Title: Why Levothyroxine Causes Weight Gain and How to Prevent it
Headings: Why Levothyroxine Causes Weight Gain and How to Prevent it
Why Levothyroxine Causes Weight Gain and How to Prevent it
T4 to T3 Conversion Matters... A lot
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Foods to Avoid if you have Thyroid Problems:
The Complete List of Thyroid Lab Tests:
​Levothyroxine and Synthroid are Both T4 only Medications
​How Levothyroxine Causes weight gain
What to do if you think Levothyroxine is Causing Weight Gain
Step #1: ​Check your Basal Body Temperature Each Morning
​Step #2: Check your Resting Pulse or Resting Heart Rate
Step #3: Check a Complete Thyroid Panel​
​How to Finally Lose Weight with Hypothyroidism
Does Levothyroxine ever Cause Weight Loss?
5 Steps YOU can Take Today to Lose Weight and Boost Thyroid Function
1. ​Optimize T4 to T3 Conversion
2. Optimize your Adrenal Function and Cortisol Levels
3. Add in High-Intensity Exercise
4. Reduce Inflammation
5. Balance Insulin and Leptin levels
Real Patients and Real Results
​ More Resources and Links showing why T4 only medications don't work for everyone:
The Effects of Levothyroxine substitution on body composition . (17)
Differences in hypothalamic type 2 deiodinase ubiquitination explain localized sensitivity to thyroxine . (18)
References (Click to Expand)
About Dr. Westin Childs

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But, for this reason (and many others) I generally don't recommend using T4 only medications (like Synthroid and Levothyroxine) to treat hypothyroidism and I recommend against using the TSH to dose your medication. ​What's more: This study also showed that suppressing the TSH did NOT result in adverse side effects. Enter your text here...
​One of the main reasons Doctors are afraid to increase thyroid medications is because they are concerned that the low TSH will result in damage to the body over time. It's not uncommon that patients will start to feel better when their thyroid dose is increased, only to have all those symptoms come back again when they are told their dose is "too high". Don't let your doctor convince you that you are hyperthyroid when you have crushing fatigue, weight gain, hair loss and constipation - it just doesn't work that way and you can't tell someone they are hyperthyroid based on their TSH alone. Here is another very interesting study (2) that compared people taking Natural Desiccated Thyroid to those taking Levothyroxine: This study showed that patients taking Natural Desiccated Thyroid (Like Armour thyroid, Nature-Throid, and WP Thyroid) experienced more weight loss and HALF of the people in the study said that they preferred taking NDT over levothyroxine. And here is another very important study (3) comparing equivalent dosing (based on pituitary function and TSH) of T4 medication vs T3 only medication: This study showed that patients who were taking T3 only medication had more weight loss and better cholesterol than patients who were taking T4 only medication (like Synthroid and Levothyroxine).