• Welcome to Phoenix Rising!

    Created in 2008, Phoenix Rising is the largest and oldest forum dedicated to furthering the understanding of and finding treatments for complex chronic illnesses such as chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS), fibromyalgia (FM), long COVID, postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (POTS), mast cell activation syndrome (MCAS), and allied diseases.

    To become a member, simply click the Register button at the top right.

Unexplained Fat Loss

Messages
19
Hello,
My issue started 3.5 years ago, in 2016. I had a bad throat infection and they gave me levofloxacin (floroquinoles), 2 weeks later I had an allergic reaction to iodine contrast from a CT, mild one. At the time I didn't notice anything weird. In the next 20 months I took 56 pills of that antibiotic. At some point in the spring of 2017 I started noticing loss of mass. Initially I thought it was muscle but no. It's adipose tissue. I have been losing all over for the last 3,5 years, soles and hands included. My face lost all its roundness. My weight is still the same, 78kg/ 172 pounds. Yet I am losing fat, I can see veins and tendons. My foot padding is too thin.
I was the first to suggest Acquired generalised lipodystrophy to my doctor who refused that possibility. I sent blood tests and pics to Dr. GARG an American lipodystrophy expert, he said he doesn't think I have it. I was tested for nearly everything. Everything is great. So, far my only symptom is my fat loss. I am just 32 and I am terrified.
If anyone had similar issues and found a solution to stop it, plz contact me.
 

Attachments

  • 16015077003086786874393763276368.jpg
    16015077003086786874393763276368.jpg
    1.7 MB · Views: 63
  • 16015077397668243413988865827397.jpg
    16015077397668243413988865827397.jpg
    2.1 MB · Views: 65
  • 20200930_210823.jpg
    20200930_210823.jpg
    4.9 MB · Views: 61

GreenEdge

Senior Member
Messages
569
Location
Brisbane, Australia
I'm 15 years older than you. When I was in primary school everyone was slim, fit and healthy. That was normal. Then one day we got a new principal and he was overweight and his daughter was too. She was the only overweight child in the whole school and she got teased for it. Today her weight/appearance would be considered normal. This new normal is less healthy; but that is what your generation has grown up with. You have a perverted view of what a healthy human looks like.

Being able to see veins and tendons is good. Having a chiseled face is good. You are becoming more healthy.

The western world started gaining weight from 1980 onward (after the dietary guidelines were introduced). We were encouraged to replace butter with margarine and to fear cholesterol and fat, especially saturated fat. So the food manufactures reduced the fat content of their products which made them taste bland, so they added more sugar. The sugar drives hunger so now people eat an excess of calories... Unknown to us at the time: Margarine contained trans-fats. Cholesterol is not a nutrient of concern. Saturated fat does not clog arteries.

You have nothing to fear. If your fat stores become too low, your hunger will naturally increase. :thumbsup:
 
Messages
19
I'm 15 years older than you. When I was in primary school everyone was slim, fit and healthy. That was normal. Then one day we got a new principal and he was overweight and his daughter was too. She was the only overweight child in the whole school and she got teased for it. Today her weight/appearance would be considered normal. This new normal is less healthy; but that is what your generation has grown up with. You have a perverted view of what a healthy human looks like.

Being able to see veins and tendons is good. Having a chiseled face is good. You are becoming more healthy.

The western world started gaining weight from 1980 onward (after the dietary guidelines were introduced). We were encouraged to replace butter with margarine and to fear cholesterol and fat, especially saturated fat. So the food manufactures reduced the fat content of their products which made them taste bland, so they added more sugar. The sugar drives hunger so now people eat an excess of calories... Unknown to us at the time: Margarine contained trans-fats. Cholesterol is not a nutrient of concern. Saturated fat does not clog arteries.

You have nothing to fear. If your fat stores become too low, your hunger will naturally increase. :thumbsup:

The issues is that I wasn't like that before. I was always plumpy, I have the same weight. Yet, I am losing adipose tissue. There isn't anything normal with what it's happening especially with my feet soles, hands/palms and face.
I didn't try to become thin...that's the issue this is happening for the last 3.5 years after those things happened to me.
 
Messages
19
How are you gauging this fat loss? Your pictures don't look anything abnormal.
Yeah, I am sorry the pics might not show that well. The thing is my socks don't fit. My hands are really thin, and my face is also quite leaner that it used to. My legs and thighs are like mushy, full of cellulite yet my skin seems like it's emptying out and becoming wrinkly. I haven't lost any weight so far. I am really at loss with what is happening as this is the only thing happening to me.
 

Rufous McKinney

Senior Member
Messages
13,251
I am really at loss with what is happening as this is the only thing happening to me.

Well, some of us with ME do experience a gradual loss of this fat...

In the heel, for instance, I've experienced severe loss of what i think is BOTH fat and collagen. Same with fingertips. Other body parts that should be firm and have more collagen in them...(I am convinced)...
are weak and have collapsed.

Your heel looks like that is starting to me...and you know your own body. I did lose alot of weight: 45 pounds over about a decade. Muscle and fat- fell away, jiggle remains.

My fingerprints hardly register and I was barely able to get thru the DMV. (I am older than you most likely).

So I can hardly walk into my kitchen barefoot- my heel hurts there is just no padding.

The other day I got down on the kitchen floor and became relatively stranded. Trying to get up, pushing against the linoleum- it was painful. ...no padding. I realized I get up off padded thick carpetting much more easily.

What to do about it? Good question.. I"m going to try to work on getting more protein in, maybe add glycine...

My doctor meanwhile: loves skinny. -I'm ambivalent, I feel too thin...I've a bit more COVID fat on me, because my daughter is visiting and she simply makes sure food is always around and loves bread: which I mostly try not to buy, as I will: eat it.
 

Rufous McKinney

Senior Member
Messages
13,251
Looking at the heel- a very important area of the body- most of us don't appreciate enough...

Wikipedia describes the tissue there-

"the sole of the foot is covered by a layer of subcutaneous connective tissue up to 2 cm thick (under the heel). This tissue has a system of pressure chambers that both acts as a shock absorber and stabilises the sole. Each of these chambers contains fibrofatty tissue covered by a layer of tough connective tissue made of collagen fibers. These septa ("walls") are firmly attached both to the plantar aponeurosis above and the sole's skin below. The sole of the foot is one of the most highly vascularized regions of the body surface, and the dense system of blood vessels..."

I suspect, focusing just on the heel- that you maybe losing both collagen and fatty tissue in this area, @CursedChild. (I hope you don't feel cursed, actually...).

I've gained- about 10 COVID. pounds, I might be a bit stronger - (lifting my grandaughter, up and down off floor, endless dishes)...but i see no- re-fattening of these deflated tissues. (went to the belly it looks like, jiggle jiggle).
 
Messages
19
Looking at the heel- a very important area of the body- most of us don't appreciate enough...

Wikipedia describes the tissue there-

"the sole of the foot is covered by a layer of subcutaneous connective tissue up to 2 cm thick (under the heel). This tissue has a system of pressure chambers that both acts as a shock absorber and stabilises the sole. Each of these chambers contains fibrofatty tissue covered by a layer of tough connective tissue made of collagen fibers. These septa ("walls") are firmly attached both to the plantar aponeurosis above and the sole's skin below. The sole of the foot is one of the most highly vascularized regions of the body surface, and the dense system of blood vessels..."

I suspect, focusing just on the heel- that you maybe losing both collagen and fatty tissue in this area, @CursedChild. (I hope you don't feel cursed, actually...).

I've gained- about 10 COVID. pounds, I might be a bit stronger - (lifting my grandaughter, up and down off floor, endless dishes)...but i see no- re-fattening of these deflated tissues. (went to the belly it looks like, jiggle jiggle).
Hey,
To be honest I do feel a bit cursed in a sense it came of nowhere. I was there being healthy, young, living the dream in a foreign country and then I got a throat infection. Simple one, no fever, just pus..went to the doctor got floroquinoles..a 10 days of treatment, I was back to normal. I am teacher and I don't have tonsils so all over the year I am fighting throat issues. I took 56 pills of floroquinoles in 20 months. Never had an issue with antibiotics before.
And then I noticed the loss. No one can help me, I am 32, I was/ am about to start my life with my partner, I wanted kids...and now this is happening and it just doesn't stop. 3.5 years and still going strong. In the meanwhile I am 170 pounds, yet I am flabby all over, skinny hands, feet and face.
I am eating well, many supplements for the last 4 months, herbal teas, good sleep.
Nothing works and no doctor can help!
I am scared I might have Acquired lipodystrophy and if that is my life is over, I will become deformed, pretty much like a skeleton and who knows what kind of issues are internally.
If this isn't a curse what is it?
Especially as millions of people take the same antibiotics for months even, or have more serious infections that I had. Yet, I might end up with the rare disease...
It sounds selfish but to be honest this isn't something you can even live with...
 

lint7

Senior Member
Messages
116
Is your fat loss continuing or has it stopped?

I agree that your pictures don't look like much, but I'm suffering from something very similar and it is hard to capture in pictures.

Has your skin atrophied as well? (increased wrinkling, dryness)