Your thyroid gland produces the hormones that control metabolism -- how quickly you burn calories. Hypothyroidism is an underactive thyroid that produces fewer hormones and slow metabolism, making weight loss difficult. Carefully choosing your food, watching your calorie count and exercising will help you lose weight, but you may also need to take supplemental thyroid hormones to help you reach and maintain a healthy body weight.
Hypothyroidism and Metabolism
Your thyroid produces T3 and T4 hormones which control the amount of oxygen and energy you use, known as your metabolism. Low levels of thyroid hormone mean a slower metabolism, and can cause fatigue, weakness, pale or dry skin, a sensitivity to cold and muscle or joint pain. Because your metabolism controls the number of calories you burn, boosting your metabolism can help you lose weight. Building muscle can raise your metabolism, even at rest, because muscle tissue uses more energy than fat. You can also burn calories by exercising; strength training is ideal because it burns calories -- raising your metabolism in the short-term and build muscle mass to keep your metabolism high.
Calories, Metabolism and Weight Loss
Because hypothyroidism can slow your metabolism, pay close attention to portion control and your total calorie consumption. The more calories you cut, the faster you'll lose weight; but only up to a certain point. If you don't consume enough calories to support basic metabolic functions, your metabolism will slow down further to conserve energy. The National Institutes of Health suggests a minimum of between 1,200 and 1,500 calories to maintain your metabolic rate. Consume fewer than 1,200 calories and you'll slow your metabolism further and stall weight loss.
Thyroid Medication
Although MayoClinic.com notes that there is no single diet to improve thyroid function for people with a sluggish thyroid gland, it does note that eating certain foods or taking specific vitamin or mineral supplements with your thyroid medication will interfere with the absorption of your hormone supplements. Anything that interferes with your hormone medication will continue to slow metabolism and make weight loss difficult. MayoClinic.com recommends waiting "several hours" after taking your thyroid medication before eating walnuts, cottonseed meal and soybean flour or using supplements that contain iron, magnesium and calcium.
Diet
Avoid foods that may impact thyroid function. Certain foods -- cruciferous vegetables, soy-based foods and spinach, millet and peaches -- contain goitrogenic compounds that can slow thyroid hormone production. Cooking vegetables such as cabbage, brussel sprouts, broccoli and kale will deactivate the goitrogens and make them safer for people with hypothyroidism. Isoflavones in soy can also slow hormone production. Fermented soy foods such as tempeh and miso seem to have less impact on your thyroid than unfermented soy products such as tofu and soy milk. Make sure your diet includes enough iodine, an essential element for making thyroid hormones. You need at least 120 mcg of iodine daily; 1 tsp. of iodized table salt contains 400 mcg of iodine.
References
- Medline Plus; Hypothyroidism; Ari S. Eckman, MD; April 2010
- MayoClinic.com; Hypothyroidism Diet: Can Certain Foods Increase Thyroid Function?; Todd B. Nippoldt, M.D.; November 2010
- Better Health Channel: Metabolism Explained
- Medline Plus: Tips For Losing Weight; David Zieve, MD; October 2009
- Women to Women; Goitrogens and Thyroid Health -- The Good News!; : Marcelle Pick, OB/GYN NP; May 2011
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