How to Lose Weight with an Underactive Thyroid?

Click HERE to Find Out How You Can Achieve Thyroid Levels within a Short Period of Time

It’s often a struggle to lose weight when you have hypothyroidism. So this then becomes a common question….‘ how to lose weight with an underactive thyroid?’

Firstly, let’s do a quick recap of how your thyroid works…

You may already know your thyroid is one of the most important glands to regulate your metabolism.

The thyroid produces crucial hormones that are released into circulation to generate activity in every organ and body system. These vital thyroid hormones help your body use energy, stay well, keep warm, and ensure your digestion, brain, heart, muscles, and other organs keep working properly.

As these hormones spark energy production they influence your metabolism. In effect, they run how efficiently your body burns calories for energy.

Your Thyroid Could Be Slowing Your Metabolism

Your thyroid is your metabolic control center. When your thyroid is working below par your metabolism slows down. It then becomes extremely difficult to lose weight. You may even feel too tired to even try. And as your energy dips you could also start to crave sugary foods for energy.

A sluggish thyroid may also lead to a long list of symptoms such as fluid retention, mood swings and an overwhelming feeling of being exceptionally run down.

Triiodothyronine (T3) + Weight Loss

When it comes to weight gain T3 deserves a special mention. T3 is your most potent thyroid hormone.

T3 is the thyroid hormone that really revs up your metabolism. In fact, far greater amounts of T3 are converted from thyroxine (T4) when your body wants to step up metabolism.

Low T3? You will continue to find it hard to lose weight…

For many people with a low thyroid the body is not properly converting T4 to T3. Only a check of both free T4 and free T3 will reveal if this is occurring.

The standard reference range for free T3 is 4.0-8.0 pmol/L. This provides a very good clue that you ideally want to see your free T3 test result above 4.0 pmol/L. If your free T3 is below 4.0 pmol/L you are more likely to find it hard to lose weight.

How to Lose Weight With An Underactive Thyroid

First and foremost it’s very important to get your thyroid checked properly to gain a better understanding of how your thyroid is functioning.

I recommend getting the top 5 thyroid blood tests done. Here is a quick checklist of the most important thyroid tests; thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH), free T4, free T3, reverse T3, and your thyroid antibodies. If your doctor won’t do comprehensive testing, consider finding one who will.

Secondly, once you have these results it’s very important to investigate WHY your thyroid is not functioning properly.

Once you discover why you have a thyroid problem you can start to solve it. This could save you years of suffering and heartache.

A holistic perspective seeks to find the underlying root causes and then treats all aspects of your health. Rather than simply treating your thyroid symptoms, an individualized treatment plan will help you get your health back on track.

As your thyroid recovers your metabolism will pick up. This will help you lose weight, and you will finally begin to live with vibrant health and vitality.

Watch these 2 video clips – How to lose weight with an underactive thyroid & 5 weight loss tips for people with an underactive thyroid

Read the following related articles:

10 Hypothyroidism Diet Tips to Help Heal Your Thyroid

Warnings: 4 Types of Toxic Cookware to Avoid & Why

What is really The Best Cooking Oil for Thyroid Health?

5 Important Steps for Hypothyroidism Treatment Success

Hormone Problem? Here’s Your Hormone Imbalance Checklist

Are Iodine Supplements For Thyroid Health Really Safe?

What is Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis?

Skin Deep. Do Cosmetics Harm the Thyroid?

What is the Best Way to Diagnose Hypothyroidism?

Can Basal Temperature Testing Help Diagnosis A Thyroid Problem?

Should You Get a T3 Test If You Find It Hard to Lose Weight?

Why Knowing How to Calculate Your Reverse T3 Ratio Helps to Assess Overall Thyroid Health?

Author Bio:

Louise O’ Connor, the author of The Natural Thyroid Diet –The 4-Week Plan to Living Well, Living Vibrantly, who is a specialist in Thyroid Health. She is a highly regarded Australian Naturopath and founder of Wellnesswork.

The Natural Thyroid Diet goes beyond diet advice and offers practical and effective ways to achieve healthy thyroid levels within just a short period of time. For more details, Click on The-Natural-Thyroid-Diet.com

What Causes High Reverse T3 (RT3) – a Major Driver of an Underactive Thyroid?

Click HERE to Find Out How You Can Achieve Thyroid Levels within a Short Period of Time

If you are experiencing the typical signs and symptoms of an underactive thyroid but your Thyroid Stimulating Hormone, free T4, and even your free T3 appear to be normal you may want to consider checking your reverse T3, which is an inactive form of T3.

This article answers the question ‘what causes high reverse T3’.

Firstly, what does a high reverse T3 mean to your health?

Too much reverse T3 can trigger a range of symptoms associated with an underactive thyroid such as fatigue, depression, hair loss, muscle weakness, low blood pressure, and a slower than normal pulse rate.

The single reverse T3 test is included in the top 5 thyroid blood tests that are most useful to check your thyroid health. Many integrative doctors and Naturopaths now consider the reverse T3 blood test to be essential to effectively diagnose and manage hypothyroidism.

What causes high reverse T3 (RT3)? {There are 5 key reasons}

+ Unrelenting physical and emotional stress.

Ongoing stress and anxiety cause cortisol to soar. Cortisol is the hormone that helps you cope with stress.

There is a flip side to having excessive amounts of cortisol circulating in your blood stream. High cortisol inhibits normal thyroid hormone activity. This leads to an excess amount of reverse T3 being produced.

Health experts propose this is a protective response to slow metabolism and conserve energy during times of prolonged stress. Your body knows it simply cannot survive on high alert for too long. It can lead to burnout.

+ Extreme, or yo-yo dieting.

Cutting calories in an effort to lose weight sparks the body’s hard wired famine response. Your body feels the need to conserve energy when food becomes scarce and it achieves this by putting the brakes on your metabolic rate.

The easiest and quickest way your body can slow your metabolic rate and thereby conserve energy is by producing a massive amount of reverse T3.

+ Low iron is leaving you tired and breathless.

Chronic iron deficiency is a common finding of an underactive thyroid. This deficiency needs to be addressed as a lack of iron impairs proper thyroid hormone metabolism. More specifically, low iron decreases healthy conversion of thyroxine (T4) to more active triiodothyronine (T3).

Adequate levels of iron are especially important to help fight fatigue as this mineral is required by your red blood cells to carry oxygen around your body. When iron is low your oxygenation levels are low and your body cannot utilise T3 at a cell level.

+ Long term exposure to toxins.

Toxins such as heavy metals, pesticides, and industrial chemicals switch on a physical stress response. Toxins also have serious effects on your thyroid health.

At a cellular level toxins can block the thyroid cell receptors so the thyroid hormones cannot perform their job, and toxins can enter the thyroid causing damage to the actual thyroid tissue.

These factors sabotage day to day function of your thyroid leading to an underactive thyroid. Over time the stress of dealing with toxins and the diminishing function of the thyroid can activate far greater production of reverse T3.

+ Systemic illness is a factor.

It is difficult to recover from reverse T3 dominance when a chronic underlying illness is not addressed. When your body feels under threat by a long standing illness it slows metabolism. Your body hits the ‘hibernation’ button to lessen the impact of a chronic illness.

For example, a latent viral infection may be causing widespread problems. This can lead to chronic fatigue syndrome which is often associated with over production of reverse T3.

If you have low T3 you should get your reverse T3 checked, especially if you have some type of long standing illness. On testing it’s typical to see low T3 and high reverse T3.

Treating excess reverse T3 secondary to a specific chronic illness is best discussed with a skilled healthcare practitioner.

Watch this Video Below Here from Dr.Richard Hagmeyer - How High Reverse T3 Causes Symptoms Associated with an Underactive Thyroid

Read the following related articles:

Warnings: 4 Types of Toxic Cookware to Avoid & Why

What is really The Best Cooking Oil for Thyroid Health?

5 Important Steps for Hypothyroidism Treatment Success

Hormone Problem? Here’s Your Hormone Imbalance Checklist

Are Iodine Supplements For Thyroid Health Really Safe?

What is Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis?

5 Best Ways to Protect Yourself from Iodine Toxicity

Is It Safe To Take Iodine When You Have Hashimotos Disease?

Why these Top 5 Thyroid Blood Tests are Essential?

Author Bio:

Louise O’ Connor, the author of The Natural Thyroid Diet –The 4-Week Plan to Living Well, Living Vibrantly, who is a specialist in Thyroid Health. She is a highly regarded Australian Naturopath and founder of Wellnesswork.

The Natural Thyroid Diet goes beyond diet advice and offers practical and effective ways to achieve healthy thyroid levels within just a short period of time. For more details, Click on The-Natural-Thyroid-Diet.com