Weight Gain

[PaganBaby]

I am curious to find out if anyone else out there who has Hyperthyroidism if they have had any problems with weight gain instead of weightloss?  For a solid year and a half before the doctors finally diagnosed me they couldn't figure out why I was gaining weight.  It would be a couple pounds here and there but it has added up over time to almost a total of 100 pounds of weight gain.  They couldn't figure it out because I rarely ate, so they thought it was some of the meds that I have to be on which one of their side effects was weight gain, but not at the drastic extent as mine has ended up being over the past 2 to 3 years.  After I finally told my doctors either they figured out what the hell was wrong with me or I would find doctors that could (btw I have new doctors now) the light went on and they decided to finally test my thyroid.  Outcome ended up being Hyperthyroidism.  Which they said absolutely could not be the cause for my weight gain. So I took it upon myself to find new doctors that would actually help.  I know there is a very small percentage of Hyper patients that actually gain weight instead of losing...but finally since I have different doctors I am starting to lose weight extremely slowly.  LOL  I'm just curious if there is anyone else out there who has ran into a similar problem with their weight and what they have been doing to help reverse the weight gain.  Thanks in advance.  ; )

[gimel]

Please post whatever thyroid test data you have, along with reference ranges, so that members can provide the best response.

[lori652]

Look this is my case. I was having a battle with my mind. I felt like I was losing-it (mind). Everything bothered me to the point of withdrawal, from family, friends, my husband and children even my hobbies. I was a crying all the time mess! I wasn't sleeping but 1-2 hours in the night and would sleep all day to make up for lost sleep. I knew that something wasn't right with me, totally out of my character. I would mention these things to my doc. This would only lead us into a decussion of depression. Finally a nodule in my throat appeared. I went to my doc. they ran some test and sent me for more observations. I had to have surgery two days later because my thyriod(partual) had ruptured and there was no time to waste. Well needless to say I was hurt because my doc. wasn't listening to me when I had previous meetings with them. Now, it's been 3.5 years since surgery and 75 lbs later. I don't take a supplement beacause my doc. don't think that I need it. I have started to regain my energy lil-by-lil, I eat very small portions, I stay away from sugarie drinks but still can't lose any more than 1-2 lbs at a time. I become discouraged and stop working out but soome come back to my senses and try once again. Can anyone tell me what they may have done to lose their weight and to keep it off. I just 40 something years young and I'm hurting over this terrible weight grain. I glad to say that I don't have a depression promblem but looking at my once "shapely" body now "round" one could easily become depressed.

[birdieladie]

My TSH is 0.677  I have all symptoms of Hyperthroid except I have gained weight.  I am also B12 deficient with a level of 136.Starting shots today.  I have 2 lower lumbar fusions and 1 cervical fusion.  I have alot of issues to deal with.  I want my life back I want to feel good.  I will settle for feeling so so.

[Smilerdeb]

I have Graves and suffered with hyperthyroidism until I had RAI and TT last year.
BEFORE RAI, I gained 16kgs from Carbimazole.
I started off at 55kgs , went to 71kgs and now 12 months later, I weight just over 60kgs.
Once your levels stabilise, the weight starts to come off.
I dont eat junk or pre-packaged food, I eat fresh fruit, meat, fish and vegetables.
I avoid milk..only for coffee as basically I found that it 'turned my stomach' after RAI (iced coffee).

[gimel]

I just wanted to ask what made you conclude that you were hyper?  Was it the TSH test?  Or were you also exhibiting hyper symptoms?  How can you be sure that weight gain was a hyper symptom rather than a hypo symptom, unless you have test data for the most important thyroid hormones  (free T3 and free T4), that shows very high levels of these hormones?  

I'm really curious about this because so many times doctors decide your are hyper based only on TSH results that are in the low part of the range, and yet there are no overt hyper symptoms.  This frequently results in patients who are actually still hypo, with all the  wonderful symptoms such as fatigue, low metabolism, etc.

[jesucrew5]

I just had thyroid removed in Dec. 08 with papillary carcinoma.  Doctors have adjusted me to .125 Synthroid with a TSH level of .22 (hyper), but I have gained 25 pounds in the last 3 months after losing 40 pounds last year between July-Dec.  I complained to the doctor, but was told it was probably from stress - baloney!  I have two other friends at church who also had thyroid removed, are in hyper state and gaining weight even with massive amounts of exercise.  It is depressing and we want to find a cure.  We started a support group at church called "We're Not Crazy" because we knew that our symptoms were more than "depression" prior to doctors finding our thyroid diseas and we know that there is more to our weight gain than "stress".