Levothyroxine Help Lose Weight

This post is a brief outline of my physical “Thyroid Therapy Transformation, ” a glimpse into my personal life and how symptoms and body composition changed in response to changes in thyroid therapy and diet.

I’m not a Hashimoto’s patient. No goiter (no thyroid swelling) despite a TSH of >150 at diagnosis was an early sign that my hypothyroidism was either Blocking Hypothyroidism or Atrophic Thryoiditis (thyroid gland atrophy), but most doctors don’t know this.

Atrophic thyroiditis is an autoimmune thyroid disease caused by TBAb antibody (TSH receptor-blocking antibody) and other autoimmune factors, not by the TPO antibody found in Hashimoto’s. I’ve always had normal TPOAb over 4 lab tests since I was first tested in 2016.

How To Lose Weight With Thyroid Medication

As you can see, my body composition didn’t change much from before to during Synthroid (LT4) monotherapy. I just got more and more overweight.

I chose T-shirt images to show the weight gain in my arms. Around my neck were “rings” — skin creases that were caused by fat.

I didn’t have any hair loss, ever. I’ve always had a very thick head of curly hair. Dryish skin, yes. Cold intolerance.

Understanding Possible Side Effects

I was diagnosed with sleep apnea within a year after LT4 therapy began. My husband witnessed this as loud snoring and a sudden stop in breathing, then gasping for air. I refused CPAP therapy and just tried to sleep on my side instead of my back, which helped.

Mentally, I struggled with slow cognition — for example, finding myself rewriting the same paragraph for an hour, not being able to complete the mental process.

Emotionally, I would find that even missing 1 Synthroid dose would cause uncontrollable crying 3 days later for no reason, with no precipitating event in my life other than the missed dose. I was likely often on the edge of hypothyroidism in my dosage.

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I am 5 feet 2 inches tall (157.48 cm), and my healthier weight in 2017 was around 115 lbs (52 kg). I have rather thick and heavy bones.

You can see that my body shows weight gain from fat, but not the shapes you see in the “myxedema” (non-pitting edema) caused by TSH-receptor overstimulation in Hashimoto’s or Graves’ disease.

Throughout my LT4 therapy, I had high total / LDL cholesterol, probably because my FT3 was low-normal, despite my top-of-range FT4 (total cholesterol has an inverse relationship to T3).

How To Take Your Thyroid Medicine Safely And Correctly? Know What Doctors Have To Say

Finally, my mental and physical health changed with a major diet change toward Low Carb High Fat (LCHF) and Gluten-free starting in July 2012.

I made this transition even while I was on TSH-normalized Synthroid monotherapy and likely still had a low-normal FT3 and mildly high FT4. Although I have no data but TSH for some tests (they didn’t test my FT3 and FT4 due to TSH-reflex testing policies), an abnormally low FT3:FT4 ratio of 0.135-0.15 pmol/L later revealed itself as a continuous sign of poor metabolism at various FT4 levels.

My excess body fat melted off mostly over 12 months and my new shape was achieved by Summer 2013 and maintained thereafter, alongside the new “way of eating.” I generally followed websites like Mark’s Daily Apple (Mark Sisson’s modified paleo or “primal” way of eating) and Diet Doctor (Dr. Eenfelt from Sweden) for tips.

How Long After Starting Thyroid Medication Will I Lose Weight

This is important. Some people with hypothyroidism find that ketosis destabilizes the enzymes that convert our thyroid hormones: lowers FT3 levels, affects adrenal health, and can cause a decline in health.

To be cautious, I even purchased a breathalyzer that could measure ketones in breath. I was rarely in ketosis. I was borderline.

My diet took a lot of effort to change shopping habits and cooking, but it was so delicious and fulfilling! I did not cut calories at all. I ate to satiety a lot of vegetables and high-quality fats and meats.

Lose Weight With Low Thyroid

My husband also enjoyed the food. In fact, he had always struggled with chronic headaches ever since I knew him. A major motivator for me, showing that our diet was healthy for both of us was seeing him go from “80% life is a headache” to “80% of life is headache free.” Losing the gluten was the biggest benefit for his health, but he also lost his little pot belly on the LCHF.

I did not add any extra physical activity at all. My life is rather sedentary. I’m a research professor, so I spend most of my time in front of a computer when I’m not teaching or walking around campus. I have “ankylosing spondylitis” (though it’s been largely in remission since 2003). It’s a type of autoimmune arthritis, which in my case (unlike others), often gets worse with exercise, so I can’t do vigorous cardio without consequences.

Thyroid lab test challenges began before this photo, in Fall 2013. It started with a dose decrease because my TSH had fallen mildly low. Of course the doctor told me she was worried for my bones and heart. But she didn’t understand how to interpret my FT3 in the context of my TSH and FT4.

Dosing & Administration

Because I had such a low FT3/FT4 ratio, a tiny decrease brought both hormones lower, and the FT3/T3 fell below range. Starting from a TSH that mildly low, I suddenly had a TSH of 18.08 at the next blood test, even though my FT4 had only dropped a little and was still in the upper half of range! (very abnormal.) From that point forward, my TSH had no logical or stable relationship to my FT4 or FT3 levels (as you’ll see in a future post). I later learned I have a completely atrophied thyroid gland (adult onset “atrophic thyroiditis”), so I now theorize the unreliable TSH was due to the known influence of TSH-receptor antibodies on the pituitary’s TSH ultrashort feedback loop.

Despite my low FT3, I fortunately did not have any other major illnesses interfering with thyroid hormone metabolism. My RT3 was found to be normal at 18 (ref 8-25), and this RT3 is to be expected with a FT4 around the same position in its range.

After almost 3 years of chronic low T3 (2013-2016) in which I think only my healthy diet sustained me, I had a health crisis in Jan-March 2016 that drove me to the emergency 3 times in 3 months.

How I Lost 50 Pounds Despite My Thyroid Condition'

Over late 2015, I started gradually feeling more and more hypothyroid. By January I was having trouble walking. So I asked for a dose increase, and it was almost logical to request it because my TSH was high at the time, though my FT4 was very high-normal.

Body-jolting random chest pains were triggered by a brief dose increase to 137 mcg. I was so disappointed. I wanted this dose increase to work but it backfired. Of course, I stopped after a few days and went back to my former dose of 125, but the symptoms didn’t go away after a few days. Then I called the 811 health line for advice. They said go to emergency, so I did.

The pain was located not in the heart, but on the left side of my chest in one of the various branches leading away from the aorta, most often the subclavian artery, sometimes the renal, splenic or iliac artery. It was not triggered by exercise, stress, certain foods, or movements. Following a vascular spasm would often be a numb or tingling left arm if it was the subclavian artery. An attack would routinely wake me up once or twice a night while sleeping. The randomness was the most distressing part. And still being hypothyroid with low T3, I wasn’t able to stand for long without holding something for support. I could not walk very fast or very far without taking a lot of rests.

How Is Thyroxine Used For Weight Loss?

I had to read scientific literature to figure it out myself. In retrospect, from what I know now, it seems like I had acquired a mysterious adverse cardiovascular problem, possibly due to endothelial dysfunction in blood vessels, because T3 signaling is essential to regulating the health of the endothelial layer and vascular smooth muscle.

I didn’t know what else to do other than see my prescribing doctor again and again and go to emergency when I felt I had no other choice. This was a horrible time of seeing various doctors, asking for tests, and them believing nothing was wrong with me, while I lived in pain and fear and could barely perform my job. Somedays I could not drive myself home from work and had to ask my husband to take the C-train to campus, find our car in the parking lot, and pick me up at my office building.

This was clearly an illness that affected my thyroid hormone metabolism, because my previous RT3 was 18 ng/dL. This mysterious health issue drove up my RT3 to 33 (range 8-25) on a blood draw showing FT4 was 22 (10-25).

Hypothyroidism Treatment: Synthroid Levothyroxine Information, Effects And Results

The final time I went to emergency was after I woke up at night in excruciating pain, and it was, unfortunately, Easter Sunday! Nobody wants to ask her husband to drive her to Emergency and sit in waiting rooms for 5 hours starting at 5 am on Easter Sunday! I was in tears at the