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

Content: And in states such as these, your body will turn T4 into reverse T3 as a way to "put on the brakes" and slow down your metabolism and cause symptoms of hypothyroidism. ​How Levothyroxine Causes weight gain
​So how does this all relate to Levothyroxine and weight gain? We can look at some studies to help us understand: Take for instance this study. ( 1)
Patients in this study were given T4 only medications and treated based on their TSH. The researchers tested their resting energy expenditure (this is a way to test for basal metabolic rate or metabolism) both before they added the thyroid hormone and after they suppressed the TSH. Do you know what they found? It showed that patients taking thyroid hormone (even doses that lower the TSH to <0.1) did NOT have an increase in metabolism or a change in their body weight. ​
This is really interesting information and it has profound implications for treatment...
For one it shows that our reliance upon TSH as a marker for managing thyroid medication and function is not very accurate. ​
Don't get discouraged because there are other thyroid medications that actually do help with weight loss which we will discuss below.