So I have Lymphedema and possible Lipedema

Kinya4571

Like I said my doctor said that I have Lymphedema and possible Lipedema I have been logging my food but have been too fatigued to do any exercising. I have been losing 1lb per week but am wondering if my conditions are making my weight loss efforts very slow. I am trying to keep being motivated because I heard weight loss can improve the above conditions along with my high blood pressure.

Alatariel75

1lb a week is good, steady, healthy progress! Don't buy into the "lose 5lbs a week" stuff. You have health challenges, and you don't want to stress your body too much. If the scale is going down, keep doing what you're doing!

AnnPT77

I second that: A pound a week is a good loss rate. You don't say anything about how much weight you want to lose, but a pound a week is reasonable for most anyone. Those of us who have relatively small calorie needs (whether because of body size, low activity, older age, or other factors) may not really have room to cut calories more deeply than the 500 calorie daily cut required to lose a pound a week, and still get good overall nutrition.

You may find that some of your health conditions improve even before you lose all the weight you want to lose, too.

Sending wishes for weight loss success, and improved health!

cmriverside

I'm going to disagree that one pound a week is ideal.

I don't know for a fact, but it looks to me from the two pictures that I can see that Ms Kinya is quite overweight. Weight loss should be #1 in importance and someone in the obese or morbidly obese category is looking at life-threatening or limb-threatening consequences.

Ms Kinya, how long have you been counting and logging calories? Can you get a referral to a licensed Dietician for help with your food choices? You should be able to lose faster than one pound per week.

If you've been overweight for a long time this is going to be a difficult transition with your food but it's up to you to save your own life.

SafariGalNYC

Lymphedema runs in my family. I hope your doctor gave you a list of foods to eat or avoid.
With Lymphedema- as u probably know, it’s all water retention.. so my family member doesn’t do added salt - no processed foods, cured meats.. etc… they keep low carb, low sugar as well as carbs hold water. Compression therapy is a must for my family member.

I would see a dietician- someone who knows lymphedema.

How much weight per week depends on how overweight you are. How many calories per day are you eating?

you can begin by counting calories and slowly do therapeutic exercises. Even stretching and walking help when you can.

I wish i had pushed my loved one to make significant changes early on..

springlering62

I had far less troubling health issues when I was obese, but, troubling they were.

The worst was the GERD From Hell (the violent unexpected vomiting necessitated carrying a change of undies and pants and a sick bag everywhere, and beleive me, it’s hard to carry an extra pair of XXL women’s jeans discretely) and constant fatigue.

My doctor told me over and over “weight loss will solve these problems” and gave me the same elimination diet printout over and over.

I also got a firsthand view of my mom and dad’s awful health, mom having the massage thinggies like you have, and ultimately being bedridden for several years because her limbs atrophied after she refused to get out of her chair. Both had congestive heart failure, diabetes, kidney disease. This was where I was clearly headed.

I ignored my doc for years, just out of perverse stubbornness and laziness, til one day I hit my max exhaustion level, and I didn’t.

She was right. The GERD was gone within twenty pounds lost, energy increased with weight lost.

I went from obese to normal. My energy is through the roof. It was simply a matter of logging, and then looking at what I was logging.

I’m not perfect. My vegetable intake is woefully sad. But you know what, my nutrition is waaaay better than it was before.

When I started logging, I logged a few days of what I remembered eating. Couldn’t remember all of it, was inexperienced, and trying to rationalize and minimize, I was still shocked to learn I was easily eating 10,000+ calories a day, mostly fast foods, sodas, and multiple whole bags of cookies and candy per day. Half a pie or carton of Breyers in the evening. Usually, both.

There’s no shame. Log it, have your lightbulb moment, and make changes. Small ones, then bigger ones. Rethink favorite recipes. I can’t bear the smell of fried foods now. I had fried rice last night with diced chicken browned without oil, a vegetable frozen fried rice mix, an egg scrambled in the same pan, over cauliflower rice to supplement so my plate was heaping. At a Chinese restaurant, easily over 1,000 calories . My version without oil? 453, from memory.

Tomorrow I will brown the rest of the diced chicken -without oil- l throw in some very low call honey buffalo sauce and roll it in a wrap. It’ll be about 50gr protein and will come in under 300 calories. Just as satisfying as super high cal fried hot wings. More, in fact.

you can do this. Make it a game What creative change can I make to cut calories and retain great taste?

You don’t have to exercise to lose weight. Fork control is the method for that but I’d also encourage you to get a pedometer or fitness tracker and set step goals. My mom was probably doing far less than 500 steps a day. TMI, but I discovered she was weeing in the car and in her office chair because she was too exhausted to get up, and the bathroom was literally eight steps from her desk. It was crushing because my desk was on the other side of the wall- literally 10 feet, and she’d rather do that than ask for help. I discovered the car thing when I had to drive her home one day. Left my car at the office (too small for her to ride in), got in hers, and sat in….wet.

Don’t be that person. Resolve to move, set goals I can’t tell you what a thrill it is to get on the ground to play with my granddaughter and not worry about need a chair nearby to awkwardly and painfully pull myself up.

There’s a lovely member here who was on a walker and doing very few steps per day She resolved to talk to her mailbox, then increase it to her neighbors mailbox, then added a telephone pole, and then another It took her several months to build up but she eventually reached a mile a day, without her walker

share your wins. We are so so happy to cheer each other on! A win for you is a win for all of us!

😘

springlering62

PS when your doctor clears you, check out local aquafit or water aerobics classes.

We’ve got several women on canes, walkers, wheelchairs with your issues. It’s very non-(can’t think of the word) but non this and that, and easy on your joints. I can see several of them reducing, slowly but surely. You put into it what you want to get out of it.

IMHO, after seeing what Mom went through, there’s value in simply getting into the gym, changing in the dressing room, to the pool and getting in, then reversing the procedure. That’s probably 1-2000 steps right there. . I wish wish wish she’d been willing to try. You’ve probably got kinfolk silently wishing the same for you.

AnnPT77

I'm really hesitant to assume anything about OP's current weight from photos, and I haven't seen posts elsewhere that clarify (not saying they don't exist). If lymphedema is part of the current situation, and is at a significant level, that can distort body appearance quite a lot. I'm also hesitant to endorse fast weight loss for someone with a complex health situation.

But I understand what Riverside is saying, too. @Kinya4571 , have you discussed your weight loss plans, especially pace of weight loss, with the doctor who is treating your lymphedema and possible lipedema? Your medical team, potentially including a specialist registered dietitian they could refer you to, would be an ideal source for guidance in a complex situation like yours.

Yes, if you have enough calories available to cut calories further, you could lose weight faster by eating even fewer calories. But how good an idea that is or isn't would depend on things like your health history, current health status, current weight apart from the lymphedema, specialized nutritional needs that may apply to your health condition(s), and more. No one here is a medical expert, let alone an expert about YOU.

I feel like a pound a week should be safe for most people, except for really hugely extreme cases. Whether faster is safe gets more complicated, and I'm not qualified to suggest you should go faster, or comfortable doing so, personally. Others' situations may vary.

PAV8888

There exists a hierarchy and only the OP and their health care professionals know where they would benefit the most.

And in this case the causes and medical realities will probably determine the best cause of action

As Ann said, water retention distorts and visuals influenced by that are not necessarily representative.

The hierarchy in my mind goes something like this:

-- a lb a week, on the balance of sustainability, speed and setup for maintenance, is absolutely awesome progress for the vast majority of people.

-- would I **kitten around** with this extremely effective (for relative values of long term success) rate of loss in the hopes of improving it?

In specific circumstances, with a lot of forethought, with due care and consideration?

Yes.

If nothing else I personally DID apply a faster than 1lb a week loss rate in moving from morbidity obese to normal weight and did so both before joining MFP and for a full year after (1.5lbs a week during my first year on MFP). And I also spent a year losing at a lb a MONTH (not week). And another ~9 years where I've tried to keep movements in the lb a month and not week rate)

All this to say that for sure I would consider faster.

But only if:

--the necessity was there

--the underlying set-up to support the rate was there

--the lack of underlying support was overridden by medical necessity.

I am not even a talented amateur in understanding the condition of the OP. That's why there exist health professionals.

A cursory look around indicates that if the condition was primarily caused by excess weight, discussing faster weight loss with one's care team may be a high value play.

That said: I want to send some healing vibes and encouragement to the OP who is going through this. We are spouting and debating generic points. But this is their everyday life. And to the extent possible, based on what my cursory search came up with, I would encourage them to do what they can in terms of movement and exercise.

Eercise does not mean the same thing to everyone.

Waking from one side of the house to the other can be just as intense of an exercise for someone as running cross country for two hours can be for someone else.

What is activity and exercise changes depending on one's baseline.

But one thing is more universally true: changing the baseline involves trying to improve it--a tiny step at a time still being an improvement over no steps.

If all you do is move a little bit more, that is still exercise even if it involves no classes and no metrics someone else would consider to be exercise.

And then you build.¹

Corina1143

Lymphodema has its own special set of problems. My thought is that if you are consistently losing an average of 1 pound a week, that's fantastic! You deserve my admiration!

I know so little about it. But I've heard an anti-inflammatory diet may help you feel a little better, as well as any kind of exercise you can do, including but not limited to breathing exercises, soft stretches, self massage.

Weight loss helped my blood pressure. Lowering my pain level helped it more.