Weight Gain/ Loss with Hypothyroidism

[lonely_pioneer]

I'm curious to hear your experiences with weight gain/ or loss with hypothyroidism. I've put on 20lbs since diagnosed and working diligently to lose the weight.

If anyone has any exercise or diet tips, I'm all ears.

This article was useful for some general information: verywellhealth.com/seven-th...

[humanbean]

In your link, I would suggest ignoring this sentence :

Another approach that may be effective is the "mini-meal"/grazing-all-day approach to eating.

If people graze all day they will constantly have higher than background levels of blood sugar, and will be producing insulin all day to get the blood sugar down.

Excessive production of Insulin is regarded as being the culprit in many cases of weight gain, whether people are hypothyroid or not.

But this is missing the point in many cases of hypothyroid weight gain. It isn't always fat that we put on. Instead we gain weight because our bodies start to produce large amounts of mucin.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mucin

To reduce mucin levels we need optimal levels of thyroid hormones - and that is the thing which many of us find extremely hard because treatment of the thyroid is poor the world over.

[greygoose]

This may sound counter-intuitive, lonely_pioneer, but you should not be dieting, and probably not exercising, either - well, just enough to stop you rusting up. The thing is, we need calories to convert. It's often harder for people to convert exogenous hormone than endogenous - especially if you have Hashi's. So, if you don't ingest enough calories to begin with, and then go and use up what you've got by exercising, then you'll probably end up putting more weight on, rather than losing it.

Being hypo changes the way your body reacts, so the rules that apply to euthyroid people don't always apply to us. And one of the problems with thyroid treatment is that doctors expect us to react like euthyroid people and can't understand it when we don't. We have to learn to live in our 'new' bodies, and sometimes that means eating more, rather than less. Hypos are often surprised when they go on holiday, let their hair down and eat much more than they normally would, and lose weight! But, that's because eating more calories improves their conversion and makes them less hypo.

So, this is my tip for the New Year: eat more and move less! And may you have a happy one!