because my last set of blood work showed that they were lower than the standard range. I am on B12 by injection 2x/month because I have some form of pernicious anemia as well. Of course ALL OF THESE THINGS make you feel tired if they are low. I never would have nailed them all down without a blood panel.
  • Fuzzipeg
    Fuzzipeg Posts: 2,301 Member
    I wish for all British and European members that we were able to achieve a full blood panel. How can we hope for this when reasonable doctors requests for t3 to be tested is deemed too expensive by the hospital lab being used? Penny wise £ and Euro foolish. How many of us have been diminished by unsatisfactory testing/treatment? Some of us are unable to live the life they wanted.
  • ElizabethKalmbach
    ElizabethKalmbach Posts: 1,415 Member
    You may be able to pay for these things out of pocket from an independent lab. I know in the States, such a thing can be done for around $120 US. If you've been feeling low for a while, though the testing is expensive, it can be entirely worth it.
  • CSARdiver
    CSARdiver Posts: 6,252 Member
    slieber wrote: »
    I am hearing and reading so much conflicting advice regarding the kind of exercises I should be doing to keep up my stamina. I have pretty much given up trying to lose weight. But I would like to have more stamina. I have read on the one hand that cardio exercise will make my hypothyroidism worse. I have also read that it will make it better. The same with weight lifting. Does anybody know what the real deal is regarding exercising with hypothyroidism?

    Exercise will not make thyroid conditions worse. Even light cardio is tremendously effective - simply walking 30mins/day has numerous health benefits and will aid in building stamina.

    Much of this is a mental game, one which you can will yourself out of. Make small goals initially that are achievable and break them. Continue to build upon these goals and raise the bar - breaking previously established barriers and see how far it takes you.

    Regarding testing in the EU there are certain laws inhibiting HCPs from testing unnecessarily. You can work with them to identify blood panels which would be most helpful to you and you can pay for the tests out of pocket. This may help you diagnose what it really going on. That's the problem with thyroid conditions - the symptoms are too general and non-specific.
  • Fuzzipeg
    Fuzzipeg Posts: 2,301 Member
    Sorry, brain fog, I've read, pushing ones body can cause t3's to be "used up", so the body is running on empty. Clinical info. not bro science.

    As for the testing unnecessarily. If the only test permitted is TSH which is reduced when taking t4 it is obvious the numbers will drop. Yes, one can pay for these tests but many people are not in a position to pay for these tests. If you obtain the appropriate kit from a reputable lab, who do you ask to draw the sample when the practice refuses to help. If you do get past these issues and your results do substantiate your argument for a change in medication there is no certainty even after this personal outlay they will provide anything different.
  • CSARdiver
    CSARdiver Posts: 6,252 Member
    http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22450344

    This is one of the few clinical studies regarding T3. Note that the control group consists of athletes, so no correlation to general population, but interesting in the short term.

    T3 will be used up in cases of extreme exertion (75-90% effort). Note that this is only a small factor in the hormone balance as all hormones will be out of balance in the short term following periods of extreme exertion.

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