Overweight and Fatigue

GoMom2016

Hi everyone,
I have 11lbs to lose before my bmi is considered normal. In the mean time, I'm suffering from fatigue during the day and waking up tired even after a good 8 hour sleep. This has been happening for about 4 months now. I also have hypothyroidism, but that has been managed with medication for a long while now. I'm just wondering if anyone has any experience with fatigue and it being alleviated once there was weight loss and a normal bmi? I'm hoping that's what's causing it as 11lbs to lose is much easier to swallow then some other health issue!!! My Dr wants to do an at home sleep test to get more information as well. Any help is appreciated.

Sharon_C

Are you eating enough? Does your thyroid medication need to be adjusted? I have hyperthyroid (different than Hypo, I know) but occasionally my medication needs to be adjusted

kshama2001

Have you been tested for anemia or other deficiencies? When I slip back into anemia at any weight I have crippling fatigue.

What's your weekly weight loss goal? Undereating will also cause fatigue. With only 11 pounds to lose anything more than a goal of a half pound per week would create too aggressive a deficit.

JstTheWayIam

Get tested for sleep apnea... I had it bad, no energy at all... The 180lbs I lost may not have been possible without treatment

leahrgrant

Have you ever had your thyroid antibodies tested? I have Hashimotos thyroidosis and my fatigue can be overwhelming sometimes even though my thyroid labs are in normal ranges. It can be really frustrating. My doctor did have me do a sleep study for apnea, but the machine didn't record the data, I need to do it again. It is hard to stick with the exercise sometimes and it seems that it takes lots of exercise for me to get the scale to budge.

pedermj2002

I'm a critic of BMI after finding out that getting myself to a "normal" BMI would result in me having severe health issues (where "severe" means "dead"). Because of that, I focus on doing one of two things:

1. Check the mirror. Are you okay with how you look and feel? Call the weight loss done, switch to maintenance, and eat those extra calories.
2. Go get a body fat scan done. I went to a BodPod facility back in December, and that's how I've figured out what my target numbers should actually be. And if you're at a good body fat percentage, check the mirror again. Are you okay with the basic shape you have? If so, call the weight loss done, switch to maintenance, and eat those extra calories.

BMI is not meant to be used on individuals. It's meant to track populations, entire groups at a time, to see how things are trending. Don't treat it as the holy grail of weight. Not unless you and your doctor decide it's the right thing to do, anyway.

GottaBurnEmAll

I agree most definitely with the sleep testing, but can I ask about your activity levels? Being sedentary can feed fatigue, at least in my experience it did.

I too have hypothyroidism, as well as other medical conditions that have fatigue as a symptom. When I was 95 pounds heavier and sedentary, the fatigue was crushing. While I believe that losing weight alone would have helped a great deal, I do know that exercise is an energy booster.

Exercise doesn't need to be an ordeal, and you can build up to more activity slowly. I started with a simple walk down to the corner and back. Just try to move more in your daily life and see if that helps.

PaulaWallaDingDong

If you're 11 lbs from normal, and it's just started fairly recently, I doubt it's your weight that's causing it outside of other contributing factors.

The sleep test is a good idea. Make sure your weight loss goal isn't too aggressive. Are you getting regular thyroid checks to make sure it hasn't changed?

pamfgil

Have you had blood tests for anything else, low vitamin d can cause fatigue, also and only if you're insulin resistant, too many carbs can make you tired

tomteboda

How old is your mattress?

LessCookiess

pedermj2002 wrote: »

I'm a critic of BMI after finding out that getting myself to a "normal" BMI would result in me having severe health issues (where "severe" means "dead"). Because of that, I focus on doing one of two things:

1. Check the mirror. Are you okay with how you look and feel? Call the weight loss done, switch to maintenance, and eat those extra calories.
2. Go get a body fat scan done. I went to a BodPod facility back in December, and that's how I've figured out what my target numbers should actually be. And if you're at a good body fat percentage, check the mirror again. Are you okay with the basic shape you have? If so, call the weight loss done, switch to maintenance, and eat those extra calories.

BMI is not meant to be used on individuals. It's meant to track populations, entire groups at a time, to see how things are trending. Don't treat it as the holy grail of weight. Not unless you and your doctor decide it's the right thing to do, anyway.

I'm going to agree with him! I know a friend of mine who is a nurse practitioner she mentioned that she goes off of waist circumference versus BMI and other health professionals do so as well.
Right now as I'm losing weight I'm looking more at how I look and feel.
Op- consider speaking with a health professional about the symptoms you're exhibiting. They could do blood work, and determine what other tests to consider. I hope you get better!

not_a_runner

GottaBurnEmAll wrote: »

I agree most definitely with the sleep testing, but can I ask about your activity levels? Being sedentary can feed fatigue, at least in my experience it did.

I too have hypothyroidism, as well as other medical conditions that have fatigue as a symptom. When I was 95 pounds heavier and sedentary, the fatigue was crushing. While I believe that losing weight alone would have helped a great deal, I do know that exercise is an energy booster.

Exercise doesn't need to be an ordeal, and you can build up to more activity slowly. I started with a simple walk down to the corner and back. Just try to move more in your daily life and see if that helps.

Very similar experience for me. Staying active helps me sleep better, sleeping better helps me feel better, etc etc.
Being at a lower body weight was when I felt my best. I generally feel that BMI is pretty accurate for most women. If your body prefers to be in the lower range, it's possible you're feeling some fatigue as a result of being over that. heavier. If the fatigue is more recent though (you said the past 4 months), I would guess they're not related... Unless you just gained the extra weight really quickly, you've been at this weight and weren't experiencing the fatigue. Doesn't sound like it's just the weight.

And I will also add that it's pretty tricky to entirely "manage" hypo. In the past few years I've been up and down a lot, and had to have my meds adjusted several times. I like to get regular bloodwork done even if I'm feeling great, but now I've kind of learned the feelings of when I'm hypo/hyper and need a med adjustment. (Extra Fatigue generally means I need my meds changed.)
The range in which your doctor says your hypo is "managed" is also pretty wide. I personally feel a lot better if I'm on the lower end, and I feel lousy when I'm near the higher end, even though I'm technically still in what they consider to be "normal."

GoMom2016

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GoMom2016

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Carlos_421

pedermj2002 wrote: »

I'm a critic of BMI after finding out that getting myself to a "normal" BMI would result in me having severe health issues (where "severe" means "dead"). Because of that, I focus on doing one of two things:

1. Check the mirror. Are you okay with how you look and feel? Call the weight loss done, switch to maintenance, and eat those extra calories.
2. Go get a body fat scan done. I went to a BodPod facility back in December, and that's how I've figured out what my target numbers should actually be. And if you're at a good body fat percentage, check the mirror again. Are you okay with the basic shape you have? If so, call the weight loss done, switch to maintenance, and eat those extra calories.

BMI is not meant to be used on individuals. It's meant to track populations, entire groups at a time, to see how things are trending. Don't treat it as the holy grail of weight. Not unless you and your doctor decide it's the right thing to do, anyway.

What disease do you have?

AnnPT77

Do the sleep study. If you turn out to have sleep apnea, that has worse consequences than fatigue, if untreated (like increased risk for various forms of heart disease). Don't take chances.

+1 to the advice about blood tests for nutrient deficiencies or other conditions.

Similarly, has your doctor tested for T3/T4 or just TSH, on the thyroid front? Some people do fine on the standard medication regimen, but some have problems with T3/T4 conversion (despite a normal TSH) and need a different type of medication regimen.

How fast have you been losing weight? A too-large calorie deficit (losing weight too fast) will also cause fatigue. If you're losing more than 1% of your body weight weekly, slow down. Once you're so close to goal, you probably should only be aiming for about 0.5 pound per week.

LowCarbDiva2

GoMom2016 wrote: »

Hi everyone,
I have 11lbs to lose before my bmi is considered normal. In the mean time, I'm suffering from fatigue during the day and waking up tired even after a good 8 hour sleep. This has been happening for about 4 months now. I also have hypothyroidism, but that has been managed with medication for a long while now. I'm just wondering if anyone has any experience with fatigue and it being alleviated once there was weight loss and a normal bmi? I'm hoping that's what's causing it as 11lbs to lose is much easier to swallow then some other health issue!!! My Dr wants to do an at home sleep test to get more information as well. Any help is appreciated.

Yes, I felt this way and when I went for my doctor's appt. back in January my doctor told me that I had a Vitamin D deficiency due to not getting enough sunlight. He also told me that it is very common during the Winter month because we have shorter days and less sunlight.

Not only was I tired and fatigue during the day after 8 hours of sleep my joints also hurt which affected me from doing HIIT which I love.

If I where you I would schedule an appt. with your doctor and let him know about your extreme fatigue and ask him to check to see if you have a Vitamin D deficiency.

pedermj2002

Carlos_421 wrote: »

What disease do you have?

Interesting interpretation of my comment. The only conditions I have, according to my doctor, are a vitamin D deficiency and the need to lose weight. Everything else is well in the normal range.

I'm 6 ft 0.5in. According to BMI charts, my absolute maximum weight is about 183lbs (my height falls right on a border line, so it's difficult to get an exact number, though more than 1 chart says it should only be 180lbs). I had a body fat scan done which showed my lean muscle mass at 182.3lbs.

Minimum healthy body fat percentage is from 2%-5% for men (and that range should absolutely be monitored by a doctor). If it were possible for me to get down to 0.7lbs of body fat, then my body fat percentage would be at about 0.4%. The clinical term for a person with so little body fat is "dead".

In order to make BMI work for me, and get myself down to the "normal" range, and just be in the "fit" range with my body fat, I have to get to 16% body fat. That means no more than 16% of 183lbs being body fat. That comes down to 29.28lbs of fat, which means 153.72lbs of lean mass, which means losing almost 30lbs of non-fat mass. Maybe I can just go with being rated as an "Athlete", which means 6%-12% body fat. That means anywhere from 10.98-21.96lbs of body fat, which means losing that much muscle mass from where I am now.

No, none of that is going to work well for me. After crunching numbers, I know that, for my body, my ideal weight range, with 10% body fat (my goal), will still have me over 200lbs, and will label me as "overweight" according to BMI. I won't actually be, but that idiotic measuring stick won't be able to tell.

Seriously, BMI can work for some individuals, but it can also be horribly broken. Don't rely on it. Get things evaluated professionally by people who know what they're doing, and work with better information than BMI. Relying on it can be worse than just misleading. If your body doesn't match it, it can be damaging or even lethal if you try to make it work for you.

tomteboda

Bmi scales poorly with height and functions best at 5'0" . People tend to forget the actuarial tables support that a moderately higher bmi is healthier at taller heights.

cleoallen2

Last year I had a sleep study done and it was one of the best things I have done for myself. I now use a CPAP machine and normally get between 7-8 hours of sleep every night. I used to only get 3-4 and was exhausted all the time. Please do the study and follow up. I think you will be very pleased if you do.

elisa123gal

My husband has the same condition and it worries me. I'd say he sleeps 14 to 15 hours a day. I've google what causes fatigue and it is all the times mentioned

1. anemia
2. under eating
3. diabetes
4. thyroid problems
5. being sedentary

If I were you I'd do a process of elimination. I do find when dieting... lack of calories masks itself as fatigue. If you are extreme dieting to get this "11" pounds off.. that could be it..

lorrpb

Vitamin D deficiency results in fatigue. I also second a sleep test.

AnnPT77

pedermj2002 wrote: »

Carlos_421 wrote: »

What disease do you have?

Interesting interpretation of my comment. The only conditions I have, according to my doctor, are a vitamin D deficiency and the need to lose weight. Everything else is well in the normal range.

I'm 6 ft 0.5in. According to BMI charts, my absolute maximum weight is about 183lbs (my height falls right on a border line, so it's difficult to get an exact number, though more than 1 chart says it should only be 180lbs). I had a body fat scan done which showed my lean muscle mass at 182.3lbs.

Minimum healthy body fat percentage is from 2%-5% for men (and that range should absolutely be monitored by a doctor). If it were possible for me to get down to 0.7lbs of body fat, then my body fat percentage would be at about 0.4%. The clinical term for a person with so little body fat is "dead".

In order to make BMI work for me, and get myself down to the "normal" range, and just be in the "fit" range with my body fat, I have to get to 16% body fat. That means no more than 16% of 183lbs being body fat. That comes down to 29.28lbs of fat, which means 153.72lbs of lean mass, which means losing almost 30lbs of non-fat mass. Maybe I can just go with being rated as an "Athlete", which means 6%-12% body fat. That means anywhere from 10.98-21.96lbs of body fat, which means losing that much muscle mass from where I am now.

No, none of that is going to work well for me. After crunching numbers, I know that, for my body, my ideal weight range, with 10% body fat (my goal), will still have me over 200lbs, and will label me as "overweight" according to BMI. I won't actually be, but that idiotic measuring stick won't be able to tell.

Seriously, BMI can work for some individuals, but it can also be horribly broken. Don't rely on it. Get things evaluated professionally by people who know what they're doing, and work with better information than BMI. Relying on it can be worse than just misleading. If your body doesn't match it, it can be damaging or even lethal if you try to make it work for you.

It's absolutely true, for the personal characteristics you report, that BMI is an inaccurate guide for you - no question. It's inappropriate for very muscular people, can be inappropriate for quite short or very tall people, and for certain other statistically unusual types. Most reputable sites that provide information about BMI do document such limitations.

That said, I've met many, many (many!) more people for whom it's pretty much completely sensible, but who use these outlier cases to argue that they're not overweight/obese/underweight, when they're pretty obviously wrong. Their goals are their business, but IMO, not the "alternative facts".

IME, the legitimate, explicit limitations of this rule-of-thumb system are much more frequently a tool of denial than of level-headed objectivity.

The BMI ranges apply reasonably well to the majority of people, taken as a range.

But I'm not at all clear how any of this directly addresses OP's question. She didn't ask for a critique of her goal weight - not even obliquely, unless one counts "any help is appreciated" as open season. Yes, being underweight could involve fatigue . . . but remarkably few people are underweight when above the top boundary of their height's BMI range.

Apologies for the thread hijack, OP. I hope you're able to find first an explanation, then a solution, for your fatigue!

pedermj2002

My original comment (see way above) was not meant to focus on me, but rather a specific portion of the OP's post. She has set her goal weight according to BMI. This may work for her, it may not, but I don't buy into using BMI to determine weight. When I responded with asking her to check the mirror to see if she liked what she saw (in an attempt to stop focusing on BMI and start focusing on her body) or to get a body fat scan done (to make sure her goals were good for her body), I got asked what disease I have. Hence my reply.

@GoMom2016 Apologies if you feel I hijacked anything. I didn't intend to, I focused on specific element of your post because of my own biases against that thing (BMI).

And one thing I didn't say, but should have: My real worry is that you're restricting yourself too much, and that's why I suggested re-evaluating your goals the most. I'm thinking about doing so myself. I've lost a lot, but have fatigue issues that I can pretty safely say are due to not taking in enough calories. I might have to postpone the rest of the weight loss to get my fatigue taken care of, and then resume the weight loss. I'm seriously thinking about it. You could be in the same boat.

You could also be done with weight loss *if* you and your doctor are happy with where you are. Re-evaluating yourself is not a bad thing. Just consider it.

AnnPT77

pedermj2002 wrote: »

My original comment (see way above) was not meant to focus on me, but rather a specific portion of the OP's post. She has set her goal weight according to BMI. This may work for her, it may not, but I don't buy into using BMI to determine weight. When I responded with asking her to check the mirror to see if she liked what she saw (in an attempt to stop focusing on BMI and start focusing on her body) or to get a body fat scan done (to make sure her goals were good for her body), I got asked what disease I have. Hence my reply.

@GoMom2016 Apologies if you feel I hijacked anything. I didn't intend to, I focused on specific element of your post because of my own biases against that thing (BMI).

And one thing I didn't say, but should have: My real worry is that you're restricting yourself too much, and that's why I suggested re-evaluating your goals the most. I'm thinking about doing so myself. I've lost a lot, but have fatigue issues that I can pretty safely say are due to not taking in enough calories. I might have to postpone the rest of the weight loss to get my fatigue taken care of, and then resume the weight loss. I'm seriously thinking about it. You could be in the same boat.

You could also be done with weight loss *if* you and your doctor are happy with where you are. Re-evaluating yourself is not a bad thing. Just consider it.

+1, especially those last two paragraphs!

leanjogreen18

Baring medical issues...

Energy begets energy for me. When I consistently move I have more energy.

OhMsDiva

Why do people come on here for medical advice?
I am just curious.

PAV8888

pedermj2002 wrote: »

Carlos_421 wrote: »

What disease do you have?

I'm 6 ft 0.5in. According to BMI charts, my absolute maximum weight is about 183lbs (my height falls right on a border line, so it's difficult to get an exact number, though more than 1 chart says it should only be 180lbs). I had a body fat scan done which showed my lean muscle mass at 182.3lbs.

Minimum healthy body fat percentage is from 2%-5% for men (and that range should absolutely be monitored by a doctor). If it were possible for me to get down to 0.7lbs of body fat, then my body fat percentage would be at about 0.4%. The clinical term for a person with so little body fat is "dead".

In order to make BMI work for me, and get myself down to the "normal" range, and just be in the "fit" range with my body fat, I have to get to 16% body fat. That means no more than 16% of 183lbs being body fat. That comes down to 29.28lbs of fat, which means 153.72lbs of lean mass, which means losing almost 30lbs of non-fat mass. Maybe I can just go with being rated as an "Athlete", which means 6%-12% body fat. That means anywhere from 10.98-21.96lbs of body fat, which means losing that much muscle mass from where I am now.

No, none of that is going to work well for me. After crunching numbers, I know that, for my body, my ideal weight range, with 10% body fat (my goal), will still have me over 200lbs, and will label me as "overweight" according to BMI. I won't actually be, but that idiotic measuring stick won't be able to tell.

Seriously, BMI can work for some individuals, but it can also be horribly broken. Don't rely on it. Get things evaluated professionally by people who know what they're doing, and work with better information than BMI. Relying on it can be worse than just misleading. If your body doesn't match it, it can be damaging or even lethal if you try to make it work for you.

There are a couple of small problems with your interpretation.

First of all your lean MUSCLE mass is not 182.3lbs. What is 182.3lbs is your NON FAT mass. There is an actual difference between the terms NON FAT mass and MUSCLE mass

In effect you are neglecting to consider that, naturally, when you lose weight you will NOT lose 100% fat.

NON FAT mass (I usually use the term lean mass; but, today, I am making an exception ;-) WILL also get lost.

While your goal will be to, in general, NOT lose MUSCLE mass, and thus you will concentrate, correctly, in minimising non-fat mass losses... these losses will still NOT be zero.

This is particularly true as you approach a normal weight. i.e. a higher fat to non fat loss ratio is easier to achieve when obese than when overweight than when normal weight.

The vast majority of people discover that BMI is actually fairly within range (not perfect; but definitely within range)

On the high end performance enhancing drug users, or people affected by prescription medicines they may have taken, and a very few exceptionally well trained athletes may have more muscle mass than a BMI of 25 can accommodate.

On the low end very petite and light individuals MIGHT (even less often) not be captured by the more recent acceptance of a lower 18.5 BMI as falling within the normal range.

Don't be scared of minor losses of lean mass. These can be connecting and supporting tissues, they can even be muscles you no longer need to support structures that are no longer there once the excess fat is lost.

pedermj2002

I will lose *some* lean/non-fat mass, this is true. But the math still holds up, unless you can show me an error in it.

I finally looked up how to calculate BMI by hand. It's fairly easy. The formula is as follows:

(weight in kg) / (height in cm^2) = BMI

My height is the one thing unlikely to change. 72.5 inches. In cm, this is 184.15cm. Plugging the numbers in (using a BMI of 25) and solving for weight gives a result of 181.06lbs. By BMI standards, my maximum weight should be 181.06lbs. Let's round and call it 181.

I started at 182.3lbs of non-fat mass. For me to drop to 181 and be at a good percentage of body fat, I have to lose a *lot* of non-fat mass. Dropping to 10% body fat means reaching 162.9lbs of non-fat mass. That means dropping 19.4lbs of non-fat mass (in addition to all the fat that has to be lost as well). Every percentage point higher means another 1.81lbs of non-fat mass that has to be lost somewhere.

BMI, for me, is broken. If I were to be obsessed with that number, I would cause serious harm to my body. While it might work for others, I do not and can not recommend using it as a gauge for your body. Go someplace and get your body fat tested, and use *that* as your guide. Or use a mirror. But please do not use BMI for this. It can lead to some very bad choices and consequences if you do.

PAV8888

pedermj2002 wrote: »

I will lose *some* lean/non-fat mass, this is true. But the math still holds up, unless you can show me an error in it.

While morbidly obese I would consider a 10:1 fat to lean loss (or even better) to be as expected.
However by the time you're upper overweight you may be looking at 3:1 fat to lean losses.
And by the time you're mid-point overweight you may be looking at 2:1.
Even slowing down to 1.5:1
People at normal weight sometimes see 1:1 results... (or worse at low normal weight with large deficits)

If that's the pattern you follow... where do you end up?

pedermj2002

Without knowing the definitions of those categories, I can't tell you. I can tell you that when the measurement was done was the end of December, and at the time my total weight was 230.3, non-fat of 182.3. Current total is 220, but haven't gone back for another scan since. I've been keeping protein high, as well as doing pretty intense cardio at least 4x/week, and moderate resistance training at least 2x/week. My lean mass loss should be kept fairly low (not at zero, no, but still fairly low). Actually, I'll see if I can get a scan in this week. Friday is open for it, if they can squeeze me in, I'll get current numbers.