Last week I had a regular appointment with my GP regarding my hypothyroidism. I have been on meds for over 12 years and feel that it is fairly well controlled at this point. My latest test results revealed that I am now borderline hyperthyroid! My GP is hesitant to change/lower my medication due to the fact that I am not having any hyperthyroid symptoms at this time but those thyroid symptoms are sneaky and insidious. They happen so slowly over time that you don't usually notice an abrupt change. For now I will continue on my current level of medication and get retested in 6 months.

At first I didn't think too much of this, but now I am wondering... Is my weight loss due to me being borderline hyperthyroid? Is that the only reason why I was successful this time? If, and I know I'm getting ahead of myself here, my test results reveal in 6 months that I am indeed hyperthyroid, and I have to lower my medication levels, will I gain back the weight that I thought I had worked so hard to lose? The thought of this makes me panic and start to sweat!

I thought that I had done this the “right” way. Now I'm questioning all of it. I watch the types of food I eat and the portions I eat. I feel like I'm eating the way that I want to eat for the rest of my life. I do 30-35 minutes of cardio 6x a week and do weight/strength training 3x a week. I've dropped the water aerobics classes that I was attending because I wasn't interested anymore(new teacher that wasn't as good), it's cold outside at night (when classes are held) and I'm now maintaining rather than trying to lose. I drink loads of water and work at getting plenty of rest. I feel great and wish to continue feeling great so I'm not changing what I do at this point. I just don't want this to derail me in anyway.

Sorry for the lost post, but I was hoping that some of you may have some thoughts, comments or ideas on this. Maybe I just need to relax and ride this one out. I'm probably just getting ahead of myself here. DH stated last night that he felt that this is a good think because I've been hypothyroid for so many years that this is an improvement.

On a positive note, my bp was 128/60—a huge improvement over my reading prior to my weight loss.

i think you should think things in a different light:

do you eat the things that are right for your body nutrition-wise? tick.

do you excersise regularly? tick.

are you aware of your health-status and possible future outcomes? tick.

if a change happens you're gonna be mentally and physically prepared to tackle it. you have the education and the motivation to keep your body active and your food healthy.

have faith in yourself and believe in what you've achieved.

grrrkgrrrl

Exactly right! You know what you're doing and have all the mechanisms in place to face whatever happens down the road. You have taken charge of your own health.

Dagmar

As a person with a thyroid issue (Graves Disease), I do not think small fluctuations up or down in your thyroid levels would cause you to lose or gain weight. Your hard work is what did it== you did it! Don't doubt yourself!! My levels get off sometimes and they raise or lower my medicines-- I've never noticed a difference in weight from it. I did gain 20 pounds in a heartbeat when I initially was treated for my hyperthyroidism....but that was when they "killed" by thyroid in treatment.
Michele

Loser (if you pardon the name! ), your weight loss has not been because you're borderline hyper! It's because you've been working hard, planning, monitoring, sweating, saying no to yourself a thousand times, and being mindful about what you're doing! It is the direct result of all your effort and hard work and don't ever take the credit away from yourself!

I went hyper -- not just borderline -- about 18 months ago and didn't lose a pound. I had heart palpitations, which is how we discovered it. But I was so disappointed that I didn't drop a quick ten pounds or so. Rats!

My thyroid has fluctuated fairly regularly since I lost weight and, like Michele, I don't think it's ever impacted my weight. Right now my Synthroid dose is tweaked to alternate two doses but that probably will change in another six months. My TSH and Synthroid dose change all the time but my weight is always the direct result of my eating and exercise.

DH is very smart. Just relax. If you were really hyper, your doctor would have reduced your dose. Don't ever take away the credit for what you've done. You did it! No one or nothing else lost the weight for you.

I agree with the others...that your hard work caused all the weight loss, not the medication.

I was hyperthyroid some years ago and did not lose even ONE pound! And conversely, after ablation I didn't gain any either, so I think the medication changes will have minimal impact on your weight.

But don't forget...if your TSH is too low [ie hyperthyroid] for too long it can impact bone health and cause osteoporosis, so it's important to watch it.

Good Luck!

terry

Thanks everyone! In my heart I know that you, and DH, are right. Sometimes my head gets paranoid and starts running with it. I so agree that I do not want to be hyperthyroid because that's not healthy either. I just realized that I have been on this same med dosage for 7-8 years and I was never able to lose weight until I decided to start this journey. So I guess the proof is in the pudding as they say. Thank you! I feel so much better now. I'm so glad that I found 3fc. This is my soft spot to land. It's where I can read, comment or not, but more importantly, it's the place that keeps me on track.

I think my fear stems from the time when I was first diagnosed hypothyroid. In a matter of 3-4 months, I gained 50 lbs, my hair became curly (my hair is stick straight and it was curly not in a good way) and I was exhausted and very confused. I got lost, while driving, on a regular basis and had to rely on DD, then 10, to get us home. DD still refers to it as "the winter on the couch" because I would be sleeping on the couch when she left for school and still be there when she got home. This was the time period that I got to my highest weight, 248. I was a complete mess.

I guess I thought that losing weight would help my thyroid rather than confuse it. But after hearing about everybody else's, including your's Meg, maybe that is not the case.

It's funny about losing weight and thyroids. I sort of assumed that my Synthroid dose would drop in half since my weight dropped by almost half. But it didn't, not even close. I went from 225 mcg to 200 mcg a day, not much of a change after losing 122 pounds! It's jumped up and down since then and right now I alternate 150 and 175 mcg per day.

Every time the dose has been lowered, I've been petrified that it would impact my weight but it hasn't. For me (and probably for most of us), our weight comes down to what we eat and how we move our bodies. Normalizing our thyroids gets us to a level playing field, but after that, it's still all of our hard work that gets results.

This is all pretty encouraging! I've been kind of freaking out lately about having to be put on a new medication, because I know something is off with my body and I just don't know quite what it is yet (I don't get the test results until Friday but they did tell me there are "abnormalities"). To be honest, I am/was just about ready to refuse to take anything, no matter what they find wrong, and either just deal with all of this ridiculous fatigue and general poor healthy, or try to find a natural solution.

All because I fear gaining weight back. And the whole thyroid thing is one of the possibilities of what could be wrong (either that or some weird hormonal problem, or anemia, or.. well I guess lots of things). But that's silly. We worked hard for all of our weight loss, we have overcome obstacles, and we have to have faith that one variable changing or being added to our lives isn't going to make us fat again. There's always the option of stopping the new medication if it makes us gain 5 pounds a week! At least that's what I'm trying to tell myself. I think I'm just terrified of feeling again like I don't have control over what is happening to my body.

Loser, I know the feeling. When they cut back my thyroid meds I was terrified I would gain (the initial 8lbs in a month before I got diagnosed was scary enough, I didn't want to repeat that!). I think it is more likely though that they have to reduce your dose because you lost weight, rather than that you lost weight because you were tending toward hyper.

Jessica, that is an interesting thought--one I had not considered. Maybe that is the case. Thank you!

I lost all my weight after I developed hypothyroidism and before I was diagnosed. I've been on a plateau since September. I got diagnosed via a blood test in a standard physical at the end of October.

The original dose was too high, according to my December blood work, so they reduced the dose. Long story short, I'm still on the same plateau. The meds have made no difference in my weight, only in the fact that I feel "awake" now. I hadn't realized it, but my thyroid shutting down had put me in a total fog.