Your Thyroid Might Be Stopping You from Dropping Weight
As a busy professional in your 40s or 50s, you’re likely juggling many responsibilities—work, family, social obligations, and personal health. Amidst the chaos, one of the most frustrating things that can happen is feeling like you’re doing everything right—eating healthy, hitting the gym, and protecting your routines—but still not seeing the results you want, especially when it comes to weight loss.
The culprit might be something you’re not considering: your thyroid.
This has been the case for quite a few of our clients recently before working with us so I want to shine some light on what your thyroid does and what you can do to improve how it works so it doesn’t hold you back.
What is the Thyroid and How Does It Affect Weight?
The thyroid is a small, butterfly-shaped gland located in your neck. It plays a crucial role in regulating many of the body’s systems, most notably metabolism. It does this by producing thyroid hormones, which influence how your body uses energy, burns calories, and stores fat.
When your thyroid isn’t functioning optimally, it can significantly impact your metabolism. This could mean you’re burning fewer calories, storing more fat, and feeling fatigued or sluggish—even if you’re putting in the effort with diet and exercise.
How Gut Health Ties into Thyroid Function
Your gut and thyroid are deeply connected, often referred to as the “gut-thyroid axis.” If your gut health is off balance due to poor digestion, food sensitivities, or an imbalance of good and bad bacteria, this can directly affect your thyroid function.
- Poor Gut Health = Less Nutrient Absorption
Many of the nutrients that support thyroid function—like iodine, selenium, and zinc—are absorbed through the gut. If your digestive system isn’t functioning well, it could be preventing you from absorbing these vital nutrients, leading to thyroid imbalances. - Leaky Gut & Autoimmune Response
If you struggle with digestive issues like bloating, gas, or discomfort, it could be a sign of leaky gut. Leaky gut occurs when the lining of your intestines becomes damaged, allowing toxins and undigested food particles to enter the bloodstream. This can trigger inflammation, which may lead to autoimmune thyroid conditions like Hashimoto’s thyroiditis, where your immune system attacks your thyroid.
ACTION: Simple but effective – try 5 deep breaths before meals to improve your absorption of key nutrient. Also look to remove vegetable oil and inflammatory foods like gluten and sugar to improve gut function.
Weight Training’s Role in Supporting Thyroid Health
When it comes to thyroid health and weight management, strength training plays a key role. Weight training doesn’t just build muscle; it boosts your metabolism, improves insulin sensitivity, and enhances thyroid hormone receptor sensitivity. These benefits help support weight loss and make it easier for your body to shed fat.
- Muscle Mass Boosts Metabolism
Strength training increases the sensitivity of your body’s hormone receptors, including those related to thyroid function. This means your body becomes better at utilizing thyroid hormones, improving energy levels and promoting fat loss. - Reducing Metabolic Load
Too much cardio or “circuit style” exercise can further suppress thyroid function and increase symptoms of sluggishness and stubborn weight gain. So alongside increasing weight training we tend to see good results with decreasing cardio (zone 2&3 heart rate) to improve conversion of T4 into T3, improving energy levels and promoting fat loss.
ACTION: Add 2-3 weight training sessions a week focused on muscle contraction not just movement while reducing total cardio output to zone 2 (low heart rate) and away from zone 3&4 until markers improve.
Productivity and Thyroid Health: The Connection You Might Be Overlooking
Stress plays a large role in thyroid health but if you’re a busy human it’s more about how we MANAGE stress rather than constantly trying to remove it. This works both ways if you have an underactive thyroid, this often presents as fatigue, brain fog, and sluggishness making it harder to manage stress properly.
- Time block
Low thyroid function can also affect your cognitive abilities, leading to a lack of focus, poor decision-making, and mental fatigue. An unstructured day can lead to more cognitive load and lower stress resilience, making things worse for proper thyroid function, not to mention glucose control and recovery. - Stress Management
When stress is high, cortisol our main stress hormone can directly impact the conversion of T4 into T3 (our active thyroid hormone). Stress also creates further implications for our adrenal glands which can further create a cycle of hormonal imbalance.
ACTION: Time block your key work projects and exercise times so allow yourself to focus when you’re working and switch off when you’re not. If you’re “always on” this will hinder sleep, overall recovery and thyroid hormones.
Conclusion
Thyroid imbalances are often overlooked when it comes to weight management, but they play a critical role. If you’re feeling like you’re doing all the right things and still struggling with weight loss, fatigue, or productivity, your thyroid might be the missing link.
By optimizing your thyroid health through gut support, weight training, and stress management, you can regain control over your health and finally see the results you’ve been working towards.
Don’t let an underactive thyroid hold you back, to get access to our full guide and video training, click here.