The 7 Things That Cause Weight Loss Resistance

#4: Thyroid Fatigue

Hypothyroidism, characterized by increased thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH) levels and suppressed levels of thyroid hormones, is synonymous with weight loss resistance.

A study in the Archives of Internal Medicine found even tiny increases in TSH stalled fat loss. Former studies, such as one in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism, also concluded TSH could create weight loss resistance.

“Overt hypothyroidism can suppress basal metabolic rate (BMR) up to 40%,” says thyroid specialist Dr. Alan Christianson. (Basal metabolic rate is the amount of calories you burn when you’re inactive. A higher BMR means you burn more calories.) “Being hypothyroid can require two to three hours of exercise needed to create a normal BMR. Hypothyroidism also causes severe fatigue, making exercise hard at best.”

In other words, hypothyroidism can crash your metabolism and make you weight loss resistant. You might fall outside the normal range of hypothyroidism but still manifest symptoms like weight loss resistance.

Strategies to improve thyroid function: If you suspect thyroid fatigue, find an integrative physician who can check your TSH, free T3 and T4, and thyroid antibody levels to look for optimal levels, not normal ranges.

Additionally, in the view of Dr. Christianson, the root cause of hypothyroidism is auto-immune in nature. So any proven auto-immune protocol will help. Increasing the nutrient density of your diet, removing toxic foods and following an overall “clean” diet will help to improve your immune system function over time.

#5: Food Intolerances

You might confuse food allergies with food sensitivities (also called food intolerances). Both are immune reactions, but food allergies are acute and their symptoms can be severe. Think of someone with a food allergy going into anaphylactic shock after eating peanuts.

“Food sensitivities, by contrast, can keep your immune system fired up on a chronic basis,” says JJ Virgin in her upcoming book The Virgin Diet, “because you keep consuming the foods that set them off.”

Not only does the food itself create problems, repeatedly eating that same food exacerbates the problem. Food sensitivities overwhelm your system, and your immune system responds with an all-out assault. Inflammation is one end result, which can lead to (among other things) insulin resistance, leptin resistance, and — you guessed it — weight loss resistance.

“Even after just several days of eating foods that you may sensitive too, you’ll put weight on,” says Dr. Grace Suh Coscia. “In my practice, when I go over my patient’s diets and see what they are eating, I look for cravings and foods that patients eat numerous times every week. Both of these create food sensitivities.”

Strategies to eliminate food sensitivities: Suh Coscia recommends a rotational diet, where you eat a variety of foods throughout the week rather than the same foods every day. You might also consider an elimination diet and remove gluten, dairy, soy, and other potential culprits to see if you’re able to lose weight. (The PEERtrainer Fresh Start Cleanse is an elimination diet, which explains the breakthroughs many people experience on it.)