New Hypothyroid Diagnosis

I'm severely hypothyroid, but have been properly medicated for a long time now. (I'm also kind of a sub-par MFP friend - more of a Community forum gal - but I do accept friend requests and answer questions there if anyone asks on my page or by DM.)

It would be reasonable to expect it to take some time to dial in your appropriate dosage of thyroid meds (and maybe type of meds). Overmedicating is dangerous and unpleasant, so they usually start us at a low dose, wait a few weeks, re-test, and adjust gradually. Different people respond differently to different doses, so this gradual adjustment approach is typical.
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There's a good thread here about hypothyroidism and weight management, written by a guy who's a scientist in the field, himself hypothyroid (I think his thyroid gland was surgically removed IIRC), who lost weight via calorie counting. It's solid scientific information, which can be tough to find on the web where so many sites are trying to sell us miracle cures. It's here:

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

If it matters, I'm female; ovo-lacto vegetarian (have been for 48+ years so that's unrelated to either hypothyroidism or weight loss); age 67; active; eating pretty balanced macros without much in the way of food restrictions or style, other than liking lots of fruits and veggies and having that no meat/fish habit; and in weight maintenance for around 7 years now after losing from class 1 obese to a healthy weight back in 2016-16.

If your experience with hypothyroidism is like mine, you can look forward to a gradual series of improvements in functioning and quality of life, some of which you may not even anticipate up front.

Here's hoping it's pretty fast progress, in your case!

Hypothyroidism seems to be a common trait amongst overweight women.I have been on Synthroid for years.Interesting.

Ann already mentioned that women are more likely to get an autoimmune condition. Hashimotos is difficult to diagnose at times as the antibodies go away once the thyroid is totally wrecked. I read numbers of 5-10% of women being diagnosed with thyroid conditions, with likely the same number being undiagnosed, often because bias towards not taking female health seriously. That's huge! Just based on statistics, if 40% of a population is obese, 30% overweight and another 10% severely obese (US) then yeah, chances are high that someone not at normal weight being hypo is higher than someone with normal weight. There also seems to be a correlation between high weight and systematic inflammation, and an increased risk in autoimmune disorders.

On the other hand, at least in the US ethnicity can be correlated to weight, but those with the highest weight seem to have the lowest number of hypothyroidism. Is that because of specific genetic markers or because health care is so much worse for those or their complaints are taken less seriously? I tried to find some hypo numbers for countries with fairly low weight people vs the US, but as long as we don't know cause and effect it's a bit pointless. I'm also wasting time here because I should be cleaning.

Like you, I was in my 40s and seemed unable to lose weight. I was gaining even with an active lifestyle and decent diet. I told my doctor and was told, "What do you expect, you're over 40." A year later I told a nurse practitioner the same thing and she responded that it was just middle age. Finally I told my gynecologist and he asked, "Do you have any family history of low thyroid?" Well yes, my mother was on thyroid medication for years. So he got me tested and, lo and behold, I had an underactive thyroid too. Once on meds, I was able to lose weight. Unfortunately, I went up and down 30-40 lbs. several times over the next 10 years before I finally got serious about learning to maintain a stable weight, but the initial weight loss was no harder than it had been when I was younger.