Hypothryoidism...should I eat more?

dare2love81
dare2love81 Posts: 928 Member
edited December 19 in Health and Weight Loss
Hi Everyone,

I've been reading all over that in order to lose weight, you should really eat back your exercise calories or go to Fit 2 Fat Radio and figure out how many calories you should be eating based on their calculators.

My question is does this hold true for people who have been diagnosed with hypothyroid? I was diagnosed around New Year's. I started out by eating around 1,600 calories and only eating back *some* exercise calories on the days that I did intense workouts. Doing that I lost almost 17 pounds. But in the last two weeks, I've plateaued. So this past week I decided to go with what Fit 2 Fat Radio told me to eat. Well I'm up a pound today. I know people said it takes the body awhile to get used to more calories, but I really don't want to gain any more weight.

So are there any hypothyroid peeps out there who have had success eating back exercise calories, or by eating more in general?

Replies

  • dare2love81
    dare2love81 Posts: 928 Member
    bump...Anyone??
  • jota180
    jota180 Posts: 2 Member
    I have Hypothyroidism and take 175 mcg of Levothyroxine daily

    My weight loss is going well without eating back all [if any] of my exercise calories
    I usually end most days with around 2000 calories remaining pretty much all from exercise, only eating between 1500 and 2000
    I don't think your Hypothyroidism should make a difference but there's a fair chance they haven't got your meds right yet - so who knows?
  • jenngarza
    jenngarza Posts: 54 Member
    Good question I'm wanting to know the same thing since all my doctor said I have to work harder to lose weight. Smh
  • sweetNsassy2584
    sweetNsassy2584 Posts: 515 Member
    I have hypothyroidism. If you are on the correct dosage and feeling pretty good, I honestly don't think you hit a plateau because of your thyroid. Google plateau. Time to change things up!!
  • dare2love81
    dare2love81 Posts: 928 Member
    I guess I'm just wondering if I'm eating too many calories. FIt 2 Fat Radio calculates that I should be eating the following:

    Activity Level Daily Calories
    Sedentary (little or no exercise, desk job) 1914
    Lightly Active (light exercise/sports 1-3 days/wk) 2193
    Moderately Active (moderate exercise/sports 3-5 days/wk) 2472
    Very Active (hard exercise/sports 6-7 days/wk) 2751
    Extremely Active (hard daily exercise/sports & physical job or 2X day training, i.e marathon, contest etc.) 3031

    I would say I fall somewhere inbetween moderately active and very active. But no matter how hard I try, I'm lucky if I can eat around 2100 calories.

    *Please note* I've only been eating up to 2100 calories for about a week. Prior to that I was eating around 1,600-1,700 (regardless of exercise) and was consistently losing about 1-2 pounds per week up until I plateaued out two weeks ago.

    So I'm not trying to say my plateau was due to my being hypo, I'm more worried that my calorie intake isn't correct. So I'm trying to see if anyone's had success losing while eating back exercise calories, which would be the equivalent of my eating what Fit to Fat Radio tells me I should be eating.
  • jota180
    jota180 Posts: 2 Member
    I can't believe that any system or person is going to be able to calculate calories burned for any particular exercise for any particular person with any degree of accuracy.
    Who's to say my idea of extremely active exercise is the same as yours? - to me it would be close to passing out/vomiting

    What I'm saying is, it has to be a fairly wide range so you need to adjust the numbers to suit as you go along
    I'd start knocking 10% off their numbers and see where that takes you, a bit of trial and error and you should get an idea of what you're burning
  • Bmontgomery613
    Bmontgomery613 Posts: 200 Member
    I am hypothyroid due to my thyroid being removed in 07. I've been loosing at a fairly consistent rate with working out 4-5 days per week and eating around 2300 calories per day. Some days I eat more, others I eat less. It just really depends. I've heard that it's tougher to loose when you are hypo and that 'low-carb' is the best, but for me, I've not found that to be true. How is your sodium intake? I know that I can have 4000mg per day and not retain water, but if I go over that, I'm up in weight. Are you doing a lot of weight training? That will cause you to retain water too, which will camoflauge weight loss. If you're eating 3500 calories below your TDEE every day, then you will lose weight. The water weight could just be camoflauging that weight loss and making you think you're not losing.

    I hope this was helpful. Best of luck. You can do this. :)
  • dare2love81
    dare2love81 Posts: 928 Member
    I am hypothyroid due to my thyroid being removed in 07. I've been loosing at a fairly consistent rate with working out 4-5 days per week and eating around 2300 calories per day. Some days I eat more, others I eat less. It just really depends. I've heard that it's tougher to loose when you are hypo and that 'low-carb' is the best, but for me, I've not found that to be true. How is your sodium intake? I know that I can have 4000mg per day and not retain water, but if I go over that, I'm up in weight. Are you doing a lot of weight training? That will cause you to retain water too, which will camoflauge weight loss. If you're eating 3500 calories below your TDEE every day, then you will lose weight. The water weight could just be camoflauging that weight loss and making you think you're not losing.

    I hope this was helpful. Best of luck. You can do this. :)

    I try to keep my sodium intake around the 2,500mg that MFP recommends, but some days I do go over a bit. Good point, I do a fair amount of weight training, and today I am really sore, so that could be the cause for the 1 pound gain. And granted, I know it's only ONE pound, but still, it's discouraging to see the scale move in the wrong direction, even for ONE pound. My fear kicks in that it's going to end up being MORE than one pound.

    Another thing I'm having a hard time with is finding enough "clean" food to eat to get me to my daily goal. I mean I could go to McDonald's every day and meat my calorie goal no problem, but there's only so much fruit and peanut butter a girl can eat in a day. :noway:
  • Bmontgomery613
    Bmontgomery613 Posts: 200 Member
    Sorry, I can't help with the 'clean' eating. I follow the diet I had before but with way more fruits and veggies and string cheese, lol. I know I need to eat cleaner, but it doesn't always work that way in my world.
  • erindesmond
    erindesmond Posts: 1 Member
    I'm hypo too and have been for 12 years or so. I've got the right dose of Synthroid and feel great. At the end of the day, isn't this all one big math problem? Calories taken in vs. calories exerted?
  • Legoeggo
    Legoeggo Posts: 11 Member
    Just a thought.... You upped your calories by 500-600 a day for one week. That is about 3500 extra calories, or one pound. The weight increase may have been the extra calories consumed.
  • mariposa224
    mariposa224 Posts: 1,241 Member
    I'm hypo and I used the fat 2 fit calculators & upped my calories. I had been plateaued for a couple of weeks and started losing again with the higher calories. There's no tue "one-size-fits-all" kind of answer though. Try it and see if it works for you.

    ETA:
    By doing calculations, for myself on 4/27 this is what I came up with:
    I'm 5'5", at the time I was 153.4 (now 151.8)
    my BMR is 1374.0992
    TDEE is 2061.1488 this was for whatever activity level showed working out 3-5 times per week.

    To get my calorie goal, I multiplied my TDEE by 20%, which was 412.22976. When I subtract that from my TDEE, my goal is 1648.91904. I actually have my "goal" set slightly lower than that at 1548, but, doing it this way, I don't eat back exercise calories for the most part... And I generally gross over the 1648 mark that is my goal & generally am netting at least my BMR of 1374.
  • LadyNeshoba
    LadyNeshoba Posts: 159 Member
    I was diagnosed with Hypothyroidism when I was 12.

    I am no taking 100 MCG's of Synthroid. I've NEVER had an issue losing weight if I really really wanted to.

    Yes...it might be a tad harder for us but it's not Impossible at all!

    I just make sure to drink a LOT of water to flush out an excess sodium/water retention I may have. I still eat the same foods I ate before...but just in better portions and with more veggies. I work out on average 3 to 5 times a week on a good week and some weeks I barely do a day.

    I think you just need to change it up a bit :)

    Oh and when you weight train your body retains water. So the best thing to do is weigh yourself 2-3 days after your last weight training session. By then all the excess water from your muscles is gone.
  • kunibob
    kunibob Posts: 608 Member
    I'm very mildly hypo (TSH swings between 5.2-5.9, somewhat symptomatic, not on synthetic hormones yet). I lost ~50 lb eating back most or all of my exercise calories, and it was kind of slow going at times. That being said, I found that if I DIDN'T eat them back, I got fatigued and ill extremely easily. It took awhile to find that sweet spot of eating enough to be healthy vs. too much to lose, and it still seems to fluctuate occasionally now that I'm in maintenance. But I am untreated thus far, so your mileage may vary.
  • dare2love81
    dare2love81 Posts: 928 Member
    Just a thought.... You upped your calories by 500-600 a day for one week. That is about 3500 extra calories, or one pound. The weight increase may have been the extra calories consumed.

    Good point. And I know I've read that it take the body a bit to readjust to the higher calories, but that the weight should start to come back off again within the next week or two. I probably should've increased my calories more gradually instead of all at once. But I'm going to stick to this level for another week or two and see what the scale says and also see if I've lost any inches. It's just so frustrating and depressing to see the scale go up, regardless of how valid the reason (unless of course it's due to eating crap, then I know it's my own fault. LOL).

    In case you all haven't noticed, I struggle with the patience virtue. :tongue:
  • dare2love81
    dare2love81 Posts: 928 Member
    I'm very mildly hypo (TSH swings between 5.2-5.9, somewhat symptomatic, not on synthetic hormones yet). I lost ~50 lb eating back most or all of my exercise calories, and it was kind of slow going at times. That being said, I found that if I DIDN'T eat them back, I got fatigued and ill extremely easily. It took awhile to find that sweet spot of eating enough to be healthy vs. too much to lose, and it still seems to fluctuate occasionally now that I'm in maintenance. But I am untreated thus far, so your mileage may vary.

    I have to admit, I have noticed a huge difference in my workouts. I do a bootcamp class three times a week, and since upping my calories, I've found I can push myself much harder, and my HRM shows a higher calorie burn too. So that's good. I'm guessing (hoping) that my problem was more that I wasn't eating enough and that it'll just take my body a week or two to adjust to eating enough to fuel it through the workouts - to trust that I'm not going to cut the fuel source again.
  • heybales
    heybales Posts: 18,842 Member
    Good point. And I know I've read that it take the body a bit to readjust to the higher calories, but that the weight should start to come back off again within the next week or two. I probably should've increased my calories more gradually instead of all at once. But I'm going to stick to this level for another week or two and see what the scale says and also see if I've lost any inches. It's just so frustrating and depressing to see the scale go up, regardless of how valid the reason (unless of course it's due to eating crap, then I know it's my own fault. LOL).

    And remember if you are working out a lot, you'll likely see other body improvements first before weight drops.
    So find those tight jeans or get some measurements in, because that's what you'll see first likely.

    For instance, if you had been underfeeding based on your activity level, and your glucose/water stores finally got a chance to replenish, 500 cal's there is 1lb of weight. Very needed and desired weight, that's energy for your workout.

    Also, those activity levels are based on 1 hr on workout days. So if you are doing those 30min DVD's, add them up for how many hrs a week, and use that as guide. You can round up or down to nearest 100 also if between levels.
  • dare2love81
    dare2love81 Posts: 928 Member
    And remember if you are working out a lot, you'll likely see other body improvements first before weight drops.
    So find those tight jeans or get some measurements in, because that's what you'll see first likely.

    For instance, if you had been underfeeding based on your activity level, and your glucose/water stores finally got a chance to replenish, 500 cal's there is 1lb of weight. Very needed and desired weight, that's energy for your workout.

    Also, those activity levels are based on 1 hr on workout days. So if you are doing those 30min DVD's, add them up for how many hrs a week, and use that as guide. You can round up or down to nearest 100 also if between levels.

    Yeah when I work out it's almost always a minimum of an hour. Sometimes 45 minutes, but most days an hour. I usually work out 5-6 days a week too. And if for some reason I don't work out, I eat fewer calories. Not much fewer, but fewer nonetheless.
  • kunibob
    kunibob Posts: 608 Member
    These points are all very valid. It's also possible that upping calories -> more energy -> work out harder -> body retains more water to repair muscles. (I'm always up about 2 lb the day after heavy exercise.) Giving it another few weeks to see seems like a good plan, to see what the general trend is once everything adjusts!
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