Weight 😞

[Rosieh1978]

Have gone from having over active thyroid to under in space of two month so not surprised as all my symptoms were suggestive of underactive, cannot loose weight no matter what I do and it's really getting me down, ince starting levothyroxine how long work look it be before weight loss becomes easier - 10kg over what I'm comfy at

[startagaingirl]

Hi and welcome to the forum.

Until your thyroid hormones and nutrients are optimised your body will hold on to the excess weight no matter what you do. In fact diet and exercise could very well make the situation worse.

Sorting hypothyroid is a journey which needs learning, patience and a fair degree of commitment. For a start, why don't you give us your latest blood test results so we can give you more specific advice as we are all individuals and each is different. If you don't have these, ask your GPs receptionist for a copy - it is your legal right to have them. Always get a copy of each set as they are done. If you post them here with ranges we can advise. They should look something like this:

TSH 3.4 (0.4-4.2)

The numbers you are looking for are TSH, FT4, FT3, TpoAb, TgAb, vit d, vit b12, folate and ferritin. These are all important for the tyroid to work properly and the body to use the hormones. If your GP won't test all these, many of us use private testing through Blue Horizons or Medichecks.

A good place to start to learn is our parent website Thyroiduk.org.

Gillian

[Rosieh1978 in reply to startagaingirl]

How does diet and exercise make it worse? 🙁

My results 2 month ago 1 month ago and this week

Tsh <0.01, <0.03, 10.76

T4 24, 13, 8

Am a qualified nurse so kinda have an idea what my results mean, feel horrendous though piling on weight and tired and sore all over, have not felt hyperactive except maybe a year ago where I did lose a lot of weight and was very anxious and agitated and shaky if course this wasn't diagnosed at time they just shoved me in anti depressants

The weight is a massive issue for me as I have struggled with eating disorders When I was young

[startagaingirl in reply to Rosieh1978]

Hi - over active to under sounds like a possible case of Hashimotos auto-immune, where your immune system mistakenly attacks the thyroid. When the tissue dies it releases its hormone into the bloodstream causing temporary symptoms of being hyper. But once this goes, the hypo symptoms return and worse this time because you have less thyroid tissue to produce hormone. This causes 90% of all cases of hypothyroid.

Your tsh pattern would certainly suggest this, but only anti-body results can confirm it.

Hypothyroid means you will have too low a level of t3 in your blood (ft3) , this is the active hormone that drives all the systems in the body from the brain to the metabolism. But what the thyroid produces is predominantly the inactive t4 which must be converted, predominantly in the liver, to the active t3. If you don't have sufficient nutrients, this conversion doesn't happen efficiently and your body can't effectively use what you do have. Nutrient deficiencies are almost universal in hypo due to malabsorption caused by gut problems - aka leaky gut or increased intestinal permeability in medic speak - usually caused by food intolerances. The most common of these in decreasing order are gluten, dairy, soy. You don't have to have any obvious symptoms to have non-coeliac gluten sensitivity, for instance. Hence a trial of strict gluten free diet for a minimum of 3 months is recommended with hashis.

The weight issues - weight gain is very common with hypo. Diet makes it worse because the body needs sufficient calories to help drive the t4-t3 conversion process. Without them, the body slows this down, hence slowing metabolism, as a self-protective mechanism. Vigorous exercise uses up t3 from the blood, and if you are under-treated hypo, you don't have enough going spare, or enough t4 t convert, to compensate for this. Hence the result is again a slowed metabolism. Gentle exercise like walking, yoga and gentle swimming are ok.

So for now, focus on getting your meds and nutrients optimum, try and live with the weight and it will improve - just need to be patient.

Dose increase can only be done by 25mcg every six weeks to avoid shocking the body. Levo needs to be taken on an empty stomach at least 1 hr before food/tea/coffee, or at least 3 hrs after food. It should also never be taken within 2 hrs of any other meds/supplements or the body won't be able to use it effectively. The ultimate aim of a levo treated hypo is to end with a tsh <=1, ft in the top quarter of range or slightly higher, with ft3 in the top third of range, provided you feel well. But everyone is an individual and we all need to find our own equilibrium point.

Good luck

Gillian

[startagaingirl in reply to startagaingirl]

BTW - all nutrients need to be at a relatively high level to be optimum, not just in range

[Rosieh1978]

Thank U for all the info it's really helpful, already gluten free as it causes me to break out in rashes etc

Totally fed up and just want this sorted out so I can have a decent quality of life and not be a fatty 😒

[Bobby25 in reply to Rosieh1978]

I’m reading this today, and I’m so hoping that all this was sorted for you now as I’m at this point right now and I need some hope.

[Silver_Fairy]

Do you still have your thyroid gland? Are you on any antithyroid meds?

[Rosieh1978 in reply to Silver_Fairy]

Yeahstill have it ...... as far a source I know!!!

Should start thyroxine tomorrow if bloods from today show same as behind of week

[Silver_Fairy in reply to Rosieh1978]

Have you had antibodies tested?

Do you have your last test results?

[Rosieh1978 in reply to Silver_Fairy]

Don't have any results for antibodies not sure if gp did that or not

Results are in earlier reply 🤓

[Silver_Fairy in reply to Rosieh1978]

With a TSH of over 10 you are badly undermedicated.

Your T4 is also dropping. Please put ranges as labs around the country use different ones.

How long have you been on Levo? What dose? And any changes in dose?

Exercise uses up T3.

[Rosieh1978 in reply to Silver_Fairy]

Not on anything yet waiting on confirmation results today I know it's changed massively very quickly - my question was re weight when starting on thyroxine ..... do u know if it will make a difference

[Silver_Fairy in reply to Rosieh1978]

It may. Some people do well on Levo.

But.....for Levo to convert to FT3, certain vits/mins have to be optimal.

Selenium can also help - 200mcg daily. Also going gluten free. Also eating a clean diet.

Also, most importantlyis having your levels of FT4 and FT3 in the best place in the range