January 31, 2024 • 14 mins
Could your teen's stubborn weight issues be linked to an underlying thyroid problem? It's a question that many parents have. We're looking beyond the scale and into the science, with insights from a research study that shed light on this topic , on how thyroid medication actually affects weight in children with low thyroid.
I’m Dr. Jenny Gourgari—pediatric endocrinologist, certified in obesity medicine and a health coach.
After helping hundreds of teens struggling with their weight and hormones, I’ve created a whole new path by doing what most programs miss: balance puberty hormones naturally and create habits that actually last.
Here's what makes this different:
✅ No dieting. No calorie counting. No shame.
✅ No more food fights between parents and teens.
✅ No weight obsession—just healthy habits
✅ Real science behind how puberty hormones affect weight
✅ A safe, supportive approach that prevents eating disorders
Because when teens understand their hormones and get the right support, they don’t just lose weight—they gain strength, energy, confidence, and freedom!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:08):
This is the Lifestyle in Weight Loss for Teens
podcast.
If you are a mom and want tohelp your child who is
struggling to lose weight, youare in the right place.
If you are looking for healthylifestyle tips, dr Gorgary is
here to help you understand thescience around safe weight loss
in teens and children, becausewhat works for adult weight loss
is not always the best forchildren.
(00:29):
This podcast is for educationalpurposes only.
Dr Gorgary does not providemedical, psychological or
nutrition therapy advice.
You should not use thisinformation to diagnose or treat
any health problems withoutconsulting your own medical
practitioner and now your host,dr Jenny Gorgary.
Speaker 2 (00:52):
Hello, this is Dr Jenny Gorgary and welcome to
another episode of the Lifestylein Weight Loss for Teens
podcast.
In this episode I decided totalk about thyroid problems,
thyroid problems and weight gain, and what is the effect on the
weight on children that havethyroid problems and how does
(01:15):
that affect overall theirmetabolism?
So I know this is a very, verycommon idea that a lot of
parents and a lot of teenagershave, that they believe that
there is a thyroid concern,there is a thyroid problem that
can explain the significantweight gain in their teenagers
(01:39):
and if they can start on amedication that is for low
thyroid function, then therewill be just fine and their
weight, they will just lose tonsof weight and everything will
be fine.
And this really idea comes fromthe fact that many years ago,
when it wasn't so easy todiagnose the thyroid problems,
(02:04):
people would be left untreatedfor a long time and they would
live with untreatedhypothyroidism for months and
months and a lot of weight gainwould have accumulated in the
meantime.
And, of course, they would haveother symptoms along with that,
not just the weight gain, theyare other symptoms and those
(02:27):
very neglected cases ofuntreated hypothyroidism.
Then in those cases, yes, ifyou do give them level of the
rocks and it is likely you willsee more of an effect on the
weight.
But nowadays most cases ofhypothyroidism even untreated
hypothyroidism, I would say aredetected on relatively early
(02:52):
stage.
And that is because parentsusually they see other symptoms
that can be associated with that, that you can see constipation
or poor concentration.
The kids can have tiredness,fatigue.
They don't sleep well, they mayhave moodiness.
If they're girls they can haveirregularity in their periods.
(03:15):
So usually there are othersymptoms and of course weight
gain is another one.
But the pediatricians are veryeager to order the thyroid
function test if there are anyconcerning symptoms for thyroid,
and usually the thyroid problemis discovered relatively early
in the course of the disease.
(03:36):
So there was a great, a greatstudy that was done by Dr
Crocker and Dr Kappelowitza fewyears ago that actually
investigated this exactlyquestion.
And the question is how muchweight gain do we see that
people, kids in particular, loseafter they are diagnosed with a
(04:00):
thyroid problem.
Then they start on a medicationto improve the thyroid function
.
So they wanted to see what'sthe effect of lebothoroxin,
which is the medication to treathypothyroidism, on the kids'
weight and on the kids' bodymass index.
Now, if you don't know whatbody mass index, I invite you to
(04:21):
go back to episode one, where Italk more about what BMI is.
I will just briefly mentionthat it is measurements that
researchers use to evaluate whatis the effect on overall weight
in kids.
That takes into account boththe weight and the height,
(04:42):
because kids are growing, whichdoesn't happen in adults,
because adults have reachedtheir height and that's what it
is, but for kids, they are stillgrowing until they reach a
certain age.
So in the kids that they'restill growing, they are going to
gain weight just by the factthat they are growing.
Body mass index is a tool thatwe use to let us know that some
(05:06):
kids are actually gaining moreweight than what it is expected
for the amount of height thatthey have gained in a particular
period of time.
So, going back to this study,the doctors what they did is
they investigated children thathave thyroid dysfunction.
(05:26):
Of course they did both kidsthat have low thyroid and high
thyroid function.
I'm just going to focus on thekids that had the low thyroid
function, because those are thekids that tend to gain weight.
So they included kids thattheir TSH hormone was more than
(05:47):
20, and TSH is a hormone thatindicates that there is a
thyroid dysfunction if it isvery high.
They had a total of 29 childrenthat had hypothyroidism or low
thyroid function that theyfollowed them over time.
So they initially show themthey got their height and weight
(06:09):
and then they give them themedication and they ask them to
come back for follow-up.
So they looked at their weight,they look at their body mass
index during the first visitafter they had the treatment,
and then they look them again atthe second follow-up visit.
On average the median time wasaround three months for the
(06:32):
first follow-up visit and thenthe second follow-up visit was
around nine months.
So there was a range betweenone to six months for the first
visit and seven to 20 months sofor the second visit.
So they did give the kids enoughtime to express and to show
signs of weight loss if therewas going to be any weight loss
(06:56):
after initiation of treatment.
So what they found is thatthere was some initial small
weight loss on the firstfollow-up visit and the average
weight loss was 0.3 kilograms,which is around 30 kilograms
more than sea level, less than apound it's almost half a pound.
(07:19):
So there was a range betweenminus 3.7 kilograms to plus 3.6
kilograms.
So some kids did lose a littlebit more and some kids actually
gained weight and of course thathas to do with the fact that
they were different age groups.
(07:40):
So they have a big range.
In the group of people thatthey were treated for low
thyroid function, the median agewas around 10 years of age, but
they were kids that they wereas young as 6 years and kids
that they were as old as 17years.
So there was a big weight rangeand that can partially explain
(08:01):
why there is this big range interms of the weight change.
However, when they did also lookat the body mass syntax, right.
So the body mass index doesn'tonly look at the weight, which
can be very different acrossages, but they look at the
(08:21):
weight for the height.
So when they look at the weightfor the height also, the mean
change in the body mass indexwas BMI.
We call this BMI Z-score tojust give us an idea of like how
big of the change was.
It was really minimal, likeminus 0.24 BMI Z-score.
(08:45):
So it is a small change.
During the first fall-up visitand then during the second
fall-up visit, there wasn'treally no more weight loss.
It was really the same weightand pretty much or on average
they gain a little bit of weight1.5 kilograms.
(09:07):
So this study is not the onlyone that has shown those results
.
There were similar studies thathave been done in adults that
they have found that adults thathave problems with their low
thyroid function they get onmedication and then they really
(09:28):
lose very little weight.
And in adults maybe the averageis around 2.3 kilograms or
something like that in one ofthe studies that was done.
But for children really thathave low thyroid function, their
treated effect on the weight isless than a pound after an
(09:49):
average of three months.
So this is very important tokeep in mind because the
question is why does this happen?
That happens because that tellsus that the reason why
teenagers can have difficultywith the weight may not be
explained just by their thyroidhormone abnormalities.
(10:14):
And in fact I would say there isalso the opposite.
That is true that because kidscan have overweight, because
kids are in an unhealthy weight,the body tries to increase this
hormone, the TSH, as a responseto the extra weight gain, like
(10:34):
your body is trying to increaseyour metabolism to overcome some
of this weight gain that comes,but it cannot really.
It can only do as much right.
So if there are unhealthyhabits in place, if there is a
lot of consumption of sugar, offat, there's no exercise,
(10:55):
there's not enough sleep,there's not, there's a lot of
stress going on.
So if there are all the otherfactors that I keep talking
about on, like the importance ofhaving a healthy lifestyle and
how to maintain a healthylifestyle and this will be a
sustainable, healthy habits inorder to get to a healthy weight
(11:16):
, that is very important.
So one PL and or even oneinjection may not solve all the
problems that have to do withmaintaining and living a healthy
lifestyle.
So that's all I had for today.
I hope this was helpful.
(11:38):
I hope this helped clear some ofthe confusion around the topic
of thyroid and if you think thatyour child may have any
problems with the thyroid,please talk to your pediatrician
to check the thyroid functionand if there are thyroid
abnormalities, you can evaluatethis further with your doctor.
(12:02):
As I said, thyroid problems arevery common and thyroid
problems are treatable and arerelatively easy to treat.
However, don't expect that thiswill solve all the weight
related problems and I encourageyou to also try to build
(12:23):
healthy habits, if that is oneof the areas that you would like
to work on.
And finally, if you would liketo learn more about how to build
healthy habits and if you wouldlike to educate yourself and
your family, I invite you to goto lifestylefortinscom.
(12:45):
You can read some of the otherthings, other articles, I have
talked about.
You can listen to previousepisodes and feel free to share
this episode with any familiesor friends that you know and you
think they may benefit fromlistening to this.
Hope you have a wonderful restof your day.
Speaker 1 (13:06):
If you enjoyed listening to this podcast, I
invite you to come check out theLISP program.
It's Dr Gorgary's 12-weekcoaching program for teens and
their moms, where we take allthis information, we apply it to
your daily life and we worktogether so your teenager learns
how to create a healthylifestyle so they can feel
happier, more confident, lessstressed and love their body
(13:27):
again.
Visit the website atlifestylefortinscom and click on
the work with me and freeresources to learn more about
this program and get free helpto start this journey right away
.
Thanks for tuning in and we'llcatch you in the next episode of
lifestyle and weight loss forteens.
This is the Lifestyle in Weight Loss for Teens
podcast.
If you are a mom and want tohelp your child who is
struggling to lose weight, youare in the right place.
If you are looking for healthylifestyle tips, dr Gorgary is
here to help you understand thescience around safe weight loss
in teens and children, becausewhat works for adult weight loss
is not always the best forchildren.
(00:29):
This podcast is for educationalpurposes only.
Dr Gorgary does not providemedical, psychological or
nutrition therapy advice.
You should not use thisinformation to diagnose or treat
any health problems withoutconsulting your own medical
practitioner and now your host,dr Jenny Gorgary.
Speaker 2 (00:52):
Hello, this is Dr Jenny Gorgary and welcome to
another episode of the Lifestylein Weight Loss for Teens
podcast.
In this episode I decided totalk about thyroid problems,
thyroid problems and weight gain, and what is the effect on the
weight on children that havethyroid problems and how does
(01:15):
that affect overall theirmetabolism?
So I know this is a very, verycommon idea that a lot of
parents and a lot of teenagershave, that they believe that
there is a thyroid concern,there is a thyroid problem that
can explain the significantweight gain in their teenagers
(01:39):
and if they can start on amedication that is for low
thyroid function, then therewill be just fine and their
weight, they will just lose tonsof weight and everything will
be fine.
And this really idea comes fromthe fact that many years ago,
when it wasn't so easy todiagnose the thyroid problems,
(02:04):
people would be left untreatedfor a long time and they would
live with untreatedhypothyroidism for months and
months and a lot of weight gainwould have accumulated in the
meantime.
And, of course, they would haveother symptoms along with that,
not just the weight gain, theyare other symptoms and those
(02:27):
very neglected cases ofuntreated hypothyroidism.
Then in those cases, yes, ifyou do give them level of the
rocks and it is likely you willsee more of an effect on the
weight.
But nowadays most cases ofhypothyroidism even untreated
hypothyroidism, I would say aredetected on relatively early
(02:52):
stage.
And that is because parentsusually they see other symptoms
that can be associated with that, that you can see constipation
or poor concentration.
The kids can have tiredness,fatigue.
They don't sleep well, they mayhave moodiness.
If they're girls they can haveirregularity in their periods.
(03:15):
So usually there are othersymptoms and of course weight
gain is another one.
But the pediatricians are veryeager to order the thyroid
function test if there are anyconcerning symptoms for thyroid,
and usually the thyroid problemis discovered relatively early
in the course of the disease.
(03:36):
So there was a great, a greatstudy that was done by Dr
Crocker and Dr Kappelowitza fewyears ago that actually
investigated this exactlyquestion.
And the question is how muchweight gain do we see that
people, kids in particular, loseafter they are diagnosed with a
(04:00):
thyroid problem.
Then they start on a medicationto improve the thyroid function
.
So they wanted to see what'sthe effect of lebothoroxin,
which is the medication to treathypothyroidism, on the kids'
weight and on the kids' bodymass index.
Now, if you don't know whatbody mass index, I invite you to
(04:21):
go back to episode one, where Italk more about what BMI is.
I will just briefly mentionthat it is measurements that
researchers use to evaluate whatis the effect on overall weight
in kids.
That takes into account boththe weight and the height,
(04:42):
because kids are growing, whichdoesn't happen in adults,
because adults have reachedtheir height and that's what it
is, but for kids, they are stillgrowing until they reach a
certain age.
So in the kids that they'restill growing, they are going to
gain weight just by the factthat they are growing.
Body mass index is a tool thatwe use to let us know that some
(05:06):
kids are actually gaining moreweight than what it is expected
for the amount of height thatthey have gained in a particular
period of time.
So, going back to this study,the doctors what they did is
they investigated children thathave thyroid dysfunction.
(05:26):
Of course they did both kidsthat have low thyroid and high
thyroid function.
I'm just going to focus on thekids that had the low thyroid
function, because those are thekids that tend to gain weight.
So they included kids thattheir TSH hormone was more than
(05:47):
20, and TSH is a hormone thatindicates that there is a
thyroid dysfunction if it isvery high.
They had a total of 29 childrenthat had hypothyroidism or low
thyroid function that theyfollowed them over time.
So they initially show themthey got their height and weight
(06:09):
and then they give them themedication and they ask them to
come back for follow-up.
So they looked at their weight,they look at their body mass
index during the first visitafter they had the treatment,
and then they look them again atthe second follow-up visit.
On average the median time wasaround three months for the
(06:32):
first follow-up visit and thenthe second follow-up visit was
around nine months.
So there was a range betweenone to six months for the first
visit and seven to 20 months sofor the second visit.
So they did give the kids enoughtime to express and to show
signs of weight loss if therewas going to be any weight loss
(06:56):
after initiation of treatment.
So what they found is thatthere was some initial small
weight loss on the firstfollow-up visit and the average
weight loss was 0.3 kilograms,which is around 30 kilograms
more than sea level, less than apound it's almost half a pound.
(07:19):
So there was a range betweenminus 3.7 kilograms to plus 3.6
kilograms.
So some kids did lose a littlebit more and some kids actually
gained weight and of course thathas to do with the fact that
they were different age groups.
(07:40):
So they have a big range.
In the group of people thatthey were treated for low
thyroid function, the median agewas around 10 years of age, but
they were kids that they wereas young as 6 years and kids
that they were as old as 17years.
So there was a big weight rangeand that can partially explain
(08:01):
why there is this big range interms of the weight change.
However, when they did also lookat the body mass syntax, right.
So the body mass index doesn'tonly look at the weight, which
can be very different acrossages, but they look at the
(08:21):
weight for the height.
So when they look at the weightfor the height also, the mean
change in the body mass indexwas BMI.
We call this BMI Z-score tojust give us an idea of like how
big of the change was.
It was really minimal, likeminus 0.24 BMI Z-score.
(08:45):
So it is a small change.
During the first fall-up visitand then during the second
fall-up visit, there wasn'treally no more weight loss.
It was really the same weightand pretty much or on average
they gain a little bit of weight1.5 kilograms.
(09:07):
So this study is not the onlyone that has shown those results
.
There were similar studies thathave been done in adults that
they have found that adults thathave problems with their low
thyroid function they get onmedication and then they really
(09:28):
lose very little weight.
And in adults maybe the averageis around 2.3 kilograms or
something like that in one ofthe studies that was done.
But for children really thathave low thyroid function, their
treated effect on the weight isless than a pound after an
(09:49):
average of three months.
So this is very important tokeep in mind because the
question is why does this happen?
That happens because that tellsus that the reason why
teenagers can have difficultywith the weight may not be
explained just by their thyroidhormone abnormalities.
(10:14):
And in fact I would say there isalso the opposite.
That is true that because kidscan have overweight, because
kids are in an unhealthy weight,the body tries to increase this
hormone, the TSH, as a responseto the extra weight gain, like
(10:34):
your body is trying to increaseyour metabolism to overcome some
of this weight gain that comes,but it cannot really.
It can only do as much right.
So if there are unhealthyhabits in place, if there is a
lot of consumption of sugar, offat, there's no exercise,
(10:55):
there's not enough sleep,there's not, there's a lot of
stress going on.
So if there are all the otherfactors that I keep talking
about on, like the importance ofhaving a healthy lifestyle and
how to maintain a healthylifestyle and this will be a
sustainable, healthy habits inorder to get to a healthy weight
(11:16):
, that is very important.
So one PL and or even oneinjection may not solve all the
problems that have to do withmaintaining and living a healthy
lifestyle.
So that's all I had for today.
I hope this was helpful.
(11:38):
I hope this helped clear some ofthe confusion around the topic
of thyroid and if you think thatyour child may have any
problems with the thyroid,please talk to your pediatrician
to check the thyroid functionand if there are thyroid
abnormalities, you can evaluatethis further with your doctor.
(12:02):
As I said, thyroid problems arevery common and thyroid
problems are treatable and arerelatively easy to treat.
However, don't expect that thiswill solve all the weight
related problems and I encourageyou to also try to build
(12:23):
healthy habits, if that is oneof the areas that you would like
to work on.
And finally, if you would liketo learn more about how to build
healthy habits and if you wouldlike to educate yourself and
your family, I invite you to goto lifestylefortinscom.
(12:45):
You can read some of the otherthings, other articles, I have
talked about.
You can listen to previousepisodes and feel free to share
this episode with any familiesor friends that you know and you
think they may benefit fromlistening to this.
Hope you have a wonderful restof your day.
Speaker 1 (13:06):
If you enjoyed listening to this podcast, I
invite you to come check out theLISP program.
It's Dr Gorgary's 12-weekcoaching program for teens and
their moms, where we take allthis information, we apply it to
your daily life and we worktogether so your teenager learns
how to create a healthylifestyle so they can feel
happier, more confident, lessstressed and love their body
(13:27):
again.
Visit the website atlifestylefortinscom and click on
the work with me and freeresources to learn more about
this program and get free helpto start this journey right away
.
Thanks for tuning in and we'llcatch you in the next episode of
lifestyle and weight loss forteens.
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