Thyroid Disease and Weight Loss for Women

People who suffer from thyroid problems, particularly hypothyroidism, may find it very difficult to lose weight. The thyroid gland is responsible for your metabolism, and it controls how your body uses energy. Hence, when you have an underactive thyroid, you may experience a slower metabolic rate, more hunger pains, as well as insulin resistance in some cases. All of these factors spell trouble when you try to lose weight.

How to Shed Pounds with Thyroid Disease

Your condition is not a reason for you to skip dieting and exercise. Although losing weight can be a difficult undertaking when your thyroid is not functioning normally, you can still stay fit and lean as long as you keep your focus and double your effort in order to cut the pounds.

To help you keep the weight gain at bay and to lose weight and improve your overall health, here is the list of ways on how you lose weight with thyroid disease:

Consult your doctor before enrolling on any weight loss program

Before you try any diet or fitness program, make sure that you consult your doctor so you can both decide what program is best for you. Since you have a special medical condition to consider, it’s important that you never put your health at risk while you try to achieve your weight loss goal. Some medications can be influenced through diet and exercise, so it’s important to get your doctors approval before you make any lifestyle changes.

Build muscle to boost your metabolism

Hypothyroidism can greatly affect how your body burns fat. Apparently, this illness limits the production of essential hormones that can stimulate the metabolism. Hence, you store fat more than what you burn. As a result, you continue to gain weight even though you’re exercising regularly.

You can spend more time at the gym to boost your metabolism and build muscle at the same time. For example, if you usually spend 30 minutes on the gym 3 times a week, you can start adding 30 minutes more and exercise at least 5 times a week.

The more time you spend on your workout, the greater benefit it brings to your weight loss. In addition to this, you can opt for exercises that can help you gain more muscles. Note that when you build muscle, you’re likely to burn more calories and fat.

Watch what you eat

People with hypothyroidism frequently develop hunger pains and tend to not feel full because they have low serotonin levels (the feel good hormone), which signals your brain that you are already satisfied with the amount of food that you have consumed.

To fight cravings and increase your serotonin levels, you can exercise more to improve your mood and distract yourself from craving unhealthy food. You should also keep healthy foods such as fruits and nuts on hand in order to prevent spoiling your diet when you feel like grabbing something to eat.

Drink green tea everyday

A cup of green tea is rich with antioxidants, which can help improve your mood. Furthermore, enjoying a green tea drink before you workout can make your metabolism run at its full potential as well as increase your energy level, which enables you to perform more exercises.