Many hypothyroid patients struggle with an inability to lose weight. At first, if you’d gained weight before your thyroid problem is diagnosed, you were probably told you’d be able to lose it more easily — or perhaps you were even told you’d lose all the extra weight — once you started on your thyroid hormone replacement.
Later, despite “normal” TSH levels, and lower-calorie, low-fat diets and exercise, you find yourself still gaining, or not losing weight. You may also have high cholesterol levels. The doctor then tells you that your weight problem doesn’t have anything to do with your thyroid.
Three Factors to Remember
What thyroid patients need to know more about are three factors that are likely at work for many of us with a difficulty losing weight — a changed metabolic “set point,” changes in brain chemistry due to illness and stress, and insulin resistance.
Metabolic Set Point
According to Dr. Lou Aronne, author of the best-selling Weigh Less Live Longer, when you begin to take in too many calories, you have a small weight gain. Then, in order to maintain your set point weight, “your metabolism speeds up to process the excess calories, your appetite decreases, and some of the newly gained weight drops off.” He calls this metabolic resistance.
Insulin Resistance
Insulin is a hormone released by the pancreas. When you eat foods that contain carbohydrates (which make up the majority of most of our diets), your body converts the carbohydrates into simple sugars. These sugars enter the blood, becoming “blood sugar.” Your pancreas then releases insulin to stimulate the cells to take in the blood sugar and store it as an energy reserve, returning blood sugar levels to a normal level.
Carbohydrates can be “simple,” high-glycemic carbohydrates such as pasta, bread, sugar, white flour and cakes, or “complex” lower-glycemic carbohydrates, like vegetables and whole grains.
