Thread: Post pregnancy slow weight/fat loss= Possible thyroid??

Well, I usually can find a solution for people in reference to their dietary and training needs to help them meet their goals. But I seem to have run into a sticking point. I’m wondering if the thyroid could be an issue?

Scenario: Female, 30yr 5'3" 145lbs about 20%bf mother of 1yr old. Classic Endomorph. Carries most of her fat below the waist. She is VERY STRONG!

Prior to pregnancy: She had been over weight for about 10yrs. Then she got the fitness bug and started training and eating right. She got her BF fairly low. Not sure how low, but she had nice definition in the upper body (nice set of abs) and you could see the split between the quads/hams.

Pregnancy: She got very heavy, gained about 60lbs to a BW of about 200. She had to stop working out do to sever edema in the legs and feet.

Post Pregnancy: In January she was about 160lbs BF pretty high. Pants size 14. Then I started helping her out. We have tried every diet and workout you can think of, but the results are coming very slow. Much slower than when she initially started training. We even tried a diet similar to a pre-contest carb cycling diet with only a small initial drop in weight. She is currently the stats listed above and in a size 10.
She is starting to get discouraged because she has been a size 10 for about 3-4 months now. This girl works very hard and diets hard as well. She wants to be that size 6 again.

The only thing we have found that works for her although it’s very slow is a diet of about 1200cals (I know its not much) and doing cardio before weight training. The weight training is done with very little rest between sets and moderate to high reps.

I guess I should add she is weight training 2-3 times per week, upper/lower split immediately after 20min of interval training first thing in the morning. She will "power walk" pushing a baby stroller on every other morning.

Could it be a thyroid condition or some weird insulin sensitivity issue??????

Thanks
Mick

I assume that you are in UK where it is hard to see a specialist for your friend??? She needs to see an endocronologist. I too have hypothyroidism but not as extreme case ( excessive weight gain, etc.) But sounds like she must've suddenly gained weight not due to overeating during her pregnancy, so there's another clue..

I found some good info from this sight and kinda diagnosed myself before going to the doctor. Here's a checklist you can use as a general guideline but nothing can replace a good doc's experience and some bloodwork, because some of these symptoms are very general and can be a cause of so many other diseases, etc.

http://thyroid.about.com/blchklst.ht...hypothyroidism