Help! I'm am active person (walk and run most days) eat a healthy diet and have been living with an underactive thyroid for many years now. I'm currently taking 100mg of thyroxine and have been for at least a year now. My most recent blood test show I'm functioning in the perceived normal range and no action to be taken, good news!
Despite of of this I'm steadily gaining weight, a little at a time and unable to shift the weight gain. Does anyone have any tips, advice, dietary guidelines that might help me to,shift the unwanted weight. I know this is a related problem for some people with an underactive thyroid and wonder if there are foods that could be hindering the problem or am I missing something? Confused yet again! Thanks
If you can get a copy of your latest thyroid gland blood test results and post here someone will comment upon them. What the GP's perceive as 'normal' may not be for us and we may need an increase in meds.
This is a link and there are several questions about weight - which is the most common question. Some of the links within the topics (more at the top of the page) may not work.
many people need their Ft4 to be near the top end of the range -yours is a bit lower than this so worth checking whether you need a slightly higher dose then you are presently taking. Secondly i have found reducing my grains when well medicated on thyroid hormones to be an effective way of managing weight -for some reason despite exercise i simply don't need much of those types of carbs -so i only have them at breakfast time. The weight i gain when eating more grains always goes on my middle -have no idea if this is the case for you but might be worth a nosey. x
Kelp will only help if you are deficient in iodine. I would recommend that you don't take anything containing extra iodine without getting tested for deficiency.
Just as there are lots of questions on here about weight, there are also many questions and blogs about iodine which you might find helpful.
You may find, given your test results, that you may do better with an increase. Even a small increase of 25mcg can make a big difference for some people.
When on thyroxine only this does not mimic nature as the thyroid normally produces a little T3. So to compensate for this lack of T3 you may need to have a slightly higher T4 level and slightly lower TSH level than normal. Or if you want to copy nature take a combination of T4 and T3 and you may find you have less problems. 5-10ug T3 with enough T4 to keep your TSH around 0.5 is what seems to work for me best.
Are you eating soy? This blocks the action of the thyroid and if you are reducing gluten, they often substitute with soy flour. Also raw cabbage and broccoli can interfere as well. Even though it is a fat, coconut oil has some good benefits toward less weight gain.
Jussi read yourquestion and from someone who gained 13 pounds from
ESI( steroid inj for sciatica) I found deleting Sugar from my diet did the trick after all else failed and did some type of exercise for thirty minutes at a gym three times a week took it off in thirty days an i am in my late 70's. Only used trainer twice to show me at my age and health what to do and what NOT to do. Just a thought if you still hae a problem you may want to try.good luck at any state .
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