Hypothyroid menopause frustrsted

I am both. Well, I'm post menopause but I lost my weight (70+ pounds) just at the tail end of menopause for me.

First, you are not that far outside a healthy weight, so weight loss is going to be slow. Set your Goals to "Lose 1/2 pound per week."

Log all your food. Every day, regardless of what or how much you eat.

I take a walk at least once per day, even if it's only for 15 minutes. It helps with hunger, weight loss, sleep and mood. Big win.


Then, patience. Hypothyroid does not affect your calories in and out significantly. If you are stable with your Levo dose, then your energy should be good enough and your sleep will be good enough. Both very important.

I feel for you. Menopause is not for the weak, but it doesn't have to derail you.

I'm 5'5", severely hypothyroid (but treated), now age 63, went into hard-stop menopause at age 44 when I started 6 months of chemotherapy for stage III breast cancer (then took anti-estrogen drugs for another 7.5 years just to add to the fun).

It sounds like you've heard all the popular theories and tried them, finding that none of them really went well. The good news, IMO, is that although this weight loss thing isn't always easy, it has the potential to be less complicated than all the books and blogs and instagrammers and weight loss programs might lead us to believe. And age, menopause, hypothyroidism, etc., aren't universal weight loss doom.

I came to MFP in July 2015, age 59, at about the weight you are now (I was at 153 pounds IIRC), but I had started at 183 pounds in April 2015. I'd been obese for literally decades. I've been maintaining a healthy weight since late 2015, nowadays mostly in the mid-130s.

I found the basic MFP process very do-able: I ate foods I enjoy, logged them, tried to hit my moderate calorie goal the overwhelming majority of days, did fun activities (but didn't ramp up my intentional-exercise level much because I was already pretty active while obese), and gradually worked toward improving my nutrition. I tried to think in terms of only making changes I was pretty sure I could sustain for the rest of my life, to stay at a healthy weight. I tried to find ways to balance calorie needs, nutrition, tastiness, practicality, social connection through food, etc.: All of that is pretty personal and individual, different for everyone when it comes to details.

Like I said, not always easy . . . but pretty simple.

MFP provides a calorie goal. It intends us to eat that many calories daily, plus a reasonable estimate of exercise calories in addition. If we do that reasonably faithfully for 4-6 weeks, we get a good handle on whether that estimate is accurate for us personally (it's just a statistical estimate, after all: It'll be close for most people, off for a few, and way off for a very, very few). That time period is enough for initial water weight weirdness to average out, and give us the data we need to adjust intake to lose weight at a sensible level. It's kind of like a fun science-fair project for grown-ups!

At your current weight, one pound a week might be an OK target to start with, but eventually as you get closer to goal, you'll want to slow it to 0.5 pounds a week.

This post has a great run-down of how to use MFP in general:

http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/1080242/a-guide-to-get-you-started-on-your-path-to-sexypants/p1

In case it might help you, this post describes the approach I used to gradually remodel my eating, while still enjoying it and staying satiated, along the way:

http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10636388/free-customized-personal-weight-loss-eating-plan-not-spam-or-mlm/p1

You can do this, if you decide you will: Best wishes! :flowerforyou:

...and I know that @AnnPT77 is another one who eats above the calculated rate. I'm not a one-off.