Your Thyroid and Weight Gain: Symptoms, Causes and Treatment
Up to 60% of people with thyroid problems are unaware of their condition.
However, your thyroid is a fundamental part of maintaining good health; if you’re living with undiagnosed thyroid problems, it’s more than likely you’ve noticed adverse symptoms in your day-to-day life.
Whether you’ve noticed that you’re tired every day or piling on the pounds, it may be due to your thyroid. Luckily, the link between a dysfunctional thyroid and weight gain is well recognized, and you can recover from thyroid conditions. All you need is to understand what’s going wrong and how you can fix it.
Read on to learn more about the thyroid and how to bring it back to good health.
The Function of Your Thyroid
Before understanding how to fix your thyroid, it’s essential to understand what the thyroid is. Your thyroid is a small gland that’s found in your neck, just below the voice box.
Although it’s small, it is the main gland responsible for controlling all aspects of your metabolism. It’s a critical part of the endocrine system and uses certain hormones (T4, T3, and TSH) to keep your metabolism running properly.
These hormones are released around your body and tell it how much energy it should be using. Hormones are transported to your pituitary gland (located in the skull), where it controls how much of each hormone to release into the bloodstream.
As the hormones get released and used up by your body, the thyroid will make more to replace it.
When Your Thyroid Goes Wrong
When the thyroid is functioning well, there’s no need to consider any kind of interventional or ‘boosting’ measures. However, many people suffer from thyroid conditions at some point in their lives.
Thyroid disease is an umbrella term for any condition that prevents the thyroid from making the correct amount of hormones.
The most common thyroid condition is an underactive thyroid (otherwise known as hypothyroidism). Hypothyroidism can develop through factors like inflammation (thyroiditis) or inherited conditions such as Hashimoto’s disease. Follow this link to read more about Hashimotos and how it affects the body.
An overactive thyroid (hyperthyroid) is less common. It’s usually caused by severe viral infection or Graves’ disease.
Regardless of which condition you have, it’s crucial to address thyroid problems sooner rather than later. A dysfunctional thyroid can have a severe impact on your quality of life.
Symptoms of an Underactive Thyroid
The symptoms of underactive thyroid are similar to most lifestyle-induced conditions. However, if you improve your lifestyle and don’t notice your symptoms improve, it could be due to a dysfunctional thyroid. The main symptoms to look out for include:
- Fatigue
- Weight gain
- Memory problems
- Frequent or heavy periods
- Dry hair and hair loss
- Feeling cold
- Hoarse voice
- Seizures
Depending on the severity of your condition, you may notice some or all of these symptoms. Stubborn weight gain and fatigue are the most common, whereas seizures only occur in advanced hypothyroidism.
If you think you’re having any combination of these symptoms, get to a doctor to be checked out.
Weight Gain Due to an Underactive Thyroid
The most complained-about symptom of thyroid disease is often weight gain that you just can’t shift.
This isn’t a random symptom; your thyroid controls every aspect of metabolism, so you’ll notice weight changes if your thyroid isn’t functioning well.
Because thyroid hormones tell your body to burn energy, if you aren’t making enough hormones, then your metabolism slows down. This means you could continue eating the same diet you always have but notice the pounds piling on.
Your body learns to conserve the energy from every last calorie you consume, and it becomes significantly harder to burn fat. Weight gain due to hypothyroidism often sticks between 5-10 pounds, but it can escalate quickly if you don’t get treatment.
Furthermore, you’re at a higher risk of retaining extra fluid in water weight because your kidneys overcompensate to bring the body back to equilibrium.
Treatment for an Underactive Thyroid
To address weight gain due to an underactive thyroid, going on a diet is not enough. You need to treat your thyroid, and then weight loss will follow.
Start by eating a nutrient-rich diet; this is far more effective than a low-calorie diet. Remember that your metabolism has slowed, so eating fewer calories will encourage it to get even slower.
Eating a nutrient-rich diet will encourage thyroid health; once you produce adequate hormones again, your metabolism will readjust.
Try to get active each day, as this will help battle the fatigue caused by an underactive thyroid and burn some extra energy along the way.
However, one of the most important things is to get to the doctor for a diagnosis. The doctor may recommend thyroid replacement therapy; these are tablets you take once or twice a day with minimal side effects.
Overall, a combination approach of lifestyle improvement and pharmaceutical intervention is the best way to fix your thyroid. Once your hormones are back on track, you’ll be able to lose weight effortlessly.
Say Goodbye to Your Dysfunctional Thyroid and Weight Gain
That’s a brief guide to help you understand your thyroid. If you’ve got a dysfunctional thyroid and weight gain, you can’t shift; now you know why it has been so difficult.
Rather than intensive diets and hours in the gym, consider the bigger picture; fix your thyroid, and weight loss will follow.
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