Getting in Shape

Weight Loss and Thyroid

Hi, I live with Hypothyroid disorder. I struggle with losing weight with this condition. Thankfully I do not gain weight it's just extremely hard losing it. I do not eat fast food at all, barely drink soda, juice at times, but mostly water. I mostly bake my foods, every once in a while I do eat fried. Overall I'm not a horrible eater. I am allergic to some foods and I am also a picky eater. My palette is very basic. I have been looking at clean eating, and paleo eating. Some of the things I can eat others contribute to my thyroid issues. Does anyone have anything similar to what I'm going through or have and healthy eating ideas for people with autoimmune disorders? I do go to the gym everyday and workout (I'm recently laid off) so I spend about 2 hours in the gym everyday. I am seeing improvements but it's like molasses with my thyroid problem. Please help if you can.

Re: Weight Loss and Thyroid

  • I was diagnosed with hypothyroid disorder about a year and a half ago. I decided to make the life choice of going gluten free. When I was retested 6 months later my Thyroid was completely normal! I have talked with others who have done the same thing and it has worked!! also a great way to loose some weight and keep it off!

  • Hi @Ashine13, I have hypothyroidism too... I take 100mcg a day right now, i'm really intrigued by @hannah2691 were you taking medication when you were able to correct the problem? Or were you diagnosed as just mildly hypothyroid? I freaking love gluten but would probably give it up if it could genuinely fix my thyroid... did you have the autoimmune kind or was it caused by something else?

    Back to your question Ashine - honestly I was under the impression that if your thyroid problem is properly treated, which I imagine yours is since you're aware of it, you should function like any normal person. I don't personally have any weight loss issues thankfully... for me, the easiest thing to do is just eat less, not necessarily healthier, if I want to lose weight. Eating well you can still consume a lot of calories. I'm not advocating you starving yourself by any means but just strongly suggest you look at portion size and also the frequency with which you're eating... also what are you doing during your two hour workouts? Are you sweating/heart racing the entire time? How much weight are you trying to lose?  


  • @lavender123 I never took any medication. I took some natural supplements at the beginning to correct things a little quicker but now I am just doing Gluten free and feeling great! I was had a pretty bad thyroid level but it was not autoimmune. They don't know what brought it on but as of now i'm all good!
  • Hey hannah2691 I have never thought about gluten free, but it can't hurt to try.

    lavender123 I take 50mcg daily and my blood work always show 'normal' but some of my symptoms are still fairly extreme at least in my opinion. I am always aware of portion control since it's been hard to get the weight off. I've tried eating 6 small meals a day or eating every 2 hours to get my metabolism up and running which hasn't helped. When I'm in the gym I do get my heart pumping and constantly rotate my exercises between weights, cardio,& strength. I'm not trying to lose half my body weight or anything major, just about 20lbs but getting anything off is hard. So I'm not giving up, but just wondered if anyone had the same issues as I. Thanks for responding ladies.

  • As an endocrinologist, I can tell you that gluten doesn't affect the thyroid. It is true that some people with thyroid disorders also have celiac disease, they're both autoimmune diseases, so, it is possible that eating gluten free could help if you had celiac and didn't know it.  The problem with thyroid symptoms is that there very vague, fatigue, cold, weight gain, constipation, a lot of these things can happen from stress, lack of sleep. So, even if you are on adequate doses of medication, you may still feel tired, just as many people feel tired with perfectly normal thyroids.  In terms of losing weight, it's the same thing, if the blood tests are showing good numbers for thyroid function, you may just have trouble losing weight they way many women do, it's unlikely to be due to the thyroid.  I would be careful about taking natural thyroid supplements, some of them can actually make things worse, not better, anything with iodine in it has the potential to suppress your thyroid, and make your function lower, it is what we give to treat overactive thyroid.
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