Cytomel diet
Common Questions and Answers about Cytomel diet
cytomel
What is food and supplements are safe to consume with Cytomel. I am actively trying to lose weight through diet and exercise and feel like I am fighting with a brick wall. Very defeating! I eat certain things or take different supplements, I get extreme reactions. Please advise. . .
The lower TSH is expected due to increase in thyroid meds (addition of cytomel). The synthroid (t4) is usually lowered when one starts cytomel -- there is no proven benefit of combining T4 and T3 -- if you feel better with it and the level of TSH is not too low (<0.3 usually) then it may be reasonable, but if not then there is no clear role for routine use of cytomel with a slightly low free T3 level.
T3 levels fluctuate during the day so interpret labs w/ caution.
The Cytomel stopped when diet started so have not been on any meds for almost two weeks. . It does not bother me to sit in my chair all day which is uncharacteristic of me. So I will assume that is related to situation.
I did fail to mention a substantial wgt. gain which really started in July when doctor switched me to a lower dose synthroid due to the readings I was getting.
It turns out, my tsh levels are off the charts and T3 is too low to even measure. My doctor took me off the cytomel last week. I am a fitness and diet instructor and have put on four pounds this week. I have reduced my calorie intake to dangerous levels but I am still putting on weight. I am starting to lose my mind a little bit and need some help! How can I keep the weight gain at bay until the cytomel leaves my system?
Why is it some endos I've seen in person won't admit the fluctuations with Hashis and a normal TSH level? (Just venting). I know I've had bouts of hypo and hyper with a normal TSH. Their response is always the same. "There's something else wrong. You're TSH is in the normal range. You couldn't have been hypo or hyper." I've been thouroughly checked and there's nothing else wrong! Maybe it's about perfect timing with the thyroid blood work.
Do you have the range for your FT4? Ranges are lab specific so have to come from your own lab report. Did your doctor test FT3 as well? What were you taking prior to the 50 mcg Cytomel and 50 mcg Synthroid? When he d/c'd the Cytomel, did he change your Synthroid as well?
Sorry to ask so many questions, but need to know.
Everything was great until last summer I have been starting to gain weight approximately 10 lbs. and feeling really tired. My doctor raised me to 5mg of cytomel but I didnt feel any better and my free t4 came back low (0.48)so he changed me to 90 mg of Armour in June. I lost 3 lbs but didnt really feel any better still tired. I just had my blood work done and my TSH came in at .04 (from 0.41)free t3 2.8 (from 3.1 when on armour 60 and 5mg cytomel) and my free t4 is 0.68(from 0.
I have to add also, that taking one or two cytomel is not going to magically make you feel better. I've been on cytomel for about a year and 1/2 and I must say that I took it at least a week before I noticed any difference at all in the way I felt. The remainder of the effects came more slowly over a period of time; it also took almost a year for my FT3 levels to get up where we wanted them, because they built slowly.
Back in March, I made a drastic change to my diet and lost 10 lbs in 2 months after switching to the Paleo diet. I was feeling great but would wake up super early which I attributed to paleo.
I had my bi-annual thyroid checkup and my doctor said I was on too much meds due to my weight loss and reduced me to a half Cytomel and 100 mcg Synthoid. Got tested again after 6 weeks and was told I was slightly high but could stay at that level.
150 and then over the months added 10 mcg of cytomel. Once the cytomel got added, my joint pain vanished, I did not have that depleted and drained feeling I was having since surgery and overall felt better, not top notch. I have gained like 20 pounds since my TT and since january have truly done a diet, logging every calorie, working out at the YMCA 3 to 4 times a week with LOTS of intense cardio. For 11 weeks I could not lose one single pound.
I am a diet and fitness instructor, so while I am learning new things every day, my diet and fitness are pretty good. I have never had anything except four thyroid blood tests. Two last year, two this year. I just know I am sick of feeling (and looking) lousy, and every doctor seems to interpret the results differently. One says I need combination therapy (synthroid and cytomel) another says cytomel is toxic and nobody should be on it. I am at a loss!
Thanks again for your help!
Hello,
I was recently told I have Hashimotos and a metabolically under active thyroid. My doctor prescribed Cytomel, which I have not been able to tolerate due to heart palpitations. When I started taking the Cytomel I noticed things in me disappearing that I have struggled with my whole life and felt better than I knew possible. I even started losing weight without making a change to my diet, I have struggled to lose a lb even on phentermine.
Does anyone know why Cytomel jumps from a 5 mcg pill to 25 mcgs? I thought that was unusual.
I am currently taking this T3 med; a starting doage in addition to T4. I can only hope and pray the T3 addition will lift my symptoms as a lot of you have suggested it may.
Looking forward to your answers.
They did say my rapid TSH climb was probably because I skipped the Cytomel, stuck to the diet 100%, and had a pretty significant uptake (so lots of tissue/cancer to react to the TSH).
Okay - It's roughly 1:00 a.m. and my insomnia (fueled by stress over my pain) is wearing off and I'm finally getting tired. Good thing too, I have to be up at 6:30 a.m.
25 of generic Synthroid because I had several hypo symptoms - 30lb weight gain despite diet and exercise, extreme fatigue, very lethargic, anxiety attacks, very dry skin and dandruff, high cholesterol despite healthy diet, bloating, low body temperatures, shortness of breath, missing periods, hairloss and change of hair texture and extreme ADD. After a month of the synthroid - I had more energy and my period has always been normal ever since. The dry skin and dandruff went away.
ve reported symptoms to my endo (muscle aches, very cold hands and feet, eyebrows disappearing, difficulty losing weight despite regular exercise and healthy diet), thinking maybe I need to raise my cytomel and/or lower my synthroid. But he said that my symptoms "must be from something else" and that T3 labs results are meaningless b/c cytomel artificially lowers them. That seems really off to me b/c the cytomel *is* T3 (right?), so should it raise it??
Synthroid takes 6 weeks to build up in your system so taking more wouldn't do anything for a few weeks. Cytomel is faster acting and is a T3 med. Maybe your Endo would this for you for a few weeks until you get some Synthroid built up in your system? I would ask. That is a RIDICULOUSLY high TSH, how are you feeling?
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