Hi my thyroid is a mess so losing weight is hard.

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Hi, im shel. Ive joined my fitnes plan today as i have an underactive thyroid and my weight is going down hill. Its red hot outside today and i am sat indoors hiding from the world because none of my clothes fit and i look a mess. Can anyone relate? Surely there must be a way to lose weight when your thyroid is being annoying and puts on 5 stone by looking at the cake shop. This is not a pity me post i just dont know what to do so any help is welcome. thanks everyone in advance x

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  • mph323
    mph323 Posts: 3,565 Member
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    Hi Shel, welcome! I'm sorry you're dealing with this, thyroid issues really do make it more difficult to see results when you're trying to lose, for a variety of reasons. Both my daughters have hashimoto's and struggle with weight issues.

    Are you working with your doctor to get your thyroid hormones as close to normal as possible? That's the first step.

    Set up your profile in this app, and for now I suggest you set your weight loss goal to .5 - 1 pound a week (I don't know where you're starting weight-wise and if you have a lot to lose you could make the weight goal higher once you get comfortable with how the app works and how well you're able to manage your hunger). Track your food by weighing and measuring everything consistently, note how your hunger signals react to various food and macro combinations and in general give yourself a chance to make small changes in portion size and calorie density.

    If you weigh yourself, check your weight at the same time of day with similar clothing (preferably in the morning before eating or drinking). Don't expect immediate results (you may see an initial drop due to shedding water weight, and then may not see a change for several weeks).You will find that the weight will fluctuate but if you're in a calorie deficit will show a downward trend over three or four weeks.

    If you are experiencing lethargy or general low energy due to low thyroid, you may find that since you are moving less during the day, you will need to eat fewer calories to see results. If this is the case, reduce your calories slowly. This is going to be a gradual process, but it is doable. I've seen my younger daughter lose over 10 pounds over the last three months (she is borderline obese) by just making different food choices - non-fat milk for her daily mocha, lower calorie versions of food she likes (baked vs fried) and reducing portions, while at the moment her thyroid issues are not well-controlled.

    Best of luck to you! You're taking strong first steps by signing on to this app. You'll have days where you just can't stick to the plan, try not to be discouraged, and don't beat yourself up. Let the bad days go and just move forward. Hopefully your thyroid issues will be better controlled soon, but even if that's not the case, you can still take control of your weight.

  • MargaretYakoda
    MargaretYakoda Posts: 2,838 Member
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    I second everything @mph323 mentioned.

    Also? You may have to get serious with your doctor.

    Years ago I had a terrible, sexist, old school doctor who refused to increase my synthroid unless I’d gained 50 lbs. That, Uh.. wasn’t a great experience. I’d gain 50, lose 30, cruise for a while, and lather rinse repeat until I’d gone from 5’8” 130 lbs at 27 to 280 at 40.
    Used SparkPeople to get back down to 160ish before some stuff happened and I gained most of it back again. And I got a new doctor who was better at listening to me about my thyroid, but only because I also had to educate her and advocate pretty hard for myself. It took a bit, but she did refer me to an endocrinologist. That was key.

    Yes, diet is important. Calories in, calories out. Sure. But a bum thyroid makes it all that much more difficult.

    There is hope, though.
    Talk to your doctor. Maybe you will need two thyroid meds (that’s what helped me) Maybe there’s some other detail an endocrinologist can uncover. But in any case - Do Not Give Up. And don’t take “everything looks good” when you’re feeling like you’re swimming in jello and even thinking itself is a chore.

  • PopGoesTheCoyote
    PopGoesTheCoyote Posts: 94 Member
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    Oh yeah I can relate to this. I had an underactive thyroid for many years until recently it up and decided to function normally again. I have no idea why it decided to just up and start working again. I might attribute it to efforts towards eating less bread overall, but that's a guess. My sister has Hashimoto's and she went completely gluten free and it apparently helped. I'm not here to tell you what you should do or anything since I'm not a doctor and I'm sure you don't want unasked advice :). I had hellacious difficulty losing weight due to it, and lots of people refused to take me seriously and just told me to stop eating. Even hearing the CICO bombardment got annoying because it wasn't as helpful as lowering my carbs.

    I wound up googling a lot of what other people tried with their hypothyroidism and seeing if I could do it myself. Some things genuinely helped. Imbalanced hormones are magnificently good at getting in the way of a healthy metabolism. I wound up getting insulin resistance from other medications and I have to contend with that too. There's a lot of people who don't buy that hormones can really get in the way, but they can! I would definitely recommend looking up what other people have done to help their hypothyroidism/Hashimoto's, depending on which one you have. Sometimes it's worth checking to see if you have Hashimoto's instead of hypothyroidism because they can seem awfully similar to each other, and doctors often won't check unless specifically prompted to. They involve the same medications but require a little bit different care that can make a difference.
  • Vetta2d
    Vetta2d Posts: 3 Member
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    Thank you all for your comments, very helpful! I have Hashimoto's and my doctor told me that many people have it and they don't worry about it, just take the thyroid medicine. That was 12 years ago. I finally came to my senses and started seeing a holistic nutritionist and she helped make me realize what I really have, and now we have some work to do. I am 64, 5'6" and weigh 238 pounds now. This is not acceptable. I feel horrible, joints ache. I am trying to learn this macronutrient concept. I am cutting out any gluten, nightshade foods and sugar for sure & trying to keep my carb intake down. Can anyone shed some light on how I should go about figuring out how many carbs I should shoot for daily or where to find the information? I am happy to find some others that have been down this road before!
  • PopGoesTheCoyote
    PopGoesTheCoyote Posts: 94 Member
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    I primarily used a search engine with the following inquiries:

    low carb macronutrient calculator
    low carb macronutrient nutrients

    https://www.wholesomeyum.com/the-best-free-low-carb-keto-macro-calculator/ Here is one of the calculators, but there were many more available.

    When it comes to counting carbs, you only have to count net carbs. This is arranged by subtracting dietary fiber from the total carbs on the nutrition facts label. So if something has 25 carbs and 5 dietary fiber, the total carbs in the item is 20. This counts for both low carb and keto diets. Keto allows for 20 or less grams of carbs and low carb diets can range from 20 to ~150 grams. I did both keto and low carb with relatively good success. I changed away from them due to life circumstances and just do an elimination/paleo combination now since they were more affordable diets for me, and more agreeable with my partner. The elimination diet has been very insightful for me as it can help narrow down what foods you're intolerant to and what you have an easier time with. I imagine the holistic nutritionist may know about it. When I did low carb I let myself max out at 150 and then gradually reduced until I was getting about 80 grams, and that was sufficient enough for me. The USDA recommends about 300g max per diet, and so according to this I figured I can't really go wrong with 150 or less.

    I go to a holistic person for mental therapy and found that worked a whole lot more for me. I don't have access to a holistic nutritionist, but I just wanted to mention that because I've also personally found that they can be very helpful, though I recognize that it might not be for everyone.
  • MargaretYakoda
    MargaretYakoda Posts: 2,838 Member
    Options
    Oh yeah I can relate to this. I had an underactive thyroid for many years until recently it up and decided to function normally again. I have no idea why it decided to just up and start working again. I might attribute it to efforts towards eating less bread overall, but that's a guess. My sister has Hashimoto's and she went completely gluten free and it apparently helped. I'm not here to tell you what you should do or anything since I'm not a doctor and I'm sure you don't want unasked advice :). I had hellacious difficulty losing weight due to it, and lots of people refused to take me seriously and just told me to stop eating. [\b]Even hearing the CICO bombardment got annoying because it wasn't as helpful as lowering my carbs.

    I wound up googling a lot of what other people tried with their hypothyroidism and seeing if I could do it myself. Some things genuinely helped. Imbalanced hormones are magnificently good at getting in the way of a healthy metabolism. I wound up getting insulin resistance from other medications and I have to contend with that too. There's a lot of people who don't buy that hormones can really get in the way, but they can! I would definitely recommend looking up what other people have done to help their hypothyroidism/Hashimoto's, depending on which one you have. Sometimes it's worth checking to see if you have Hashimoto's instead of hypothyroidism because they can seem awfully similar to each other, and doctors often won't check unless specifically prompted to. They involve the same medications but require a little bit different care that can make a difference.

    I had a similar experience. My first low thyroid diagnosis was when I was 18. I took synthroid for a few months and it was suddenly and mysteriously better. Years later, the thyroid went south again. I think I was 32ish? And I walked into my new doctor and told him the problem was my thyroid was low and I needed meds.

    Ha ha he immediately hated me for diagnosing myself. But I was right. That was the old school guy who made me gain 50 pounds before he would adjust my dose.


    And I wanted to comment on the CICO annoyance. I mean, ya. It’s CICO, but not always just CICO. Thyroids, diabetes, disability, etc sometimes are a factor that needs to be worked with. And it helps to acknowledge this fact when supporting people.
  • ryoder6614
    ryoder6614 Posts: 4 Member
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    I can relate to your struggle. Was diagnosed with Hashimoto's as well and told to just deal with it. Well no way!! My weight has been up and down most of my life. Past few years, I have been trying different things to see if anything works for me. I will read through the comments to see what has been said. I take Armor Thyroid because it is a natural product (Synthroid is synthetic) and because it contains more of what I need. It works well for me with regard to the moods but I still struggle with the weight, energy, and hair loss. Trying to get my doc to increase my dosage to see if that works. You might need to be re-evaluated by your endocrinologist. I try to get mine to prescribe more meds until the elimination of symptoms.