To think pregnancy has ruined my metabolism?

[FancyNewBeesly]

My twins are 17 months old. I didn’t gain a huge amount of weight when pregnant and by the time I stopped pumping at 7 months pp I was pretty much back to my pre-pregnancy weight plus a few rogue pounds.

In the ten months since I’ve gained over a stone. I walk at least three miles a day, usually more. I pretty much never stop moving. I eat a couple of reasonable meals a day (rarely have time for both breakfast and lunch), rarely snack, never eat dessert - the worst thing I do is have a Chinese a couple of times a month.

I’ve always responded weirdly to hormones - on depo provera I gained three stone, lost that, then went on a treatment that put me into temporary menopause and lost three stone. I changed literally nothing over those years and certainly ate more and exercised less than I do now.

It’s just getting soul destroying now. I have ME so struggle to move as much as I already do.

I’ve had symptoms of hypothyroidism for 10 years now but my results are strange so they won’t do anything about it. Going to ask for another test as this seems ridiculous. I have endometriosis too, but no sign of PCOS ever.

Is it my hormones again? If things were like this for you after pregnancy, did it improve?

Could just be age? How old are you? Or lack of sleep... this can cause weight gain too, especially around your middle, I think. Stress can do the same.

I’m 35... What is sleep and where can I get some?

This happened to me. My kid is now 6 and I haven't lost it. I am more active and fit than I have ever been since childhood, but I just seem to have very low calorie requirements these days.

Sorry, no advice, just

Sorry you’re struggling too. I struggled a lot with eating disorders in my teens and although I’m well recovered I’m really struggling with my size, and having to be really careful not to start skipping meals deliberately. It’s a slippery slope and I don’t want to go down it but I don’t know what to do at this point.

The lack of sleep most definitely slows down your metabolism and probably stops you from exercising as hard as you would have done pre-DCs, as you're subconsciously conserving energy (especially pre-DTs...Jesus...I literally just have to see a picture of twins and start hyperventilating when I think about how much work must be involved).

You may also be snacking more than you're aware of as lack of sleep releases a hormone called ghrelin which increases your appetite to try and stabilise your blood sugar levels. I'm a bugger for clearing picking at my DCs' plates when they've finished smearing eating. Are you doing this?

But, yeah. Age. Your metabolism slows as you get older and I genuinely think pregnancy accelerates this. But then, fitting in really good workouts is also exponentially harder with DCs so it's multi-factorial really.

This is the thing - before the twins I did NO exercise. Like literally none. I was housebound for quite a few years due to the ME being so bad (fortunately it has improved slightly, and I’ve gradually built up to where I am now - walking a few miles a day - and that is crushing me so don’t think I’ll be able to manage more than that for a while). To be honest just taking care of the twins, running around after them, lifting them, standing a lot more because I’m making bottles, food, changing nappies etc alone is significantly more exercise than I used to do. I also used to eat a lot more crap - these days I don’t have time to stop and eat! I don’t pick at their food either. My one “treat” is a little supermarket packet of crisps, maybe every 2-3 days I’ll have one. I don’t each chocolate ever, no biscuits, no sweets. I used to drink a lot of coke (when I was significantly smaller than I am now!) but I’ve knocked that on the head and only have it occasionally. I drink a fair amount of coffee, but have skimmed milk. There’s no other major issue in my diet (rarely eat butter or cheese, don’t fry stuff etc).

It may well be the lack of sleep, they don’t sleep well, and boy are they hard work but totally worth it. They’re worth being a gross blob for too, absolutely - I’m just finding it depressing that I’m so much healthier and more active than I was and yet I’m not even maintaining my weight, it’s still creeping up.

I would push for the hypothyroidism to be treated if at all possible. Do you know results? Any testing done for antibodies (Hashimoto's)?

The lack of sleep slowing metabolism is a revelation to me.

I lost a good lot of my baby weight following dd's birth but since going back to work I've gained and couldn't figure out where from. Dd is still cosleeping (two years on ) and wakes me through the night but will sleep till 8.30/9 left to her own devices, unfortunately we have to be up much earlier during the week to be out on time. Coupled with not really being able to get to bed much earlier than I already do I'm permently running on adrenaline and caffeine.

Still bf as well so I thought it might be that messing with my weight and it might go once I stopped.

epic the thyroid issue is very befitting of your name!

It started about 10 years ago when I was on the aforementioned drug that put me into menopause, which works on the pituitary gland. I kept telling the doctors that I had textbook hypothyroid symptoms and they kept testing me and telling me my TSH was normal so it wasn’t my thyroid. They diagnosed me with ME instead, then fibromyalgia.

About six months ago I paid to have a private thyroid test done - my TSH was only 2.05, but my T4 and TT4 levels were literally right at the bottom of the normal range. (Antibodies were present but not out of normal range)

I did some research and found this could be suggestive of something called central hypothyroidism which is rare but caused by an issue with (big shock) the pituitary gland. Spoke to someone I know who’s an endocrine specialist nurse (my son has an endocrine illness) and she told me that there’s no way my TT4 should be that low without my TSH being much much higher.

So I took all this and a load of info to my doctor who was skeptical but agreed to speak to an endocrinologist... who said no, my TSH is fine so my thyroid is fine. FFS. The GP is very nice and said its okay, we will keep testing and if your T4 goes below normal range, we will do something. My last test it was literally on the line, so I’m sending in another test this week. It has been dropping so sooner or later it should drop to the point where they agree to do something, but the problem then - if it is central hypothyroidism rather than regular hypothyroidism - my TSH won’t change so they won’t know what to do and will say everything is fine.

I would just pay to see someone privately but I need to find someone who actually knows about this, since evidently not all endocrinologists are aware!

Sorry - phew, that was long!

I think it's the sleep deprivation thing cause I read up on it when I was in a similar position. DD finally started sleeping a few months ago (at 3) and the extra stone I just couldn't shift despite doing so much walking etc with pram and not eating that much is just falling off even though we don't use the pram now and I probably eat more. It's horrible at the time but fingers crossed it'll be the same for you.

OP i have twins too, I understand the sleep issues

In my 30s my metabolism changed, so could also be a bit of that.

The only thing that worked for me was giving up sugar (oh the pain)...