Does Increasing The Dosage Of Levothyroxine Facilitate Weight Loss?

Posted on Mon, 28 Sep 2015

Question: Hello, I am a 61 year old male and have gained about 15 pounds in about two months. I eat about 2,000 calories per day. I have been about 165 lb. for years and am very active. I take Levothyroxin at 125 mcg per day. My TSH is 4.330. T4 is 1.50. T3 is 2.5. My family doc says I'm normal. I don't feel normal. I am irritable, tired, and have difficulty concentrating on my work for more than 10 minutes at a time. All other labs came back normal. I have an appointment with an Endocrinologist in mid october. Does it make sense to increase dosage now and see what happens? Thank you. XXXXXXX

Answered by Dr. Binu Parameswaran Pillai (7 minutes later)

Brief Answer:
Increase Levothyroxine on weekends

Detailed Answer:
Good day,
Noted your concern and sorry to hear about your symptoms. It would be better to keep TSH less than 3. I would recommend to increase Levothyroxine to 150 mcg on saturday and sunday ( if you don not have any chest pain or a heart condition) and continue 125 mcg on other days. Besides, it may be good to do a CBC, 8 AM serum cortisol, Vitamin B12, Vitamin D as additional tests to look for causes of tiredness.
If your physical activity is not very itense, it is better to take between 1500 to 1800 calories a day which may facilitate weight loss.
Regards
Binu

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Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Chakravarthy Mazumdar