Help with weight gain/trouble losing from thyroid being out of whack!

[brendabrain54]

Hello,

I am in the US but I think thyroid issues are thyroid issues? I had a sleeve done two year and four months ago. Everything was fantastic for almost two years. In fact I was getting a little too thin. Boy what would I do to be back in that situation right now!

Just before the two year mark my thyroid went out of whack; weight jumped to 155, lost 5 and hovered around the 150 mark until a few months later. Thyroid out of whack; weight up to 159, went back and forth from the 159 to 155 but not an ounce below 155. At this point I am having to get a size larger in clothes! Feb this year again numbers are off and my weight jumped to 165, still off through March and I find myself at 175. Now it's getting ugly and I am extremely depressed. Because it seems that no matter what I do I can't get the weight off.

Appointment with Bariatric P.A. (don't get to see surgeon anymore) and she tells me to ask my endocrinologist to do some hormone tests. She is not very nice but finally agreed to do the insulin resistance test. Said if I was insulin resistance she could put me on Metformin for a few months to see if that helps.

I am insulin resistance so I am now on 1000 mg of Metformin. Still having to eat almost strict post surgery meals at about 3 months out. But finally lose 10 pounds. Weighed today and 5 pounds are back on!

I am depressed and desperate. My son is getting married next month and I don't want this extra 25 lbs on. It seems after losing 100 lbs I should be able to get this off but I am at my wits end.

Any advice will be truly appreciated!!

Thank you all so very much!

Brenda

[SlowDragon Administrator]

If they have not been done ......Suggest you ask GP to check levels of vitamin d, b12, folate and ferratin. These all need to at good (not just average) levels for thyroid hormones (our own or replacement ones) to work in our cells

Apparently very common if had gastric band or similar stomach reduction to be very low in all, but especially B12

tristatebariatrics.org/vita...

Also have you had thyroid antibodies checked? There are two sorts TPO Ab and TG Ab. (Thyroid peroxidase and thyroglobulin) Both need checking, if either, or both are high this means autoimmune thyroid - called Hashimoto's

If you have Hashimoto's then you may find adopting 100% gluten free diet can help reduce symptoms, and lower antibodies too.

[greygoose]

It really would help if you posted your blood test results. Sounds to me as if your FT3 is very low. Are you taking any thyroid hormone replacement?

[brendabrain54 in reply to greygoose]

I will get my test results when I see my doctor next week. I have not heard of FT3. Or is that one of the thyroid hormones? I think she tests 3 or 4 but I thought they were called something like T3, T4...

[greygoose in reply to brendabrain54]

T3 is the hormone, FT3 is the name of the test, as opposed to TT3, which is another test.

FT3 - Free T3 - tells you how much T3 is available for the body to use.

TT3 - Total T3 - tells you how much T3 there is in total, but not all of it can be used by your body.

Same for T4. There's FT4 and TT4. The tests you want are the Frees.

[brendabrain54 in reply to greygoose]

The Frees, that sounds familiar. My GP will give me the numbers as she has access although I won't see her until the 22nd. My endo as I might have already told you has no bedside manner and quite frankly does not give a rats you know what about patients like me. We have a severe shortage of endo's in our state.

[greygoose in reply to brendabrain54]

I think the world has a severe shortage of endos! Decent ones, anyway.

[hebden]

As SlowDragon says check all you vitamins checked. I was sent to obesity clinic and heard all about bariatric surgery and what to expect and one of the things they kept saying was that after surgery you will always need to take vitamins especially B12 and D3 as you will no longer be able to absorb these through your stomach. I assume they meant take these by lozenge or injection. I didn't go through the surgery as I feel I have too many other health issues to contend with without adding to it. I think it would send me over the top. I also could not get a straight answer about after care.

Good luck and hope the wedding goes well.

Joolz.x

[brendabrain54 in reply to hebden]

My B12 has always been in range on the high side. however I have to take 10,000 IU's of D3 as my body does not produce enough for it to even be on the low side in range.

[Jazzw]

Never mind about the metformin - are they actually treating your out of whack thyroid? Are you on levothyroxine? If so, how much?

[brendabrain54 in reply to Jazzw]

I am on Levo. Current dose is 100 mcg, has been as high as 125 in Feb. I think my thyroid has been so out of whack in the past 8 to 10 months that I have been on 3 or 4 different doses

[Jazzw in reply to brendabrain54]

Ah, it sounds like you have a doctor who is ruled by the (not so) "infallible" TSH reading. As others have now explained, the most important reading is your FT3 - it needs to be high in its range for you to feel well.

Hope you manage to get hold of your results soon. x

[brendabrain54 in reply to Jazzw]

It sure does doesn't it! The nice thing for me is that my GP is awesome and now that I know to ask about that number she will tell me as she has access to all of my tests! Do you know what my number should be or is it individual?

Thanks:))

[vixvixvix]

Oh no! That's horrible with the yo yo weight! The other guys are right- you need to make sure you are getting correctly supplemented and treatment for your thyroid- I don't know much about the surgery but if it's causing malabsorption of nutrients that might be why your body is going crazy.

Regarding Metformin- sigh... they hand it out like candies nowadays. I took it for a couple of years for polycystic ovaries since I am insulin resistant as well but I constantly felt that my digestion was sluggish and everything was coated inside- basically it really didn't work for me at all, though I'm probably in the minority. However I feel that for you, worst scenario- if you do get even more sluggish in terms of digestion and you're already having absorption problems... it won't be great. Sometimes when our bodies get stressed like that it starts really hoarding, and the less you eat, the less you lose.

I went off it because I finally gave up on western medicine for pcos and went to a Chinese doctor who was trained in both chinese and western medicine and she said one thing that really resonated (and got me off it)- it's a DIABETES drug. What would you take if (well she said when to me because she is convinced I'll get it due to my lack of ability to cut ice cream and alcohol from my life) you get diabetes? Pre- diabetes and insulin resistance is completely manageable with lifestyle and dietary changes- a very low GI diet or a low carb high fat diet can stop it from becoming a full blown problem because very little carb = less insulin response needed = insulin resistance becomes less of an issue. Also, I don't think you'd yoyo like that with insulin resistance... (and yes, my pcos is 90% better without western medicine).

Now if I could live what I preach and not have eaten that tub of ice cream last night...

[brendabrain54 in reply to vixvixvix]

The Metformin was suggested by my bariatric doc in the event the endocrinologist would do the test, insulin resistance, which she did. No one guaranteed my anything with it, just said it may help my body break down the sugars. And truthfully since I have been on it for the past six weeks, it is the only weight I have lost, the 7 lbs. So I feel like it's helping a bit. Only supposed to be on it for 3 or 4 months.

[Angel_of_the_North in reply to brendabrain54]

There are apparently some good things about metformin - it has anti-cancer activity, for instance. But it does lower B12, so you need to supplement (and CoQ10 as well, AFAIK).

[brendabrain54 in reply to Angel_of_the_North]

Thanks for the information. Will add these tests for my next visit to my GP!