Questions for thyroid experts. Taking 200mcg T4

[Para_33]

So to start, I’m going to repeat this test with Free T3 but it was a somewhat more expensive test so I skipped it for some reason.

Over 4 months I’ve been taking 200mcg T4. Feel wise, I suspect I have high thyroid activity. I run hotter, sweat easier, appetite is insane.

7/14/22( was taking 200mcg T4 for a month before this )
TSH: 0.967 uIU/mL (0.450-4.500)
T4: 4.9 ug/dl (4.5-12)
T3 uptake: 33% (24-39)
Free Thyroxine Index: 1.6 (1.2-4.9)

9/07/22( taking 200mcg T4 for 3 months)
TSH: 0.534 uIU/mL (0.450-4.500)
T4: 5.9 ug/dl (4.5-12)
T3 uptake: 34% (24-39)
Free Thyroxine Index: 2.0 (1.2-4.9)

If I was taking too much T4( which it seems like) wouldn’t my T4 measurement be higher and closer to 12 or over ? I mean it’s increased from 4.9 to 5.9 and my TSH has decreased down to the bottom, so I assume I’m getting adequate negative feedback and thus have normal/high thyroid.

My normal TSH (before taking any thyroid medication )was running 1.31 to 1.58 although I never had T4 checked at this time. Although my Free T3 at the time without thyroid medication was 3.7pg/ml (2.0-4.4). TSH was 1.31 on this test. And Free T4 was 1.26 ng/dl (0.82-1.77) on this test Before starting T4. So these are my baseline. Is it possible I’m just converting a ton of my T4 into active T3 ? It seems like this was the case even when I was a thyroid natty, and had lower TSH, middle Range T4, and highish freeT3. I need to get a more current free T3 on my next labs.

I feel great, just a bit sweatier than usual, but I’m also on Trenbolone, and but more importantly I feel ravenously hungry. Like ridiculously so, to the point I’ve never experienced before. I’m in a 500-800 calorie deficit for several months now, but the hunger has increased in the last month or so notably. It’s making it so I can’t sleep because I wake up starving around 130am. And I can’t fall back asleep until I eat something or chug a seltzer water and sugar free jello pudding to try and trick myself. Worse, if I don’t have the sugar free pudding I’ll go for the Cinnamon Toast Crunch cereal and be fucked the whole next day Calorie wise.

High thyroid can increase appetite right ?

 

[Demondosage]

I cannot remember exactly which one it is, but one of those numbers will actually show lower the more active the thyroid is. It’s like it’s backwards or something when you look at it

 

[HB_22]

I cannot remember exactly which one it is, but one of those numbers will actually show lower the more active the thyroid is. It’s like it’s backwards or something when you look at it

You mean TSH. The more exogenous T4 the lower TSH will be.

 

[RunTrenFcukTens]

I would test TSH free t4 free t3 and rT3. To see if you’re converting your t4 to t3 or if it’s bound to proteins or converting to rt3. @Harley00 is the blood work guy!

 

[hudson98]

why are you taking it. you were in range, now you take it, and you cant sleep and it makes you cheat on your diet. seems silly to me. takin thyroid when you don't need it seems like a good way to fuck your thyroid and then need the med for life

 

[RunTrenFcukTens]

why are you taking it. you were in range, now you take it, and you cant sleep and it makes you cheat on your diet. seems silly to me. takin thyroid when you don't need it seems like a good way to fuck your thyroid and then need the med for life

Lol ya his initial blood work seems almost perfect you are correct. I can only assume it’s cause he’s running trenbolone. Perhaps hGH as well.

 

[HB_22]

now you take it, and you cant sleep

Not sure if it is the thyroid med or just tren insomnia, he's running tren as well.

 

[Para_33]

I only began experiencing the insomnia the last 4 weeks or so, however I’ve been taking the t4 for 3 months. It’s because I began taking hgh and dieting harder. So I thought to preemptively add it, so my thyroid didn’t have to work harder to output enough T4 due to higher t3 conversion. I’m also taking Anavar 20mg sublingual anywhere between 1-4 times per week which can also increase conversion to T3. But I think the dosage is too high on the T4. I’m dropping it back to 150mcg which isn’t a huge decrease, but I want to do a small decrease to help ease the extreme hunger while simultaneously getting another test with Free/ total/reverse T3.

Essentially I expected my T4 total to also be elevated a lot of the dose of T4 was too high. However it almost just seems like it’s getting excessively converted to T3.

However I might also be fine, and this is more so a result of being in a steep deficit for a while now and it’s catching up with me and my body doesn’t like dropping below 6% bodyfat into the striated glute range. Although I suspect regardless of protocol it’s a pretty miserable experience for most people who are trying to get that lean.

My main curiosity is if it’s possible the T4 dose is too high while not showing high T4 levels. I’ve also been taking 200mcg selenium, and that along side my dietary selenium Intake is closer to 400mcg.

 

[Inspired]

So to start, I’m going to repeat this test with Free T3 but it was a somewhat more expensive test so I skipped it for some reason.

Over 4 months I’ve been taking 200mcg T4. Feel wise, I suspect I have high thyroid activity. I run hotter, sweat easier, appetite is insane.

7/14/22( was taking 200mcg T4 for a month before this )
TSH: 0.967 uIU/mL (0.450-4.500)
T4: 4.9 ug/dl (4.5-12)
T3 uptake: 33% (24-39)
Free Thyroxine Index: 1.6 (1.2-4.9)

9/07/22( taking 200mcg T4 for 3 months)
TSH: 0.534 uIU/mL (0.450-4.500)
T4: 5.9 ug/dl (4.5-12)
T3 uptake: 34% (24-39)
Free Thyroxine Index: 2.0 (1.2-4.9)

If I was taking too much T4( which it seems like) wouldn’t my T4 measurement be higher and closer to 12 or over ? I mean it’s increased from 4.9 to 5.9 and my TSH has decreased down to the bottom, so I assume I’m getting adequate negative feedback and thus have normal/high thyroid.

My normal TSH (before taking any thyroid medication )was running 1.31 to 1.58 although I never had T4 checked at this time. Although my Free T3 at the time without thyroid medication was 3.7pg/ml (2.0-4.4). TSH was 1.31 on this test. And Free T4 was 1.26 ng/dl (0.82-1.77) on this test Before starting T4. So these are my baseline. Is it possible I’m just converting a ton of my T4 into active T3 ? It seems like this was the case even when I was a thyroid natty, and had lower TSH, middle Range T4, and highish freeT3. I need to get a more current free T3 on my next labs.

I feel great, just a bit sweatier than usual, but I’m also on Trenbolone, and but more importantly I feel ravenously hungry. Like ridiculously so, to the point I’ve never experienced before. I’m in a 500-800 calorie deficit for several months now, but the hunger has increased in the last month or so notably. It’s making it so I can’t sleep because I wake up starving around 130am. And I can’t fall back asleep until I eat something or chug a seltzer water and sugar free jello pudding to try and trick myself. Worse, if I don’t have the sugar free pudding I’ll go for the Cinnamon Toast Crunch cereal and be fucked the whole next day Calorie wise.

High thyroid can increase appetite right ?

You shouldn't even have that junk food in your house. Seriously.

Your thyroid seems ok. You are probably taking way too much T4 and your body is eating itself alive.

Thyroid is making you eat.

What are your goals?

You'd be better off lowering T4 and taking extra T3. T4 stays in your system a long time. T3 is more controllable, but it takes more work because you need tiny divided doses throughout the day.

You should take Lugol's iodine (dose depends on you but starting at one drop of 5% Lugol's a few times a week or every day is a good move. And extra selenium. You should take 600-800mcg selenium.

And with Anavar, skip the T3 dosage if and when you start taking T3.

 

[Rido]

Why are you taking t4?

What anabolics are you on?

your uptake percentage is pretty low for HGH imo.

did you need t4 or were you just assuming?

 

[hudson98]

Why are you taking t4?

What anabolics are you on?

your uptake percentage is pretty low for HGH imo.

did you need t4 or were you just assuming?

It looks like he read on a forum somewhere something about people who GH should take t4 from his post? Or he thought it would lean him up?

I agree I think it was a bad decision. People take GH every day and don't just throw in t4, he must have got bad info. Now who knows if he will have to stay on it forever? I don't know that much about it, always stay away from fucking with thyroid, many other better ways to get lean.

 

[Harley00]

Its hard to give thyroid advise when your on cycle, because gear choice and gear amount can effect your thyroid in ither direction with different individual.

Like others said your thyroid looked to be perfect pre cycle . There wasn't need for anything to add, if anything you could have just thrown a bit of t3 in by itself.

Had you have run some labs mid cycle and seen a decrease in thyroid numbers at that time id make changes, but i wouldnt necessarily start with t4, id use t3 likely and some supplements to support the t4 aspect first, depending on what labs said.

Tip, for future which can help you decide what you wanna do is take your morning and afternoon temperature with a good digital thermometer, there 20 bucks at shoppers, a good working thyroid should show you around 98.6 in morning and afternoon and should stay relatively close all day.

Match that up with your heart rate , which should be around the 68 to 75 at resting rate if your not that much into cardio, and if you are then that can get a bit difficult because runners can see very low heart rate, but if you use the temp plus heart rate and blood pressure you can get a very very good precise reading at where your thyroid is. Of course it takes a little time to learn that properly but it most definitely works.

The current labs your showing shows a good t3, but your t4 is a bit low, but your converting just fine, sometimes with a lower ft4 you can see things like higher cortisol levels, or high blood surgar issues which causes a low ft4, eventually as things get worse so do you.

The problem hear is complicated, you can treat high cortisol if thats the issue, and take supplements to help your ft4, and address any blood sugar issues if there is any, but by doing so you increse your ft4 and possibly increase the ft3 by doing so, which mean its possible u would have to lower the synthroid as well to balance yoir thyroid numbers out correctly. This is where temp and heart rate help.

I suspect with your cycle and tren that its possible you have higher amounts of cortisol currently which is giving you the issues your having now, its contributing to the hottness and anxiety etc and trouble sleeping.

So like i said up top the answer is complicated because addressing one thing will change the other now that your on t4 .

If you lowerd your t4 right now and didnt address the possible other issues you could lower your ft4 to low then have a different set of issues.

 

[hudson98]

so basically he opened a bag of snakes by messing with his thyroid?

 

[Rido]

It looks like he read on a forum somewhere something about people who GH should take t4 from his post? Or he thought it would lean him up?

I agree I think it was a bad decision. People take GH every day and don't just throw in t4, he must have got bad info. Now who knows if he will have to stay on it forever? I don't know that much about it, always stay away from fucking with thyroid, many other better ways to get lean.

They won't need to stay on it forever.... Thyroid recovers very fast In a matter of days. Plenty of people get on synthroid because they have hypothyroidism and then they get off because their thyroid function improves

so basically he opened a bag of snakes by messing with his thyroid?

Nah, it's just pointless. The harm is minimal

 

[Harley00]

They won't need to stay on it forever.... Thyroid recovers very fast In a matter of days. Plenty of people get on synthroid because they have hypothyroidism and then they get off because their thyroid function improves

so basically he opened a bag of snakes by messing with his thyroid?

Nah, it's just pointless. The harm is minimal

That information is not correct. Your thyroid doesn't recover in a couple of days.

Do people get on synthroid and then later in life recover and get off, yup sure they do, wanna no what happens when you cut your thyroid meds cold turkey? After being on for a long time and i mean synthroid, t3 is different its much easier to get off of t3 you can recover in a week from t3 , but for synthroid for someone like me thats been on it for years, i got of cold turkey, and it caused a inflammation response and i got sub accute thyroiditis , basically from the shock, so then thats 6 to 8 weeks of hyperthyroidism and a swelled thyroid gland for the same untill the inflammation goes down, and then the thyroiditis clears then another 6 to 8 weeks of hypothyroidism untill your thyroid normalizes. So no i 100% do not agree with the harm is minimal or you can recover in a few days. T3 yes you can very quickly, synthroid takes 6 weeks to stabilize. And roughly the same to fully clear. And weeks longer to fully stabilize.

I could have avoided that issue had i of came of 25mcg at a time and allowed proper recovery, but i didnt. This is why i always tell people that they should tier down there dosages 25mcg at a time every week or 2 weeks. Even though some people say they came of cold turkey and were fine, its not always the case.

If you take t4 and you had zero history of thyroid issues and only took for a few months, then its likely you could quit cold turkey and be back up to normal in a few weeks, obviously the better you are health wise decides this.

 

[Rido]

That information is not correct. Your thyroid doesn't recover in a couple of days.

Do people get on synthroid and then later in life recover and get off, yup sure they do, wanna no what happens when you cut your thyroid meds cold turkey? After being on for a long time and i mean synthroid, t3 is different its much easier to get off of t3 you can recover in a week from t3 , but for synthroid for someone like me thats been on it for years, i got of cold turkey, and it caused a inflammation response and i got sub accute thyroiditis , basically from the shock, so then thats 6 to 8 weeks of hyperthyroidism and a swelled thyroid gland for the same untill the inflammation goes down, and then the thyroiditis clears then another 6 to 8 weeks of hypothyroidism untill your thyroid normalizes. So no i 100% do not agree with the harm is minimal or you can recover in a few days. T3 yes you can very quickly, synthroid takes 6 weeks to stabilize. And roughly the same to fully clear. And weeks longer to fully stabilize.

I could have avoided that issue had i of came of 25mcg at a time and allowed proper recovery, but i didnt. This is why i always tell people that they should tier down there dosages 25mcg at a time every week or 2 weeks. Even though some people say they came of cold turkey and were fine, its not always the case.

If you take t4 and you had zero history of thyroid issues and only took for a few months, then its likely you could quit cold turkey and be back up to normal in a few weeks, obviously the better you are health wise decides this.

I was mainly directing this discussion at OP as he has only been in it for a few months. Hudson was suggesting he would may need to be on t4 forever