5 Reasons You’re Not Losing Weight with Hypothyroidism

How frustrated are YOU?! Seriously. You have tried everything to lose weight, but nothing has worked. You’ve met with your doctor, and it’s confirmed that you have hypothyroidism. But the medication, supplements, diets…none of it is working to help you lose that weight. (And you’re even gaining weight!) If this rings a bell to you, here are 5 reasons you’re not losing weight with hypothyroidism.

Now, keep in mind that it’s important to work with your doctor if you’re really struggling. But in my experience, it’s important to learn how to tune into your body. These 5 reasons you’re not losing weight with hypothyroidism give you a great starting point to figure out why your body won’t drop the weight. 

Portion sizes for hypothyroidism

Have you recently switched to an anti inflammatory diet (which is ideal for hypothyroidism)? Or maybe you’ve cleaned up your nutrition, and you’re eating more fruits and veggies? Either way, if you’ve made some changes, you might be feeling better! Eating foods that are full of fiber, protein, nutrients, and healthy fats? Well, you’re bound to notice a change in digestion, energy, and maybe even weight loss. Even if the changes are slight!

However, if you’re not seeing the scale move, It’s time to take a look at your portion sizes. When we start eating healthy, it’s easy to stop paying attention to how much you’re eating.

Think about it. That salad at lunch? It was filled with mixed greens, tomatoes, avocados, peppers, cucumbers, and diced chicken. And that dried fruit and nut mix? Healthy pecans, pumpkin seeds, and dried cranberries. The balsamic vinaigrette was the perfect way to pull it all together! Such a healthy salad! Or was it?

If you look at each of the parts, did you think about how much you were eating? About 8-10 pecans is a good portion for your entire day. Add in the pumpkin seeds and it’s too much in the nuts/seeds category for the day.  Was it more than an 1/8th of an avocado? If it was closer to 1/2 an avocado (or more!), it was probably too much there, too.

This is not meant to judge your portion sizes. But, we easily get away from how much our body actually needs. Especially if weight loss is your goal! We tend to eat too much of some things (healthy fats, nuts, seeds, dressings). And, we don’t get enough of other things (healthy greens, fiber-filled veggies).

It’s about balancing ALL of the foods, so that you’re getting the right portions throughout the day. Portion control was a big eye opener for me when I started my weightloss journey. Paired with low-impact workouts, portion control helped me lose 55 lbs. (You can read more about that here). I used a super-easy container-based system, so there was no counting calories or macros. Drop me an email if you’re curious to know more about the portion control system that helped me lose 55 lbs!

Packaged Healthy Foods and Hypothyroidism

When you decide to change your nutrition so that you can lose weight with hypothyroidism, it’s easy to do for the first few days. Slowly, you realize that it’s going to take time to plan meals, prep foods, and figure out what to feed your family. That’s when things get difficult.

As you shop through Trader Joe’s and Sprouts, you start searching for pre-made meals and packaged foods to make mealtime easier. But when you take time to read the ingredients, you’ll learn that many of these meals are filled with inflammatory ingredients. If you’re trying to lose weight with hypothyroidism, it’s so important to steer clear of inflammatory ingredients, like preservatives, starches, and thickeners.

I have a client who texts me pictures from Trader Joe’s. She’s trying to make good choices, and reduce inflammatory ingredients. But when she picks up a frozen meal that looks healthy, we discover together that there’s a lot of strange preservatives and stabilizers in the meal she was considering.

Plus, as we uncovered above, portion sizes are important to pay attention to when you’re trying to lose weight with hypothyroidism. Packaged foods (even if they’re healthy!) are often high in carbs, sugars, sodium, and calories. Whether it’s a frozen meal or a protein bar, it’s going to be difficult to make it fit into your daily portion plan.

There are plenty of ways to make healthy eating (and snacking!) easier, if weight loss is your goal. (Be sure to grab the FREE guide, The Family Fork 7-Day Meal Plan, for super-easy meal and snack ideas!) But steer clear of the packaged “healthy” foods, even if they’re labeled dairy free or gluten free. They aren’t good for your hypothyroidism, and won’t help you reach your weight loss goals.

Workouts for Hypothyroidism

#3 under the 5 reasons you’re not losing weight with hypothyroidism? Your workouts! I find that most women fall into two camps. 1) They’re working out harder, pushing more, running further, doing more cardio. Or, 2) they’ve given up all together, because nothing works anyway. (Which one are you?)

Believe it or not, more cardio is actually making it harder for you to lose weight! When you perform intense exercise, your cortisol naturally rises. Cortisol is your body’s main stress hormone, and regulates things like motivation, mood, and fear. Sounds like you would want more of it, right (hello, more motivation!) 

What actually happens is that high levels of cortisol increases systemic inflammation in your body. This results in a weakened immune system, and increased weight (plus an inability to lose weight). To top it off, when you have hypothyroidism, you already have high inflammation in your body. So doing more cardio is adding more inflammation to the fire. That is a recipe for not losing any weight at all!

The solution? Dial back your workouts and stick with low or zero-impact workouts. Trust me, this doesn’t have to mean easy! Walking should replace your bouncy cardio and HIIT-style workouts. (Yes, I said you can stop doing cardio! Hurrah! And here are some workout ideas!) 

Adding weight lifting will build muscle that will burn fat, even while you’re resting. You’re not going to bulk up like a bodybuilder. Women don’t have the right natural hormones to do that! Weight lifting will help you increase muscle mass, lean out your body, and help you protect your joints as you get older. AND, it will help you kick start your hypothyroid weight loss!

Losing weight alone with hypothyroidism

In your desperation to lose weight, you’ve collected countless meal plans. Keto diets. Anti inflammatory diets. Paleo meal plans. Low fat recipe guides. You’ve googled for “fast and easy” recipes to lose weight. You’ve pinned anti inflammatory food lists by the dozens, and even printed some to hang on your refrigerator.

But you’re still not losing weight.

When I first started my weight loss journey, I had just been diagnosed with hypothyroidism. I also had Hashimoto’s and severe nutrient deficiencies. At the time, I was a single mom, working full-time (60+ hours) at a fast-paced tech start up in Denver. I had very few minutes in a day to work on meal plans, grocery shop, or to prep dinners with my son. 

What I learned in that season of life is that you can’t lose weight with hypothyroidism all by yourself. The old saying applies here, too: it takes a village! You need to surround yourself with a community of people who are in the same place. They will be your lifeline for venting, support, and for getting new ideas.

It’s also important to have a comprehensive nutrition plan. Anyone can give you a list of anti inflammatory foods to eat. If you don’t have easy recipes that your family enjoys, too, the food lists aren’t going to help you. If you have a bunch of recipes that are filled with foods you don’t like (or your family won’t eat), the recipes are a waste of time. You need a plan that incorporates anti inflammatory foods that are good for you, easy to portion control, and include things that your family will enjoy. Oh, the right meal plan for weight loss won’t leave you stuck in the kitchen all day, either!

Mindset coaching for weight loss

Along with a strong community and the right-for-YOU meal plan, mindset coaching should be an invaluable part of your weight loss journey. If this is new to you, consider this. How many times have you thought to yourself “this will never work for me” or “I’ve tried absolutely everything to lose weight, but nothing works”? If you’ve had these thoughts, mindset coaching will completely transform your weight loss journey!

While it feels true that “this will never work for me” or “nothing works”, these are actually limiting beliefs. Those frustrations can feel so true in the moment! A trained mindset coach can help you push past those limiting beliefs. You’ll discover how your thoughts and emotions drive your actions (which drive your results), and what to do to push past those limiting beliefs, and start losing weight! 

If you’re not paired up with a mindset coach, it may be one of the 5 reasons you’re not losing weight with hypothyroidism. Mindset coaching is an essential part of your hypothyroid weight loss journey, and will support you in reaching your weight loss goals even faster! And if you’ve been on the weight loss journey for awhile, and it’s still not working, you are ready to start seeing results today! Thankfully, mindset coaching can help. 

Bonus tip: find a mindset coach who has been exactly where you are. Someone who has navigated weight loss with hypothyroidism, understands an anti inflammatory diet, and who understands your daily challenges and frustrations. I offer mindset coaching if you’re ready to push past your weight loss challenges once and for all! Share a few details with me here, so we can design coaching that’s right for you!

Losing Weight with Hypothyroidism

As you look back over the list of 5 reasons you’re not losing weight with hypothyroidism, which area needs improvement? Portion sizes, packaged foods, workouts, doing it alone, or mindset coaching? I’d love to hear which area is a struggle for you (just comment below, or send me an email!)

Be compassionate with yourself as you evaluate each area. It takes time to dial in a new lifestyle as you navigate losing weight with hypothyroidism. Good news is that there are plenty of tools you can use to improve each of these areas. And improvements will lead to sustainable weight loss, which is really the goal for most of us! If you need support in any of these areas, sign up for my weekly newsletter where I share tips, tools, and resources for finally losing weight with hypothyroidism.