Hashimotos and weight loss difficulties

I have severe hypothyroidism (properly medicated) and lost weight fine counting calories (obese to healthy weight), back in 2015 at age 59, and have maintained a healthy weight calorie counting since.

This would be a good thing to read: It's by someone whose profession is a scientific position in a hypothyroidism-related area, who himself has no thyroid at all, and who used MFP to lose weight.

https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10767046/hypothyroidism-and-weight-management/

As an aside, the smart scales are not a very precise/accurate way to measure body composition. Over a long period, they may show an accurate trend, but in a shorter (days/few weeks) timespan, they're not likely to be a source of great insight. That said, it would be a really good result, under ideal conditions, for a woman to gain a pound of new muscle per month, or for a man to gain 2 pounds. Ideal conditions include a well-designed progressive strength training program performed consistently, good nutrition (especially adequate protein), relative youth, and a calorie surplus. Muscle mass gain is very slow, sadly.

While hypothyroidism can affect fat loss indirectly through fatigue or appetite factors, and can hide fat loss on the scale due to water weight fluctuation even beyond what a non-hypothyroid person experiences, it should not eliminate the possibility of losing weight by careful and compliant calorie counting. (It may mean that "calculators" like the one built into MFP may overestimate calorie needs, so that hypothyroid individuals may need slightly fewer calories than non-hypothyroid ones, but the difference should be relatively minor, like 5%.)

Unfortunately (?), if you're not seeing weight loss, it's fairly likely that the reasons are not specific to hypothyroidism.

How long have you been trying to lose weight, on this round? How fast did you gain that 4 pounds? If it was a short time, during which you were complying with a sensible calorie goal, it's more likely to be water weight than fat gain. Some women see fluctuations larger than that once or more a month, related to their monthly cycle, for example.

Best wishes!

cfish59840 wrote: »

I do Jillian Michaels kettlebell bell workout every other day and do my spin bike for 30 minutes on the alternative days. This time around I have been at it for the last year and a half. I did give up my gym membership to work out at home because the gym was getting mighty crowded in the mornings. Its the only gym in town.
I follow the paleo diet as it’s easy for me and eating clean in not a struggle for me. With lupus and hypothyroidism it’s very easy to eat the wrong thing and cause an inflammation. I have been under the care of an endocrinologist for 8 years and my thyroid has finally leveled out a bit.
I gained those four pounds in a little under 2 months. Doing the same things I always do. I am 29 5’5 and 170. I currently am aiming for 1300 calories a day. It’s been pretty easy to stick to. I am going to just keep that up for a while and weigh in in a few weeks. My main goal isn’t a number on the scale but more how I feel comfortable at 155-160. That was my normal for the longest time but have been having changes with my tsh levels for the past 4 years and the adjustments to my medications takes their tole. Will look at that link for sure though!

Thank you, that was helpful detail. It sound like you're on a generally good course.

If you're getting less daily life activity while working out at home (like steps, or even standing vs. sitting), you might be burning slightly fewer calories. Also, if you're isolating at home like so many of us right now, that can reduce daily life activity, so reduce calorie burn a little.

Four pounds gain in 2 months is a small enough number that it's possible some/all of it is water weight. If it came on somewhat suddenly, it's more likely to be water retention. If it was gradual upward creep over the whole 2 months, it's a little more likely to be actual fat gain.

If the whole 4 pounds were fat gain, it would imply that you've been averaging about 250 calories daily above maintenance calories. Something like that could be related to activity changes; and if you're eating back exercise calories, then changing your exercise from home to gym would introduce some new estimating challenges into the situation, so you might take a look at that. And, of course, it can be useful for any of us to really tighten up on accurate food logging (using a scale, being very detailed) at least for a couple of weeks, to see if everything is on point with that.

I think your general idea of giving it some time is the right strategy, under the circumstances, so I'm just suggesting the things in the previous paragraph as items you could think about.

Wishing you much success! :flowerforyou: