Objectives Among obese children TSH levels have been noted to be higher than normal weight children and, in some studies high TSH levels were found to be associated with cardiometabolic risk factors. The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between TSH levels and cardiometabolic risk factors in obese and overweight adolescents. Methods We performed a retrospective cross-sectional analysis of the data from 343 overweight or obese adolescents 11–18 years of age who were evaluated in our clinic from January 2012 to December 2015. Hypertension, dyslipidemia, hyperinsulinemia, hyperglycaemia and insulin resistance were defined as cardiometabolic risk factors. Patients’ TSH and free T4 levels were recorded and only those subjects whose free T4 was normal were included in the study. For statistical analysis, Spearman correlation test and linear logistic regression analysis were used. Results Among 343 adolescents; 25.1% were overweight, and 74.9% were obese. In the study group, the mean age was 14.03±1.76 years and 59.8% of the subjects were girls. The SDS-BMI was in median 2.4±0.64. A significant positive correlation was found between TSH level and HOMA-IR, insulin and triglyceride levels (P = 0.001, 0.001, 0.006, respectively). In the linear regression analysis in which age, gender and BMI-SDS values were taken as co-variates, a 10% increase in the geometric mean of TSH was associated with 0.13 fold increase in HOMA-IR and a 10% increase in TSH level was associated with one fold increase in geometric mean of insulin level (P = 0.003, 0.002, respectively), but the relationship between TSH and triglyceride levels disappeared. Conclusion TSH level was found related to the glucose metabolism in overweight and obese adolescents. Further prospective studies are needed to clarify the mechanism of this relationship.