Firstly, I'd like to report that I'm feeling quite well! I finally managed to get the GP to prescribe 150ug, which I take around 2am when I wake for the loo. Along with decent Vit B complex and high Vit D...and the support of everyone here, I feel mostly ok, have been able to think at work, get planning and admin done, and cope with stressful days reasonably well, although it takes awhile to recover.
So I'm planning to walk the West Highland Way at Easter with my cousin and Husband. It's something I have wanted to do for a long time. We plan to walk over 7-8 days, and camp!
I am an active person, I cycle to work (admittedly not very far) and have a dog to walk each day.
I wondered if anyone else has completed long distance walks with hypothyroid, and if you have and tips or hints as to how to succeed?
Written by
GrowingVeg
To view profiles and participate in discussions please or .
GrowingVeg, Not something I could even contemplate, so all the very best to you! It's so good to hear when someone feels well enough to resume 'normal life' again 😀
Hello, I am doing long distance hikes now ( each time 4-5 days) for three years. The first two years, I had to rest the second day, full of fatigue and muscle pain. Not more so in the third year. So I would advise you to plan a rest in the second day. I also take 5 mcg more T3 when hiking. Enjoy your adventure! Good luck! I will be starting out again in April.
I can give you some indication from my wife's former ability to hike, with no thyroid and 150 ug T4 daily. I'm talking now about her at age 50, not 82 as now. She had to plan to walk a certain maximum distance and no more. If overdoing it, "the curtains came down" and she had to stop immediately - often slept behind a wall (Lake District) or staggered the last 100 yards to the hotel (Adelboden) until I returned with the car. I think you have to realise that the daily dose of T4 will take you so far and no further - trial and error. It isn't as if the body could continuously produce the T4 and thus T3 required to keep going.
I would think you might need to include 2 or 3 single rest days between walking days ….can you increase the number of days to include rest day every 2-3 days
similar to diogenes wife.... Wandering Adventures are perfectly do-able if i listen to my body and operate within those limits.... but over do it , and someone probably has to come and rescue me with a car ,or pull me up hill like a 'dope on a rope'
From my own experiences i would suggest that it is only sensible to assume you , and therefore your companions ,should be prepared to deal with some unscheduled stops . As long as every one, including you ,is prepared for this , and are prepared to be adaptable and make the best of the available options , then it's perfectly possible for you all to have loads of fun.
eg . let them go off stomping round the castle ramparts while you curl up under a tree with a nice view and a cup of hot chocolate and a blanket for an hour or so .
or perhaps you can stay in camp one day , while they do something local, and walk on again the next.
or just going inside somewhere warm (pub!) and having a longer lunch than planned .It's usually quite easy to persuade people to go to the pub for a bit and plonk you by a fire.
Forcing myself to keep up with pre-set pace /agenda that others are going at, is usually what would finish me off and mean i had to cop out completely and bugger up everybody's holiday.
But a bit of give and take and adaptability, and an understanding that on occasion you might need to flake out with some urgency in order to be able to carry on later, can mean they everybody still has fun.
You , and they, need to have the mindset that the experiences you all enjoy during the walk , not the destination, are the object of the exercise.
Don't try to be a hero , nobody will thank you . Better to have fun and end up 10 miles short of your intended destination, than go all the way and be unable to move at all the next day.
If camping, this might actually be easier to achieve than if you have to much pre-booked B&B accommodation to stick to along the way.
If you approach it like this .. you will be able to enjoy all the times you ARE able to do what you intended.
But , If you expect yourself to be able to 'keep up and join in' at all times , you may spend a lot of the time feeling like you are hindering everyone else's progress., and push yourself too far/fast.
Very pleased to hear you are feeling so much better now
if i could go back in time , and invent the internet sooner, so i could have learned more about thyroid hormone actions and talked to other thyroid patients, in the first years after my diagnosis .. i imagine i would have recovered much more of my previous capacity for strenuous exercise than i did by just taking the Levo and getting on with it. Back then i had a lot more determination to improve , i just didn't know what was wrong or what to try to fix it. I tried all sorts of things but nothing ever worked .
But when you've been 'helped' to believe since 1998 that your thyroid disease is fully treated, and any remaining problems are effectively 'in your head', you eventually stop banging your head against a brick wall , and just get on with finding ways to have the most fun possible with whatever energy you've got .
..... so don't give up looking for improvements in you stamina just yet ....... knowing for certain that 'it's not just you' is a powerful tool i never had access to .
That is such great advice thank you. I’m just finding it hard at the moment as my bloods look ideal ie endocrinologist really pleased with them. But my tendon and muscle pain is not really improving and if it doesn’t settle in the next few weeks he wants to investigate other things. I keep saying it’s thyroid as it was my first symptom which I had when diagnosed and after Levo increases it sometimes went but the longer time is going on the worse it seems to be getting but maybe I am trying to do too much, by that I mean just walking! Anyway I have hijacked this post sorry and thanks again!
Content on HealthUnlocked does not replace the relationship between you and doctors or other healthcare professionals nor the advice you receive from them.
Never delay seeking advice or dialling emergency services because of something that you have read on HealthUnlocked.
Tips to tackle GP!
Cant able to walk ... . please help 😞
A long death ? 
Long Covid: overlap emerges with ME – including debate over treatment
Advice on Levothyroxine dose and brand
