HI have just been diagnosed with over active but haven't lost any weight is this normal.

[Julie1966]

[helvella Administrator]

Although we often hear of hypothyroid people who put on weight, and hyperthyroid people who lose weight, it ain't that simple!

A proportion of hyperthyroid people put on weight. It is sometimes suggested that this could be due to enhanced appetite, but I don't have enough understanding to know.

A proportion of hypothyroid people lose weight. It is sometimes suggested that weight loss could be due to muscle wasting. Given that it is very common to gain weight from water retention (i.e. the myxoedema itself), I suspect that quite a number of hypothyroid people lose muscle without overall losing weight.

Cases in which weight goes the opposite way to that 'expected' (i.e. assumed by those with slight understanding) possibly cause at least some mis-diagnosis or failure to diagnose. So it is very, very important to realise that things can be counter-intuitive.

Rod

[Julie1966 in reply to helvella]

Many thanks probably what it is my appetite had increased, not sleeping doesn't help.

[efilwol]

Yes. I am hyperthyroid (Graves) and my only symptom has been cardiac. No "unexplained weightloss" at all. ATM, I am trying to lose weight w not a lot of success.

[Julie1966 in reply to efilwol]

Thanks x always on a diet lol well Mondays

[Hidden]

Put on a stone in the year before my diagnosis, and many other hyper's on the forum actually report weight gain. I actually wonder if I went hypo before I settled on hyper... perhaps a very fine line between Hashi's and Grave's, whilst your body is deciding which way to go with it? I have no idea.

[Julie1966 in reply to Hidden]

Thanks x not sure of anything at moment waiting for letter for hosp . Thanks for replying

[deb25426]

I didn't when I was hyper, in fact I gained a little weight as my appetite was so high.. So t is normal.

[Tatty10]

Hi I was diagnosed hyper and actually gained 2 stone in weight,

[Granitecitygirl]

Hi there I have Graves and put on about 3 stone before diagnosis and medication, then a further stone since then. I now have 4 stone to lose to get down to an "ideal" weight for my height, a squat 5ft. The number of people that have asked me "are you sure you are overactive?" is beyond a joke. If you look at some of the American studies (much bigger population & more studies), about 1 in 10 Hyper folk put on weight and it has nothing to do with the increased appetite - I put on all that weight whilst trying to control my diet and exercising. It took over 6 months for the doctors to finally see that there might be something wrong and even they were shocked when the tests came back as Hyper.

I have now been 4 weeks off the carbimazole and now that it should be out my system, I am using an app on my phone to count my calorie intake. Eating normally, I am BELOW the recommended maintenance diet of 1500-2000 calories for a woman (I can pig out like the best of them when I want too lol). There is no way on Gods green earth that I should have been putting weight on like I did. I am now starting to see a bit of difference in my ankles and calves, not looking so swollen. I'm a bit more optimistic than I was last week that something might be happening, that I might now be able to lose some of this bulk. Personally, I think that the system is moving so fast that it is skipping steps, like when you rush a job and make stupid basic mistakes - like forgetting to stop putting down fat and fluid.

[greenginger in reply to Granitecitygirl]

Hi I was just the same and i went swimming, walking, gym and always had a good diet with around 1500 calories. Could not lose at all. Since may I have lost 11 pounds which happened when I became eurythroid. Without effort. So hopefully I can lose a but more and feel better.

To you lovely people above, most hypers I have spoken to have put on weight not lost it.

[Granitecitygirl in reply to greenginger]

I'm hoping to lose at least some without much effort. I dislike effort But I will pull the finger out eventually and get on my bike.

[greenginger in reply to Granitecitygirl]

Good luck

[Julie1966]

Thanks for all your replies. This is a lovely site ,its good to know when you don't understand something that there are people who know how you are feeling and can explain it xx

[rubyred in reply to Julie1966]

hi Julie, I haven't been on the site for some time and am just back reading. I just wanted to add I had graves disease and before I was diagnosed I put on 3 stone over a 5 month period. it was hell I jumped from a 12 to a 16 so fast I almost couldn't keep up. on the plus side I got a new wardrobe. good luck hope it all works out for you