Weight gain after running out of meds - can anyone help me explain this?

[JonnyA]

Ok, so a bit of background. I’d been suffering from some severe hypothyroid symptoms for a couple of years; the classic ones - fatigue, cold intolerance, depression, and in particular weight gain. The scale would only ever go up, nothing I would do could make it go down.

Anyway, nothing seemed to work until about 6 months ago when I finally started T3 only treatment. I take quite a lot, 160mcg of liothyronine per day, but it has been genuinely life changing. During that period I’ve lost about 2 stone, nothing drastic but there’s been a clear pattern of losing between 0.5lb and 1lb per week. Monday to Friday I eat well and exercise before letting my hair down for the weekend; I’ll wake up a couple of lbs heavier on Tuesday then I was on Friday, but the scale will trickle back down through the week so I’m between 0.5lbs and 1lb lighter come the end of the week. That’s been a really consistent pattern.

However, last week I ran out of medication and for various reasons have not been able to obtain more until today. I had been wondering whether my feeling better had been a placebo effect, but that definitely changed this last week. It was a throwback to the last couple of years, I’ve felt incredibly ill, it’s been like walking through treacle again.

But the most interesting thing is this. I behaved myself, more so than usual last weekend, and knowing my own body hopped on the scales this Tuesday feeling quite positive. And yet I had apparently gained 5lbs. I wrote that as a random one-off, but then it has stayed. I remain exactly 5lbs heavier than I was a week ago - the usual steady reduction through the week hadn’t happened.

The thing is, it doesn’t make sense. I know my own body very well and I could always tell if I had materially gained a pound, let alone 5lb. To me, I don’t look or feel like I’ve gained 5lbs in a week, my clothes (which I’d recently dropped back down from medium to small) fit just as well. The one variable I’ve not been taking my T3.

I realise that a sudden drop in T3 is going to reduce my metabolism, and I’ve wondered perhaps if a sudden change in hormones has resulted in some temporary water weight. But if it has, I don’t know where that water weight is because my body looks and feels no different to me.

I’m fairly certain that it would take some considerable effort to gain 5lbs in 7 days, and I take great care to ensure I eat at a modest calorie deficit through the week. So can anyone explain a potential temporary effect of this bizarre and stubborn change in my weight?

Thanks!

[TiggerMe]

Hi Jonny, have a look at mucin I think this will explain where the extra weight is hiding 😉

I too recently started T3 and lost 5 kilos of mucin over 5 weeks!

[JonnyA in reply to TiggerMe]

Thanks, I’d genuinely never heard of that. My medication arrives today - fingers crossed it disappears as soon as it appeared.

[TiggerMe in reply to JonnyA]

I hadn't either until I went searching for answers to my sudden weight loss, but it all makes sense! Thank goodness for this forum.... hope you are back on track soon 🤗