Typically, a healthy diet and regular exercise are all it takes to lose weight you want. But for Sydney*, that was not the case.

Growing up, she had always been one of the “bigger girls.” She felt like she was always living in comparison to the thinner, more fit girls especially her freshman and sophomore year of high school. Her desire to lose weight pushed her to try extreme diets that guaranteed to reward her with a thinner body.

“[On the diets] I wasn’t losing the weight like I was supposed to,” Sydney said. “So [I started to get] blood samples taken to test and see if anything was wrong. It turned out I have [hypothyroidism] which is why it was so difficult for me to lose the weight that I wanted to and I had no control over it.”

According to endocrineweb.com, Hypothyroidism is a condition where the body lacks sufficient thyroid hormone which can result in difficulties losing weight. And according to Healthline.com it occurs more often in women and tends to run in families.

“Both her mom and myself have had struggles with weight our whole life too, so we know the feelings that she is going through and we feel for her,” Sydney’s dad said. “We know how hard it is, and we know how hard she works [to lose weight].”

For Sydney, realizing she would not be able to lose weight like her peers was difficult to accept. She started taking medication to help regulate her thyroid hormones and help her lose weight. “I’ve always had issues with my body and it’s frustrating because I was doing everything I possibly could to lose weight [but] I wasn’t seeing any changes,” Sydney said. “I didn’t want to recognize that I had a problem because I thought that maybe if I didn’t [recognize it], it wouldn’t be true.”

Sydney is currently working with a personal trainer to lose weight. Her dad often works out with her and their family tries to support Sydney by eating healthy meals. Sydney is at her heaviest
weight now.

“It’s always good to have someone to rely on and work with [someone who is] going through the same thing,” Sydney’s dad said. “It’s kind of like a buddy system. We support each other and to have that with her, that’s pretty cool.”

*name changed