Thank you so much for helping me to date, I don't know what I would without you.
I have promised myself to stick with 150 mcg Levo as previously discussed. Don't want to add t3 (as of yet anyway).
Since I have moved to Levo only end of February, I have put on about 8 pounds+ and it seems I keep on gaining weight. Cellulite all over legs and arms, stomach + bloat. Is this normal when you transition from NDT to Levo? I have never been so big and full of cellulite. In 2 weeks me and my partner are going on a holiday and I am too ashamed to put on a swimsuit or bikini.
Looking for some encouragement, advice, hugs...anything xxx
Hey there! After the rough time you have had adjusting to your meds, you need that vacation!
I will offer the perspective of a somewhat older woman with a less than perfect body - my husband seems to like it anyway after 35 years of marriage with all its cellulite, lumps and bumps.
If you are self conscious, get a one piece bathing suit with a tummy smoothing panel ( that’s what I wear and it hides my pouch) or a tankini, or a bathing suit with a little skirt and just go and enjoy yourself. You deserve it - it seems you work long and hard based on your earlier posts and so a vacay is essential.
As women , we are so critical of ourselves and our bodies. Be kind to yourself - the weight will come off eventually once your meds are balanced. Consider this part of your recovery and have a great vacation! I hope you have a good time and sending you big hugs!
Thank you Greekchick, it makes me feel a bit better, the fact that you say I just should enjoy and let go. I should get a swimsuit with that panel in the next two weeks. I was size S and now I barely fit into L. My partner says it doesn't matter to him that I put on weight, but I guess it does matter to me...I know it's not my fault and I don't have it under control. I had people on the street talking about cellulite on my legs in a foreign language, which I speak fluently. Made me really sad. Few months ago I was teaching yoga and was lifting weights. Now I am foreign to myself. So frustrating xxxx
I’m glad your partner is OK with it - I hope that makes makes it a little easier for you. Now you need to be OK with it. It took me years to be OK with it, and there were not the wardrobe choices available today when I had that problem.
Just try to enjoy and remember - there is always tomorrow - a new day and new perspective. 🤗🤗🤗
The most difficult is to be OK with it for sure x I keep buying new clothes bras and pants every few weeks, breaks my heart and wallet 😀 hopefully tomorrow is better, I will be turning 35. I will be skipping my birthday, asked everyone to skip it with me and respect that. Will celebrate another day when I feel better .
I am sorry to hear it, that you are on med leave. I hope you will be back to yourself soon. Did you have a thyroidectomy? I am sending you huge hugs from Ireland xxx
Yes, I had a total TT for Graves’ disease with multinodular goiter 11 weeks ago - it’s been quite the journey - it’s not over yet as my meds are not yet adjusted - but I am seeing the light at the end I hope 🤞 ! Thanks for the hugs and good wishes to you for tomorrow. Even if you are not celebrating, your birthday, we Greeks say “many years” instead of happy birthday and I wish that for you! Big hugs from Canada to you! Be well.
Don’t throw out the bras you no longer fit. Or denims or anything you really love. You will fit them again on the way down and as you are finding bras (and denims) are expensive things to buy. If you look on Amazon you will find ‘bra expanders’ which you can use to get yourself a bit more wear out of the bras you have.
I really hope I will wear them all again. I have these expanders already, thank you! It's now also the cup sizes I need new, but sports bras do help a good bit too
And you will be back to yourself soon - yoga and all. I also feel foreign to myself - I was at work competing with 30 year olds and now I am sleeping half the day away on med leave. So I really understand...
If it were me, I wouldn't be considering buying such swimwear if that's not the style of swimwear I normally wore. That would be me buying in to the opinion and needs of others, that I should cover up or change my image for their benefit, and I'd never concede that. Relatively recently, my T3 was withdrawn and my T4 substantially reduced, and I gained 4 + stone in exactly 12 months, going from a size 12 to a size 22. Since that has happened I've not had a holiday in the sunshine, but if I were planning one, I'd be wearing what I wanted to, the opinion of others wouldn't come into it. During my first pregnancy in '71, before I was diagnosed hypo, I became Michelin-man massive, and one day a group of French speaking youths walked past my friend and I, expressing their less than positive views about my size including likening me to an obese porcine lol. Also in French, I responded that it was they who were ignorant pigs, and could **** off. That shut them up, and it amused my friend and I greatly. Subsequently, as a result of three pregnancies, even when a size 12, I've had the proverbial baby belly ever since, but never have let that, nor the opinion of others dictate my bikini choice and limit my tanning opportunities (and I've always bathed topless what ever my bust size or shape.) Would I rather be my old size 12, for health and mobility reasons? Of course I would, but I know why I'm not, and the opinions of others especially strangers on holiday who I'll never again come into contact with, play no role in my life and certainly not my choice of swimwear.
Thank you MaisieGray, this really is an important message. I think once I accept it, I will be able ignore all these people. My plan is to take my stretchy bikini and a panelled swimsuit as a backup plan
Don't forget, if you do feel self-conscious (and we all do!) wrap a huge scarf or a sarong around your waist and hips when you come out of the water, or even for sunbathing. Hides so much and looks great xx
Great advice Greekchick. We ladies worry too much about our bodies. So Cupofcha, treat yourself to a nice regular swimsuit with a tummy supporting panel or a tankini - my favourite - and maybe a big shirt to throw over it or wrap of some sort to tie round your waist and off you go. I think the most important thing is to be kind to yourself - I am always saying that to people on this group. Wonder if being hard on ourselves comes with the thyroid condition?
Anyway, go forth Cupofcha and have a great holiday - ((((big hugs)))) to you and Greekchick..
I will do that Fruitandnutcase, I will try to be as kind as possible. I think most people I know with thyroid condition are hard on themselves. Wonder if this also contributes to Hashimotos. Big hugs Fruitandnutcase, I will enjoy it, thank you for your support xxxxx
Why did you switch from NDT? You may want to switch back because T4 only is not enough for most people. I am in the same boat as you. I am interested in trying T3 only medication!
It is not you, your body just is not getting what it needs!
No that's not the case. Many more people are happy and healthy on mono- Levothyroxine treatment than are represented in patient fora, because they are getting on with their lives and not needing to be writing about their thyroid health. It is also the case that neither NDT nor mono-T3 suits everyone, you cannot assume that one form of treatment is necessarily better or worse in the same way, for every person. We are individual in how and what we react to, and in the combination of health issues we have.
You are probably right. I apologize. For those that T4 only supplementation works for that is wonderful! I was only meaning to suggest that it might not be working for the OP and it has not worked for me. Everyone is highly unique and it takes a lot of trial and error sometimes to find what works for each of us.
As I recall from your previous post, you were diagnosed only in early March, and having been prescribed Levo you took it for only a few weeks before stopping taking it some weeks ago - so you didn't give yourself or the Levothyroxine that trial and error opportunity before deciding it was wrong for you.
i took levo for 6 months and the weight just kept on coming. i then switched to ndt and for the past three years i have slowly lost nearly all ofthe weight i gained. i feel normal on my thiroyd and felt awful on levothyroxine but as you say everyone is unique and its just trial and error to find out what suits each of us as individuals
That's good to hear you are on the right track. Yeah I thought that on Levo alone I would be fine, then I remembered that when I was on Levo years ago, I had the same issues and this is why I went to NDT. Definitely adding t3 slowly x
Proportions in NDT didn't work for me anymore plus Nature Throid got reformulated, felt worse and worse on it, to the point of gaining weight the last three months on it. I figured taking combo of t4 and t3 would be better and easier to adjust in some ways (harder in others!). I am pretty sure I need to be on t4 and t3 together, but not sure how much yet. My conversion is not terrible, but I would most likely benefit from a little addition of T3.
I've been taking the new NT throughout the winter, & haven't noticed a big difference other than the tablets being harder to split. I found the older & newer types weaker than their WP as I need 1/4 grain more, though they've priced themselves out of my custom for using that.
Yeah some people seem fine on it it seems, but also a lot got super sick on NT. My ft4 dropped almost to below range anytime I increased...and I had to increase and increase ...so yeah, hoping this will be better
Me too. I was really well for three years on the old NT. It became unavailable for a while and I switched to ERFA and I was ok. Not great but ok. I did start to feel my weight was coming back and impossible to shift. I was so happy when NT was back so after 6 months on ERFA I switched back and crashed within a couple of weeks. I felt so ill. I gradually upped the dose from 2 grains to 3. My T4 plummeted but so did my TSH and my GP panicked and told me I had to go back onto Levo and tbh I felt so bad I agreed. That was before Christmas and I still feel so bad that I am now paying for my own tests and private endo next month. I have put on about two and half stone that I don't need to carry around and that exhausts me. I understand your pain but you sound like you have a great partner like mine and he accepts me for what I am but this is not me. I am not happy and I will strive to find the right meds for me and get back to a healthy weight so I can once again enjoy my active lifestyle. Have a great holiday and I hope you find renewed vigour to come out fighting and get yourself well.
Hey Carna, I am so sorry you also went through this. It's so disheartening. I thought Levo was going to be my lifesaver. It did help a good bit, but not enough. I am afraid to try armour, I think I'll stick with combination therapy, is much more straightforward when it comes to titrating. Big hugs x
I know the weight gain can be so frustrating. I have lost 20lbs over the past 4 months. But you better sit down to hear how I did it.....it’s not for the faint of heart. Lol.
I eat three times a day, with nothing in between, and no sugar or flour. I found a program called Bright Line Eating which has been a tremendous help to me. I couldn’t stop eating sugar and carbs. I was for sure eating addictively. The Bright Line program helped me break that.
There are several videos about it online, just do a quick search. There are no shakes, bars or gimmicks. It’s been pretty cool so far.
You’re absolutely right. Cutting out sugar and grain based carbs definitely does it for me.
Unfortunately for some reason at the moment I’m in a bad place diet wise and I’ve been binging on chocolate recently but I’m trying to get back to your three meals a day with sensible portions, carbs from above ground vegetables and I want to ditch sugar. I need to go read my ‘Reverse your T2 Diabetes’ book again and do what it tells me.
The trouble with eating the wrong carbs and sugars means I get too tired and hungry to want to cook properly and eat chocolate for energy, then I can’t eat a proper meal so I feel tired then I eat chocolate again - downward spiral eh!
Yes, yes... I 100% understand. I would wake up every day saying I’m not going to eat sugar, and every day I would eat sugar.
This woman who created the Bright Line Eating concept was a food/sugar addict who struggled for years. She finally realized she had to become very regimented in the eating.
She talks about “decision fatigue” meaning we make so many decisions all day long that by the end of the day our willpower is shot. Which is exactly what happened to me. I would eat well all day and then blow it at night. Food and sugar were also how I coped with feeling tired, sad, mad, etc.
So, for me, eating three times a day, everything weighed and measured, was exactly what i needed. It sounds so overwhelming at first but it’s so dang simple. I’ve tried so many different tactics over the years and this is the only thing that worked - because it’s just like logical, and not really a tactic.
I truly understand what you are experiencing my friend. XO
Hey there, I have been mainly on veggie diet with protein at each meal etc. At some point recently I started to crave sugar, I have some dark chocolate and fruit ..and haribo bears recently at the weekend! I need to put more effort into all meals now, I feel I have been snacking a lot! From today no sugar, just healthy meals all the way. I think my insulin resistance came back with this med change recently
My T2D started when I was given a big dose of steroids for inflammatory arthritis, I was already pre-diabetic and was on a pre-diabetes study at my local hospital and the T2 was discovered a couple of months after I started the steroids so I was very lucky with the timing of it all.
Craving sugar is a big problem isn’t it. I started with a square of very dark chocolate and advanced from there to grazing round the kitchen like a locust. At the moment I’ve been going to the newsagent round the corner. I know that I must get a grip and stop binging because one day the diabetes specialist nurse will invite me along for an HbA1c blood test! It’s very hard though.
Wow, steroids also send me to a few months of being extremely unwell, this is how this all ordeal started actually...that was 2 years ago in July.
Exactly...locust I'm the same right now, and I was totally fine when I was taking my t3 in NDT, it's being on Levo only that I get this insulin resistance type of symptoms again.
Weird isn’t it - I know of people who are taking much higher doses of steroids and for longer periods of time and who have to become T2. Goodness knows why but it was annoying.
After that first round a GP wanted me to take steroids for something else - can’t remember what - I told her I wasn’t keen and why but was told it wouldn’t happen with the dose she was giving me. I still have my blood sugar monitoring, stuff and surprise, surprise - it still spiked my blood sugar.
Maybe some people’s bodies are just more susceptible.
Maybe your body needs some catch up time & get used to converting your T4? Did you take that prior to NDT, & how did you feel then?
I've never taken T4 as I started off on NDT, then added T3 which I tolerate alone for a few months as long as the weather's hot in sumer. I notice a big difference in how I feel from autumn through to spring that I need NDT to regulate my temperature more effectively, & without it my skin becomes uncomfortable. I'm not as sun tolerant on T3 only, & assume that perhaps it's the other hormones in NDT other than T3 that I need.
Hey BadHare, good question. I never felt great just on t4 beforehand. My endo also thinks that there was a reason I was given NDT. I have to admit that I am now adding 2.5 mcg of t3 to my Levo. It seems I do well when my ft4 is decent with my ft3. When ft4 low on NDT I feel hypo even if ft3 is high...
• in reply to
On Levo only I still was puffy, demotivated, a bit depressed, had insulin resistance, swollen neck and my tsh was 0.5 etc I wanted to moved to t4 for the easier dosing if I need to add t3
I have found keto diet to be very effective. I'm in the UK and use 1-1 Diet formerly The Cambridge Diet. Try to avoid carbs in all their forms. Good luck. cambridge-news.co.uk/news/u...
Thanks you Lapis, will look into it xxx
Cupofcha,I have been following all the good advice you have been receiving from everyone here wanting to help you,which I couldn't begin to advise on,however,I just wanted to add something myself and say that who you are and what you represent comes from within and not from your cellulite.So,go and enjoy your holiday.It sounds as though you have a lovely husband who loves you very much,so raise a glass to him and have a super time together. X
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This is true Marfit74, none of this defines me. I will do that, thanks to all of you now I'm actually looking forward to my trip. I have always been so critical towards myself, it's time to stop this self-destructive behavior xxx
I cut my carb intake with the Keto diet went from 216 to 186 in a year. You will lose about 10 pounds of water weight in the first few weeks. That will make you less fluffy. It takes some getting used to, but it will get the weight off of you if you follow it strictly and use an app to track intake. Check with your doctor. I would add the T3 as well.
I have heard of modified keto as I understand low carbs affect your ft3 levels, something to do with hypothalamus and glucose? Yes, adding t3 for sure, already have added 2.5 for now
We are all different. I was hoping so much I will be okay on t4 only. But now I know the most important. I am not good when on high doses where my ft3 ft4 is top range, I am not good when my ft4 is low/below mid-range and ft3 top range, I am not entirely well on high ft4 and ft3 low range. My feeling is I need both ft3 ft4 just above mid-range to be good, now I need to achieve it. It "only" took me 2 years to realise this. We will all get there x
Cupofcha...I am sorry to hear about your weight gain on Levo. My husband and I are both on NDT and have weight loss where on Levo never did...plus my husband gained a lot of weight on it. Our 35 year old daughter is struggling with her weight while being on Levo, In fact...every time her Dr. raises her dose, she gains more. She eats a clean diet and walks and does moderate exercise. She was always thin until she started on levo...even with a raised TSH and no meds...she stayed thin. Only after her Dr. started her on meds did she gain. She has gotten a typical Thyroid midsection...jiggly middle that just gets larger with each increase and her breast have become unusually large. I have tried to get her to switch to NDT cause her T3 is only "IN RANGE" even though her T4 is in upper range. Her dr. is old school and has convinced her that NDT is bad medicine...I could just scream!
I am super sorry to hear that your daughter is struggling ...NDT suits a lot of people, it really depends on so many things. It suited me for some time, then it flip floppped, I have already added t3 the last past week and I will be increasing , I reckon I need only a small amount to feel good. For me low t4 gives me as terrible symptoms as low t3. Regarding your daughter, is she on a lot of Levo? When I reduced Levo recently, I piled on 4 kilos in couple of weeks, it was awful. When you add Levo , it decreases output of your own thyroid, so in many cases you need to take a substantial amount to feel normal to replace the thyroid function. On the other hand, my mam is on small dose of Levo and is doing okay . We are all so different x
I have found alpha lipoic acid to be effective; however if I attempted to take it on an empty stomach it caused nausea. Taking it after I began eating the meal or soon after I finished the meal worked for me. Most studies used dosage of 600 mg taken 3 times a day. Here is one study of using ALA for weight loss in obese subjects.
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