Please Help

[Bettek]

I was diagnosed with celiac disease 3 weeks ago and hypothyroid at the same time. My basal body temp runs around 95-96 degrees, and I can not lose weight eatting barely nothing daily. I never had typical symptoms of celiac except continous constipation. I have been gluten free for the past 3 week and also was started on armour 45 mg daily to start. I have not losed a single pound and my heart rate has increased from 50-60's to 70-80's. Is this normal when you start on thyroid? I am on a baby dose so I am going to keep my armour at this dose until my heart settles. I also am still so foggy, tired and I ache all over. My doctor says I am fine and he'll see me in 2 months.

[Fiddle-Faddle]

Any possiblity you can start to exercise? I know how hard it is with low thyroid, you feel like you can't even walk out the door, but once you start, you'll feel SO much better!

Can you start with a walk around the block, and try to do it every day? Make sure to swing your arms--apparently this releases endorphins, and it's good for circulation, too. I think fresh air and sunshine have a lot of undocumented benefits, too. You'll sleep much better with some exposure to daylight.

Welcome to the board, and the thyroid club! There are so many of us with thyroid issues, it's not funny. I hope you feel better very soon!

Oh--you might want to be careful with caffeine intake, that can really screw up your abillity to get restful sleep, which of course, makes you more tired, and then you want MORE caffeine, etc. etc. etc.....

Don't worry about losing weight just yet. Worry about eating healthy and exercising first. You might not lose weight at first as you lose fat and gain muscle because muscle weighs more than fat. But you'll FEEL better, which is more important than what the scale says.

You'll probably feel best if you try to avoid the gluten-free bread and pasta substitutes at first--they are even higher in fat and calories than their gluten-filled counterparts. I know salads and fresh vegies can seem awfully tiresome if you're used to breads and pastas, but try to eat as much salad and fresh stuff as you can at first. Herbal teas are also really good at helping you to feel full (there's a licorice tea by Yogi teas that really helps curb my sweet tooth).

Once you feel more energetic and under control, you can try the gluten-free pastas and breads--and you'll find that you won't feel "addicted" to them the way the gluten kind can affect you, so you won't need to eat more and more and more!

[Smunkeemom]

When I first started exercising again, I tried to add 5 minutes a week, so in 6 weeks I was doing 30 minutes a day. I am now doing 1 hour a day, and I have been holding at that for a while. At the first the 5 minutes a day doesn't feel like much at all, but it's a start and 5 minutes is better than nothing. It's good just to get started, and even if you have to stop at 15 minutes and go with that for a few weeks, at least you will be doing something.

Walking is good, if you can find a pool, then just walking around in the shallow end is great. I also tried to do "fun" things, like dancing in the living room and bowling. I know it's hard when you have zero energy, I was very anemic, to the point that I needed a blood transfusion and I had pretty high blood pressure, going from the parking lot to the store was hard for me. It's getting better now.

Baby steps, think of something you like to do that you can do for 5 minutes everyday (even if at the begining it's just singing along with the radio, or dancing to a song) you will feel better after you do it for a few days, just the accomplishment is a great feeling.

[Guest nini]

I've been gluten-free for over 3 years now and have lost over 100 pounds. I was also hypothyroid before going gluten-free. After about six months gluten-free my thyroid levels were NORMAL!

At first DO NOT worry aoout trying to lose weight. It sounds like you may be eating TOO LITTLE and your body has gone into starvation mode. When it does that it holds onto the only thing it can to survive, which is fat.

Also, make sure all of your medications and personal care products (toothpaste, makeup, shampoos, lotions) are all gluten-free...

Stick with foods that are naturally gluten-free at first and slowly add it the gluten-free substitute products like gluten-free breads and cookies. The first gluten-free substitute product I would try is the Tinkyada rice pasta! It is delish.

Anyway, good luck and feel free to ask me any questions about weight loss...

[Bettek]

Thanks to all of you who gave me good ideas. I have been exercising x 3 times weekly and I climb stais x 4 week. I am pretty disciplined when it comes to that. It is hard some days cause I also have fibromyalgia and am on vitalzyme tablets for that. By the way vitalzyme is awesome with fibro pain. My heart palpitations are better today but feel some skipped beats here and there. I am so thirsty since starting armour. It's hard for me to think of myself as hacing celiac dx, cause I do not have the typical symtoms. Thanks for listening.

[judy05]

Thanks to all of you who gave me good ideas. I have been exercising x 3 times weekly and I climb stais x 4 week. I am pretty disciplined when it comes to that. It is hard some days cause I also have fibromyalgia and am on vitalzyme tablets for that. By the way vitalzyme is awesome with fibro pain. My heart palpitations are better today but feel some skipped beats here and there. I am so thirsty since starting armour. It's hard for me to think of myself as hacing celiac dx, cause I do not have the typical symtoms. Thanks for listening.

You may be dehydrated and that could be causing the skipped beats. My son had that and went thru all kinds of tests, the only thing the cardiologist could come up with was dehydration. He's doing much better.