I'd love advice from others who might've experienced more weight loss than they wanted whilst uploading levothyroxine. I was around 58kg when I started I December 2022. Being someone with AF and also highly responsive to pharmacological products I've had to proceed super slowly. Have now made it up to 62.5mcg a day. GP agrees I'll need more even though recent results are TSH 3.03 [0.27-4.20] and T4 18.2 [12.00 -22.00]. I feel pretty good on most fronts BUT I'm losing weight and at 67 I'm not sure this is a good thing.
Weight now between 51.7 and 52.6kg.
I eat plenty of protein, very little diary (plant milks etc) including meat, fish, eggs, tofu, nuts and legumes. I usually eat meat or fish one day, then vegetarian or vegan the other.
Thoughts welcome!
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Singwell
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I too lost weight with a diagnosis of hypothyroidism. I also have to adjust medication super slowly (either upward or downwards), so would only add 12.5mcg Levo perhaps alternate days at first until you can tolerate. When I was on an optimal dose (ie TSH significantly under 1 for me) my weight stabilised.
Have you tested key thyroid vitamins recently? (Ferritin, folate, B12 and vit D). I consider myself a healthy eater, but still find I need to supplement some key vitamins to achieve optimal levels for supporting thyroid health. I always test these x2 year.
Thanks. Funnily enough I put ON weight when first diagnosed as subclinical. I lost weight in the first year after developing my heart arrhythmia because I gave up alcohol and changed my diet. I've been stable since then (2021) until recently. My minerals and vitamins were all good back in Feb but I'll certainly check again at my next test. Interesting that the optimal TSH is so low compared with the benchmark. I know this is mentioned often on this forum and I do feel lucky to have a GP who's said 'be guided how you FEEL, not by the numbers'. I really hope she doesn't leave before I get there.
I have been on NDT for about 8 years because of the side effects of Levothyroxine and have been losing weight since then. When I start going hyper, I reduce my dose than I crash. I also have celiac and other food intolerances. I eat like a horse and still not able to gain weight. I have just switched to name the brand Synthyroid and so far so good. I am reaching out to you because you stated when you were able to get your TSH under 1 your weight stabilized. Does that mean you gained weight or you didn't lose anymore weight? If you started gaining, how long did it take to start putting weight on?
Recommended that all thyroid blood tests early morning, ideally just before 9am, only drink water between waking and test and last dose levothyroxine 24 hours before test
This gives highest TSH, lowest FT4 and most consistent results. (Patient to patient tip)
is this how you did your test
Have you had both TPO and TG antibodies tested
what vitamin supplements are you taking
List of private testing options and money off codes
Yes, I always follow that protocol now thanks to this group. So I think these results would've been reliable. I've only had general antibodies tests- lab wont do TPO. What are TG antibodies- thyroid gland?
I'm a dead loss with the fingerprick test unfortunately. Tried it before.
I'll ask my GP to get a full set of bloods next time. We might be successful but it's shocking how the labs seem to control these requests.
Tofu is not a good thing for hypos to eat. It is unfermented soy and unfermented soy can have the effect of blocking thyroid hormone absorption at the cellular level.
I have the same understanding and eat tofu once or twice a week. I can not say whether it has an adverse effect. I don't feel any. Here is a meta analysis (if you want to work your way through it). "In conclusion, this meta-analysis suggests that soy supplementation has no effect on the thyroid hormones and modestly raises TSH levels, the clinical significance, if any, of the rise in TSH is unclear." ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articl...
As often is the case, it also states that more research is needed. There also seem to be benefits of soy. I think it is just another "we don't know for sure" thing. I looked at the pros and cons and decided that for me the benefits outweigh the risks. Others may come to a different conclusion. It's probably best to gather your own information from what are resources you trust, "reputable" resources, and draw your own conclusions. After all other healthy foods are also “goitrogenic” (such as broccoli, cabbage and other vegetables as well as flax seeds), which can interfere with thyroid function in people with marginal iodine intake. So is it lack of iodine? It all seems to play together, just like phytates and oxalates and their influence on bone loss. Where do you draw the line?
Thank you for sharing the study - most helpful! At present I'll continue with once a week as I believe the most important aspects are wide variety of plant foods and plenty of protein.
I'm with you on that. Food has become somewhat of a contentious subject (like religion and politics). In the end, there is not an awful lot of completely conclusive research on much and every body is different. So I go with what seems to work for me and I think everybody should figure it out for themselves.
It's true that soy is a goitrogen, but that's not the problem - because, in reality, goitrogens are not a problem, anyway. Soy is different. It doesn't have any effect on the thyroid itself, nor on the levo, etc. that you are taking. But, it does have a tendancy to stop the cells absorbing thyroid hormone, meaning that you can have good levels in your blood, but as it's not getting into the cells you still feel hypo.
I've yet to find any benefits from soy because it contains other substances that impedes the human gut from absorbing the protein, etc. that it contains. So, I would ask you, you say you don't feel any adverse effect, but do you feel any good effects from eating it?
Also, you may only eat tofu once or twice a week, but what about all the other forms of unfermented soy that are found in just about everything in the UK? Soy flour, soy oil, soy protein, etc. It all adds up.
Have you had a DEXA scan yet ? This looks for osteopenia/ bone loss. Have you had any other symptoms apart from weight loss ? I am guessing this is unintentional weight loss. Quite a few people generally experience weight gain when taking levothyroxine so it might be worth having a body MOT check done too.
Yes, in 2017 the year I slipped on ice and broke my arm. And I did have issues with bone density. I took the calcium and Vit D tablets for a while bit ove got to admit I stopped when I developed AF. 2 reasons: high levels of calcium in the.body are linked to AF (atrial fibrillation) and if you take high.doses of vit D without K2, it doesn't absorb well.and apparently is linked with atherosclerosis. I felt I'd got enough variables to deal with. But, yes, bone density has occurred to me and I will look into it. Thank you!
Your diet sounds really healthy and you are eating plenty of protein. Aside from all the other good advice are you eating plenty of carbohydrates along with protein, legumes and veg?The only way I can seem to lose weight myself is when I cut carbs (apart from a small amount of brown rice each day) and dairy for a while so it was just a thought if your diet was low on these it might have an impact on your weight?
Thank you. I do enjoy diary products but worry somewhat about my highish cholesterol, which I know can.result from.long term subclinical hypothyroidism. Mine was first diagnosed in 2015 and, in my naivity I chose not to do anything about it. I wish people could be warned of the consequences right from the get go.
It sounds like a pretty balanced and healthy diet to me. Are you concerned about losing too much weight too fast? Are you underweight? I would keep an eye on it. Maybe it comes to a halt. Weight loss can have many causes besides thyroid. I think it's worth being vigilant, but maybe not "stressed out" quite yet. All the best.
Thank you. I'm not losing fast, just noticing clothes are getting looser and the scales show it too I have a Cardiac health review.with the nurse next week so I'll.flag it there
Celiac did the weight loss for me (I forgot to mention) but that does not mean it is a problem for you. Just take good care of yourself. And it seems you are on the ball with that.
Ah lucky you, most hypos have a problem with weight gain, I’m certainly one of those, it doesn’t matter how little I eat I simply cannot lose the extra pounds
I started to lose weight while I was titrating Levo - 75mcg didn’t seem quite enough so I went up to 100 for a few months. This pushed my FT4 just over range. FT3 was high in range and TSHextremely low.I had started to lose weight and have more frequent bowel movements .
I was advised on here to reduce a bit so I dropped to 85. My frees came down to mid range but the weight loss continued well into the next year. I lost two stone over, maybe, eighteen months. I was pleased to go from bmi of 25, which is borderline overweight down to, I’m not sure….20? Anyway when I felt there wasn’t much more to be lost my weight stabilised. I was late sixties and last weighed that low in my teens!
Roll on to this year and I got worried about my annual check and my TSH being extremely low. In a bid to raise it (not very hopefully) before my blood test, I dropped to 75mcg for six weeks. My TSH did not budge. As I expected the GP wanted me to drop from the 100 she thought I was taking to 75……another six weeks on 75! I thought my weight might start to go up again but it didn’t.
I complained about the dose drop and got it back up to 100 - of which I take 85 - 89 as I’m now alternating 75/100. I’ve been back on this dose for three weeks - and suddenly I’ve put on 6lb!
Interesting. We're all different aren't we? If my weight drops below 8 stone then I'll make noises at our GP and ask to have it looked into. I didn't need to lose weight when I started this thyroid journey. I realise for some.this might seem.'lucky' but being underweight carries risks too. Aside from loss of curves which at my age will not return except around the middle.
Yes. My weight dropped to 8 stone 7lb which seemed good to me but did concern my sister and my daughters. I’m now, suddenly, closer to 9 stone.
When I lost weight I lost muscle as part of it, which I need to address as I’ve just turned 70 and have read that losing muscle in advancing years is not good.
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