Spring is Coming - Anyone want to share Weight loss protcols?

[maddietod]

Maybe because we have M.E. and maintaining our weight at all is very difficult, and losing or gaining weight deliberately often seems impossible. Inability to exercise may be a large factor in keeping weight on, as well as a general lack of knowledge about how to deal with our metabolic issues.

I think a lot of us, like me, are already on complex protocols, and it gets very complicated to add weight-loss into the mix. I use the small amount of focus available to me on figuring out optimal doses of multiple supplements. Low carb works really well for me, but it will have to wait.

 

[Little Bluestem]

Triffid,

Apparently my brain had less than three functioning mitochondria the other night. I just found the reply that I thought I had left here over on the fasting thread. I am on dial-up, so often have more than one tab open so that I can read one while the other is loading. Ill bet that had you and some others scratching their heads.

My T3 and T4 were both a little low a couple of months ago. My physician said not to treat the thyroid because the adrenals are also low. The synthroid say not to take it if adrenals are low. Do you know if the thyroid support products that you take are OK for wimpy adrenals?

Getting homocysteine tested is a very good idea. I do not know what uMMA is.

Like just about everyone here, I have some digestive issues. They have improved some and are relatively mild. I do take a digestive supplement that includes HCL. My dietician suggested a stronger HCL supplement and it gave me heart burn at 1/day, so I never made it to with every meal.

I take 30 mg of supplemental zinc, down from 50 or 60, but have a low tissue (hair) zinc level. I am hoping that the B2 will help with that problem, among others.

I have low blood pressure, so have stayed away from the olive leaf extract. I know a lot of people have good results with it.

P.S. Love your new username!

 

[taniaaust1]

I am surprised there aren't more people interested in dieting or sharing dieting info in the spring. For me it is a spring ritual I guess...

Trif

I think a lot of people here have just already got too much on their plate (excuse the pun) to be able to handle dieting on top of this... when one cant do any exercise at all, that also can put one off of trying to focus on weight loss.

Our diets for most of us is already a nightmare due to all the food intollerences and all the things we cant eat. eg one study showed that 50%? of us have been found to have fructose intollerence....

Some at this site are eatting as little as only five different foods as intollerant to EVERYTHING else... . others are having trouble keeping weight on.. as ME goes to different ways .. it causes weight gain or weight loss... or some swing both ways so like to keep a little spare weight on.
........

I know you say you are trying to avoid all fats but eatting the good fats is important and protective for your heart etc. Things like chicken breast, fish should be fine as far as fats go. These work well with a nice mixed salad eg lettuce, cucumber, tomatoe, capsicum and balasmic vinegar.

Pay attention to what you are drinking as much as to your foods. (Ive heard many say they cant loose weight but then found they are having a great amount of calories from what they drink).

 

[triffid113]

Thanks, Tania. I drink coffee with half n half (some unneeded calories there...not sure how much), water, and Vitamin Water with potassium in it. I never drink toxic waste (pop). I am very disappointed with the diet. After losing 10 pounds, nothing. I am not eating more. The tyrosine is great for keeping down the munchies, but I am retaining water. I am thinking maybe I need to get a bottle of PC (which I think is the same as lecithin?). Lecithin can allow one to lose water. Also I need to step up the potassium a bit maybe too. The main thing is I am finding myself tired. So I am not actually getting as much exercise as would definitely peel this off. I know I can do quite well on this number of calories, for this is how I ate in high school. So I don't know what changed. Besides not having natural hormones anymore and carrying extra weight I want to melt away.

I borrowed some 10 pound arm weights from my sister (mine are 5 pound) and so I could work on my upper body at home inbetween my fitness center being open. I have never had aerobic capacity to do shit...have always been too anemic to catch my breath (unto today) so I like to do things where I can push against weight. Those short term exercises like 3 sets of 10 of this, that, or the other. Now they tell me this is not the way to lose weight but to build muscle. Well muscle consumes more calories so eventually it must lead to weight loss anyway. Too bad I am not up for those exercises that are quickly beneficial. It does feel really good to push against weight though -- after I'm done, of course!

I get you about the fat. I can't really cut fat totally because all protein sources have fat...my morning eggs have fat, etc. I am just avoiding adding cheese to dishes, eating dishes that are big fat blobs (like creamed spinach), and also avoiding drinking milk. I never butter my toast anyway. Oh, I love chocolate but that is out 4 now too. I am getting frustrated that despite eating diet calories there is no more weight loss. So disappointing!

 

[Pea]

Triff, here is what I posted in another thread:
And I don't care what people say - everybody's body is different and I don't believe it's always just the calories. Need to find what works for her. After my thyroid died and I gained 15 lbs. in 3 weeks! I tried Weight Watchers twice, stuck to it to a T, and could only lose 1/4 lb. a week, sometimes gaining. (you are rewarded for eating crappy carbs on WW). And I did not feel good on it.

I switched to the "simply filling" where you can eat unlimited fruits, veggies, lean meats, and some good grains, and lost 1 lb. a week. I need fats & protein or I don't feel good. I didn't even count olive oil whatsoever.

I had posted what I was generally eating each day on the WW message board, and the gal who suggested going to the Simply Filling said I had only been eating like 800 calories a day!! but not losing weight, and feeling crappy.

If you have stopped losing weight and you feel hollow it may mean you need to find something different for your body type. As for fats, I just recently even went back to full-fat milk in my coffee. But that's just me. I do try to limit carbs.

I also think it really helps to try to go to bed a little bit hungry - I will always lose weight that way, no matter how much I ate during the day. And if I want something carby like a big bowl of pasta, or pizza, I'll often have that in the morning on a day where I'm going to be more physically active. Keeping serotonin at optimal level is good to keep the carb cravings in check. Vitamin D helps with this.

I didn't reply earlier because in helping my friend through methylation - made me question the supplements I was already taking, and I no longer remember why - not always sure if I'm taking them for hypothyroid, weight loss, dry skin, or a combination thereof!

I do know I take Tonalin, Apple Cider Vinegar, and L-Carnitine for fat metabolism, although just recently read that the L-Carn may lower your thyroid function. I think I take Acai Berry & Green/White/Black tea for weight loss. Also something about Flax Oil & belly fat so I take an Omega 3-6-9.

I've always taken Ubuiquinol and Resveratrol but not sure why I started those. I take selenium & zinc, I think to help thyroid function.

I read awhile ago that calcium can lower your thyroid RX effectiveness, so I wait to take calcium way after I take the med. However recently reading how too much calcium is not good for the brain, I really reduced my calcium and got all nervousy.

 

[heapsreal]

good low carb food, lots of meat and eggs etc or makes stews with low carb soups and lots of low carb veges. The next trick is to use a med called metformin which helps improve insulin sensitivty, then less food is shuttle into fat storage, also appetitte is reduced as well. lost10kg with just the diet and then another 10kg by adding metformin.

cheers!!!

 

[dmholmes]

Anyone else want to post what they are attempting and give updates from time to time?

Not my primary goal, but I've dropped about 30 pounds since changing from a standard American diet to the Perfect Health Diet (perfecthealthdiet.com).

 

[triffid113]

Wow! I want 2 thank everyone for all your suggestions. Some of them are even things I knew but trailed off on doing. Thanks for the reminders. (Like I trailed off on the omega-3 and also not enough calcium, so if those affect dieting I will put a special effort on them).

I also see a website I need to look at.

But for now I will just respond to Bluestem.

Well...here is the thing. My adrenals crap out during allergy season but I have not taken these adrenal products long enough to get through an allergy season (which is the month of June). However I have no plans to stop taking them. But my adrenal gland is just OLD and ALLERGY-BEATEN. I wonder how many of you are actually trying to make up for an adrenal gland that is JUST OLD, NOT SICK? It is normal for your adrenal to peak out on DHEA at age 30! And w/o sufficient DHEA u cannot tolerate stress/cortisol. So if you are 40+ (mabe younger) and you start to notice that you cannot tolerate coffee (2cups raises your cortisol 33%) wheereas you could in the past, this is your clue that your adrenal gland is getting OLD. So I supplement DHEA and pregnenolone. b4 that, I could no longer tolerate coffee, after that I tolerate coffee just fine. Now my adrenal gland still craps out at some point during allergy season (the vitamin protocol I am on determines how quickly -- in the past year I have been able to tolerate 3 weeks of allergies b4 my blood pressure goes low). During that time I still take Olive Leaf Extract. As far as I can tell it doesn't further lower my bp...but whatever, I won't be w/o it due to it makes me not care that i don;t make enough stomach acid. Like my stomach hardly ever growls but that is the only problem i can tell -- no food sitting undigested in my stomach etc. So...I am kindof fearless about supplements and have no plan to stop taking them at allergy season, but i can't guarantee u how they will work during adrenal issues. my gut feel is there is no way the T3 supplement (tyrosine, phosphate, guggul) could cause an issue, and if any would it would be the coleus forslean. I have never actually determined if i need the forslean...i get a major benefit from the tyrosine supplement though. So i would look into supplementing DHEA+pregnenolone (realising it is hormone replacement and taking all precautions such as covered at http://www.lef.org/protocols/prtcl-131a.shtml) and I would try the T3 (tyrosone) product, and if I was not so brave as I am, then I would hold off on the forslean until I felt my adrenal was more stable. do u get low blood sugar easily? because that is a major symptom for me.

You can get homocysteine tested anywhere and it will be covered under most medical plans, but I get it at www.lef.org (search for 'blood tests'). uMMA is the urinary methyl malonic acid test. This tells if you have enough adenosylcobalamine in a form that your body can use...because if u r taking a form your body cannot use, methyl malonic acid will build up...it is an organic acid test. So a serum B12 test is worthless because it will measure forms of b12 u can't use. The best 2 measures of actual usable B12 in your body are the homocysteine and uMMA tests. Actually Rich recommends a SAMe test, but I am not sure if u can get it all by itself or just with a costly panel. u can ask him maybe.

Trif

 

[Sallysblooms]

For me it was all about sugar and carbs. No more of that and weight comes off very easily. I stopped them so my nerves would heal and I lost weight. Tons of veggies, fruit, seafood, sea veggies, organic meat. It is really simple, we just make it hard. Just eating food we should eat and moving or exercising as much as we can. Even if it is just in a chair, or with exer. bands, etc. Gentle things. Moving in some way.

 

[triffid113]

heaps...nice 2 hear from u. i dont take drugs and am particularly afraid of metformin as it causes neuropathy! I think the thyroid supplements I take increase insulin sensitivity, but if not there are other things I would try...like chromium and vanadium. But idk, do u think this could be the problem when what i experience is LOW blood sugar (meaning the blood sugar HAS gone into the cells?) I am not being sarcastic...maybe i haven't thought about this right. i am only winging this...off the top of my head it did not seem like the direction i needed, but could be i am wrong. i find i can't exercise past 45 min w/o getting shakey from low blood sugar so still haven't got the adrenal right yet. but it is much better as far as no real interest in munching on junk anymore. so i am making some sort of progress here, just disappointingly SLOOOOOW. Tnaks, take care.

Trif

 

[triffid113]

Thanks, I agree sort of. I do not think it is simple. I mean I always knew I could not diet if I had low blood sugar so getting a handle on that is KEY (and not simple). But maybe not as hard as all that either. It is just key to realise it is a thyroid+adrenal issue and once you know that you can start to find a solution. The tyrosine was a god-send for me. If I'd have found it b4 the winter weight gain it wouldnever have happened.

And the simple exercises...that is what I mean. I can't do that hard core aerobic stuff, but I like to do what I can. It is slow making progress that way but you DO make progress. I actually love my fitness center because there is always a fellow struggler there with an inspiring word. Like a few days ago there was this very slim woman of color who told me she lost 65 pounds 7 years ago and kept it off ever since by exercising 1 hour every day. She said YOU CAN DO IT. Just when I was thinking - oh hell, is this ever going to come off? When u can only go slow it does help to hear a cheery inspiring comment.

Take care, all.

YOU CAN DO IT!!!!
trif

 

[Sallysblooms]

My blood glucose gets low sometimes too, I just eat snacks. The lack of sugar and carbs and loads of healthful food has made it easy to lose. Yes, hard exer. is harmful for us, but careful movement is good for circulation and keeping muscle that then burns more fat. Just has to be done differently for each of us. I love my peddler, exer. bands and sitting exercise. I am strong again after having POTS and not being about to do ANYTHING for several years.

 

[heapsreal]

heaps...nice 2 hear from u. i dont take drugs and am particularly afraid of metformin as it causes neuropathy! I think the thyroid supplements I take increase insulin sensitivity, but if not there are other things I would try...like chromium and vanadium. But idk, do u think this could be the problem when what i experience is LOW blood sugar (meaning the blood sugar HAS gone into the cells?) I am not being sarcastic...maybe i haven't thought about this right. i am only winging this...off the top of my head it did not seem like the direction i needed, but could be i am wrong. i find i can't exercise past 45 min w/o getting shakey from low blood sugar so still haven't got the adrenal right yet. but it is much better as far as no real interest in munching on junk anymore. so i am making some sort of progress here, just disappointingly SLOOOOOW. Tnaks, take care.

Trif

Sometimes you can get reactive hypo's, too many carbs and your body over shoots insulin to try and deal with it and over shooting the mark with insulin causes low blood sugar. Low carb diets are the go for this, chromium, and vandyl are used for this as well as alpha lipoic acid. I got to the stage where these supplements werent helping with blood sugar. I havent had any problems with metformin, its all been good. I also think since adding dhea, q10 and acetyl l carnitine have helped with weight loss too.

cheers!!!

 

[triffid113]

Yes, good point about the carnitine. Normally I make enough (with Freddd's protocol) but maybe not while dieting. I have been taking 1 carnitine pill/day. Not sure if that's enough to do anything. I am taking guggul to lower insulin. I think what u r describing is normal low blood sugar (which I have experienced in the past), however what I am getting is not normal low blood sugar. It seems to have nothing to do with eating...no relationship to what I ate or when...it has more to do with I can only do so much exercise and no more. I have had this problem for years now...I used to be able to bike 100 mile marathons, then I got so after 25 miles I would get low blood sugar, no matter how much I ate. My cycling buddy and I would figure out exactly how many calories I burned and stop once an hour to eat that many but it would not help. Now at the gym I get a measly 45 min. And that's only because of my T3 (tyrosine) pills. I do eat starch, but not junk starch. 100% whole wheat bread. So for instance if I eat sugar there is a sugar-high and then a sugar-low, both which can be felt, and that is reactive hypo.

That's interesting that metformin causes no blood sugar difficulties. That part sounds very nice. It would definitely be very nice not to have blood sugar issues ever again.

I did very good at my Easter dinner. We went to a seafood restaurant on the water (Lake St. Clair Michigan) and it had a buffet. I ate 1.5 portions of boiled fish - cod. (Because I haven't been getting enough protein probably and I love fish). I ate their broccoli salad and their romaine salad, I had a small scoop of potatoes and for desert 2 chocolate dipped strawberries plus coffee. I think that was a pretty good mix of making sure to enjoy the good food and not overdoing or choosing fatty stuff. Too bad I'm not losing any more weight, I think I deserve to!!!

And that reminds me...there was another comment above I took to heart. The one that said to go to bed hungry and that is how to lose weight. Because today all I ate was that Easter dinner and now I am hungry. Normally I would have grabbed some small thing, but it IS late and I would just sleep on those calories and so maybe that is why I am not losing -- eating right b4 bed. Well I'll figure it out eventually. Thanks! Best to you!
Trif

 

[Valentijn]

And the simple exercises...that is what I mean. I can't do that hard core aerobic stuff, but I like to do what I can. It is slow making progress that way but you DO make progress. I actually love my fitness center because there is always a fellow struggler there with an inspiring word. Like a few days ago there was this very slim woman of color who told me she lost 65 pounds 7 years ago and kept it off ever since by exercising 1 hour every day. She said YOU CAN DO IT. Just when I was thinking - oh hell, is this ever going to come off? When u can only go slow it does help to hear a cheery inspiring comment.

Take care, all.

YOU CAN DO IT!!!!

No, a lot of us can't do it. Just getting to a fitness center would cause me to crash, never mind exercising an hour per day. I'm lucky if I can sit upright an hour per day currently.

Please keep in mind that this is an ME forum and the core symptom of ME is post-exertional malaise. Exercise is impossible for many of us and likely harmful for many more. Saying exercise is a simple or feasible way to lose weight is not "inspiring" in my current situation ... it's insulting.

 

[Sallysblooms]

Heaps, make sure you always get your b12 tested since Metformin can make it hard to absorb it.

I never go to bed hungry since sleeping is important. I make sure I am not hungry for bed so blood sugar stays even. But not unhealthful foods.

 

[svetoslav80]

And the simple exercises...that is what I mean. I can't do that hard core aerobic stuff, but I like to do what I can. It is slow making progress that way but you DO make progress. I actually love my fitness center because there is always a fellow struggler there with an inspiring word. Like a few days ago there was this very slim woman of color who told me she lost 65 pounds 7 years ago and kept it off ever since by exercising 1 hour every day. She said YOU CAN DO IT. Just when I was thinking - oh hell, is this ever going to come off? When u can only go slow it does help to hear a cheery inspiring comment.

Take care, all.

YOU CAN DO IT!!!!
trif

I was one of those people to promote exercise among CFS sufferers since I was able to hard cycle 30 km even with my ailment. Since then however my health has worsened a lot, maybe to show me that i was not right, and now I'm not able to cycle most of the time. Exercise can be done if you're sick, and it does help, but not if you're too sick. There's a limit.

 

[heapsreal]

Heaps, make sure you always get your b12 tested since Metformin can make it hard to absorb it.

I never go to bed hungry since sleeping is important. I make sure I am not hungry for bed so blood sugar stays even. But not unhealthful foods.

Thanks Sally, i get some b12 in my multivits and every so often do a b12 injection for a few weeks.

cheers!!!

 

[Little Bluestem]

Triffid,

I would say that I do not get low blood sugar easily, but that may be because I have learned how to deal with it fairly well. Unfortunately, eating before bed is part of dealing with it. If I went to bed hungry, my blood sugar might be so low by morning that I would have difficulty getting conscious.

I do not have medical insurance, so have to pick and choose my tests carefully.

I am getting ready to start taking B2 and do not want to take anything that would interfere with that. Christine said not to start taking standard thyroid medications (since I am not now). I would really like to be rid of 10 pounds in 2 months, but my long-term health has to take precedence.

I am one who favors exercise for those with ME/CFS, but what exercise must be very subjective. I can walk if I dont walk too fast or go too far (basically, keep it anaerobic). If I sit down to rest a time or two during the walk, I can go farther. I have a rebounder which I like a lot. I can do the warm-up exercises and one regular exercise. I do not do them as long as the instructions say.

L. Bluestem