| Autoimmune thyroiditis
Posted: 5/13/2009 12:47:09 PM | I was diagnosed October last year after a huge unexplained weight gain..... I'm on medication and I will be for the rest of my life...
The weight gain is starting to really get to me.... My diet is healthy, lots of fruit a veg... I eat in moderation and never after 7 at night.... I walk 3 miles with my dog every evening and I cycle six miles a day..... I'm not gaining weight but it's not coming off either....
Has anyone who suffers from this condition got any advise, I'm starting to obsess about the weight gain....which isn't healthy.... I'm ft 2 inches tall and the weight gain makes my joints hurt... my back.....
any advise would be appreciated, I spoke to my GP about it and all she said to me can you increase your exercises, | |
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| Autoimmune thyroiditis
Posted: 5/13/2009 1:56:56 PM | | So you have a hypo thyroid? Do you have Graves Disease? Has your hair grown thicker? Are you digesting very slowly? I'm pretty well versed on this subject... | |
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| Autoimmune thyroiditis
Posted: 5/13/2009 2:10:25 PM |
So you have a hypo thyroid
yes. my immune system is killing of my thyroid which is slowing my metobolic rate down as my body is not producing the thyroxine that's what the medication is for..
Do you have Graves Disease
NO
Has your hair grown thicker
I have lots of hair anyway so wouldn't be able to tell LOL....
Are you digesting very slowly
I have no idea to be honest.... | |
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| Autoimmune thyroiditis
Posted: 5/13/2009 3:11:48 PM | Consider consuming Extra Virgin Coconut Oil(Cold Pressed) and drinking your Water, Ask your doctor if they know anything about glandular therapy and if you could be a candidate for it.
Joint Pain, unless you've grown massive it is doubtful it is coming from your being "fat." Drink your water, drink it,e specially since you're doing this 9 miles of aerobic exercise per day. Consuming more fish should also help with easing the joint pain but you need to drink your water. | |
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| Autoimmune thyroiditis
Posted: 5/13/2009 4:00:28 PM | So you have a hypo thyroid? Do you have Graves Disease?
Graves Disease is caused by an overactive thyroid, not an underactive one. With Graves there is considerable weight loss, a rapid heart rate and bulging of the eyes. It can be treated with the medication Tapezole, but eventually the thyroid needs to be irradiated to try and correct the problem. An underactive thyroid usually responds to a synthetic form of thyroxine , ie Synthroid. Both these conditions are best handled by an endocrinologist........
I'm pretty well versed on this subject...
I think you may have go back and read up on this one my friend! | |
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| Autoimmune thyroiditis
Posted: 5/13/2009 8:04:04 PM | My mistake, I had it backward. My late wife had a hyperthyroid condition for 2 years that went undiagnosed even after 14 ER visits, 6 different specialists, and she neary went into thyroid storm. She suffered from Graves and had to have her eye sockets surgically broken and reset to minimise her ocular protrusion. The irradiation (RAI) actually made her condition worsen and after some research we discovered that the US is the only place that it is considered the primary treatment. Everyone else does a partial or full thyroidectomy. OP, please read up on your condition and see an endocronoligist asap.
I think you may have go back and read up on this one my friend!
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| Autoimmune thyroiditis
Posted: 5/13/2009 9:00:11 PM | My sister was hypothyroid and her thyroid was nearly completely shut off....I dont know how much she gained...maybe 40 pounds.....she lost it doing a pretty intense hour of cardio every day after being on meds....
The first thing that I would make sure that you are getting enough medicine....
I had Cushings (hypercortisol) and once I was normal, the weight doesnt just come off....you have to really put the effort in....cardio, diet, and strength training.... | |
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| Autoimmune thyroiditis
Posted: 5/14/2009 12:36:05 AM | Hi Pandora,
It really is a pain how that stupid little gland can cause so much trouble, isn't it? I was diagnosed 6 years ago and have been taking that stupid Levothyroxin ever since. Oh well, at least it's a cheap drug. I never had much weight gain, just a host of other bizarre symptoms like insomnia, dizziness, etc. I think the reason I didn't have much of a weight issue is because my 'engineering approach' to diet and exercise didn't change even while my body was happily chewing up my thryoid, and that approach was automatically compensating for my decreasing BMR until the other systemic issues caught up to me.
Basically, I believe the difference in 'calories in' versus 'calories out' is weight gained or lost. It's that simple. We all have a 'BMR' (Basal Metabolic Rate) that defines how many calories we consume in a day. For women (and you metric Europeans), the formula is
655 + ( 9.6 x weight in kilos ) + ( 1.8 x height in cm ) - ( 4.7 x age in years )
Multiple by 1.2 if sedentary, 1.375 for light exercise, or 1.55 for moderate exercise. (Beyond that you're an athlete, and your weight won't be an issue anyway.) If I were you, I'd do the math for your current weight, and your desired weight, at each of the three activity levels. You will probably find the difference at each activity level between your current weight and your desired weight is only a few hundred calories. You will also find the difference between sedentary and moderate activity is probably only 500 calories or so.
To determine how many calories are going in, it's really helpful to keep a spreadsheet where you record *everything* you eat for a month or two. Yes, it's a pain, but it helps a lot. Add up the calories each day, and compare them to your calculated BMRs. The difference is what you will be gaining or losing, at the rate of 7716 calories = 1kg. If the math is predicting one result and the scale shows another, adjust the BMR numbers for your particular body until the math does add up.
Yes, not all calories are equivalently digested. Yes, it helps to also work on muscle mass, and muscle does weigh more. Yes, you should verify your desired weight goal is actually healthy by checking with the body fat formulas available on the web, and striving more for a healthy body fat percentage than any particular weight. However, unless you're seriously into bodybuilding I suspect your healthy body fat weight will be pretty darn close to your healthy BMI weight (also available on the web) and your calorie/BMR math will be pretty close to what the formulas show. I know my results are.
Thyroid on the fritz or not, this works for me. I know you say you eat healthy foods in moderation. That's great. But too much healthy food will still get you. Example: I love dry-roasted, unsalted peanuts. A great healthy food. But calculate the calories in one jar, and you'll see why I parcel that jar out into ziplock bags, and limit myself to one ziplock bag portion a day. The only way to be sure you really are eating moderately is to verify it. Do the math! (Yes, I know, I'm a nerd.)
IMO, if you can stick with this for a while, you will lose weight. Anything else would violate the first law of thermodynamics (nerd-speak for matter and energy cannot come from nothing). Your body *must* consume some number of calories just to stay alive, and even more when it is doing work, like exercising. Those calories do not just magically appear in your body, they come in through the mouth. Don't pay attention to the excuse so many thyroid sufferers have: 'Oh, my condition just makes me gain weight even when I don't eat anything'. That's BS. If it was true, their body would be a perpetual motion machine, and a study of it would shake the foundations of modern physics to the core. By the time the thyroid causes that much change to your metabolism, you're dead. The reason hypothyroidism typically causes weight gain is because it lowers BMR some while simultaneously screwing up your physical/mental state a lot, causing you to eat more and exercise less. Synthroid fixes the BMR and physical/mental state issues. Calories In - Calories Out fixes the weight issue.
The other thing you will need is time and patience. Plan on no more than 1 or 2 kg of weight loss a month. It's a lot easier to consume an extra 1000 calories a day than it is to eat 200 less than your BMR, particularly while your BMR is still slowly recovering from the hypothyroidism. Don't go below the minimum recommended calories for women. Keep in mind that 1 litre of water weights 1 kg, and we're all almost 75% water, so don't be surprised to see daily weight fluctuations of 2 or more kg. Worry about the calories, maintain an exercise schedule you can live with, and the weight will take care of itself eventually.
BTW, don't be surprised if it takes a year or two for your synthroid dosage to stabilize and for all your symptoms to abate. It took about 18 months in my case.
Best of luck to you! | |
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| Autoimmune thyroiditis
Posted: 5/14/2009 3:59:51 AM | | Make sure to stay away from soy, soy is in most foods. So can effect the thyroid. | |
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| Autoimmune thyroiditis
Posted: 5/16/2009 8:12:19 PM | | hi.. I agree with dude^^ and I would add stay away from dairy... I would go to a naturapathic Dr because I would not want to be on mainstream meds for life... eat pineapples and try that EVcoconut oil.... did you take a lot of antibiotics ??.. when our cells are so full of toxins we may start to suffer from autoimmune issues.. just because you are off balance now does not mean that you should kill your gland and go on pills for life... get informed and fight this thing... blessings for health, warmly Mona | |
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| Autoimmune thyroiditis
Posted: 5/17/2009 4:46:53 PM | I've had borderline low thyroid for the last ten years, that was after about four years of hyperthyroid which was preceded by a roller coaster of up and down metabolism. I had two "crashes" which resulted in instantaneous *crazy* weight gain. The first happened during food poisoning and while I was weeks in recovery of keeping nothing down and aggressive diarreah, I gained 30 pounds! With more over the year.
I know that soy and peanuts and other foods linked to thyroid dysfunction are suspect but not proved. I still had amazing results by removing these from my diet, even small amounts. During my second "crash" I discovered that the many foods I had come to trust as being soy free had added soy to their ingredients and I cannot ignore the connection between my crash and my pantry being full of soy. I was coaching soccer and various levels of youth baseball and track and I ran and demonstrated right alongside the kids. I played coed softball and practiced AND worked out and did yard work and housework and helped neighbors on laborious projects and went out dancing hip hop style 2-3 times a week. The 40 pounds I had earlier lost from simply removing soy and peanuts and a few other foods took 2 weeks to regain - with all that activity and no change in my diet! I gave up for a couple years and went through a rough time emotionally and physically with 2 miscarriages among other problems. I gained another 40. One look at my wedding pictures turned me around. I lost weight in spite of tearing a ligament in the back of one knee (the weight, no doubt) less than a week after getting married. I went soy free again, whole food as much as possible and tried several diets with only one of my own ideas giving me any success. I'm 20 pounds down, maintained for 3 months and am pursuing the weight loss again. As a hypnotist, I use that to help.
Do not stop being active! I know that I can out labor a lot of the "physically fit", and it goes a long way towards balancing out the life threat that this weight is.
Don't give up! | |
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