Levothyoxtine and weight gain: Does Levothyoxtine... - Thyroid UK

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Levothyoxtine and weight gain

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Does Levothyoxtine make me gain weight?

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adnil2164 profile image
adnil2164
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I continued to put on weight after being put on levothyroxine, although doctors assured me I'd lose weight...it took years (and forums like this one) to understand that I was not converting enough T4 to T3, the latter being the truly active thyroid hormone. Only after switching to NDT (which contains both T3 and T4) was I able to lose weight. I am now back to my pre-thyroid failure weight and have lost in total 23 kilograms, but it did not happen overnight. Even with optimal thyroid levels, it seems everything in my body has slowed down compared to how I felt before I had a thyroid problem. Of course, I am almost twenty years older now (diagnosed in 2000), and peri-menopausal on top of it, but my impression is that everything is a little bit more difficult once hypothyroid, even on NDT and with optimal FTs.

It seems many thyroid patients, especially those with Hashimoto's disease, are poor converters, so it would probably be a good idea to have your FT3 levels tested as well. I am not in the UK, but understand there are private labs where you can order tests if your doctor won't do it; hopefully, UK members will chime in.

Lynnsymo profile image
Lynnsymo in reply to

Going to discuss this with my Gp. I live in the UK.

Snoddyoddbod profile image
Snoddyoddbod in reply toLynnsymo

Good luck with that!!!!

I've put on 4 stone since RAI treatment. Endo told me to go to slimming world.

I put the family on a healthy eating diet. Everyone lost weight apart from me.

Hypo crashes you metabolism to nothing. If you had a slow metabolism in the first place after going into hypo you come to a stop!

Let us know what the gp says please. But good luck

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