Gained weight with hyperthyroidism? Here's what to do
Although it’s not as common as weight loss, gaining weight with an overactive thyroid can happen. If you’re experiencing weight gain due to hyperthyroidism and want to maintain a healthy weight, there are some simple steps that will get you started.
What to do when you’ve gained weight with an overactive thyroid
Look to your thyroid function first!
Gaining weight with an overactive thyroid doesn’t happen for no reason. So if you’ve noticed your weight is creeping up, we need to look at what is going on with your thyroid first.
Why? Because all of the drivers of weight gain stem back to your thyroid.
It could be that your anti-thyroid medication is not quite the right dose – in this case, you need to work with your doctor to tweak it. If you’ve had thyroid surgery or radioactive iodine, it may have tipped you into a hypothyroid state.
Once you’ve worked on the ‘why’, then you’ll notice that weight loss becomes much easier!
Eat enough food
So many weight loss diets are focused on cutting out everything – including calories, carbs, fats, or all of the above! But the restrictive approach to nutrition is never going to work long-term. By restricting your intake, you can add even more stress on the thyroid and flare your symptoms right up.
Make sure you’re eating regular meals every day with enough calories to sustain you. And of course, we want to ensure what you eat is high-quality and nutritious as well. That’s where wholefoods become your big focus.
Always prioritise nourishing, filling wholefoods in your diet. These support your thyroid function and can also help to soothe drivers of thyroid disease.
Wholefoods provide key nutrients needed for thyroid health, metabolic functions and other supportive processes. But they also help to fill you up. As a result, you’re less likely to overeat the foods that are calorie dense and nutritionally ‘empty’ – which are typically the foods that drive weight gain in the first place!
Reach for more:
Fruit
Vegetables
Herbs & spices
Nuts
Seeds
Beans & legumes
Gluten-free wholegrains
Pseudo-grains
Eggs
Fish & seafood
High-quality meat & poultry (grass-fed/organic is ideal)
By aiming for 80-90% of your diet as wholefoods, you’ll get more nutrients & more fibre into your diet, and you’ll feel fuller for longer.
Be smart with exercise
Yes, regular physical activity is important for general wellbeing and maintaining a healthy body weight. But if you have an overactive thyroid, you need to be careful with how you move your body.
If your thyroid is not well-managed, the wrong approach to exercise could be dangerous to your health. To learn more about how to exercise safely with an overactive thyroid, give this a read.
Get plenty of sleep
Weight maintenance tips are so often focused on diet and exercise. But we need to look at sleep to support a healthy weight, particularly as poor sleep can exacerbate causes of weight gain.
When you are sleep deprived, it makes it harder to maintain a healthy weight by:
Reducing your insulin sensitivity and increasing cravings for sweet treats and junk food
Increasing your appetite
Increasing cortisol levels & puts the body into fight-or-flight mode
So if preventing weight gain or encouraging weight loss is your ultimate goal? You need to make sure you’re getting plenty of high-quality rest every single day.
Struggle to get a decent night of sleep? I share my top 10 sleep tips here.
Tackle your stress
Stress in any form can have a big impact on your thyroid function, particularly if you already have a thyroid condition. But it also influences your body composition in general.
Depending on your body, stress could be leading to:
Reduced conversion of T4 (inactive thyroid hormone) to T3 (active thyroid hormone)
Increased appetite
More cravings for energy-dense foods
Increased stress hormones that block you from burning fat for energy
Increased resistance to insulin (leading to fat storage)
The tricky thing about stress is that we often overlook it, or tell ourselves it’s all in our heads. But there are also physical causes of stress that play a role. They include calorie restriction, out-of-range thyroid hormone levels, environmental toxins, impaired gut health, poor sleep and food intolerances.
And although they are physical sources of stress, they all add to the same stress bucket. When that bucket gets too full, it will overflow. This can trigger your thyroid symptoms to flare, but it can also contribute to weight gain.
Need some guidance on how to start managing your stress? Start here.
you can feel well with an overactive thyroid!
If you’re suffering from symptoms of hyperthyroidism and feeling out of control, you’re not alone. It can take time to learn what is driving the problem, let alone what to do about it!
But that doesn’t mean you need to suffer the symptoms forever. Your daily habits can make a massive difference – all you need to do is learn about your condition and empower yourself.