Under active thyriod

help with some of the problems

Underactive thyroid

hi, I've been living with hypothyroidism for the past 5 years or so and I must admit it has been difficult. I first found out when I was feeling so tired and lethargic, ached all over, couldn't get warm (particulary my hands and feet), had always looked after my weight but suddenly started to gain. Went to the doctor, had blood tests and he prescribed thyroxine 50 mcg. Over the years the dosage has gone steadily up and I now take 150 mcg and I seem to have leveled out at that . My main concern is the weight problem now which I have to work really hard at. Have managed to get back down to a reasonable weight mainly due to exercising (which you must do) and a very good diet and have to keep that up no matter what. What are your problems?

Underactive thyroid

I have only been taking thyroxine since Sept 2nd 2008 and would love to know what you would class as a healthy diet as I gained over 2 stone before I found out what was wrong with me.

Underactive thyroid

Hi there, like you I had put on about 1 1/2 stone in weight before I was diagnosed and everything seemed like an uphill struggle. My diet had always been reasonably healthy, and the fact that I was putting on weight even though I followed a low fat diet alerted me to fact that something was wrong. With the weight problem, feeling cold, all my bones aching, constant tiredness etc etc, you know the score, I went to the doctors and he immediately knew what was wrong. He said then that I would need to combine eating sensibly with a lot of exercise and he was right. At first I tried eating even less than I normally would just to try and get the weight off quicker but that didn't work at all, just made me feel weaker. Having previously been an active person; enjoying sport (badminton, bowling); walking the dog etc before the hypothyroidism took hold, the thought of restarting exercise was difficult because I felt so lousy. Believe me, it has taken a lot of effort but with exercising and constantly watching my weight (Weight Watchers being the operative word) I have managed over the years to have gotten my weight down to what I feel happy enough to live with. With hypothyroidism your metabolism really slows down and so you need to exercise to speed this up and build muscle. Metabolism is affected by your body composition. By body composition, I mean the amount of muscle you have versus the amount of fat. Muscle uses more calories to maintain itself than fat. So exercise is very very important. Start off just doing a little and then build it up and before you know it you might even begin to enjoy exercising. I probably do about 20 mins of exercise each day, alternating between cardio-vascular one day (on my 2nd hand cross-trainer bought especially as I couldn't face the gym!) and the next day lifting weights (again 2nd hand). It's seems to have worked for me anyway and maybe it could for you - give it a go. Hope this has been of some use, let me know if there is anything else that I can help with.

hich in turn helps to Metabolism is the amount of energy (calories) your body burns to maintain itself. Whether you are eating, drinking, sleeping, cleaning etc... your body is constantly burning calories to keep you going.