Crazy hunger!

[CameTheDay]

So I'm 14 days post TT, and eating like there's no tomorrow. I'm starving an hour after a meal, and it's not comfort eating - my tummy is rumbling and demanding food. The last three nights I've woken up at just gone four, feeling like I haven't eaten for a week.

I've been craving sugar. I try to sate it with apples and carrots but it's like chucking a bean down a well. The pounds are piling up already.

I'm meeting the endo next week, and already have a raft of questions gleaned from here. I've read somewhere that low T3 can cause hunger - anyone else have his experience? Right, I'm off for a whole cake smothered in ganache and fruit pastilles....

[SlowDragon Administrator]

You won't be able to get bloods tested until 6-8 weeks after starting on Levothyroxine

For full Thyroid evaluation you need TSH, FT4, TT4, FT3 plus TPO and TG thyroid antibodies.

Plus very important to test vitamin D, folate, ferritin and B12. You could ask GP to test these now. Or endo

As you have had TT presumably your endo will test calcium and parathyroid levels to check parathyroids were not damaged by the op

Private tests of TSH, FT4 and FT3 are available. Thousands on here forced to do this as NHS often refuses to test FT3

thyroiduk.org.uk/tuk/testin...

Medichecks Thyroid plus ultra vitamin or Blue Horizon Thyroid plus eleven are the most popular choice if wanting to test vitamins too.

DIY finger prick test or option to pay extra for private blood draw. Both companies often have money off offers.

All thyroid tests should ideally be done as early as possible in morning and fasting. If on Levothyroxine, don't take in the 24 hours prior to test, delay and take straight after. This gives highest TSH, lowest FT4 and most consistent results. (Patient to patient tip, GP will be unaware)

[CameTheDay in reply to SlowDragon]

Christ, why couldn't I get a less complicated illness! I went into this feeling quite proud that my research has informed me of the difference between T4 and T3. Now every time I log on here I see some new acronym or compound I've never head of.

Thanks for the reply, I'll take note and be able to ask some more probing questions than previously. I can see I have a lot of learning to do.

[Tiredofitall]

I too have been experiencing the same . Some days it's anything sweet others it salty foods I have to eat it's like having an incredible thirst you can't satisfy. I feel really bad about myself after, but my body just craves it. My cortisol levels were low , unsure if that is anything to do with it.

[CameTheDay in reply to Tiredofitall]

The thirst analogy is spot on. I've been eating a veggie-heavy diet for the last few months, but am really craving lamb. Just hanging on in until I get the RAI out of the way and hopefully these things can all be managed. If not I'll be twenty stone by Christmas 😬

[SilverAvocado]

Yes, I definitely experience the ravenous hunger.

I think it has more to do with cortisol and by extension blood sugar that with thyroid hormone directly. Especially the waking up hungry at 4am thing, that is a very clear sign.

Cortisol controls some aspects of blood sugar. It's kind of the opposite of insulin. While insulin takes sugar out of the blood stream into longer term storage, cortisol takes it back out of storage when we haven't eaten for a while. 4am is the classic time to have run out of any food eaten in the day, and to be too hungry to stay asleep.

But at the moment getting your thyroid hormone sorted is probably the first step. Straight after my TT is a very strange place of exhaustion. You are likely to be on very much the wrong dose, and going out trying to live your life pretty much as normal without having had time to figure out what's going on. Years later I've got tons off techniques to deal with tiredness, I know most of at I can and can't do.

My advice is to really take it very easy as much as you can. Accept that it takes a long time to get through RAI and all the nonsense, and that dose tuning is a very slow process, too.

If you feel hungry definitely eat. Prepare a snack to take to bed so you don't get woken up too much by getting good. I also gave my evening meal almost immediately before getting into bed, so it tides me over for longer. I gained a stone every time I had to come off thyroid hormone But was quite stable the rest of the even though sometimes I was eating a lot.

[ShinyB]

Hi, I've just read an interesting view in a book by Mark Starr, 'Hypothyroidism Type 2' where he says he recommends to his patients who have weight gain and hunger on thyroid hormones, to take them with food. All the advice on this forum says to take them on an empty stomach, but his says that the stomach isn't designed to come in to close contact with thyroid hormones. He said he has had success using this method with patients. He said he sometimes has to increase the dose slightly to allow for lower absorption by taking it with food, but it seems to work.

I chomped my T3 over the last two days with my lunch. Probably totally unrelated, but I've had a couple of much better days in terms of my energy and mood!

[CameTheDay in reply to ShinyB]

I'll see what my endo says about the hunger on Thursday, but will bear this in mind if the situation doesn't improve. My wife has likened me to a swarm of locusts!