T4 levels 'Lil Help please...

[zaggahamma]

Well,

I have seemed to hit another plateau in my quest for lower BF.

A few posts I've read lately that show ppl using thyroid meds in their HRT programs has made me look back at my old bloodwork. I found one test that included T4 and has my level at:

1.04 on a ref range of .61-1.76

It appears to be in the middle and was wondering if it matters where your level is with this hormone (if it's even a hormone) whether you can benefit from taking thyroid meds. And if there are many side affects or risks of going on these types of drugs. Do most that use thyroid meds have their levels tested and if so can you give me a few of your levels b4 starting and does the level go up or down on the meds.

I am going to do some research as you can see I know nothing about T4 but just wanted some first hand knowledge, opinions, advice from my fellas here as well.

any advice is appreciated

[zaggahamma]

bump

[scott2393]

I really think that TSH levels are very important when you are trying to decipher t4 or t3 levels, and you didn't include TSH. Now I actually have some thyroid problems (rampant genetic error in my family, we all have it) and so I would be on t4 regardless of any fitness goals or hrt goals. But I can tell you from experience that you have to really look at your TSH levels and consider how you feel, and how easy it is to lose weight. Supression of TSH under 3 or even 2 is best. My levels are in the upper third of my range and my tsh floats around in the low 2.xx's. When my tsh was almost 5, even though that is considered "normal" I felt not so great and was pudging up. If you do monkey around with your tsh levels remember it takes about 3 months on a new dose of levoxyl or synth for your new levels to be 100% stable.

And levoxyl/synthroid versus cytomel ? If your t4 and t3 are in the same respective zones in their range, that means your body is efficient at turning t4 into t3 all by itself so synthroid is better. Butif your t4 would be high, and your t3 low then you'd need cytomel. That's IMHO of course.

You have more room to play around with thyroid hormones without bad side effects, just monitor that tsh and t4! And of course sweating insomnia buggy eyes etc would mean you are overdoing it, but you REALLY have to overdo it for that to happen.

my ##'s right now are t4 total 10.6 upper range 12.5, free t4 3.2 upper range 3.8 tsh 2.54 upper (bull****) range 5.5. Got fatter after an accident but I'm losing 2 pounds fat a week no problem and gaining muscle.

[zaggahamma]

scott...man, thanks for all that...sounds like i really need to read up on the subject

yes, the figures i threw up were for T4...didn't think i had been tested for TSH but sure enough your email has made me look back and i see:

TSH 1.99 with a range of .35 - 5.5

so do the two figures in both my posts mean anything...does it mean my metabolism should be slow or are they fairly mediocre as they appear in the ranges

i'm just reachin for ideas since i'm stalled recently, my sleep hasn't been that great lately and i've been tired more lately during the day because of it or in addition to it and coffee doesn't seem to combat the droopiness.
I mean i go to the gym and get my cardio and have great workouts but outside of that i feel like a sloth

i even wonder if it's possible that the arimidex isn't fighting off the estrogen that i'm making with my large hrt doses of test...i'm not due to do bloodwork until april....i might have to get that done sooner

thanks again