i came on here nearly a year ago and said i had under active thyroid and the difficulty of losing weight. well a year on and im still struggling.
my TSH levels are at 0.02, and i gained4lbs last week being on a 1600 diet, exercising 4 times a week =vigerously.
ive come off my hormone contraceptive pill in case it was that.
nothing is working, im so tired of having major fluctuations week on week for no reason whatso ever, i thought with a low tsh that i would be able to lose weight like a normal person
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Leahcollett3
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By vigorously exercising, you are making yourself more hypo, because you are using up your T3, which you have difficulty replacing. It will NOT make you lose weight, but will probably make you put more on.
Also, you are not eating enough, you need about 2000 calories for optimal conversion. Have you had your FT4 and FT3 tested yet?
"my consultant has said that it is ok to take levothyroixine in the morning then have breakfast and take orlistat, i questioned him about the 4 hours and he said no,"
And, if you are still having your breakfast just after taking your levo, and then taking your orlistat, you will not be absorbing all your levo. You got some good advice on your last thread...
my levels are at 0.02 so i think my absorption of the medication is ok, i haven't had my levels tested yet as its £90 which i cant afford just yet. i cant get my head round that exercising would make me gain weight, no matter how much i try to metabolise that it dont sink in cus its meant to help with losing weight,
i even tried no exercise for 1 week. put on 6lbs.
i have stopped taking orlistat this week as it doing nothing . the doctors have now said they cant help me as they dont know why im not losing either now.
greygoose if i ate 2000 calories i put on 8lbs a week no doubt.
You are hypo. And, when you're hypo, all the rules are turned up-side down. Exercise may help euthyroid people lose weight (although I do have my doubts about that!) but it will make a hypo worse because it uses up T3.
Where do you think you get your energy to exercise? Or to get up in the morning, get washed and dressed, walk to work, do housework, do shopping, etc. etc. etc.? T3. T3 drives everything. So, if you use it all up exercising, you have none left for every thing else. And, you have nothing left to drive your metabolism. And, what happens when your metabolism is rock bottom? You put on weight.
As for putting on 8lbs eating 2000 calories... You are assuming that fat = calories in vs calories out. And that isn't true for anyone. Calories are another thing you need to fuel everything you do : getting up, dressed and washed, going to work, exercising, everything. A calorie is a unit of energy. So, you also need calories to convert T4 to T3. And, if calories are in short supply, conversion is last in the queue for a hand-out! So, you become more hypo. So, a hypo needs to eat more calories than a euthyroid person, because he has more difficulty converting.
So, two reasons why your T3 is low, and low T3 makes you put on more weight! Not eating.
And, quite apart from all that, you are hypo, and it very often isn't fat that makes hypos put on weight. Mucin. Mucin is a lovely gooey substance that collects under the skin of hypos and attracts water. So, in effect, you is making you weigh more is water, not fat. And all the dieting and all the exercising is the world isn't going to get rid of that.
So, the best thing you can do, is forget all the 'rules' for losing weight, and adapt to your new body, and how it works. (And, as an aside, anorexics usually end up with thyroid problems. Low calorie can permanently damage your conversion mechanism. But, don't expect a doctor to tell you that!) What you need to do is concentrate on increasing your level of T3. Have you ever had it tested? If not, I would suggest you get private tests. You need :
TSH
FT4
FT3
TPOab
TgAB
vit D
vit B12
folate
ferritin
That will give you a better idea of what's going on.
Oh, and forgot to say, once you are on thyroid hormone replacement, the TSH is irrelevant, because it can be affected by so many things. The fact that yours is 0.02 says nothing about your absorption. Your FT3 could still be low.
Well, l don't know about fluctuations, but it does mean that your weight gain is water, and not fat. So the only think that is going to get rid of it is increasing your T3 level.
This is from an archived site and he was a scientists as well as a doctor and he only took a blood test for the initial diagnosis and thereafter it was all about how the patient felt on a particular dose but he wouldn't prescribe levo.
Sorry you haven't lost any weight...neither have I and thats because my FT3 is not optimal...far from it...as are my nutrients. You will not lose weight until this gets sorted and if you dont know what your FT3 level is you will be going around in circles trying to figure out what to do. Greygoose has explained this and she is right. Before diagnosis i used to run half marathons, run 6 days a week, cycle you name it...now i struggle to walk a couple of miles some days but i know there is no point in me forcing myself to over exercise in order to lose the 6 stone i have acquired as it will do more harm than good...that doesnt mean i can gorge myself until that happens, i still eat healthily but i'm not going to starve myself either. You need to get your FT4 and FT3 results as a starting point to see if you have any conversion issues which could be caused by low or non optimal nutrients but dont guess...you need the blood results first then go from there..
I was on prescribed liothyronine (T3) until referred to an endo who said i didnt have conversion issues and took me off it, however..that said unless my nutrients and vitamins are optimal no amount of thyroid hormone appears to work for me as has been proven with the FT3 results when taking T3 which werent much better than when taking levo only. I know this is really frustrating for you Leah but your doctor really does need to test at least your FT4 and ideally FT3 as well. Other than the stubborn weight gain are you getting other low thyroid symptoms? I still think the only way to know if your thyroid medication is working effectively is to get the FT4 and FT3 tested. I have in the past had TSH like yours and a high FT4 result which some people might say thats great thats optimal but i felt dreadful, turns out my FT3 wasnt doing much. I really wish the NHS would routinely test FT3 but i thought they did test it routinely if your TSH is supressed?
medically? i feel great, no more tiredness, my hair could do with getting thicker, i have energy now. the only thing, the only! thing is my weight. when im next there i will ask her, but she has requested this before but our hospital who tested the blood ignored it.
Thats good that you are feeling more energetic, for me i dont have the energy to exercise any harder than a walk at the moment so it sounds like your medication is working reasonably well but may need some fine tweaking. I think you are going to really have to push for this test or save up and get it done privately.
I think if they show a conversion issue then my thoughts are that the NHS should be supporting you with some T3, that was the case in my area through the clinical commissioning group but that may not be the same in all areas sadly! The alternative is to self medicate if you know it is low (get a test dont self medicate if you dont know the result or if you have sufficient FT3) but like i said before it could be your vitamins and nutrients not being optimal as well or instead.
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