I hope no one minds me bumping this back up but I could use a little support myself. I've really been struggling with losing weight for the last 3 or so years. I spent 15 months on Weight Watchers and had great success the first 3 months and then BAM, I started exercising and didn't lose another ounce for over a year (I didn't lose much in the way of inches either, and I have a LOT to lose). I went to see my doctor and she told me I was doing the wrong kind of exercise (biking and swimming in the summer, water aerobics class and worked with a personal trainer in the winter) and that I should do curves. She also told me I had to be lying to myself about what I thought I was eating. Did I ever eat when I was stressed? I said yes, who doesn't? She wanted to prescribe prozac for me.
Anyway, we started househunting and dealing with a move and life got crazy for a while. We moved in May and I joined Curves with a friend of mine and was doing great... again, exercising 5 or so times a week, I was doing a combo of south beach and WW (following the south beach way of eating but keeping a WW journal and counting points) and nothing after 3 months. I started trying to see a different doctor up here. I went to one who essentially told me that curves was bad and that I was eating the wrong kind of oatmeal.
After being highly discouraged I finally found a doctor who has absolutely no bedside manner but was interested in at least trying to figure out what was wrong. She ran some tests and in the meantime I started reading up on thyroid stuff. Of course I'd been focusing mostly on the weight issue, but it turns out that I have a lot of other symptoms (attributed to other things by various doctors). The fatigue is the worst (of course docs say "lose weight and you won't be fatigued"), but I am also freezing all the time (I never was before the last couple of years), I have really awful dry skin on my legs and hands (I'd forgotten how bad it was because I am in the habit of always applying lotion). The other thing is that in spite of the fact that I've been eating a really healthy diet for the past several years (lots of whole grains and lean proteins, fruits and veggies and good fats) my LDL cholesterol has been creeping up.
Anyway, my doctor referred me to their diabetes center and an endocrinologist there and he reviewed my numbers and put me on a lowish dose of Synthroid. From what I've been reading, some less conservative endos are considering a TSH of 3.0 to be the upper limit of normal rather than the old 5.5, and mine was 2.94. The endo said whatever "normal" is, mine is not optimal and I could need a boost. On the other hand, he didn't want me to think that this was a magic bullet or anything and that metabolic issues are so underfunded and understudied, it may be something else that they just don't know how to address... but certainly given my symptoms, he is hopeful that getting my TSH to more optimal levels will help alleviate the symptoms.
That was last week and yesterday I went to a nutritionist. I've been at this for long enough that there was nothing she could really say that I haven't already researched on my own, but she does want me to keep a food log to show her in 6 weeks so I am back to weight watchers and trying to eat healthy (ie no processed crap). Today was my first day and I KNOW it's too soon to expect any results (only been on Synthroid for a week, it will take a month to see where my levels are and then possible adjustment).
I guess I just need some encouragement. Somehow it seems really unfair that I have SO much weight to lose (a whole other person) yet no matter how hard I work I can't seem to make any progress. I'm afraid that even though I have read lots of stuff on the web indicating that people with TSH levels over even 1.5-2 can exhibit hypothyroid symptoms and benefit from some replacement therapy that it won't help me one bit. I'm not talking about being able to lose 2-3 lbs/week or anything but even to be able to make steady progress of just .5-1 lb/week would be a godsend at this point. The nutritionist did say that they get lots of people with numbers "more normal" than mine who benefit from treatment and that she is pretty confident it will help, but I'm still scared as I have no idea what my next move after this would be.
I am just going to be more assertive this appt. and let him know that I truly feel a 2 is a much better normal level for me, even if a 5 is in the "normal" range.
