When it comes to weight loss resistance or any kind of challenge with losing weight, the key is in determining what’s going on behind the scenes with your body that’s making this happen.
Many of the overall strategies for healthy weight loss are similar for everyone (food, exercise, sleep, gut health, and stress management always matter).
But the real results come when you can unlock and directly target the factors that are making it harder for you to lose weight. Then, you can adapt and fine-tune the overall strategies to work best with your body.
Today, let’s get deeper into the most effective natural strategies for healthy weight loss if you have Hashimoto’s, based on how this condition affects your hormones, metabolism, gut health, and more.
1. Start With Food (And Focus on Bio-Individuality)
Food is the foundation, and often the best place to start when it comes to improving Hashimoto’s symptoms and supporting healthy weight loss. What you eat plays a massive role in calming down autoimmunity, reducing inflammation, and regulating metabolism, all of which are necessary in order to combat weight loss resistance.
Just cutting calories is not the right approach for most people with Hashimoto’s. You want to go deeper, addressing the root causes of your condition, in order to reverse weight loss resistance from the source.
I also think there’s a big misconception about there being one perfect or best diet for every condition. There’s no exact Hashimoto’s diet that will work for everyone. But don’t let that discourage you, because there are some key things that we do know work for most people, and a few simple steps and principles you can follow to create the eating plan that’s right for your body.
Reduce Your Toxin Load
Toxin exposure can contribute to Hashimoto’s and other autoimmune conditions. Choose organic as much as possible (especially for animal products) in order to reduce your load of herbicides and pesticides, and avoid processed foods, sugars, and alcohol, as a foundational step.
Cut Out Gluten and Dairy
This is a big one. There’s a strong link between gluten sensitivity and Hashimoto’s. First, there’s a lot of overlap between Hashimoto’s and Celiac disease (which is also an autoimmune disease). (1) But many Hashimoto’s patients without Celiac disease are sensitive to gluten, and undetected gluten sensitivity may be a contributing factor to the development of thyroid autoimmunity for some people.
As you may know, I’m not a big fan of gluten for anybody, as it very often triggers inflammation. When it comes to Hashimoto’s, the problem is even bigger. The molecular structure of gluten is actually very similar to that of thyroid tissue. If you (like many Hashimoto’s patients) have a sensitivity to gluten and you consume it, your immune system may launch an attack against the foreign invader (gluten), and attack your (very molecularly similar) thyroid gland while it’s at it.
Several studies have shown that eating a gluten-free diet can help to reduce thyroid antibodies and inflammation, and improve thyroid function. (2, 3)
Dairy is another major culprit when it comes to inflammation and autoimmunity. Over 75% of people with Hashimoto’s have been found to be lactose intolerant. (4) Again, I recommend everyone avoid dairy, but there’s all the more reason to if you’re battling autoimmunity.
Eat Nutrient-Dense Foods
Fill your diet with foods that deliver the nutrients you need. For example, seafood, organ meats, and Brazil nuts are great sources of selenium, which can help to reduce thyroid autoimmunity and boost antioxidant function.
Try to eat a wide variety of colorful produce to pack in more vitamins, minerals, phytonutrients, and antioxidants.
Speaking of nutrient-dense foods: there likely isn’t a need to worry too much about goitrogens (natural substances that may inhibit thyroid function) found in cruciferous vegetables like cauliflower, broccoli, and cabbage. You would have to consistently eat very large amounts of raw cruciferous vegetables for this to be a problem, and the nutrient density and benefits of these vegetables likely outweigh the risk.
Prioritize Healthy Fats + High Quality Protein
Your body needs plenty of healthy fats in order to keep your blood sugar balanced and allow for fat burning and weight loss. Great healthy fats include avocados, extra virgin olive oil, coconut oil, and fatty fish like sardines and salmon.
Good quality protein can also help to keep you satiated, reduce inflammation, and support gut health and digestion, all of which can help with weight loss resistance. Grass-fed meat, wild-caught fish, and free range poultry and eggs are great choices, and adding bone broth into your routine can make a huge difference.
Follow an Elimination Diet to Fine-Tune Your Plan
There are several different anti-inflammatory diet templates that may be helpful for those with Hashimoto’s, and the right one really depends on the individual. Some of the diets that have shown promise for Hashimoto’s include the Autoimmune Protocol (AIP), the Paleo diet, and a low histamine diet. (5)
Though they’re all a bit different, each of these diets work to reduce inflammatory triggers and support gut health and hormone regulation (all of which can help with weight loss and overall health).
You can try something like the Autoimmune Protocol as an elimination diet: start by following the diet strictly for a period of time, then begin to gradually reintroduce (healthy) foods, monitoring your symptoms and progress along the way, in order to end up with longer term eating habits that makes you feel your best.
2. Reduce Sugar And Processed Foods
I mentioned this above, but it bears repeating. I think that sometimes we can get overly hung up on the granular details of our diets (like worrying about the goitrogens in a serving of broccoli), and miss some of the big things, like the hidden sugars in things we eat every day.
Eliminating inflammatory foods like sugar and processed foods is one of the absolute most important things you can do to improve thyroid health and reverse weight loss resistance.
Sugar, simple carbohydrates (like gluten), and processed foods are known to create or exacerbate inflammation and worsen autoimmunity. They also hinder fat loss, and they just don’t allow you to feel your best.
Keep an eye out for hidden sources of sugar in “healthy” packaged foods. Most things that are packaged are processed. And just because something is labeled “gluten-free” or “non-GMO” or “low fat” does not make it healthy. Check the ingredient labels so that you know what you’re really getting.
LISTEN: Hashimoto’s Deep Dive: Shocking Causes, Surprising Symptoms + Natural Remedies For This Autoimmune Thyroid Condition (Mentally & Physically!)
3. Prioritize Quality Sleep
Good sleep is criminally underrated as a weight loss strategy. I know so many otherwise health-conscious people who let quality sleep fall by the wayside and shrug it off – even though they know it’s important.
Don’t be like them! Trust me, I know it can be hard to work more sleep into our busy lives, but it’s worth doing whatever you can to make it happen.
Setting aside for just a second the overall health benefits of better sleep (like lowering stress, improving your mood and brain function, and reducing all-cause mortality), sleep is essential for losing weight, including with Hashimoto’s.
Your body needs proper sleep in order to balance your hormones, burn fat, and work on healing and repair. Without enough of it, you’re more prone to increased inflammation, leptin resistance, disrupted cortisol levels, insulin resistance, and other imbalances that contribute to weight gain and autoimmunity. (6)
A few things you can do to reset and improve your sleep cycle include:
Wear blue light blocking glasses and generally limit/block blue light in the evening
Get plenty of sunlight during the day when possible
Practice contrast therapy with heat and cold
Practice breathwork
Develop a consistent bedtime routine
Try magnesium supplements
4. Manage Stress With Mind-Body Practices
Managing stress and nurturing the mind-body connection are huge when it comes to reducing inflammation, autoimmunity, and weight loss resistance for those with Hashimoto’s.
The goal is to get your body out of its constant stress response mode (fight, flight, fawn, or freeze) and to spend more time in the “rest and digest” state where your body can actually heal.
There are tons of different mind-body practices available to suit different people. For you, this might look like meditation, breathwork, guided imagery practices, grounding, using affirmations, yoga, therapy, journaling, some combination of these things, or something different altogether. Just make sure you’re consistently doing something for your head and your heart, not just (the rest of) your body.
Learn how to reverse autoimmune symptoms, dampen inflammation, and balance your immune system with my course, Mastering Autoimmune Conditions & Inflammation with Functional Medicine.
5. Move Intuitively (And Give Yourself Compassion)
We all know that physical activity is an important component of any weight loss and overall health plan. But one of the biggest roadblocks I see among patients with Hashimoto’s is the lack of energy required for consistent workouts.
There’s a cycle you may experience: feel exhausted, push yourself to do high-intensity exercise anyways, feel even more exhausted, and either become frustrated or defeated and stop, or keep pushing yourself and exacerbate the stress (not helpful for weight loss either).
I will definitely still encourage exercise, but try to work with yourself and where you are, and give yourself compassion. Remember that you can’t heal a body you hate.
Start with something that makes you feel more refreshed, even if its advertised impact on weight loss isn’t as high. This is how you work with your body. Walking, yoga, or swimming are examples that work for many people. As you continue to heal, you can build on your routine and increase the intensity of your exercise sessions intuitively.
Weight training is also a great choice for individuals with Hashimoto’s. Building muscle through moderate weight lifting can really help with weight loss and metabolism, often without being as taxing on your body. (7)
6. Take Specific Supplements
There are a few different supplements that can help your body heal from autoimmunity, reduce inflammation, and boost metabolism. Here are some of my favorites:
Vitamin D and vitamin K2 to reduce thyroid antibodies and autoimmune response, and support healthy immune function
Vitamin B12 and other B vitamins to support methylation
Iron, which can be depleted during autoimmune attacks on the thyroid
Probiotics to help balance the immune system (remember that most of your immune system is in your gut) and the gut microbiome
Selenium to help reduce thyroid autoimmunity (found in my detoxifying supplement Protect)
Berberine to help balance blood sugar and improve metabolism
