I was hypothyroid due to anti-thyroid meds, as treatment for graves, and successfully lost 18 lbs. It's definitely possible, if your meds are right then you're "just like anyone else" and eating well and exercising should work.

People tend to gain weight on synthroid because it's not the greatest thyroid treatment, or at least not the best for most people.

TSH is a pituitary hormone, not a thyroid one, and isn't the greatest measure of thyroid function. You want to ensure that your doctor tests both your free T4 *and* your free T3. T4 is kind of like the "storage" thyroid hormone, and T3 is the "active" hormone - T3 is the one that makes your cells "go", and low levels is what makes you hypothyroid and symptomatic. T3 is created by converting T4 stores.

Synthroid is a T4-only med, and many hypothyroid patients have difficulty doing the T4->T3 conversion, which can result in low T3 levels. If your doctor is only testing TSH and free T4, this will not be picked up, and no amount of extra med increases will make your free T3 go up. As well, the synthetic T4 isn't bioidentical to your natural T4, so can be more difficult for your body to convert into T3.


Make sure your doctor tests the free T3 levels and not total - more than 99% of T3/T4 are bound to carrier proteins and considered biologically inactive; the "free" refers to the remaining bit that's free and available for your body to use.

If you DO have low free T3 levels you have two options to raise them:
1. Add a synthetic T3 med like cytomel
2. Switch to a natural dessicated thyroid med like Nature Thyroid and Armour, as they contain both T3 and T4; and the T4 is also bioidentical to your natural T4


If your doctor won't test free T3, I'd find a new doctor. Also, have they tested you for Hashimoto's antibodies to see if it's autoimmune in nature?

I consider myself a success story. I feel a lot better now than I did a couple years ago. I still have weird issues from time to time, but overall, I am much healthier.

Obviously, the first step is to work with your doctor to get your hormones under control. After that, you just need to work out and eat nutritious foods, and it is entirely possible to see results.

We recently had a "maintain don't gain" program at work. We weighed in right before Thanksgiving, and then weighed back in after New Year's. The idea was that if you didn't gain weight over the holidays, you got a prize. I actually lost some, and while it didn't seem like much, it was more than anyone else in my department lost. I thought for sure that I would have a hard time with it since I am hypo, but it turns out that regular exercise and a little bit of discipline with the food was working just fine.

I'm not on Synthroid, I'm on Eutirox 50mg.
I was diagnosed in august 2011, and I lost 99,2 lbs. My weightloss journey has just ended (I reached my goal weight yesterday), and you can do the maths and see that it took me a looong time to reach my goal. My thyroid is not well treated and since last february it's been really hard to lose weight. Strength training has helped increasing my metabolism (I think), and the fitter i got, the easiest it was to engage in more demanding physical activities to adapt the routines to my decreasing scale weight.

Once your levels are fine it shouldn't be so next to impossible to lose weight, it should be easier, closer to a normal person's weightloss capabilities.

Best of luck!!!

I've been on synthroid for over 10 years. Personally, I didn't experience any weight gain when I went on it- I started out overweight and experienced weight gain over time in the years preceeding being diagnosed. After the synthroid, I leveled out for a while, and then dropped 20 lbs during a stressful couple of months. I started on MFP in January of 2011 and by June of 2012, had lost 45 lbs. I did it slowly over time - about 3 lbs per month loss - but I didn't push myself to lose quickly and don't know what the results would have been if I had. What I've learned:
1. We're all different. Synthroid works for some, but not for everyone
2. Everything takes time. If you approach your lifestyle changes as an effort to be healthy, to be the best you that you can be, it'll be easier when you hit those weeks when you don't lose weight. Or, you suddenly put on a pound or two.
3. As others have said, education is the best practice. But, do it with the knowledge that we're all different - don't worry that other people's issues will necessarily be your issues. It's good to know what to look out for, but you may be lucky and easily treated. Only time will tell.
4. Be patient in general. Some people see the effects of medication changes quickly. I personally don't see changes for at least a couple months.
5. Be patient especially with yourself. Your levels can be stabilized but it may take time. You can lose weight but that will definitely take time. You'll have good days and bad days - some of those because of your thyroid. Remember that we're here for each other.

I've had the diagnosis for 15-16 years, I was overweight when I got the diagnosis, but stopped gaining weight when I started on meds (levo). Have always been tired and easily exhausted, but then I've been undermedicated for all those years too. A year ago I saw an endo who pointed this out, and once I had the right dosage, I dropped 10 kg over a couple of months. Gotta work the rest off the old fashioned way. :P

The dosage was corrected by an endocrinologist. Before that it had been monitored by various gp's.

It takes quite a while for the body to catch up when a dosage is adjusted (8 weeks I've been told), so it makes sense for docs to start out carefully lest to end up overmedicating people.