Who has been hypothyroid and successful in losing weight?
Pray tell, what diet, etc did you follow......
thyroid and weight gain: Who has been hypothyroid... - Thyroid UK
thyroid and weight gain
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thegemprincess
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41 Replies
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I'm afraid not! I have an active job, walk everywhere, weekly sessions at the gym. In the last two weeks due to anxiety, nerve breakdown not able to eat more than fruit and coconut water. Weight loss 1kg 
hope you feel less stressed and able to shed those lbs. good luck
Hi I think it's a very individual thing.my weight has reduced by around 1stone in about the last 6months no real change in diet bit more activity cos it's summer but nothing dramatic! Now 8st8lbs started on 25mcg upped to 50 now on 75/62.5 mcg levo. I was only borderline hypo at start I believe so maybe that influences things too.i don't know! Been on levo about 16 months now. Good luck finding your way with it it can come right,
.
Hi..I lost weight by jogging twice a week and reducing my portion sizes.
I have been hypo for well over a decade but when diagnosed with RA three years ago I decided to radically alter my diet and exercise regime and lost 4 stone. I didn't diet - I just dropped gluten, refined foods and sugars and portion sizes. I drink a lot of water and also never eat much after 6pm and don't drink much alcohol now (RA drugs). I work out for 30 minutes a day on my Nintendo Wii Fit plus and I walk the dogs everyday. I have put on some weight again recently but that's another story (RA and drug related) and I don't believe it has anything to do with my thyroid disease. I have always gained weight much more easily than I have ever been able to lose it and I would love to lose another few stone now but I do just love food!
thegemprincess• in reply to
thank you for sharing and best of luck with dieting!
I managed to lose two stone on the Weightwatchers diet in four months but
I followed it to the letter and didn't break it at all.
Interestingly, my colleague who started it at the same time and was equally committed but twenty years younger and not hypo lost exactly the same amount over the same period.
I have put a lot of it back on (through eating rubbish) but have not had any difficulties losing half a stone here and there when I have wanted to.
I have concluded that being hypo (but medicated) does not affect my weight at all; if anything, being slightly overmedicated increases my appetite and leads to weight gain.
which thyroid meds are you taking?
Armour
I can vouch for that as I feel that the t3 has speeded me up a bit, but I am more hungry and therefore eat more. Not easy.
well that's different - just goes to show we are all different!
The 2 twin doctors researched carb vs protein too I believe.
I gained 3.5 stone very quickly before I was dianosged, I have always been very fit (gym, swim, hiking etc) so the weight gain was a nightmare. I tried slimming world and but no weight loss, a friend suggested the Extante Diet and I've lost 3 stone in 5 months. I do 2 days off the diet and 5 on...it's not easy but it's worked for me.
Lighterlife also do a fasting 5 & 2 programme in super drug and another friend who has an underactive thyroid has lost 2 stone and another woman I gym with has lost 3 stone at
weight watchers....so yes you can lose weight with an underactive thyroid.
If your medication is wrong then losing weight is virtually impossible, however I will say that in hindsight I spent a lot if time blaming my thyroid rather than stopping eating things that made me fat.
Good luck x
Thank you for sharing in your detailed response. Greatly appreciated. Are you on Armour or Levothyroxine
I'm on Levo 50 a day, in the beginning I made the mistake of 'knowing' more than my doctor and self medicated but in the end I did what the doc said and waited for it to work and it did. However for those 6 months of waiting for the meds to work it was crap! I gained a further stone in that time.
I know it's hard but as ive said if your meds are sorted than it's will power to lose weight. I'm back to a size 10 and life is good but it was damn hard x
I gained three stone in two years while on T3 only. The NHS dietitian I saw confirmed there was nothing wrong with my diet or portion sizes, but told me my metabolism was just running too slow for me ever to lose weight!
Once I got on levo, I started to lose and lost 21lbs in about 4 months, without making a great deal of effort. However, since then, despite being more careful about what I eat and upping the exercise, I have lost half a pound since Christmas!
I am satisfied that my weight loss was due to going on levo. I've tried taking more, but that didn't work, so I'm probably stuck where I am now, with at least another stone to lose. Ironically, thanks to the exercise, I am now fitter than I have been for many years.
While on Levothyroxine, did you remain taking T3? Lucky you that you got to the weight you desired. Keep up the good work!
No, I came off the T3 in November 2012, started levo in June 2013. I think I may never reach my ideal weight, but things are better than they were.
Hi Thegemprincess, I did lose a stone in weight several years ago with Slimming world. But was still carrying 2 extra stone I had but on being hypo. Going gluten free to help with my Hashimoto's lost 12lb in the first 6 weeks approx, then weight stabilised. I started on Armour in April and to my delight have very gradually lost weight ( 1 stone so far) as I increased dose (now on 3.5 grains) I have found being on Armour has reduced my appetite. I have heard of one other person who has experienced the same effects with Armour but do not know it happens many others. Hope you find something that works for you!
Hello yhickfoe, by carbs I presume you mean pasta, rice, bread etc? I love all these but eveyone is saying about gluten? Even though I have tested negative for both gluten and coeliac I do get very bloated and gassy after eating them. With regard to my weight I have put more on since I take T3 along with the T4 I was originally at. Help, I wish I could loose weight.
Just like the Atkins diet, which involved mainly proteins and fats was very popular at one point, stating that the body had to work harder to break down these products therefore speeding up the metabolism. I believe to be a process called ketosis?......
Yhickfoe whilst I respect your personal experience I would dispute the physiological basis of your assertion that fat is stored instantly as fat and high carb results in fat loss. Carb consumption results in insulin secretion which switches on fat storage. The body stores any carb that is not burnt off by activity as fat. This is why insulin dependant diabetics can experience weight gain if they don't very carefully balance their carb intake and insulin dose. Similarly in type 2 diabetes (usually occurring because of obesity) insulin resistance develops as the body's attempt to prevent the storage of even more carb as fat. Losing weight can "cure" T2 diabetes and restore insulin sensitivity. Similarly low carb levels in the blood (eg in fasting/hunger) results in lower insulin levels and switches on gluconeogenesis (glucose production) by the liver, the liberation if carbohydrate from the body's limited carb (glycogen stores) in the liver and muscles. Eventually the body switches to aletrnative fuel sources by breaking down fat and burning the products (producing ketones) and in more extreme cases by producing glucose from amino acids from muscle breakdown.
I have an open mind however and would be interested to hear the physiological basis for your assumptions.
I do like my pasta especially with my bolognase, and I like toast ie bread. Otherwise fine lots of fruit and veg and tend to eat white meat for protein ie chicken. Is the white rice ok would brown be better. So you do not eat any bread etc? That is the hard bit/
Marmaris
Maybe try gluten free bread if you like that staple I know I cannot live without my bread as I eat 2 slices a day. If I have pasta but not often I buy gluten free also. It is worth a go! 
The gut/ thyroid connection issue. I also take a digestive enzyme before my main 2 meals and a probiotic it helps a little but being borderline hyper/hypo and not currently on meds getting a nasty nodule removed first to see if I need too. Anyway sometimes it can be even harder because your weight yo you's like a pendulum does with me right now. I have gained weight really fast no changes in my routine so I am hypo mode again praying I go back to hyper I like it better there and I feel bett. Maybe it is because I look better and can wear normal clothes not just pj's and hoodies lol !
Hi there meno - your post looks like you're really buzzing, hope you're OK.... I had to read it really fast so didn't understand it much... then I re-read it twice...
the nasty nodule rang bells with me, I wish I had researched more in 2010, then again what if it was cancer and I had ignored it? how do you mean 'nasty'?
I live without bread it's easy... it doesn't affect me like hubby but I don't bother buying it, I used to make it, then used dove flour too, that's ok for sunday gravy.. we have occasional pasta, pizza - he's OK with that.. J 
anyone not signed the petition yet?
Well, princess, if nothing else, this post has proved that we are all different!
Myself, I started on levo only. I did lose a little weight on it but also lost my hair and became very very tired and depressed - worse than before I started.
I tried Armour - and a lot of other brands of NDT - but put on a ton of weight! Then I went onto T3 only, and when the dose got high enough, the weight just fell off. I've lost over 30 kilos - don't know exactly how much because I stopped weighing myself when I hit 120 kilos, but now I'm down to 90. I have never dieted - although I don't eat a lot because of low appetite, but I eat what I want, when I want it. And exercise is a dirty word in my house! lol
All I would say is that low calorie is a bad idea for hypos because we need lots of calories for conversion. And, I think, low fat is a bad idea because we need that fat to make some of our hormones. We are hormonally-challanged enough without that! Also low salt is a bad idea - but then it is for everybody! Over-exercising uses up your calories AND your T3.
So, what it comes down to is that it's a case of trail and error. You have to find what works for you.
Hugs, Grey
Since January my husband and I have followed the 5:2 diet he has lost about 3 stone and I 1.4 stone, on the 2 diet days I drop down to 500 calories a day (600 for men ). On these 2 days we mostly eat protein to give us energy ! The weight has come off slowly without dieting all week about 1-2lb and I still have a slice if cake on a non diet day if that's what I want ! It generally decreases apetite we found on the non diet days so prob we make better choices ! Read somewhere it increases the skinny gene good luck !
I was unable to lose any weight no matter what i ate, how little i ate or how much i exercised..if anything, i gained muscle and never lost this odd, lumpy , fat which is Myxedema. I can't even pinch my skin. I'm losing weight and some Myxedema, but have been hyper and on t3 only. I would check to make sure you are converting your t4 to t3 properly..get your ft4 and ft3 tested..you may need t3 meds which help many lose "weight" I would rather stay the same weight and lose this soft , lumpy, fat like stuff.
Thank you everyone for joining me in this forum. Everyone has put forth some useful information that we all can integrate. Seems there is no magic solution. Fasting I do know will slow down the metabolism and was told a big no no for hypothyroid. Also ketosis is a bad state for us as well. We all have to count calories, balance food and exercise. Yuk...not fun but those seem to be the answer consistently from everyone who has lost weight. Many people who weren't gluten sensitive do well on high fiber (carb) diets once pass the gas it creates while body adjusts. Thank you all again for answering my post and keep the discussion going. Love to hear those success stories and near misses.
Yhickfoe there are some fundamental biochemical flaws in your argument. The principles I outlined are textbook stuff but for a fully referenced source about carbohydrate metabolism see en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carbo.... Put simply carbohydrate is the body's short term energy source. Stored fat is the body's long term energy store. The body will only use protein from muscles and other tissues as a last resort in extreme situations such as starvation. If you give the body adequate or excessive carbohydrate it has no reason to use it's fat stores up. Most people are overweight because they have too much fat (not protein or carbohydrate) so they need to reduce fat stores by burning fat as a fuel, this is achieved by dietary caloric deprivation (below that needed to maintain weight) and increaed exercise. Thyroid hormones control the rate at which the body uses energy - with high levels we have higher metabolic rates and vice versa. Hypothyroid individuals have the bar set lower (lower metabolic rate) so need to reduce calories even further to lose weight. Wether this is by reducing fat or carbohydrate is less important than what the calorie reduction makes the body do. Fat has more calories than carbohydrate per gram so it may seem easier to reduce fat and maintain carbohydrate intake. However fat in our diet provides satiety and taste so makes it more palatable. We are hunter gatherers and the body has evolved to function best on a diet of protein when you can get it (in the historic sense when you could catch it, modern times availability is generally limited by cost - protein such as meat, chicken and fish is expensive to produce and buy) and carbohydrate and fat from nuts, seeds, roots, fruits etc. (similar to the current fad for the pales diet). Unfortunately our modern diet is full of processed carbohydrates and fats (bread, pasta, cakes, biscuits, sweets etc). The goverent has advocated a low fat, high complex carb for decades - with spectacular failure as obesity and it's associated diseases rise inexorably.
I lost weight by eating and relaxing more lol! (and a Danish diet including pork scratchings, butter and fish!)
(calories live in your wardrobe sewing you clothes tighter) x
Which is what I said Yhickfoe - the key is the calorie deficit. Wether you chose to eat your calories as carbs or fat is personal choice. If there is a calorie deficit the body will burn fat. The body's carb stores (as glycogen) in liver and muscle are negligible in relation to fat stores. The muscle store is only available to the muscles - which use it very quickly and then burn fatty acids.
Importantly we agree that the calorie deficit is important. The other very important issue is that being hypo thyroid reduces your metabolic rate and if people use "normal" daily calorie intakes (eg 1800-2000 for women) they may not lose weight.
probably cousins
At the moment I am on 100 mcg. It has been higher and it has been lower, and there's no guarrantee that it will stay at 100, it dépends how I feel. But whatever the dose, I always take it in one go just before going to sleep. I take it sublingually.
Hugs, Grey
Hi Grey- Thanks for getting back to me. Your detailed account is very helpful.
princess
I am going to start a new blog that should help us all further:
REFERRALS - Good endocronologists / integrated docs - LOCATION, COUNTRY
This will help many of us find relief with our thyroid issues
I have also struggled with weight problems but this last month I have dropped 12lb (yippee) I purchased a walking machine and use it most days also stopped eating bread, potatoes & biscuits (although had a couple of small set-backs) and I am drinking lots of water. If I feel like something sweet I eat a very small piece of chocolate (Cadbury Multibag mixed choc) I eat quite a lot more fruit and have put my meals on a smaller plate. Just hope the weight loss continues. Personally, I think trial and error and determination - although it can get boring!!!!
i have had luck with not having carbohidrates. eat only the good carbs like chicken, veggies protein drink, whey protein powder. lots of water 1/2 hour before you eat a meal.go to the gym or walk a lot. use the stairs or park your car far and walk.
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