Weight update

[ticktickatick]

Well, I haven't posted in a long while. I felt like no one on here had gone through my struggle. I was pretty thin pre hypothyroid diagnosis, but extremely cold and always, always tired. Even in that state somehow I managed to exercise constantly and eat very healthy as I have most of my life.

After starting NDT treatment my weight ballooned for no reason. After a few months I quit my dose cold turkey. Lost most of the weight but felt horrible again. Went back up, ballooned. Quit--but this time the weight didn't budge. So I went back on and stayed on, resigning myself to be a chubby person.

Recently I noticed that some of my pants feel loose and my partner thinks I am thinner. I am happy but also frustrated because I have no idea what I'm doing right. I'm on 3 grains of Naturethroid and have been for about a year now. I alternate between cold like I used to be and unbearably overheated. Way more sedentary than I used to be...now I only get at max a 20 minute slow walk a day. Eating is not the greatest because of cash flow problems and healthy food is expensive. The only thing that's really changed is when I sleep. I'm not working normal hours and often sleep 1am to 9:30ish. But my fitbit says I'm only sleeping about 7 hours a night which is less than I used to get. I also take my whole dose of NDT with totally binding food like dairy and don't bother crushing it or going sublingual. 

Besides the weight loss I.feel better in general.

I'm just so frustrated. I have no control over my weight and health. A healthy active lifestyle backfires while a bad lifestyle benefits. It's messed up.

[Marz]

What do you eat that is cheaper than the healthy expensive food you have mentioned ?  It is often talked about here that thyroid meds need to be taken away from foods - so perhaps you are not getting the full benefit of the NDT.  Eat and drink at least an hour after your meds - or if you take them at night then ensure you haven't eaten for two hours.

  Do you have any recent results with ranges you could share - perhaps the FT3 is low in range ....  How are your levels of B12 - Ferritin - folate - VitD ?

PS  Just read your last post of 9 months ago - and yes your FT3 is low in range ....could be the answer.  maybe add in some T3.

[shaws Administrator]

You are making a mistake by taking your NDT with dairy products. Food interferes with the uptake of thyriod hormones and that's what you are lacking. They are made to dissolve in the stomach. 

Take your dose once daily, and swallow with 1 glass of water and wait approx 1 hour before eating.

What's the point of going to the trouble of sourcing your own NDT (I'm assuming your doctor hasn't prescribed) and then stopping it as it is being blamed and not the hypothyroidism which slows everything in our body right down. It's like going on a diet yet eating a couple of bars of chocolate a day, to make us feel better, yet complaining the weight isn't reducing.

You have to give thyroid hormones a chance. Weight gained is probably gradually over several years before we are even diagnosed so it stands to reason it will take some time to reduce once on the optimum dose. It would be magical to lose 2 stone a month after beginning hormones but that's only a pipe dream.

If thyroid hormones don't reach the optimum level for us as individuals weight can go higher or stay at a certain point, especially if on levo only, particularly if doctors stop increasing due to the TSH alone.

If we are hypothyroid and stop the medication, whatever we take, we can develop other more serious conditions, heart and brain for instance needs T3 to work efficiently as well as everything else to do with metabolism. If hypo and not on optimum our pulse can be much lower than normal and then body tries to compensate and can struggle with palps etc.

Whatever you do, if hypothyroid, is take hormones and we have to take them daily until we expire or have a miraculous event in that we aren't hypo any more

(I am not medically qualified and am hypo myself. My weight is stable and I feel well, which is the main purpose of replacement hormones).