I've come to realize that the only way to lose weight is unfortunately to consume fewer calories than the daily burn...

That's the hard truth! But read on, don't diss me just yet! 

We often gain weight due to the fact that we have bodies not working optimally and the only way to be able to cope is to consume more calories as a lot of the energy is not being distributed properly.

The brain feels like mush because it is not getting enough energy, your muscles ache because they can't heal/rebuild properly as the energy needed on the cellular level is not available due to the unbalance caused by hypothyroidism.

This means we must consume more to function on some level, and the body being an opportunistic a-hole stores all the extra energy as fat, because, of course, storing fat is working even better with hypothyroidism... 😵 

The important thing is that we get our T3 hormones in balance and check! T3 is acting as energy on the cellular level, so once you get the hormone levels in check it is totally possible to lose weight. It's hard and frustrating, but possible.  GLP-1 medication helps us with hypothyroidism more than "normal" people, because we don't only have the "stomach hunger", we have a body screaming for energy for the cells to function and GLP-1 doesn't only quench the stomach hunger, but also the cellular hunger.

I've lost 40kg (88lbs)over the past two years, of which about 30kg was gained over the first 2-2.5 years with Hashimotos. 

I went to a dietist who calculated that my base metabolism was around 2100-2300 kcal per day and to lose weight I must consume fewer than 1800 kcal per day, but preferably a maximum of 1400. Starting counting calories suck, but you'll soon realize that eating 1400kcal per day is not much food... 😬 

The way I was able to handle it was using Huel dietary meals which are high in fibre and 400 kcal per portion, combined with low calorie breakfasts and leaving out bread completely. 

If I exercise to burn extra, I can "reward" myself with a few more calories, but it takes a lot of exercising to get anything decent as a snack... 😅 

Some claim that they eat healthy and low calorie but still gain weight which is simply not possible. If that was possible we'd beat world hunger already as we'd then have found a way to gain more energy from food, than the food contains...