Can anyone steer me in the right direction

[KnottedYet]

Definitely talk to the endocrinologist about the thyroid replacement therapy. If you are only getting ONE kind of thyroid and actually need both (like Trisk talks about) it can make you gain bodacious amounts of weight.

My aunt has Hashimoto's, and had a terrible time on just T4. Adding in some T3 let her lose weight and feel much better.

[beccaB]

Have you seen a dietician? You might not be eating enough and developing a set-point metabolism. When I tried to lose a few pounds(I weighed my full term pregnancy weight, while not pregnant), I found that I had to have a book tell me exactly what TO eat, not-what not to eat. It was the Curves diet book if that helps. I did lose the weight, but I had to learn to incorporate more lean protein into my diet than what I was getting.

[redrhodie]

I think you might find the videos at this link: http://darwinstable.wordpress.com/20...e-are-not-fat/
interesting.

[DDH]

That was quite depressing actually. Basically they are saying that once you are fat, you will constantly fight it, and one doctor even said that if you really want to lose weight you have to get the mindset that you will always feel hungry.

[KnottedYet]

That was quite depressing actually.

Please, please, please ask your endocrinologist to test your T4 and T3 levels, and ask him/her if you would do better on a combo of synthroid/cytomel or some other t4/t3 combo.

You are NOT the only one to have weight gain on T4-only replacement!

[redrhodie]

Basically they are saying that once you are fat, you will constantly fight it, and one doctor even said that if you really want to lose weight you have to get the mindset that you will always feel hungry.

But that was in regard to your body's natural weight. You've had a drastic and sudden weight gain, 16 lbs in a month. I don't think that is your body trying to protect itself. I agree with the others who say to get your hormone levels checked (rather than trying to diet this weight off). I don't think it's hopeless for you at all! I think there may be a medical solution.

[DDH]

I agree it could be medical. Although I don't want any more medical issues at least that would explain something.
I have a problem of being on an HMO and so getting another endo is a bit hard. I think I will go through my general practitioner and see if I can get him to give it a try. The endo has released me to him anyway, and I would have to go through him to see her again.

So I will make an appt and see if I can get him to listen to me and try it at least.
I think that part of my weight problem is my eating habits also. Although I am constantly trying to lose weight, I am terrible about skipping breakfast, and then if I am up late, I will snack without even realizing it. I don't think however I have snacked enough to have gained 16 lbs in a month, besides this past month is when I started getting back to exercising and getting myself in gear again.
I won't give up, but it sure does get frustrating. I fell bad in my own skin right now. My skin constantly feels tight like it's just stretching and stretching and I feel bloated a lot especially in the evenings.

[owlice]

DDH, you might like http://caloriecount.about.com/. I've used that site to lose weight, and now I'm using it to track my biking (not that I couldn't still lose weight, mind you!).

The tools on that site can be used to figure out approximately how many calories you burn per day (by inputting your weight, height, and activity level), log your food, track your biking, and see how much your daily deficit is -- the difference between what you burn and what you eat. A deficit of 500-750 calories a day is most effective for weight loss. (A lot of people think the bigger the deficit, the better! But that isn't so, and too large a deficit is counter productive.)

Concur with all others re: recent weight gain. You'd have to eat 56,000 EXTRA calories to gain that much weight, an extra 1,800+ per DAY, every day!

Please talk to your GP about this. You might want to have a friend go with you to help you advocate for the testing that you need.

Good luck!