Please read my diet history, and give me feed-back!

rhinemaiden

Hello everyone! I have been around for a while but have not become involved in the community before. My proper use of MFP was also off to a delayed start! Do I detect a pattern here? I have decided to share the story of the last three years of my weight battle with you, my fellow battlers, and hope you will be kind enough and interested enough to offer feed-back and advice if possible. When I joined MFP three years ago I did not proceed with keeping the diary but muddled on as before. In December 2012 I consulted the dietician affiliated with my gym in absolute desperation. I had been stuck on roughly 80kg for months, give or take one or two kilos, going up and down without any progress. I think she was at a loss what to advise me because I had such a healthy diet and exercised regularly. One after the other she eliminated all dairy, all grains, and most fruit from my diet. She also started me on an intense six weeks exercise regimen at 6-7 times a week. I managed to lose just enough to scrape in under 80kg and met the deadline for the start of my tropical holiday. Amazingly enough I managed to rigidly continue with my restrictive diet whilst on holiday. Once again at home, I returned to my normal gym schedule of 2-4 exercise sessions which included Pilates classes. By June 2012 I had slowly, and painfully managed to claw my way to my lowest weight in years - 72 kg.

At this point in time my personal life underwent a huge change. The love of my youth came back into my life, some 46 years after I had left him. We had never completely lost touch and had yearned for each other all our lives. Being part of a couple changed my everyday life considerably but I was fortunate in that my new/old partner joined my gym and if anything has become more dedicated to gym fitness training than I have ever been. He is of a naturally slim, wiry built and never having had weight issues had little if any insight into my continuing battles. Slowly but inexorably my weight started to creep up again because cooking and eating together was another of the new-found joys of our new/old relationship. I found myself unable to stick to the rigid guidelines I had been following previously. Once more I decided to give Weight Watchers a go but swore it would be my last attempt. I don't fit in with the demographic where I live and subsequently I had little if anything in common with the quite unsophisticated WW clientele (and leaders) at the local group. My partner, who accompanied me to the meetings and became very knowledgeable about the WW programme also very quickly became highly critical of it. Six weeks after re-joining I terminated my WW membership. I had not lost any weight whatsoever in that time.

I remembered that abandoned MFP membership, dug it out, and I commenced using the diary along the recommended settings/guidelines, i.e. 1200 calories a day. I have been consistent in my entries except for a two months overseas trip in May/June 2013 and some shorter, local trips/holidays. The overseas trip resulted in a weight gain of several kilos and I returned to MFP with a renewed motivation to tackle those persistent 20kg and get rid of them this time around.

The overseas trip had also caused a deterioration in another long-running health battle that has run parallel with my weight battle. All my adult life I have suffered from leg pain and swollen legs. Back in the 1990's I was diagnosed with Lymphoedema but I always believed this to be a misdiagnosis as I have never fitted the standard profile and symptoms. When the flare-up in swelling and tenderness did not subside months after returning to Australia, my GP send me on the usual rounds of cardiologist, and vascular surgeons to find the cause of the deterioration. Thankfully, the old ticker checked out just fine. My visit to the vascular surgeon was a negative one. This obese, old guy with his shirt ready to pop the buttons over his big belly had the nerve to tell me to lose weight. As to his " I have no magic bullet for your condition. It is multifactorial problem". I even had to ask him to give me a prescription for support stockings which are deemed essential wear for my supposed condition.

Having been a professional librarian I used my know-how to thoroughly research, once again, the problems associated with my legs. This time I was fortunate in finding information on a condition called Lipoedema (spelled Lipedema in the U.S.) and I was convinced I had found out what is wrong with my legs. I joined an online support group which provided me with help on where to get a medical diagnosis for that condition. My Stage II Lipoedema was officially diagnosed at the Mt. Wilga Hospital at Hornsby by Dr. Mackie in December 2013. It was a relief to get a correct diagnosis at last but, at he same time it was a shock to learn that this is a progressive disease for which there is no known cure. The fact that the abnormal Llipoedema fat is highly resistant to dieting and weight loss put a whole new focus on my weight-loss journey. This time the GP send me to a clinical dietician, who, as it turned out, had never heard of Lipoedema. Like the previous dietician I consulted she was stumbling to find a reason for my lack of success to lose weight. After much fruitless discussion she wanted me to go on 800 calories a day, interspersed with 2 Day fasts, and start a protein shakes type of meal replacement programme called Optifast. My partner absolutely vetoed this approach, being convinced it was unhealthy and damaging. So I went on another research marathon to see what dietary advice and options I could find now with all the extra baggage of Lipoedema on board.

Days of research later I became very impressed with evidence in favour of the low carb, high fat Paleo/Primal type of diet. It was lucky and timely that I managed to figure out that the MFP option of a "custom" setting allows for adaptation to a LCHF diet. I put all my hopes into this Paleo diet and set about adapting all my eating to it. I was already on low carbs relatively speaking but reducing to a mere 30g a day did take some getting used to. It was a delight after so many years of low fat diets to be freely able to eat fat again, especially butter. I am still staying off cheese, yoghurt and similar dairy because I remember my legs responding favourably to low dairy intake on my previous rigid diet schedule. I had to tweak my fat V protein percentages a few times until I found a viable balance I can manage. Sadly, some four weeks later, this new way of eating into which I had placed all my hope has not yet yielded even the slightest progress. My weight fluctuates between 78.3kg a the lowest) and 80.3kg at the highest in an endless to and fro pattern. I weigh myself every day to chart the Lipoedema swelling and fluid retention. My weight graph sure looks like never ending hills and valleys. The Paelo dietary advice is against counting calories; however, I am simply not able to abandon myself to that degree and I continue with my 1200 calories a day.

I would really love to hear from all you good folks who took the time, and had the patience to read my convoluted history. is there advice you would like to share? I would love to hear from you. BTW, my food diary is public and you can freely peruse my entries.

JennifrClaire

I am doing something very similar, though I have had no formal diagnosis, the rest is pretty much my history too. And I am happy enough on my low-carb, 1300 calorie a day diet. If I cant lose the fluid at least I can take off any other excess, unrelated to the lipoedema. There must be thousands of us, if not hundreds of thousands, looking for answers to this condition.

tiptoethruthetulips

I had a look at your food diary for the past few days, there wasn't anything there.

How tall are you?

You mentioned the paleo/primal diet and not calorie counting...if you do prefer to that mode of eating, In the book Primal Blueprint the author advocates calorie counting for weight loss.

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