Weightloss Roadblock

robinannamalone
robinannamalone Posts: 8 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Does anyone else experience illness relatively soon after starting weight loss? It seems like every time I start moving in the right direction I end up with a respiratory virus or something else that takes me out of commission. I'm determined to keep up with my weight loss despite the cold I've got right now, but does anyone else experience this?
I didn't know if it could have anything to do with the diet change.

Replies

  • Jthanmyfitnesspal
    Jthanmyfitnesspal Posts: 3,522 Member
    I'm cutting since 1/1 for the Nth time. I don't seem to get cold symptoms from a calorie deficit. In fact, I usually get sort of boost from the extra exercise I try to add in.

    It's cold season, however, and it seems like many people around me have colds! That is and unrelated effect of dieting in January.

    I follow the advice of having my deficit not more than 25% of my normal base calorie intake. (My TDEE is about 2000kcals, so I aim for 1500 plus extra for exercise. MFP calculates this all for you.) If you go for a bigger cut, I imagine it could affect your immune system. Aerobic exercise is thought to boost your immune system, so that's something to consider.
  • ElizabethKalmbach
    ElizabethKalmbach Posts: 1,415 Member
    Hm. Good call, "Disagree." Looks like 40 years of "traditional" wisdom has been de-bunked recently about "immunosuppression" after exercise.

    https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/04/180420122807.htm
  • lemurcat2
    lemurcat2 Posts: 7,885 Member
    ElizabethKalmbach wrote: »
    Hm. Good call, "Disagree." Looks like 40 years of "traditional" wisdom has been de-bunked recently about "immunosuppression" after exercise.

    https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/04/180420122807.htm

    Eh, it could just be someone hitting it by accident. If someone doesn't respond in actual words and especially since it's only one, I'd ignore disagrees. You might be surprised at how many truly bizarre disagrees there are -- we all get them.
  • apullum
    apullum Posts: 4,838 Member
    lemurcat2 wrote: »
    ElizabethKalmbach wrote: »
    Hm. Good call, "Disagree." Looks like 40 years of "traditional" wisdom has been de-bunked recently about "immunosuppression" after exercise.

    https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/04/180420122807.htm

    Eh, it could just be someone hitting it by accident. If someone doesn't respond in actual words and especially since it's only one, I'd ignore disagrees. You might be surprised at how many truly bizarre disagrees there are -- we all get them.

    I think I've got at least one on every post I've made. The article is interesting, though.

    OP, it honestly sounds like coincidence as @Jthanmyfitnesspal said. If you're usually a New Year's resolution dieter, for example, then you're starting a weight loss attempt in the middle of cold/flu sesion. Odds are good that you're going to get some respiratory thing early in your weight loss process.

    I don't know whether an overly large deficit hurts the immune system, but since there are many harms of undereating, I would not be surprised if immune suppression was one of them. I would make sure my deficit was reasonable for my stats, just for general health.

    If I felt miserable, I'd eat at maintenance while healing, and be reasonable about my exercise routine. Rest while you're sick, and don't go to the gym to spread germs to others.
  • ElizabethKalmbach
    ElizabethKalmbach Posts: 1,415 Member
    lemurcat2 wrote: »
    ElizabethKalmbach wrote: »
    Hm. Good call, "Disagree." Looks like 40 years of "traditional" wisdom has been de-bunked recently about "immunosuppression" after exercise.

    https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/04/180420122807.htm

    Eh, it could just be someone hitting it by accident. If someone doesn't respond in actual words and especially since it's only one, I'd ignore disagrees. You might be surprised at how many truly bizarre disagrees there are -- we all get them.

    I mean, I usually figure it's accidental, as I've done it myself while trying to scroll from the phone app. That said, I do like to check up periodically on things I thought I knew, because once in a while, you find out that a thing you "knew" your whole life turns out to be wrong. >_<
  • robinannamalone
    robinannamalone Posts: 8 Member
    Thanks for the replies everyone!
    Just for some context, I haven't started working out yet, aside from taking the stairs at work occasionally. I don't feel like I'm in too big of a deficit, my daily goal is around 1800 and usually I'm in between 1400-1800, occasionally over. I will admit some days I know I'm not eating enough, but that has less to do with trying to restrict myself and more the fact that I work from 7p-7a, so on my off days I usually sleep until pretty late in the afternoon (7-8p) and am not usually hungry enough to eat the calories that I would normally be eating if I had gotten up at my usual 4pm.
    Just as an example, for today 1/21, what I've eaten so far are snacks from work last night, a small meal when I got home, and now some grapes. Around 900 cals. It's almost 9p, so it's hard to say if I'll be hungry enough to get the other cals in before midnight.
    You guys are probably right about it being a coincidence because of the time of the year.

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