Thyroid question

[luke77]

Hey guys,

I usually post on the Mens Health board but was hoping you guys could help me out with a quick question. I'm trying to gain weight and have been tracking my calories pretty closely to bulk at a consistent pace (I'm not on steroids). I've recently been prescribed armour thyroid, a T4/T3 combo, by my doctor. I know that cytomel is commonly used on cycles for cutting down body fat, and I've heard that it is very powerful stuff, not something to be messed around with. My question is simply what effect adding thyroid will have on my metabolism. I really, really need to gain weight (long story but I start a new job in 5 weeks and have lost a ton of weight unexpectedly recently), and don't want the thyroid to prevent me from doing this. From reading a little bit through the archives it sounds like cytomel has a pretty significant effect on the metabolism. Can anyone give me any idea of what I should expect, using armour at a normal therapeutic dose? I know armour is not straight T3 like I think cytomel is, but the two are used interchangeably and it does contain T3. Thanks for any help.

Luke

[jsupstarz]

Originally Posted by luke77

Hey guys,

I usually post on the Mens Health board but was hoping you guys could help me out with a quick question. I'm trying to gain weight and have been tracking my calories pretty closely to bulk at a consistent pace (I'm not on steroids). I've recently been prescribed armour thyroid, a T4/T3 combo, by my doctor. I know that cytomel is commonly used on cycles for cutting down body fat, and I've heard that it is very powerful stuff, not something to be messed around with. My question is simply what effect adding thyroid will have on my metabolism. I really, really need to gain weight (long story but I start a new job in 5 weeks and have lost a ton of weight unexpectedly recently), and don't want the thyroid to prevent me from doing this. From reading a little bit through the archives it sounds like cytomel has a pretty significant effect on the metabolism. Can anyone give me any idea of what I should expect, using armour at a normal therapeutic dose? I know armour is not straight T3 like I think cytomel is, but the two are used interchangeably and it does contain T3. Thanks for any help.

Luke

it depends what your thyroid levels were, if they were very LOW than the t3/t4 shouldn't have much effect on you trying to gain weight because most likely it is normalizing your levels. And just EAT EAT EAT! And lift, you can always bypass the effects of that medicine especially at med. doses. Let us know.

[luke77]

Originally Posted by jsupstarz

it depends what your thyroid levels were, if they were very LOW than the t3/t4 shouldn't have much effect on you trying to gain weight because most likely it is normalizing your levels. And just EAT EAT EAT! And lift, you can always bypass the effects of that medicine especially at med. doses. Let us know.

Thanks for the response. My T3 and T4 weren't very very low, they were right on the edge of the low/normal range, so the armour will probably bump it up to the high/high normal range. I'm really hesitant to add more calories to my diet because I'm eating at 1000 over maintenance already, shooting for 2 lbs a week of gain , and I anticipate that I'll probably be putting on a decent amount of fat as it is since I have to gain so rapidly. So I'm kind of afraid to increase my calories any more, but then again I don't want to stop or drastically slow my gains because my metabolism ramps up all the sudden due to the armour...I guess it's impossible to know for sure. What dose of T3 (or T4) is normally used by bodybuilders on a cycle and what kind of effect does it have on the metabolism?

Thanks again,

Luke

[iluvdeadlifts]

Originally Posted by luke77

Thanks for the response. My T3 and T4 weren't very very low, they were right on the edge of the low/normal range, so the armour will probably bump it up to the high/high normal range. I'm really hesitant to add more calories to my diet because I'm eating at 1000 over maintenance already, shooting for 2 lbs a week of gain , and I anticipate that I'll probably be putting on a decent amount of fat as it is since I have to gain so rapidly. So I'm kind of afraid to increase my calories any more, but then again I don't want to stop or drastically slow my gains because my metabolism ramps up all the sudden due to the armour...I guess it's impossible to know for sure. What dose of T3 (or T4) is normally used by bodybuilders on a cycle and what kind of effect does it have on the metabolism?

Thanks again,

Luke

Everyone uses T3 differently, i'd use it like this:
1,1,1,1,2,2,2,2,3,3,3,3,4,4,4,4,3,3,3,3,2,2,2,2,1, 1,1,1,0.5,0.5,0.5,0.5

starting on one tab a day, working up to 4 a day (spaced out) and then back down to 1/2 a tab a day.

I'm interested to see how everyone else uses it....... anyone??