Briana Adesso eats healthy and lives an active lifestyle, so when she mysteriously began gaining weight, it simply didn’t make sense.
The 31-year-old elementary school special education teacher had gained about 40 pounds in the span of six months between late 2022 to early 2023.
The regular gym-goer and healthy eater also began to suffer from brain fog, fatigue, lack of energy and her finger tips would sometimes go numb.
The New Yorker told DailyMail.com: ‘I am on my feet all day as a teacher. I work a serving job, which requires a lot of moving and I normally walk my dog over a mile daily.
‘[But] I was feeling embarrassed that my clothes didn’t fit, or that I didn’t like the way I looked. I would still attend social gatherings, but I wasn’t as confident as I usually am.’
After tolerating her symptoms for a few months, she decided to visit her primary care doctor and was told to get blood tests to rule out cancer or other serious health problems.
Luckily, they were negative, but that left Adesso still scrambling for answers.
Briana Adesso, 31, an elementary special education teacher pictured here before her hypothyroidism diagnosis in August 2022
She had gained about 40 pounds in the span of six months between late 2022 to early 2023. Pictured here in April 2023, a month before her diagnosis
Her doctor then took an ultrasound of her thyroid – a butterfly-shaped gland that produces hormones that regulate metabolism, growth, and development.
It revealed multiple benign growths on the gland itself which were interfering with hormone production.
She was diagnosed with hypothyroidism – or an underactive thyroid – which had caused her metabolism to crash.
Metabolism is the body’s ability to convert food and drink into energy.
Having a slow metabolism means the body burns fewer calories at rest, making it easier to gain weight and harder to lose it.
The condition is also known to impact appetite and people may experience food cravings and increased calorie intake.
It can also cause muscle weakness, thinning hair, dry skin, impaired memory function, low moods and changes in blood pressure.
About five percent of people in the US aged 12 and older experience some degree of hypothyroidism.
Dr Eve Bloomgarden, an endocrinologist at Northwestern Medicine explained: ‘Hypothyroidism from any cause results in a decrease in energy metabolism, or the basal metabolic rate.
‘Patients often experience a modest amount of weight gain prior to diagnosis because of this metabolic slowing.’
Dr Kimberly Bethel from the Trotwood Physician Center in Ohio further added: ‘The thyroid’s function is to regulate the metabolism of the body – how fast or slow things go.
‘It affects everything from the top of the head all the way down to the toes. And we know it affects a person’s weight. If you are a fast metabolizer you will burn more calories, or if you are a slow metabolizer, you’re going to gain weight.’
Hypothyroidism can be caused by a multitude of reasons, including an iodine deficiency, pituitary gland disorders such as non-cancerous tumors and thyroiditis (inflammation of the thyroid that can happen after a viral illness or pregnancy).
In addition to thyroid issues, Ms Adesso was also found to be suffering from insulin resistance – a condition in which the body’s cells become less responsive to insulin, which can cause weight gain.
Following her diagnosis in 2023, she was prescribed Synthroid – a drug regularly used to treat hypothyroidism – and semaglutide – the active ingredient in weight-loss drugs Ozempic and Wegovy.
Ms Adesso said she has managed to 50 pounds as of this month. She is pictured here in March 2025
She also maintained her healthy lifestyle by continuing to work out and eat healthy.
The combination of treatments was working, but her insurance stopped paying for the semaglutide.
While her insurance initially covered it, she eventually was forced to pay out of pocket – with a monthly supply of semaglutide typically costing $1,350.
She explained: ‘My endocrinologist prescribed me Synthroid and Semaglutide. On top of the medications, I maintain a healthy, well balanced diet and continue to be very active.’
Since starting her regimen, Ms Adesso told this website she has managed to lose 50lbs.
She said: ‘I am extremely thankful for Semaglutide. There is such a stigma around taking this medicine but it truly helped me so much.
‘Having both hypothyroidism and insulin resistance made it nearly impossible for me to lose weight, no matter how many diets I went on or the amount of exercise I did.
‘Unfortunately my insurance stopped covering this medication and I was paying out of pocket for many months, but it truly was such a key factor in my success of losing weight.’
