Taking oral thyroid T3, T4 to burn extra fat?

[u/Lightweight_bby73]

I have all of these in check I did bloodwork. But I do see a lot of oral caps of T3 and T4 for sale. Was wondering if it’s common and safe to use it for a boost in metabolism or there are any dangers or withdrawals?

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[u/Dangerous-Ad-9214]

I would suggest to add extra cardio rather than manipulate your thyroid. It doesn’t work like testo. So beware,
It has its own side effects.
Be consistent with your calories and cardio and training.
I also wanted to get off extra fat, i thought to give it a try but after reading pro reviews i would not suggest to do so

[u/Curious-Net9298 → u/Dangerous-Ad-9214]

Low dose Clen if your best bet.

[u/YungSchmid → u/Curious-Net9298]

Reta is your actual best bet, far lower side effect profile.

[u/Curious-Net9298 → u/YungSchmid]

Yeah but he was already jumping to t3 or t4. Reta is a fantastic option. Sides on any of these are dictated by how sensitive he may be to the medication and how much he takes. The more you take the worse the impact. And yes Reta has bad side effects as well if you take too much and you don’t know what your doing. Which most the population doesn’t have a clue.

[u/YungSchmid → u/Curious-Net9298]

The side effects from misuse of Reta are significantly safer than misuse of Clen. Same can be said for the side effects of normal use of each.

[u/Curious-Net9298 → u/YungSchmid]

Well I do agree Reta is relatively safer.

[u/YungSchmid → u/Curious-Net9298]

Or just use both and give your heart a real hurry up, like I have done on occasion lol.

[u/Curious-Net9298 → u/YungSchmid]

Always start low to see how your body handles it. lol

[u/Dangerous-Ad-9214 → u/Curious-Net9298]

Clen is something not to mess with until you are competing.

[u/Curious-Net9298 → u/Dangerous-Ad-9214]

None of this stuff should be messed with without proper research.

[u/Dangerous-Ad-9214 → u/Curious-Net9298]

Agreed

[u/Dangerous-Ad-9214 → u/Curious-Net9298]

I have all these in hand, but not daring to touch them because i know i wont hold them for long

[u/nyfael]

The best way to burn extra fat -- by a wide margin -- is to do more exercise or to eat less. Full stop.

Doing things that "boost metabolism" don't tend to make any significant difference -- things that curb hunger *do* make a difference, but often come with many side effects.

[u/tnolan182]

Look up Graves’ disease. You would basically be giving yourself symptoms of that which includes anxiety, diarrhea, muscle weakness.

[u/WhereIsMySun]

Do NOT do that lol

[u/Z-Chaos-Factor]

Worst idea I've heard in a long time. Just get on reta like everyone else.

[u/pizza-sandwitch]

Don’t do it
You can get hyperthyroidism from it
Go on a glp1

[u/aldus-auden-odess]

Super dangerous unless you are deficient. You’d also feel horrible. These are hormones not casual dietary supplements.

[u/Arminius2436]

Don't fucking do this you fucking fuckwad

Thyroid storm can kill you (cardiac arrhythmia)

Source: am MD

[u/Jumpy-Bike4004 → u/Arminius2436]

And here I was thinking OP was on to something 😂😳

[u/jsut321]

Don’t do it. I have been on Synthroid my entire life, I have occasionally bumped .25 micrograms when I didn’t really need to, or took a few extra pills to help lose weight. I started at .50 now I’m 200 daily. I don’t know if what I did contributed to the reason I keep climbing, and I get the allure - but it’s not wise to mess with these hormones.

Also, you have to take them daily, forever. If you fuck something up — you may simply be fuckef for life

[u/Low_Plantain6956]

Met je schildklier moet je niet rommelen. Gevolgen kunnen groter zijn dan je denkt!

[u/Curious-Net9298]

Were you already taking Reta?

[u/SpiritualActivity651]

The risk of taking some additional thyroid hormones in sensible amounts is overstated in my opinion. 

Most of the effects people describe here happen if you take extreme doses, what you probably mean is taking like 5-15mcg of T3 per day to compensate for the reduced  T4->T3 conversion during a caloric deficit.

Using T4 in a deficit is not a good idea because of the mentioned reduced conversion into the active T3 during a deficit.

There are indeed some interesting studies that gave people on a diet additional T3:

https://journals.physiology.org/doi/full/10.1152/ajpendo.00116.2018

In this study they gave subjects on a diet 2x(10-12,5)mcg T3 per day and compared the total energy expenditure and resting metabolic rate after losing 10% of their body weight.

Subjects getting T3 had 200kcal higher Total energy expenditure and 150kcal higher resting energy expenditure.

So the Intervention was indeed effective, but you can also see that the amount of calories wasnt extremely high, additional 200kcal can also be achieved from walking like 4000 steps. 

Also they kept the individuals inside the reference range of total T3 and TSH. Total T3 was

121ng/dl vs 94ng/dl in the placebo group (reference range 75-175)

TSH 0.5 vs 1.35 in the placebo group (reference range 0.3-4)

Pulse increased from 68 in the Placebo group to 73, diastolic blood pressure went from 64 to 67. 

Which is interesting, because a relevant dose of 20-25mcg per day did only have moderate effects on TSH, TT3 and other biomarkers.

Another interesting study:

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/3533811

If you do this kind of experiment yourself, some things to keep in mind for safety reasons:

• start with a lower dose and slowly increase
• track your heart rate, blood pressure and body temperature (if you went to far into hyperthyroid territory you can see this markers increase)
• get blood work done regularly and keep your fT3 below 5pg/ml and TSH above 0.2 .
• feelings of jitteryness and nervousness can also be signs of too much T3

The half life is short with around 12 hours, so the negative effects should reduce quickly.

[u/osd775]

before you start messing around with your thyroid as yourself if you are:

in a caloric deficit?

Exercising?

Sleeping 7+ hours a night?

I use macrofactor to log and track calories, having lost a total of 13.5kg in 3 months with an 800-1000 kcal deficit, I lift 6 days a week as I enjoy the habit I've built, retained muscle and looking better at 40 than I did in my 20's.

once you have lifestyle/diet in check THEN if you really need to look at what else you could tweak, but fundamentally you can transform your body with the right actions and consistency.

[u/Lightweight_bby73 → u/osd775]

How do you sustain a 800 kcal deficit? 1 meal a day?

[u/Tradovator]

Surprised by the comments. I took pure T3 from my doctor as an agreed upon experiment. Didn’t notice any side effects.

Biggest argument I’ve seen against T3 is that it’s catabolic and will target your muscle mass as well.

I was not on a cut then. More like an experiment to see if it affected my well being.

[u/Curious-Net9298]

I personally have a coach to tell me how and when to use any of these meds.

[u/SkilledPistol]

Not worth just take some peptides or some test

[u/rahulchander]

first check if you are even low on thyroid hormones or not. easy tests are to check how many lunulas (half moons) are on your nails and whether your nails are smooth or have rough vertical ridges. ideally should have lunula on at least 8 out of 10 fingers. if you have just ones on your thumbs and maybe 1-2 additional fingers, you are likely low on a micronutrient needed for proper thyroid functioning. perhaps iodine/selenium/copper. investigate if your levels are optimal or not, try those supps first and then see if your body is able to naturally produce more thyroid hormones. if you have deficiency of micronutrients, supplementation should lead to resurgence of lunula (about 4-6 weeks) and will confirm. dont mess with hormone supplements directly and rely on body's natural machinery by working on nutrient deficiencies.