How to Bust A Weight Loss Plateau with Hypothyroidism
Three years ago, I was newly diagnosed with hypothyroidism and feeling awful. I was doing everything I thought I was suppose to do.
Working out 3-4 times a week and eating healthy. And yet the weight remained, I couldn’t lose it.
I was so frustrated.
But here are 4 things I did that helped me lose 15 lbs, gain energy and feel great again.
How to Break a Weight Loss Plateau
1) Get Your Thyroid Tested
With hypothyroidism, it’s important to keep a close eye on your thyroid levels and ensure you’re taking the right dose of thyroid medication.
Try to get your thyroid tested every 6 months, but some of the signs that it’s time to get your thyroid check include:
weight gain even if your habits remain the same
You’re always tired
You feel anxious or upset for no reason you can pin down
Switching up your thyroid med dosage can be one of the best ways to bust through your weight loss plateau. Speak with your doctor to make sure you’re taking the best medicine for you.
2) Look at Your Stress Levels
Stress has a huge impact on your health and hormones. Under stress, your body releases the hormone cortisol (the stress hormone). Cortisol is the fight or flight response of the body and too much cortisol can interfere with thyroid hormone production.
According to EndrocineWeb, “feeling stressed has the added disadvantage of stressing your thyroid, the endocrine gland responsible for your body’s metabolism and regulation of vital body functions.”
Our hormones govern everything in our bodies, especially when it comes to breaking through a weight loss plateau. Take a moment to ask yourself:
On a scale of 1-10 how stressed do you feel when you wake up?
How active are you? Are you on your feet all the time?
Do you have a stressful job?
Are you sleeping well?
Are you exhausted all the time?
It’s important to take an honest assessment of your stress levels. If you’re stressed or exhausted, one of the best things you can do is honour your body and reduce stress where to can. When you stop the overproduction of cortisol (from too much stress), it will help your hormones balance out better and can help bust through a weight loss plateau.
A few of my go-to stress reducers are:
Scale back on workouts if you’re too exhausted
Start your day with a 10-15 minute meditation
Journal, write out all of your frustrations or thoughts, it can help to relieve stress
Call a friend
Try to go to bed 30 mins earlier
Avoid coffee for a while (this helped me a lot. I had terrible anxiety and cutting this out helped reduce my stress. levels significantly)
Do a mellow yoga YouTube video
3) Eat More
I was the worst culprit of this. I thought I was doing everything right. I was eating healthy and creating a calorie deficit to lose weight. However, I was eating far too little.
When you eat too little it can further stress out your body and as we know stress can mess with our hormones and metabolism. Eating too little sends a signal to our body that we’re in a state of starvation and/or danger. In that state the body will try to protect us and hold onto all of the food instead of using it efficiently as fuel.
If eating more scares you, try to start by adding 200-300 extra calories to your day and see how you feel after a week or so of eating a bit more.
It may seem counterintuitive to eat more when trying to lose weight, but sometimes it’s just what you body needs.
I personally have started eating intuitively (read more about this here), just trusting my body to tell me what I need and how much food I need. This has helped me to make sure that I’m eating enough and fueling myself well.
As you’re adding more food, focus on eating whole foods with lots of non-starchy vegetables (green beans, peppers, zucchini etc), healthy protein (eggs, chicken, salmon, etc) and healthy fats (avocado, coconut oil, olives, olive oil, etc). I also found that cutting out gluten and dairy entirely (read why here) help me to bust my plateau and help balance my hormones.
4) Workout More Efficiently
Too much cardio and high intensity workouts can cause the release of excess cortisol (read more here). It’s important to effectively build a workout program that challenges you but doesn’t cause cortisol spikes.
Try to cut back on your long distance, steady state cardio. Focus your workouts on weight lifting and doing circuits.
Why?
Regular weight training helps you build strength and helps increase your resting metabolic rate
Weight training circuits get the heart rate up without stressing out the body (which can help support your hormones)
Circuits help you get more efficient workouts (more burn, less time- win win!)
If you’re not sure where to start with your workouts, Harmonē offers tailored workouts built for hypothyroidism- the most effective way to bust a plateau.
Looking for more tips on how to improve your fitness with hypothyroidism, download a FREE 9 Ways to improve Your Fitness guide.
