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What Causes Weight Gain While Suffering Graves Disease?

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Posted on Wed, 22 Apr 2015
Question: I got treated for Graves disease years ago, ever since treatment I have been having weight problems. Out of an over active thyroid after treatment it becomes an under active thyroid (slow thyroid). My question is what cane I do to change that. I know the thyroid controls your metabolism and first before diagnoses I lost a lot of weight, gained back double after treatment from what I lost before, want it to stop.
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Answered by Dr. Binu Parameswaran Pillai (25 minutes later)
Brief Answer:
Ways of weight loss

Detailed Answer:
Good day,
Noted your concern.
In Grave's disease ( hyperthyroid), as you correctly said, there will be weight loss and increased apetite. You eat more but still lose weight. This is due to accelerated metabolism due to ecess thyroid hormones.

However, after the treatent, when hypothyroidism develops, you tend to gain weight as the metabolism is lowed down. Often many patents continue to take the same amount of food when they were hyperthyroid.

One of the ways to lose weight is by cutting down the amount of food and reduce the calorie intake. Other way to lose weight is to stimulate the metabolism. Muscle is an excellent calorie burner and having a good muscle mass helps to accelerate metabolism. Hence if you are exercising, it is not enough to do walking or jogging. You need to do some simple weight bearing exercises as well to improve the muscle mass .

In summary, you need to reduce calroie intake and at the ame time improve your body's metabolism rate. It is important to keep TSH less than 2 whilst taking levothyrodine.

Regards
Binu
Note: For more information on hormonal imbalance symptoms or unmanaged diabetes with other comorbid conditions, get back to us & Consult with an Endocrinologist. Click here to book an appointment.

Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Chakravarthy Mazumdar
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Answered by
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Dr. Binu Parameswaran Pillai

Endocrinologist

Practicing since :2003

Answered : 1438 Questions

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What Causes Weight Gain While Suffering Graves Disease?

Brief Answer: Ways of weight loss Detailed Answer: Good day, Noted your concern. In Grave's disease ( hyperthyroid), as you correctly said, there will be weight loss and increased apetite. You eat more but still lose weight. This is due to accelerated metabolism due to ecess thyroid hormones. However, after the treatent, when hypothyroidism develops, you tend to gain weight as the metabolism is lowed down. Often many patents continue to take the same amount of food when they were hyperthyroid. One of the ways to lose weight is by cutting down the amount of food and reduce the calorie intake. Other way to lose weight is to stimulate the metabolism. Muscle is an excellent calorie burner and having a good muscle mass helps to accelerate metabolism. Hence if you are exercising, it is not enough to do walking or jogging. You need to do some simple weight bearing exercises as well to improve the muscle mass . In summary, you need to reduce calroie intake and at the ame time improve your body's metabolism rate. It is important to keep TSH less than 2 whilst taking levothyrodine. Regards Binu