Hi there! Thank you for your question. To answer your question, yes thyroid problems more specifically hypothyroid can cause weight gain. Hypothyroid is when the thyroid gland (an organ located at the neck) is producing too little hormones. These hormones are the T3 and T4 hormone which are known as thyroid hormones.

Thyroid hormones are responsible for all the metabolism in the body. All the symptoms mentioned above is cause due to the reduced metabolism rate that occurs due to the reduced thyroid hormone. Since there is reduction in thyroid hormones, metabolism rate also decreases. Metabolism is the process that convert food into energy. Since less food is converted into energy, it will be absorbed and stored in the cells. This in turn will cause weight gain.

As for the second part of your question, exercise and dieting would definitely help! Dieting would reducing the amount of calories you are putting in the body. This in turn would require a slightly lower metabolism rate to be converted to energy. Besides that, eating more protein is shown to increase your metabolic rate. It is important to exercise regularly in moderation. This be because exercise is a natural way to boost your metabolism.

Be care not to overwork yourself especially when you are having fatigue due to hypothyroidism. Start slowly, with stretching and weight-bearing exercises, and then increase their activity level as their tolerance grows. Simple things such as walking and swimming would suffice.

These symptoms can also be managed using thyroid replacement drugs. The aim of the drug is to restore thyroid hormone levels within the normal range and the most common drug used is levothyroxine which is usually given for life. Clinical in improvements may not begin until 2 weeks and complete recovery of symptoms may take 6 months.

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