My wife has hypothyroidism and has been taking tablets for this. A few months after giving birth to our son, she has gained a lot of weight and is unable to lose it. This is despite exercising regularly, being cautious of her diet and completing intermittent fasting, only eating limited amounts of food during the day. In fact, she eats so little sometimes that I worry that she's not eating enough. She's in her late 30s, experiences fatigue, regularly has low iron and low vitamin D (as soon as she stops the supplements, her vitamin D drops) and is borderline diabetic. Whenever she has a blood test, everything appears to be normal including her TSH, T3 and T4 levels. Does anybody have any tips on what else she can do to lose weight? Thank you
Weight loss and hypothyroidism: My wife has... - Thyroid UK
Weight loss and hypothyroidism
Welcome. Do you have numbers on the TSH T3 and T4 plus ranges, they will help people give advice. Symptoms ? fatigue, feeling cold, aches and pains ?
Forum seems to advise vit D and B12 , ferritin and folate are optimised.
Brain fog is a given with little ones so likely not a useful symptom, I seem to remember.
We had our last about this age and its tough.
My wife had gestational diabetes at this time too, I am a couple of years into autoimmune underactive thyroid and I think my prediabetes is related to this. I used a patch linked to phone to track blood sugar level for 2 weeks which put my mind at rest I can process sugar and it is not too bad. I found finger prick tests pretty useless as levels move about so much in the day.
Good luck to you all.
Thank you. Yes, she's taking Vitamin D. Her ferritin was very low once (dropped as low as 3) so there was a time when very much all she was doing was sleeping and even when she was awake she was half asleep. Fortunately, she is much better than that now but its mostly the weight gain that's a concern
Hi ghost_writer, welcome to the forum. 
Weight-gain and inability to lose it are hypo symptoms. And it's highly unlikely that it has anything to do with what she eats or how much she exercises. In fact, low-calorie diets and over-exercising can make things worse because she needs those calories to convert T4 to T3. If her FT3 is low (never mind being 'in-range', that is meaningless) then she will be more hypo and put on even more weight. Water-weight, unlikely to be fat so diets won't help anyway. What will make her lose it is getting her FT3 optimised. But we'd need to see her results to see if that is happening. What is she taking? And how much?
BTW, just having a result in-range does not make it 'normal'. It has to be in the right place within the range for the individual - we're all different. But doctors don't understand that, and will call any result that falls anywhere within the range 'normal'. Don't be fooled by that!
Thank you. Yes, the range issue is quite useless as her T3 and T4 are almost always in range so the doctor just says that its OK but I can see the symptoms. She's taking Euthyrox 25 mg
welcome to the forum
How much Levo is she taking
Is it always same brand at each prescription
Very important to test FULL thyroid and vitamin levels and to test EARLY morning
Is her hypothyroidism autoimmune
What vitamin supplements is she taking
Bloods should be retested 6-8 weeks after each dose change or brand change in levothyroxine
For full Thyroid evaluation you need TSH, FT4 and FT3 tested
Also both TPO and TG thyroid antibodies tested at least once to see if hypothyroidism is autoimmune
Very important to test vitamin D, folate, ferritin and B12 at least once year minimum
Low vitamin levels are extremely common when hypothyroid, especially with autoimmune thyroid disease
About 90% of primary hypothyroidism is autoimmune thyroid disease, usually diagnosed by high TPO and/or high TG thyroid antibodies
Autoimmune thyroid disease with goitre is Hashimoto’s
Autoimmune thyroid disease without goitre is Ord’s thyroiditis.
Both are autoimmune and generally called Hashimoto’s.
Significant minority of Hashimoto’s patients only have high TG antibodies (thyroglobulin)
NHS only tests TG antibodies if TPO are high
20% of autoimmune thyroid patients never have high thyroid antibodies and ultrasound scan of thyroid can get diagnosis
In U.K. medics hardly ever refer to autoimmune thyroid disease as Hashimoto’s (or Ord’s thyroiditis)
Essential to test vitamin D, folate, ferritin and B12
For good conversion of Ft4 (levothyroxine) to Ft3 (active hormone) we must maintain GOOD vitamin levels
Recommended that all thyroid blood tests early morning, ideally just before 9am, only drink water between waking and test and last dose levothyroxine 24 hours before test
This gives highest TSH, lowest FT4 and most consistent results. (Patient to patient tip)
Private tests are available as NHS currently rarely tests Ft3 or all relevant vitamins
Post all about what time of day to test
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Testing options and includes money off codes for private testing
Medichecks Thyroid plus BOTH TPO and TG antibodies and vitamins
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Blue Horizon Thyroid Premium Gold includes BOTH TPO and TG antibodies, cortisol and vitamins
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Medichecks and BH also offer private blood draw at clinic near you, or private nurse to your own home…..for an extra fee
Only do private testing early Monday or Tuesday morning.
Tips on how to do DIY finger prick test
support.medichecks.com/hc/e...
If you normally take levothyroxine at bedtime/in night ...adjust timings as follows prior to blood test
If testing Monday morning, delay Saturday evening dose levothyroxine until Sunday morning. Delay Sunday evening dose levothyroxine until after blood test on Monday morning. Take Monday evening dose levothyroxine as per normal
Thank you for the detailed response. Are there any supplements you would recommend for B12, Folate or ferritin that I can get without prescription (preferably natural ones so that they don't have side effects)? She's taking Vitamin D right now
Weight loss with hypothyroidism 
Possible secondary hypothyroidism 
Is this hypothyroidism?
GP, results and not increasing levothyroxine 
