Hello I am a 41 year old nurse that started wp thyroid yesterday 32 mg. I am hypothyroid along with fibromyalgia/severe migraines. In spite of my health issue I excercise 4-5 days a week. I weigh about 134 and am 5 four . I'm trying to lose 6-7 lbs. I could not lose on synthroid and armour made me sick. I want to know if anyone has lost weight while taking wp thyroid or does it at least make it easier. I have not been able to lose a pound in 2 years. I eat a gluten free diet.
Hello: Hello I am a 41 year old nurse that... - Thyroid UK
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Darlene1
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Hi Darlene,
I have FM & migraine as well, & I've struggled with weigh for years, & can't exercise as much as I used to. It seems the more active I am, the more I store fat, & the fatigue from doing nothing was unbearable.
Since starting WP in the summer, I lost about a kilo a month, whilst increasing my food intake by about 20-30%. Eating under 1,000 calories a day was hard to maintain, especially in winter. Another benefit has been staying awake past 4pm every afternoon, the time when I usually went to bed.
I tried Thyro-Gold for a month, which didn't agree with me, & put a few kilos again, but the weight seems to be coming off again.
Hope it helps you!
Mel
A kilo is 2.2 pounds ? So you had to eat under 1000 calories and take wp thyroid to lose 2.2 lb a month? I eat 1200 to 1500 but maybe I need to go lower.
Yes. I've lost 7lbs in 4 out of the last 6 months.
I'm the same weight as you now, without dieting. I was over 140lbs six months ago, but being only 5'2", & a small build, I looked very dumpy.
I ate about 800 calories, most days, with the occasional blowout of 1200-1500 calories & eating carbs or a few glasses of wine if I went out. For years, if I ate the same as friends, I piled on weight, then couldn't loose it unless I was bedridden with flu or chickenpox, so couldn't eat for two or three weeks. A three day holiday, eating 2000 calories & being more active meant at least 3kgs (10lbs) extra by the time I came home.
I was really pleased that when I went away for two separate weeks this autumn. I ate carby foods every day, & only put on a kilo, which came off within a month with no effort. Not so pleased when I cut down, then temporarily swapped to another NDT.
The weight loss has been slow, gradual, & no effort. It's nice that I can eat a baked potato, or an occasional cake without guilt or consequence. My body temperature is up by 0.5 degrees celcius, so I think I'm using calories as heat for the first time since my mid-teens.
Everyone is different, but if you have the same reaction as me, you shouldn't need to cut down your food intake, especially as you're so active.
Take it for a month, & see how you feel.
Mel
Hi
What is the actual medication called that you are on now as I am in the process of trying to get my doctor to change my meds as I have been on Levothyroxine only, for ten years 100 mg per day put three stone in weight and I too suffer from bad migraines which last three days per attack. I need to get rid of the weight as I find it depressing
Hi I started wp thyroid 3 days ago. So far I feel great. I also heard nature thyroid is another good one for people with migraines that are being caused by fillers/food allergies
WP seems to work well for me. I'm more pleased at being able to eat more than I am at loosing weight.
I've started making sure I leave a few hours before eating and drinking anything else, as the dose seems a little lower now the weather's cold.
M
Thank you Leverette. I have high hopes
You say you exercise as well to try to lose your weight. You should benefit with the T3 in WP.
If you aren't on an optimum of thyroid meds yet by exercising you reduce your T3 levels and it is this active hormone we need in all of our receptor cells in order that we can function normally. Also consuming too low a dose of calories can have the opposite effect expected.
RESULTS
: The results of this study show that exercise performed at the anaerobic threshold (70% of maximum heart rate, lactate level 4.59 ± 1.75 mmol/l) caused the most prominent changes in the amount of any hormone values. While the rate of T4, fT4, and TSH continued to rise at 90% of maximum heart rate, the rate of T3 and fT3 started to fall.
CONCLUSIONS
: Maximal aerobic exercise greatly affects the level of circulating thyroid hormones.
nel.edu/26-2005_6_pdf/NEL26...
Thank you I actually excercise to stay muscular and keep my autoimmune disease down. I don't use excercise for weight loss. But I do sprint at almost maximum heart rate twice a wk for cardio. So it's good to know that might be why my t3 is low and reverse t3 is high.
Darlene1 - I find your post interesting in that staying muscular keeps your auto-immune disease down. I was not aware of that - so would appreciate information on the subject - thanks. I teach yoga three times a week - swim miles in the summer in our pool - played tennis until this year ( now in my 70th year ! ) - walk my dog and am generally active - but muscles - ummm ???
I am sure I will have to live the rest of my life with poor muscle definition - but always happy to learn new stuff ! Maybe swimmers are longer and leaner......
Oh I was telling the other lady that I don't use excercise for weight loss I use it for muscles. I started lifting weight 4 years ago. I do bikram yoga 1 day a wk as well for my fibromyalgia it keeps my pain down. Right now I do not medicate for the fibro (knock on wood) . But what I actually meant was I have to markers on blood work for lupus but I don't have the 3rd so I do not have lupus. My rheumatologist said he believes it's the excercise keeping it at bay so far. He said his patients that excercise often do much better. seems like your awesome and doing great for your age. I do know that when I was full throttle in the adrenal fatigue the endo dr told me the adrenal are making it hard to put on and maintain muscle. That unfortunately a lot of people that have adrenal fatigue are flabbier. Also burst type excercise seems to put on muscle easier. Any type of bike ride/elliptical/walk in short burst followed by 1 min 30 seconds of recovery works well for muscle. But again it seems to be your excercise is great.
It's my second time writing this as my phone was playing.
What I wanted to ask you was what can I do to lose weight or to feel better. I find ur hard to stand on my legs my who body aches and now my fingers and wrist are so much pain.
What can you suggest to help me on improve my health only ways I can help. I'm trying ti drink alot but stop I fail to drink 2liters.
My lower back is really bad and I need my cure muscles to help support me.
Any advice will do or anyone has tried. If you have a plan one can follow.
Hello jannah I'm am sorry your not feeling well. Are you on any thyroid medication. Armour thyroid is a medication from a pig. It's called natural dessicated thyroid. A gluten free diet is avoiding wheat/gluten. It does make a lot of people feel better. Look up paleo diet it's very similar. Have you had labs? Do you have a dr it seems like your in a crisis.
ps Have you seen the information on the different fillers in NDT? Some people react better to some brands than others:
stopthethyroidmadness.com/a...
I've also been making sure my diet is clean ( a piece of cake once a month doesn't count! ) & unprocessed foods, eating brazils for selenium, & getting lots of B12 from pro-biotic kefir. I went outdoors more in the summer as I wasn't so tired, so topped up my vitamin D more regularly, & I'm taking D3 now.
I was hoping my FM symptoms would abate, but had a bad flare up at the time I took Thyro-Gold. No improvement with my headaches , which I think are common with a pituitary adenoma. No improvement with my migraines ~ I'm working on that problem next...
Mel
Yes I reacted badly to armour because of the gluten. I wish my doctor would have said armour has gluten. I felt like I had arthritis.
Darlene1, Armour is gluten and lactose-free.
I loose on levo but I swell some days don't know what it's due too
You should not use a low calories diet when hypo it is counter productive, as a nurse not only will you know that your body will go into starvation mode and start clinging to every calorie you put in your body in the long run making you heavier, but something you may not know is that low calories is one of the stress conditions that triggers reverse t3 increase, this will make you feel worse and block your take up of t3.
Look I don't mean to be judgemental here but do you really need to lose those few pounds? Are they really going to make you happier, or is it just an illusion, it's such a small amount are you sure you wouldn't be happier eating properly, focusing on your health and coming to terms with what you consider is being a few pounds too heavy?
Visualise this: you are thirteen stone and have been since you became hypothyroid, nothing you do loses weight and you continue yo yo dieting and unbeknown to you putting more and more stress on your body. You wake up one day and can't get out of bed, you have m.e. You spend the next four and a half years living in a class cage where you can't look after your once five year old, now nine year old, and you'll never get those years back with her. You spend at least 50% of your day in bed and can't tolerate being upright for more than one and a half hours before you have to get flat, you eat a gluten, sugar, dairy free diet, however your body is not functioning as it should and over those years you put three stone on. Now youre wishing you'd been happy at thirteen stone, it wasn't so bad anyway, but to be honest you'd trade being thirteen stone again for getting your life back.
Thinking about that don't you realise that your few pounds are neither here nor there, they are just something women obsess about because we are surrounded by images telling us we will look better, feel better and be happier if we are stick thin. Go get some like it hot the film on dvd and tell me who you think is more sexy Marilyn Monroe or Kate moss? I haven't seen you but I have little doubt that you look just as good at the weight you are as the weight you think you'd like to be. Focus on how you feel, feeling well and surround yourself with images of gorgeous plump women, or work on self acceptance. Good luck.
That's good advice Sulamaye.
However, I have joint issues, due to injuries, as well as FM & several other health issues. I feel less pain, have better mobility, & feel generally healthier when I'm a rounded <125 pounds than a clinically obese >140.
It's not just about appearance & wanting to be thin. There are several other issues regarding being fat, which greatly increases the likelyhood of getting cancer, diabetes, stroke, heart disease, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, etc. I really don't think I could cope with any further health problems than the assortment I have already.
Mel
Leverette I wasn't actually responding to you as I had no idea what your weight is. However unless you are below five foot you'd have to massively more than 140 llbs to be clinically obese!
Sulamaye I'm sorry you went through all that. I'm Mexican American and from the south in usa. Where I come from the women weigh 300 lbs and are in wheel chairs by age 40. My mother is 300 and so is my sister. I do not and will not ever agree that being over weight is healthy. I'm am not over weight I am a fit woman that's trying to lose just a few. It's been only 3 days on wp thyroid and I actually feel better. As far as diet I would never go under 1200 calories.
Yes, but then you go and exercise and use up a lot of those calories, leaving very little for things like digesting, and blood circulation, and... oh, yes! converting T4 to T3. That takes calories, too. And if you Don't convert properly, you get more hypo, and you put on more weight. Plus the exercising uses up the little T3 you have, leaving very little for anything else... like weight control. One huge vicious circle.
Yes, there's T3 in NDT, but not very much. And there's still T4 which needs converting, so you need those carlories... and round we go again.
Also, you need good nutrient levels to be able to use the hormone you're taking, and hypos already have difficulty absorbing nutrients, so have lots of nutritional deficiencies, so if you're not eating very much, you have less chance of absorbing enough nutrients which means you have difficulty using the hormone you're taking, so you get more hypo... etc.
And, there's nothing worse for your health than being hypo!
Have you had your
vit D
vit B12
folate
iron
ferritin tested?
That's good for starters. If you have deficiencies then you need to supplement them, starting one at a time, and build up from there.
And it would really help people to advise you if you posted your lab results - with ranges - when you post a question. Otherwise, we're just guessing, really.
Take care.
Yes all my labs are optimal ferritin vit D , b12. Everything is now optimal after having adrenal fatigue for a year. My t3 is still low but I have only been on wp thyroid for 3 days so hopefully in 6 wks it will be up. Armour thyroid in the past made my t3 even lower. My holistic dr says to continue the peak 8 sprinting and weight lifting. He actually says to do more cardio sprinting. I can find labs and post later. I'm on my way to bikram yoga☺️
Well, your holistic doctor doesn't know much about thyroid, then, does he.
I find you rude. But yes he's a holistic endocrinologist. He was the only dr to find my adrenal fatigue and tell me to get off synthroid. I believe you have some problems with excercise and taking care of your body. Excercise is good for the mind and body/soul. Sorry if you don't do it
Darlene1, perhaps you could be a little less critical of people who are trying to help you.
Ya she wasn't trying to help me. If you read her post she's belittleling However I do appreciate all the help that others have posted.
Darlene1, Greygoose may not be impressed by your endo's advice but she was not belittling you. Exercise and calorie reduction deplete T3 and members with low T3 are often advised to cut back on exercise and weight loss diets until T3 levels are good. Entirely up to you whether you act on advice offered, but there's no need to be disagreeable because you don't like the information.
There's a massive difference between being 182 pounds and 300 pounds, I was very fit when I was 13 stone before I got ill, however there's even more difference between being 134 pounds and 300 pounds. One thing I know for sure the more a person diets and obsesses over their eating the more likely they are to get fatter and fatter, especially when hypo. Nor health purposes you are no whetre near overweight at that weight for your height you'd have to be over 141 llbs to hit the overweight Mark, you are in the middle of healthy weight if you look at a bmi chart. Of course it's totally up to you, I was just trying to give you a more positive and healthier perspective. Good luck with it all.
I understand you were trying to help. But no your perspective is not healthy. I never said I was over weight.
I am sorry you don't find it healthy to know you are a healthy weight, losing 7llb would take you to under weight and that cutting calories produces rt3 which will make you ill. If you don't see that as health advice I regret spending my precious energy sharing that knowledge. Good luck with your recovery and your weight loss plans.
Darlene, I had thyroid surgery 40+ years ago and have basically been messed about by doctors since. I was also diagnosed some years ago with Fibromyalgia. I had shocking pain in my head at times with it too - often too painful to put my head on a pillow and would sometimes end up vomiting. Fibro is actually caused by thyroid dysfunction - some doctors (like John Lowe) have worked that out but many treat it as a separate illness. Recently having reached rock bottom I decided to research. Based on my research I made changes and one of the improvements is that after very many years, I am completely free of fibromyalgic pain. The only pain I still have is from arthritis in my hands when I do too much. I also lost around 7 kilos (largely through dietary changes), have much more energy, am more mentally alert and my memory has greatly improved. (There is still room for improvement though.) I am in Australia and take thyroxine (Oroxine) because it is all that doctors I have seen will prescribe - am hoping to see a more informed integrative doctor. (I don't know anything about wp thyroid.) Part of the key to losing weight is to eat (the right thing) often - every few hours. Like you I cut out gluten, as well as fluoridated water and goitrogenic foods and am taking selenium, B complex and probiotics. Exercise is important - good that you are keeping it up - so long as you don't overdo it. Being pro-active is important too! Will see if I can find a link to the weight loss info that helped me, to send you. Good luck - hope things improve for you.
Thank you. I have a holistic dr now after having western medicine. I take a lot of supplements and my labs are now almost optimal except thyroid labs. I do need to look into flourinated water. I just filter my city water. Why not drink flourinated water?
Fluoride suppresses the thyroid and is an endocrine disruptor. It was used in years gone by to slow an over active thyroid 
Some people have already replied about fluoride but I will just add that it is a toxin and does not only adversely affect thyroid function but can cause other serious problems too. Authorities say they use 'safe' levels of fluoride but we not only get fluoride from drinking water, we get it from toothpastes, many foodstuffs that are processed in fluoridated water, etc. Skeletal fluorosis has similar symptoms to arthritis and it is interesting to find that the countries with the highest rates of arthritis are also those with fluoridated drinking water. ("The Lancet found that daily doses of 6 to 9 mg per day were sufficient to cause arthritis in an avid tea-drinker. (Cook 1971)".
I lost a little cat because of fluoridated water (kidney failure) - he stopped drinking tap water and would seek out rainwater sources. I have since done the research into fluoride and myself and remaining cat only drink chemical-free spring water. I also discovered that where I live receives the highest dose of fluoride in our region. You can buy water filters that filter out fluoride. There is lots of scientific evidence available on the web from much more qualified people than me :).
I have taken Naturethroid 1+1/4grains since July,and have lost 9lbs without trying since then.I am intolerant to so many binders and fillers,especially the Levothyroxine I took for 8 years.I would recommend Naturethroid to you as it seems a good NDT to take without causing any adverse effects.Good luck
I put on over 4 stones in the 4 years I was in severe symptoms (7 day migraine every 14 days, cold, sleeping 12 to 15 hours per day) while eating 1500 cals and swimming 30 to 40 lengths twice per week. In the first year after diagnosis (levo) I lost about 7 lbs and then a further 7 lbs in the first 4-6 months of ndt. All healthy eating plus gym 3-4 times per week (body pump/pirates). In Sept I pulled a stomach muscle and could not exercise. Didn't get on the scales again until last week as thought I'd have gained. Have lost 8lbs since not exercising (am going now but taking it easy as still getting twinges). Only thing I can put it down to is starting lymphodrainage massages which have meant ankles etc are less puffy!
Thank you. Was the Levo you write about synthroid? Because I to lost 7 lbs in the beginning with synthroid than 4 years later was sick like a dog from synthroid. I'm glad your doing well.
Hi Darlene - not overly sure on brand. It would be whatever the generic levo is that's prescribed on the NHS. But now I've found ndt I'm not going back!
TupennyRush,
In the UK it would have been Wockhardt, Actavis or MercuryPharma.
Synthroid is a USA make though also available in some other countries such as New Zealand.
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