Losing weight with a thyroid problem can be truly difficult and seem impossible if you don’t know the right steps to take. I have struggled with hypothyroidism for over 10 years and battled to keep my weight down. Today I want to share some simple tips for how to lose weight with hypothyroidism naturally. These are simple to follow steps that can help your own body heal itself and start losing weight. A healthy body=weight loss. I grew up thinking that weight loss would lead to a healthy body when in fact it is quite the opposite. Help your body heal and you will achieve the weight loss you desire.
How To Lose Weight With Hypothyroidism Naturally
- Get plenty of sleep to help with thyroid problems. Many of us with hypothyroidism don’t sleep enough. Our circadian rhythm is meant to help us sleep through the night and get good REM sleep and have energy and feel amazing throughout the day. However, if you have a thyroid disorder, your circadian rhythm may be out of whack and causing you to lose sleep which is when your body repairs and the weight loss magic can happen. You should be getting to bed by 10pm and waking up when the sun rises. Be sure to do your workouts and any activities before 2pm to allow your body time to unwind before bed time. Going to the gym after work gets your body ramped up too late and messes up your sleep cycle.
- Low impact workouts help with with hypothyroid weight loss. We’ve all been told to workout harder to get results, but this isn’t necessarily true for the hypothyroid sufferer. In a lot of cases if you have hypothyroidism, you may also have adrenal fatigue. Exercise is a stress to your body and can cause worse problems with these conditions if not done correctly. Everyone needs to exercise and move their body, but if you have hypothyroidism, you should keep your heart rate down by doing resistance training at a slow pace or walking at a slow pace. This will keep the stress response down and help you lose weight with hypothyroidism.
- Eat a plant based whole food diet. This is the one I follow and I absolutely love it! I lost 6 pounds in my first week and it just keeps going down from there. A high carb low fat plant based diet will decrease inflammation in your body. Inflammation causes nearly every health issue we see in our bodies like heart disease, fibromyalgia, hypothyroidism, asthma, autoimmune diseases, and the list goes on and on.
- Vitamin and mineral supplements to support your thyroid and body. Many people suffering with hypothyroidism are lacking essential nutrients. Your plant based diet will help with this if you’re eating a wide variety of foods, but a few common deficiencies are vitamin D, B vitamins, and iodine. Getting out in the sun to get your vitamin D is best. Sit outside with your skin exposed for at least a few minutes each day. We spend all day inside working in front of a computer and don’t get enough sun even if we live somewhere sunny. I live in New Mexico where it’s sunny most days and I am vitamin D deficient. I’ve been making an effort to get outside more. A kelp supplement will help your body get iodine and then it can use selenium more efficiently which the thyroid needs. If you have a sensitivity to B vitamin supplements, you should give this one a try. I’m very sensitive to B vitamins because I have interstitial cystitis (a painful bladder syndrome) and I do so well with these. I was skeptical because I had tried so many that gave me a bad reaction, but I have so much more energy when I take them and no bad side effects. These are even safe for people with interstitial cystitis who usually react to vitamin B6. These will not cause bladder burning! I can attest to that as an IC sufferer myself.
- Help your stomach digest food to help your thyroid. It is common to have low stomach acid if you have hypothyroidism. If you find that your food just sits in your stomach too long or you’re burping or bloated after meals, you may want to try Betaine HCl supplements. There’s no way you can lose weight properly if you aren’t digesting your food so your body can use it. Once I switched to a plant based diet, I never had this feeling of not digesting my food anymore. I think it’s harder for our bodies to break down meat and fat. So changing your diet to plant based may get rid of this problem.
- Cut out caffeine to calm your adrenals and support your thyroid function. I know no one wants to hear this, but caffeine stresses the adrenal glands and causes everything to go crazy in your body. If you drink caffeine every day, I would recommend taking a week or two to wean yourself off to avoid stressing your body by quitting all at once.
- Reduce your toxic load to reduce stress on your liver and thyroid. We are exposed to tons of toxins every day. Our livers have to work and work to filter this stuff out. These chemicals we’re exposed to create stress in our bodies. Try to reduce some of the chemicals in your life that you have control over like your laundry detergent, soap, deodorant, lotion, cleaning products, etc. Once I did this, my body started feeling better and my skin problems calmed down. You can also drink lemon in warm water in the morning to help your liver out.
So now you know how to help your body deal with hypothyroidism and start losing those extra pounds. As I said before, the body needs to heal first and then it will naturally start losing the extra body fat. If I had to choose one of these that will make the biggest impact, it would be changing your diet to plant based I can’t even explain how amazing it made me feel and what a life transformation it caused for me and so quickly!
