Can anyone steer me in the right direction

[ccnyc]

Donna,

I sent you a PM.

Carol

[Triskeliongirl]

I think your dosage of thyroid hormone is too low for your body weight. For comparison, I take 150 ug of T4 and 5 ug of T3 (5 ug of T3 is equivalent to 20 ug of T4, so I take the equivalent of 170 ug of T4, and I weigh less than you (140lb)). Also, there is a wide range of TSH levels that are considered 'normal', some of us do better in the lower end of that range, i.e. is he correcting you to a TSH of 4 or 1, both are 'normal' but I feel much better at 1 than 4! I also do much better on the T4/T3 combo therapy than straight T4. I think you need to find a better endocrinologist.

I would also ask for a glucose tolerance test. I too was gaining weight, while biking 100 miles a week and eating 1200 cal a day. It wasn't until I got BOTH my thryoid replacement hormones optimized AND was diagnosed with impaired glucose tolerance (I undersecrete insulin) and started eating a low carb diet that normalized my blood sugars, that I slimmed down from 175 to 140 almost effortlessly, on ~1400 cal a day plus regular exercise.

[salsabike]

The other thing you might want to do is ask your pharmacist whether any of your medications may have weight gain as a side effect. When I was first diagnosed with fibromyalgia, I was put on a medication that made me gain vast amounts of weight very, very quickly. When I went off, the weight went off. When I went back on, the weight went back on. It was not a well recognized side effect at that time, but it is now.

[tctrek]

You have to eat an awful lot of calories to gain 16 pounds in a month!! Unless you are really fooling yourself about how much you are eating, this really sounds like something medical. If your endo isn't listening, you may need to find another. You should also ask about having cortisol levels checked... I've hear about cortisol issues causing extreme rapid weight gain.

Also, I would recommend that you not take the generic thyroid medication. Ask your doctor for Synthroid or one of the natural thyroid replacements. I don't think those generics work right.

I have hypothyroidism and although my levels are stable due to constant monitoring and medication corrections, I gain weight very easily and have to diligently watch my diet. If I don't eat enough, I will sometimes gain weight. If I exercise too hard and don't properly fuel myself I will gain weight. So, I have to balance the exercise with a healthy 1500-1600 calories a day. If I go too much below or too much above that, I gain weight.

Also, not sure of your age -- but weight gain gets worse during peri-menopause and beyond. I found it was much worse during peri-menopause than it is now that I am post-menopause.

[KnottedYet]

Definitely talk to the endocrinologist about the thyroid replacement therapy. If you are only getting ONE kind of thyroid and actually need both (like Trisk talks about) it can make you gain bodacious amounts of weight.

My aunt has Hashimoto's, and had a terrible time on just T4. Adding in some T3 let her lose weight and feel much better.

[beccaB]

Have you seen a dietician? You might not be eating enough and developing a set-point metabolism. When I tried to lose a few pounds(I weighed my full term pregnancy weight, while not pregnant), I found that I had to have a book tell me exactly what TO eat, not-what not to eat. It was the Curves diet book if that helps. I did lose the weight, but I had to learn to incorporate more lean protein into my diet than what I was getting.

[redrhodie]

I think you might find the videos at this link: http://darwinstable.wordpress.com/20...e-are-not-fat/
interesting.

[shootingstar]

DDH, hope a more pinpoint diagnosis will help you find ways to figure out the mysterious rapid weight gain. I've known 2 women who have Grave's disease (both in their 50's), ...they each did gain weight but not so rapidly as your situation.

However who knows...but only the experts.