Under active thyroid and success rates?
leahcollett1
Posts: 807 Member
Hi everyone. So I put on 11lbs in 2 weeks.. but I think this problem has been going on way before that. Had blood test and shown under active thyroid and now on levotyhrine. Has anyone had success at beginning to lose weight again once medication kicks in? I'm so worried that I'll just have this struggle all my life
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Replies
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Once your meds are balanced properly, you should be fine - I have been on meds for 27 years now, and since October 2015, I've lost 98lbs, so it hasnt had an impact on my weight loss.2
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This is a great thing to read. Thank you as I'm really worried about it x1
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I was diagnosed at the end of last June. It took about six weeks for the medication to kick in so that I was able to start losing weight. I lost 25 pounds relatively easily and have been maintaining for several months now. Good luck!2
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Awww brill. This is great news.0
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I've had low thyroid for many years. I have lost 48 pounds since January. At 60 years old I am losing about 1.4 pounds a week and as long as I keep calories reasonable and walk every day it continues to drop. Hang in there you will likely find many little issues clear up once the meds get balanced. I had headaches for most of my life and once on synthroid they disappeared! Many other issues that had been little annoyances got better too.0
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I was diagnosed with underactive thyroid, fairly severe, in 2000. Started on synthetic thyroid hormone then, and have needed a couple of dosage adjustments (upward) since.
Starting in April 2015, I lost 60+ pounds, around a third of my bodyweight, by February 2016.
I didn't encounter any particular problems losing, beyond what other folks (non-hypothyroid) experience, as far as I know (and I'm pretty old, 60, as well as hypothyroid).
I had noticed, in the cases in the past when my dosage needed adjustment, that there was sometimes a very slight unusual upward creep of my weight (along with other symptoms) that clued me in that there was an issue. There do seem to be a few people who, even once their TSH is in the normal range, have some difficulties related to T3/T4 conversion, but your doctor can test for this if needed.1 -
I'm on Synthroid for over 10 years now. In the beginning, the dr did blood tests every few months, but now I only go once or twice a year for that, and my regular dr takes care of it.
I lost the weight I gained. It wasn't easy but losing weight - and keeping it off - never is.0 -
would it be the reason i gained 8lbs 1 weeks and 3lbs the other? ive just been told by another person that it cant be the reason? and so now im kind of feeling gutted again as i thought i had an answe. my food diary is spot on i eat half of my earned exercise calories, i weigh absolutely everything i even carry a little weighing scale in my bag for snacks and apples. so no cheating no binging no chocolate. and yet i still gained that much over the course of 2 weeks. this morning after the 3rd week, i lost 1lb out of the 11 i gained.
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leahcollett1 wrote: »Hi everyone. So I put on 11lbs in 2 weeks.. but I think this problem has been going on way before that. Had blood test and shown under active thyroid and now on levotyhrine. Has anyone had success at beginning to lose weight again once medication kicks in? I'm so worried that I'll just have this struggle all my life
If you have a medical condition it is easy to blame that but first rule out other possible causes of fluctuating scale weight
Like
Hormones around ovulation and period
Change in carb or sodium intake
Change in exercise or activity
Dehydration
11lbs in 2 weeks would intake an over maintenance consumption of roughly 38500 calories (an average intake of 60,000 across 2 weeks so over 4000 calories a day) is that likely?
Your meds are supposed to help compensate for thyroid inactivity and should, once dosage is right, lead to weight loss rather than gain (providing you eat appropriately)
Take a deep breath and give it time
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no i definately did not consume that, i was aiming for 1500 each day as well as eating no more than half my exercise cals back. it does feel that i have to work myself to the bone to get 1lb loss. i truly thought at least have that gain would be gone this week as i thought it was fluid retention.0
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leahcollett1 wrote: »no i definately did not consume that, i was aiming for 1500 each day as well as eating no more than half my exercise cals back. it does feel that i have to work myself to the bone to get 1lb loss. i truly thought at least have that gain would be gone this week as i thought it was fluid retention.
May well be
It's certainly more likely
It just may take longer
Give it time0 -
T4 supplementation is fine for those for whom their thyroid problem is not deep seated, possibly. Unfortunately the national medical system as well as the knowledge of your doctor and even the endo you have been referred to is paramount. Many consider this this to be a very simple problem which often it is not. It causes many to leave the workplace and become dependant.
The longer one lives with your share of the possible 300 symptoms the longer it takes to find your way out of this hole. It probably does not help that this is seen as "women's" problems. Men do have thyroid problems but they are only a small fraction of the number of women whose lives it devastates. Many see this as a problem of weight but it is so very much more, it can effect ones whole body and existence.
It matter too, that you know if you have antibodies which means you have an autoimmune problem where your immune system thinks your thyroid is an alien invader and sets about destructing it. You will be treated with t4 just the same. Finding what causes your supply of antibodies could help you avoid the high destructive levels my system does not encourage this.
Medicating to tsh does not work for everyone. Supplementing with the required minerals to facilitate conversion is often frowned on in many systems. T3 is the active form of thyroid hormone and is needed by every single cell in the body. Conversion should take place in several systems in the body but often don't these include the digestive tract with the help of microbes many of which are killed off by antibiotics, but the medics don't tell you. It also happens within the liver which can be overwhelmed by the task of eliminating the residue of our modern western diets. Many have problems in other areas of their endocrine system which if addressed would ease pressure on the thyroid.
Unfortunately some of us are not getting the t3 into our cells and their is no test for this. The old method of treating patients before the synthetic versions were discovered/invented, treating with NDT was so good because they treated to symptoms rather than numbers which according to STTM are questionable to say the least. The thyroid status of the donor samples were not included in the associated information.
T3's in your body are involved in your menstrual cycle regulatory system/ability to conceive and/or maintain a pregnancy, your digestive system, your well-being/mental heath, ability to avoid and recovery from health challenges. It also is involved in the way each cell is replaced by another, the way they incorporate errors of replication as time passes.
Read as much as you can. Look for scientific papers as well as good sites such as Stop the thyroid madness and thyroid mom, many national support sites are good too. We have an umbrella term which covers many different related problems. It will help you to understand how your personal systems fit together. This is a big subject which gets bigger with the new scientific research which is being published.
I'll end by wishing any hypothyroid person well and hope you find your perfect treatment to become your old self again so you can fully enjoy your life.1 -
leahcollett1 wrote: »would it be the reason i gained 8lbs 1 weeks and 3lbs the other? ive just been told by another person that it cant be the reason? and so now im kind of feeling gutted again as i thought i had an answe. my food diary is spot on i eat half of my earned exercise calories, i weigh absolutely everything i even carry a little weighing scale in my bag for snacks and apples. so no cheating no binging no chocolate. and yet i still gained that much over the course of 2 weeks. this morning after the 3rd week, i lost 1lb out of the 11 i gained.
Thyroid problems can affect people differently.
But in general I would say no, it wouldn't cause that large of a weight gain that quickly.
I've suspected for the past six or eight weeks that my thyroid has gone wacky again and I need a medication adjustment. The scale has gone up 1.5 - 2 pounds and stayed there when my food intake and activity level haven't changed to account for that (keep in mind I'm small -- only about 4'10" and 110 pounds, so a 2 pound weight gain isn't insignificant). Plus I have other symptoms -- more tired than normal, some brain fog, joint aches, dry skin, lump-in-the-throat feeling occasionally.
Be wary of advice given on here. I think many people who know nothing about thyroid issues or other endocrine problems chime in to parrot what they've heard is true for "normal" people. Someone with an endocrine issue that can suppress metabolism (even slightly) will not gain/lose weight quite like a "normal" person unless the condition is well controlled. Research says the effect of hypothyrodism on metabolic rate is relatively small, but it is indeed a factor. As an example -- for the past few weeks I've been maintaining on about 1450-1500 calories a day, whereas before I suspected my thyroid was going wacky again I was able to maintain on about 1650 calories a day. So as you can see the effect isn't huge but it's there.2 -
but i dont think there could be any other reason, the weight gain has stayed with me for 3 weeks, so totm water weight is out the question, extra sodium? out the question would of leveled by now, exercise swelling? havent increased it, so not that either. i have definitely not been overeating, as ive even begun weighing apples and eggs and them sorts of things which i became lax on i admit.
i have drilled and drilled my brain as too what i was doing so wrong to lead me to have such a significant gain. and nothing came to mind, which is when last night when the doctors rang i felt a sense of relief, knowing that something else out of my control was at play here. apparently you can hold up to 5-10lbs water retention with thyroid issues when they first appear. so im just keeping my fingers crossed that with these tablets and carrying on what im doing it will eventually go in the right direction.
my mother was the same - "you need to eat less" i tried to explain that i was eating loads less than my recommended allowance i was exercising 5 times a week and eating half the cals back through hunger. but no one believed me, they looked at me as if they thought i was sleep eating or secret eating, when i truly wasnt. i measure weighed everything - even adjusted my recipe entries with different meat weights each time i have that meal. trust me ive been bloody spot on these past 3 weeks, longer than that even and nothing is moving, i died when i saw that 8lbs gain the first week then the following a further 3lbs. it floored me.0 -
I think fluid retention is the cause of a lot of hypothyrodism related "weight" gain. One reason I knew something had to be wrong before I was diagnosed was that I had gotten very squishy, especially around my abdomen. It was unlike any true weight (fat) gain I'd ever had before, and unlike normal fluid retention. And once the levothyroxine kicked in and the scale started dropping it was relatively easy for me to lose, which is another thing that made me think quite a lot of it was maybe fluid that was releasing slowly.
Like I said, everybody with hypothyroidism is probably a little different. Having lived with it myself for awhile now I'd be the last person to tell you that it's absolutely not possible to gain that much that quickly.0 -
thanks hun, i really thought i was going bonkers - i even went out to tescos and go weighed as i thought my scales had had it lol. i really hope once the pills kick in i can continue to count calories and exercise and see a downward trend instead of down 1 step up 3 steps
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hmmm. I really think everyone is different. I have been on thyroid meds for 24 years. I am now 71. High weight was 200 lbs. When I first started on meds I lost 20 lbs very fast. Then I lost another 20 lbs very slow. These past two months I have lost another 6 lbs. I have made some drastic changes in my diet these last two months so I think that has a lot to do with the additional lost. Primary has been really really watching my salt (sodium) intake. The recommended amount for those of us over 65 is 1500 mg/day. Healthy amount of sodium in any given serving of food is 140 mg. I can't really say how much I was consuming in the past but I keep track now and most days I am right around 1,100 mg. I find that if it goes too low I don't do well so I try to stay between 1,100 and 1500 mg per day.
Each of us has to find their own way I think but salt (sodium) will make the body retain fluid just as an underactive thryoid will. (reduces kidney function - among many other things)0 -
I have Hypothyroid, don't know how much of my weight struggles I can blame on it. Trying to lose weight, but told I need to eat more to maintain metabolism. Damned either way1
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Many of us do not do well on T4 only medications such as Synthroid. This is because our bodies do not properly convert T4, which is inactive, into T3, which is the active thyroid hormone that our bodies actually use.
If you're on thyroid medication and you still have symptoms such as dry hair, insomnia, brittle nails and unexplained weight gain or resistance to weight loss, it might benefit you to insist that your doctor run a FULL thyroid panel, including Free T4 and Free T3, as well as thyroid antibodies. Many doctors will resist because they've been poorly educated, but that's no reason why anyone should continue to suffer.
My GP resisted doing the test, so I had it done privately and showed him the results. He had to eat his prejudices right in front of me. And then he prescribed me T3. I've never looked back.
In spite of what doctors have (mis)learned, many of us benefit from having T3 added, whether it is in the form of synthetic T3 (Cytomel) or in the form of a natural desiccated thyroid, which contains both T4 and T3.2 -
I've been prescribed 25mg of levothyroxine. Will this be enough. I thought it was pretty low?0
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So far I've been losing weight steadily. My medication is working well and my levels are good. If your levels are good, you should be fine. 25mg is enough for a lot of people. Your doctor should check sometimes to make sure it's the right dosage for you. Mine checked every 3 months until I got to the right dose, and then every 6 months since then.0
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leahcollett1 wrote: »I've been prescribed 25mg of levothyroxine. Will this be enough. I thought it was pretty low?
That is a starting dose the doctor should be checking your bloods after about 6weeks and upping accordingly I doubt you will stay at that dose.
To answer your original question yes you can lose the weight once on meds. I have been hypothyroid since 2010 got up to 237lbs lost 70lbs to date. Also you can get really bad water retention with hypothyroidism so it is totally possible a lot of those 11lbs is water and should reduce over time I mean I had kankles when I was at my worst so just give it time.
We'll done on the lb loss any loss is better than none0 -
leahcollett1 wrote: »I've been prescribed 25mg of levothyroxine. Will this be enough. I thought it was pretty low?
It's common to start someone on a relatively low (though best estimate) dose, then have them come back for more blood tests to see whether that dose is sufficient. It takes weeks to (low number of) months - I'm sorry to say - for the particular dose to achieve a stable level in your body, so you'd probably be directed to get a new blood test in perhaps something from 6 weeks to 3 months' time.
You don't want to be overmedicated for a thyroid condition either - very unpleasant/ potentially dangerous.
If the initial dose is insufficient, they should ramp you up from there.1 -
leahcollett1 wrote: »I've been prescribed 25mg of levothyroxine. Will this be enough. I thought it was pretty low?
You should always be started on a low dose and then rechecked every 6 weeks or so, upping the dosage a bit at a time, until you get regulated. If they give you too much, you can become hyperthyroid, which can cause heart issues, etc.
Until you get regulated (and this can take a while -like several months), weight loss attempts will be an exercise in frustration, but know that once you're stable, it will get a LOT easier, and you'll feel a lot better too. Good luck.0 -
I've been on Synthroid for about a decade. While I can still gain weight rather easily, I have no trouble losing weight. I've lost 83 lbs in 11 months, just using MFP, being consistent in my appropriate calorie deficit, using a food scale to weigh all solid foods, and doing a moderate amount of exercise (I have arthritis in my spine so can't exercise daily).
As mentioned above, it may take time for you to get on the right dosage. Make SURE you go for regular blood tests even after it's on the right track. You body changes, and so will your dosage over time (usually). Mine has increased quite a lot in the last decade. You WILL feel better once you're on track.0 -
Thank you for all your amazing replies. Yes I also have a blood form to re check my bloods in I think 6 weeks? So now it makes sense.
I shall continue to count cals and exercise in hopes things will start getting a little better xx1 -
Yep, my first dose was 12.5 per day. I had to get a pill cutter! Like you I was tested and diagnosed after a massive weight gain in a short period of time--20 lbs in a single month! I actually had lost it before I saw my doctor but she thought the rapidity of the gain was still worth looking into. I was only borderline but she wanted to get me stabilized because I wanted another kid and wonky thyroid levels can cause miscarriages.
Pregnancy made mine go wacky again and I now take 37.5 per day so still need my pill cutter! I lose weight fine now, but my case was always borderline.0 -
I've lost 105 pounds with hypothyroidism, but I'm on armour since the synthetic wasn't doing much for me. Just give it 2-4 weeks to kick in1
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I have hashis and I lost 80lb a few years ago. The first 20lb fell off when I started treatment and went gluten/soy free. With portion control and starting Insanity work outs I lost the rest over the course of about 2yr.
Its easier for me to gain than a lot of friends and slowed to lose so I need to be diligent. I gained 30lb back last year and have lost 10 of that using this site for 4 months. I recently found out I have some common vitamin deficiencies that affect thyroid so I am taking a b-complex and starting selenium which my doctor thinks will help my weight loss efforts.1 -
leahcollett1 wrote: »I've been prescribed 25mg of levothyroxine. Will this be enough. I thought it was pretty low?
That is what I started at and still am years later. I think it should be increased but my doc is addressing some lifestyle and nutritional things first, then we will recheck my labs again.
They finally ran a reverse T3 test for me which explained why I'm struggling lately.0
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