Hi all,
On 50mg of levo since March and awaiting my first blood results since starting treatment. I'm finding that my napping, fatigue and low energy still persists, can anyone recommend any foods that will make me feel more awake?? Keeping in mind I don't eat stuff like salads and nuts!
Thanks 
Have you had your ferritin, B12, folate and vitamin D checked. Low iron will turn a person into a dishrag. Levothyroxine does not work well if someone has deficiencies.
It's what you should not eat that's important. Like sugar stuff. It makes the blood sugar bounce up and then quickly down so a person feels like a wet dishrag.
Start breakfast with something balanced. Cheese, bacon, eggs, whatever. But make sure whatever you eat 'sticks'............toast and jam is entirely out. So is putting sugar in tea/coffee.
If you don't eat breakfast then it doesn't matter, just don't eat easy to turn into blood glucose foods like biscuits or whatever that's sweet. If you start your day with something that begins the blood sugar roller coaster, your entire day will be screwed up from it.
If you are vegetarian or vegan or don't eat dairy, don't eat whatever else, there are people around here who can help you.
Thanks for the reply. Not had any of the above you mentioned checked - my GP won't entertain it. I tend to stick with rice krispies or weetabix for breakfast. I do tend to carry a bar of chocolate in my bag to keep me going through the afternoons at work, i find that eating fruits will make no difference. I also exercise 5 times a week to try and boost my energy levels.
What do you mean your 'GP won't entertain it"? Don't entertain your GP. Feed yourself a healthy diet.
Rice crispies and weetabix are the perfect things to start you on the roller coaster of up and down blood sugars all day long. The quintessential recipe for disaster. You might as well eat 8 teaspoons of sugar for breakfast. The chocolate bar is the icing on the cake, so to speak. See, if you need to eat something like a chocolate bar in the middle of the afternoon, you are on the blood glucose roller coaster ride.
You don't have to eat 'salads' (however you define it) or nuts.
What DO you like to eat (besides rice crispies)?
Good grief! Hello insulin resistance, goodbye good health. Ditch the gluten-filled junk cereal. Eat protein and fat for breakfast. Don't eat sweets, although dark chocolate is less bad than some things as it contains magnesium. Don't eat too much fruit - eat vegetables and protein (fat and protein are essential to life, carbs aren't and "sugars" can and are made from other nutrients - no need to ingest them unless you are a slim athlete in heavy training). Coconut oil, with its MCTs (look it up) may help. If you stuff yourself with carbs you'll never learn to burn fat for energy and may end up increasing your GP's funding points by getting diabetes too. Sounds as though your GP needs to read some modern research on diet. You can always tell him what he wants to hear.
What I mean is if I ask my GP if it's possible if he could check my vitamin levels etc he says no. An example day will consist of rice krispies/weetabix with semi skimmed milk for breakfast (sometimes i will have brown toast with peanut butter), banana for mid morning snack, chicken with beetroot, broccoli and cauliflower for lunch, yoghurt for mid afternoon snack then probably tuna with veg or chicken with veg for tea but i'm still tired. I will carry the chocolate bar in my bag for emergency, i don't eat chocolate everyday only when i feel very tired and know i cannot nap.
Maybe start your day with something like real food. These cereals are not real food. Some crazy doctor in the United States invented this stuff so his patients would stop masturbating. And other silliness like that. Dr. Kellogg. Read up on him. Freak of nature who had cold water enemas administered every morning by a male attendant and never consummated his marriage..........It's incredible how, basically, a pervert has had such a huge influence over what people eat for breakfast. (okay, rant over).
There's lots of options for a good, healthy balanced breakfast. Think protein, fat and complex carbohydrates...........My goodness, even a piece of leftover pizza with pepperoni and mozzarella cheese is head and shoulders better than rice crispies!
Since you are not vegetarian, you can have ham and cheese on toast if you don't want to cook anything in the morning. Sausage, bacon, eggs, cottage cheese (not alone though it won't stick all that well). The world is your oyster.........um and yes, even oysters are good for breakfast. In the old days people ate all sorts of things that would give a good start to the day. YOu can still eat some rice crispies if you really love them (My brother is a Cheerios addict), but add something that will stick with you until lunch time.
At lunch make sure you get some vegetables but you still need something like fish or eggs or meat. Avoid desserts. Have some fruit instead.
YOu need to experiment with your diet and find out what works.
I read up on Kellogg - I think I need counselling now...
there was always something bad about corn flakes or yoghurt - now I know...
I innocently thought it was just because it tasted of cardboard...
where's that birch tree.....
LOL! Sparerib, it's incredible how these perverts have had such a huge influence on what people these days identify as a 'good breakfast'. Advertising.
There's less calories in a couple of eggs. You people have better eggs, btw. You can complain all you like but the ones here are flavour free. I now buy 'free run' duck eggs. (Can't get over what free running ducks must look like, but there you go. The visuals....) The yolks are huge and orange so these ducks must be getting something good to eat.
I was considering whathisname, the vegetarian playwright, George Bernard Shaw. Back in them days the fertilizer included seaweed so he was getting way more minerals than what's in vegetables these days. And real cow shit. Not the chemical stuff that's being used today.
We seem to have unhatched a few pervs here in the UK lately! I can't get over the fact that Kellogg lived 'til age 91? It must have been the strain of yoghurt.
Dad always said Cornflakes were to fatten up pigs, the cardboard box contained better ruffage/taste until they added vitamins and credibility in...
- we even had our own squishing machine - mostly for peas I don't know why, not enough sun to ripen sweetcorn here anyway. Where was I?
Why do we have better eggs? we have 4 labels - caged, barn, free range, organic
but dye tends to make them orange - not the worms/beetles/slugs eaten by daughter's hens (Leah & Marian, named after my late mum, she'd smile).
Duck eggs are nice 'tho - can't get the eggcups here unfortunately J 
Hi Emma,
I assume you were diagnosed and went onto levo in March. There is no info on your profile but if you haven't had a blood test since then and have been on 50mcg only that's not good enough.
Doctor's assume if your TSH is within range that their job's done. You should have had a blood test after six weeks of starting levo and an increase.
50mcg may not be high enough to make you feel normal and healthy again. Dont' request blood tests, tell your doctor that you want Vitamin B12, Vitamin D, iron, ferritin and folate done as usually hypothyroid patients are deficient in all the vitamins/minerals and your need iron, ferritin and folate in particular as it helps to convert T4 (levo) into T3 (the active hormone that enables us to function.
When you have your next thyroid gland blood test, do not take levothyroxine before it and have it as early as possible. Take meds after. If you take you meds at bedtime, don't take it until after the blood test.
Always get copies from the surgery of your blood tests for your own records and so that you can put them on here for members to comment. Also have the blood tests suggested by gapkad.
Thank you for the reply, just had my TFT last tuesday and my results are due back tomorrow, if they are 'normal' then I will go see the doctor, if they are abnormal that's great then it's something i can deffinetly work on!
Some interesting replies here. But a couple of words of warning :
Oysters (if you even contemplated having them for breakfast! lol) may contain too much iodine for you to start the day. Some people find that iodine makes them sleepy and just generally blah. I had a friend that ate oysters before going on stage because the iodine gave him a kick. But me, it just makes me want to go back to bed! lol
Forget the semi-skimmed milk! If you're going to ingest milk - if it doesn't disagree with you (it makes me itch!) then go the whole hog and have it full cream. The extra fat will make you feel full and nurture you. You might just as well pour water on your rice crispies as use semi-skimmed milk!
In fact, getting more fat might reduce the need for snacks as it is infinately more satisfying than fat-free Junk. So when you have toast and peanut butter for breakfast, try putting ordinary butter on before the peanut butter. That is delicious! And gives you that extra bit of fat, which is good in so many ways.
If you like chocolate - which you obviously do! lol - try drinking cocoa with coconut sugar for breakfast. That is very satisfying and filling, and doesn't have all the other 'bad' ingrédients that you find in a bar of chocolate (refined sugar and soy lecithin - possibly GMO soy).
Hope this helps.
Hugs, Grey
Hi I found that porridge - organic jumbo oats - really sorted out my highs and lows and kept me stable till lunch time. It was in fact quite life changing. I had a 'sitting' job so I had to stay in my seat and it was easy to start feeling sleepy. In the afternoons I found that sunflower seeds seemed to boost my energy. Other people in the office tried it too and it had the same effect on them so I think it does work quite well. If you aren't that keen on seeds, sunflower seeds go really well with banana. I used to dip my banana into a little bowl of them as I ate the banana. Lovely! Good luck.
Thank you I don't mind bananas, i'll give the seeds a shot
If you can't get the doc to do the testing you need and want, why to you stay with him?
I can't go to another surgery as I am not in their catchment area!
I'm sorry..i don't know how the health care works in the UK. I wish you all the best.
most GPs routinely test for irons, ferritin is stored iron, folate (or folic acid) is often given in pregnancy, B12 is essential and so is Vit D.
I paid £25 for my Vit D hometest here (NHSlab )- best thing I did, even avoided carpal & cubital tunnel operations
50mcg is just a starting dose, but enough to perhaps stop your own production, are you feeling better 'tho? Just seen these are your first blood tests since March? - should be 6 week checkups until a correct dose for you is achieved
Thank you, i will look into that now My first blood test was in january, i started my levo in march and my first blood test was last tuesday since i started meds, here are the results:
Serum TSH - 3.75 (0.27 - 4.20)
Serum free T4 - 18.2 (11.80 - 24.60).
My weight is still not falling off even though i exercise 5 days a week and eat healthy, still sleep and nap alot, always tired, hair is falling, goiter still there and still constipated. Nurse said i won't need a checkup until i am poorly as my results are in range 
Emma, you are undermedicated. TSH for someone on medication should be just above or below 1.0 although some need it in the lower range 0.2-0.5 to feel well. Scroll down to Treatment Options to read Dr. A. Toft's statement in Pulse Magazine thyroiduk.org.uk/tuk/about_...
Email louise.warvill@thyroiduk.org.uk for a copy of the article to show your GP.
hmm - no checkup until you're poorly - nice... (how poorly is that then?)
Your TSH is still too high - your pituitary knows your'e not getting enough hormone and most folk have a conversion problem due to low nutritional resources - i.e. vital minerals aka vitamins.
We can think we eat well and still be malnourished. Why no nuts? - brazil nuts contain selenium - essential
50mcg Levo equates to a 3.5 stone person (if going by weight)
Please check irons, ferritin, folate & B12 and vit D which controls calcium (parathyroids in your thyroid also control calcium) Enough Magnesium stops constipation (too much causes dire rear)
Even vets know that TSH is no indicator of over-replacement - it's only higher if you are under-treated - 1 or below is normally normal!
J
Best time for me to take T3?
is it best to up T3 or T4? Results in comments 
Best contraception for hypothyroid? 
Food for thought.
Me again :-? ... what should i do for the best!?? 
