Exercise and Stalled Weight Loss with Hypothyroidism

jacquih2981 wrote: »

I have autoimmune hypothyroidism and take T3. I have a Garmain HR do-dad (I think that is the technical term ...) and I have found that when I go to the gym regularly my resting heart rate is up in the 60s and I burn around 100 calories an hour whilst asleep. However when I miss my 1hr cardio and strength on a Saturday morning for 2 sessions my HR seems to drop to the 50s and if I miss a month my resting HR drops into the 40s. My calorie consumption whilst asleep also drops to around 700 calories an hour.

I have lost weight before on a carb free diet, however without the exercise and carbs I have felt so cold and tired. I have started this journey of diet and exercise on 1 May and have so far lost 7 pounds, a little slower than previous times but I am happy with the direction of travel :-)

I'd love to hear more about your journey. I'm on T3 only. My diary is open. I haven't lost anything since I started. Doing low carb as well

Hi, I have Graves' disease...very recently diagnosed. I read horror stories of massive weight gains whilst on the medication as it reduces the metabolism to a very slow pace. I was determined not to gain weight...! I have seriously been logging everything I eat, cut out pasta (white), bread, crisps and everything else that has a high fat and not so good content. I'm at the gym 5 nights a week, doing cardio and weights...and all I've lost in the last 3 weeks is 1 pound. I eat between 1200-1400 calories per day. I've lost a pound and only a pound after a massive amount of effort.....BUT I haven't gained in the 7 weeks I've been doing this, which according to the thyroid forum is impossible on this medication.

I'm down in the dumps as 1 pound is nothing compared to how I once was, but this is the new me...I have Graves, I need to deal with it. So I'll badger on losing a pound every three weeks, and eventually I'll get to my weight goal....might take a few years!!! Lol, but don't give up.

Oh I probably should mention I've also recently stopped smoking, which can (i think) also slow the metabolism, apparently my resting heart rate isn't as fast now as it was when I smoked.

bluets2011 wrote: »

I'd love to hear more about your journey. I'm on T3 only. My diary is open. I haven't lost anything since I started. Doing low carb as well

A bit of saga really. Autoimmune runs in the family, i quit smoking in my 30s and gained around 6 st in 18 months which finally got me my diagnosis and treatment. I got T4 regularly felt cold and exhausted, my hair fell out and I gained 3 stone over the next 4 years. I finally got a trial on Armour and then had a little more energy and went on Atkins, lost 3 stone but was always cold and exhausted - so much I would sleep for 10-11 hours a night and still nod off mid afternoon. went back to eating carbs and all the weight came back but I wasn't constantly cold

Armour was scarce so I got T3 and only needed around 9-10 hours sleep a night. 18 months ago I got a Garmain HR do-dad and my resting heart rate was in the early to mid 40s and my hands would regularly go blue with cold. However being on T3 meant I stopped having the racing heart rate that I get with T4. I had enough energy to go to the gym so cracked on with cardio and noticed my resting heart rate creeping up to the mid 60s and I had more energy (my weight didn't change though, maybe a couple of pounds down) I got an injury and stopped the gym for a couple of months and my heart rate plummeted again to the 40s so when I recovered I got back into cardio and heart rate increased.

9 months ago I followed an exclusion diet (bloating, gas, horrendous heartburn and icky stuff) and discovered I was lactose intolerant. This has meant a complete change in diet and has thrown me for a loop - I lost 18 pounds, discovered coconut puddings and gain 18 pounds.

I do cardio and strength at the gym - cardio for the heart and weights for the bones (middle aged, lactose intolerant woman who is clumsy as heck - i don't need any of them kind of breaks!) For the last 19 days I have been recording on here and slowly increasing my steps (gone from 5k daily to 8k daily and working up to 10k by the end of the month). I have kept an eye on my calories and lost 7 pounds so far, I have now joined weight watchers so I can learn about nutrition and next month is where I start looking at my nutrition. My weight is going down - not fast but certainly in the right direction. I know me and I need to make small changes one at a time and once one is embedded start on the next one but above all in the very short time I have been here and recorded everything past my lips I have realised that my diet is nutritionally lacking and exercise makes me feel good. Oh and slow and steady is not what I want but, realistically, is what is going to happen

jne79 wrote: »

I've had Hashimoto's since I was 21 (16 years). I was in the Navy at diagnosis and my weight, with a very defined, athletic body was 138 (at 5'6"). My heaviest post-Hashi's weight was 220. Anyway, I've tried SO many times to lose weight, have had a few successes and many failures with a lot of yo-yo weight along the way. I have 4 children and my weight has predictably inched up with each kid.

Recently, I discovered that intermittent fasting combined with calorie recording and ketosis has made me move past a point I haven't been to in 8 years. I'm at 181 right now. Previously (in the last 8 years), 193 was the best I could do. I have been losing steadily with IF for about 6 weeks now. This past week, I decided to add in an honest exercise routine and went to the gym 3 times. Total stall, plus a pound of gain.

At first I reminded myself that muscle weighs more than fat (even though 3 workouts logically haven't made me gain muscle weight). Then I remembered back over the last 8 years or so during many efforts to lose weight - including 2 times working with frustrated personal trainers that, no matter how hard they worked me and tweaked my diet, could not produce a pound of result. I thought of the summer I ate whistle clean paleo and did kettlebell swings religiously every day to no avail. The ONE time I've lost a significant amount of weight between children (50 lbs) I was eating low calorie/carb and only walking my dog and doing some yoga.

I've come to the conclusion that even a regular workout routine must be producing a lot of cortisol in my body that prevents me from losing weight. Has anyone else experienced this? I think I need to go back to what was working and maybe just try taking low impact walks to keep moving but not break too much of a sweat until I'm (hopefully) able to hit goal (155 lbs which is considered a normal weight for my height). This seems so counter-intuitive, but I guess following my body's patterns is the smartest thing to do right now.

Op you are on a T4 med only which could be your problem. What are your free T3 and free T4 levels? Many of us need Cytomel a T3 med because of poor conversion issues of T4 into T3. Check out those links I posted on why some don't do well on a T4 med only.