Chronic Illness and Weight Loss

LATTIL

Are there any MFP members that have a chronic illness that are trying to exercise and lose weight? I have RA and struggle with the ability to exercise and take so many medications that seem to make it harder to lose weight. OR, am I just telling myself that? I have lost quite a bit of weight (87 pounds so far), but I am in pain every day and most days after I work (long days for me, mostly 14 hours) I just am in so much pain I can't convince myself to exercise. The option is to exercise before work when I feel a little better, but that means going from 7 hours of sleep to 6 - and doctors suggest at least 8 for RA and frankly, I feel better with 8. How do you balance all the goals and issues to get fit? Should I just suck it up, work out through the pain, and get less sleep?

chevy88grl

I have severe arthritis in my spine due to spinal fusion back surgery in 1992. I also have a bulging disc in my lower spine AND I had a stress fracture in my hip last fall that will sometimes flare up and bother me.

I am in pain every single day. Some days are better than other days, but there isn't a day that passes without pain. I try and limit my pain medication as much as possible because I've been told the arthritis will get worse as I get older and I'm only 35. I don't want to max myself out on pain meds now and be in horrendous pain when I'm older.

I find that exercising often helps the pain, but not always. There are some days when it is all I can do to get out of bed, take a shower and go to work. On those days, I skip the gym. They say diet is 80% of weight loss and exercising is the other 20%. If I don't go to the gym, I'm more careful about my food choices.

Since I'm not sure of the pain you're in, but would swimming make it easier to exercise? It isn't so hard on the joints.

mollygirl61

Hi, you really need a good pat on the back losing 87 pds with have RA. I have another form of it called Fibromyalgia and second hand know how much pain you go though on a daily basis. I dont take anything anymore as i am afraid of what the drugs are doing to my liver and kidneys. Using Celebrex was the best thing for me to do but now i just suck it up and go on. There are mornings where getting out of bed is an issue for me because of the pain. I get up and go for each and everyday. You will feel so much better if you can exercise but working those kinds of hours is really hard. I wish you luck and hope you do better but right now you are doing fantastic more than i can say for myself.

icerose137

Get your sleep. Going without sleep isn't going to do you any favors. Take it slow.

As for me I had severe bone and muscle pain for years, massive migraines, dizziness, random passing out, extreme fatigue, floor level metabolism.

I could gain weight while only eating only 1200 calories. I'd catch everything that was passing through at least twice, I had no immune system batting for me. After years and years and years of battling all this I finally found my answer, I am a celiac. For me it has been a long process of getting my diet right. First it was wheat/gluten, then it was oats, then dairy, then corn, and now refined sugar. Each step made me feel that much better. Granted your answer isn't as "easy" as mine. I was asked today why I didn't give up trying. I was constantly fighting a losing battle for fifteen years. Why didn't I just eat whatever and surrender. I guess I'm a long odds person. I figured I didn't need to add any more fuel to the fire and health is extremely important to me.

I did what I could when I could and never stopped trying. Now those efforts are paying off as the scale is going down instead of up. I had a total of a hundred pounds to lose instead of two or three.

Chances are good you're going to be in this battle for life, but it's a battle worth fighting. Even if you never attain that perfect waist you will have healthy organs and a strong structure to support your body even with all the pain.

And congratulations on the 87 pounds!

slc4774

Hi. I have chronic back and hip pain. Exercise really helps me. I use a stationary bike and rent good shows to watch while exercising so I don't get bored. I bet if you tried just a few minutes a day and built up, it would really help you. It's too bad that you work so many hours, must really be hard to find the time. I understand though, it's a tough balance between exercise and pain. It's easy to fall into the trap of telling yourself you're better off without it. Good luck. I hope you can make it work, finding time to exercise and sleep.

milaxx

Are there any MFP members that have a chronic illness that are trying to exercise and lose weight? I have RA and struggle with the ability to exercise and take so many medications that seem to make it harder to lose weight. OR, am I just telling myself that? I have lost quite a bit of weight (87 pounds so far), but I am in pain every day and most days after I work (long days for me, mostly 14 hours) I just am in so much pain I can't convince myself to exercise. The option is to exercise before work when I feel a little better, but that means going from 7 hours of sleep to 6 - and doctors suggest at least 8 for RA and frankly, I feel better with 8. How do you balance all the goals and issues to get fit? Should I just suck it up, work out through the pain, and get less sleep?

I have nerve damage from an extraordinarily bad bout of facial shingles, a damaged menicus and a torn acl on the other leg. I have found water aerob9cs to be a big help. The gym I attend has classes 6 days a week at 9am and 2 days a week in the evenings. Perhaps you could see what's available in your area? Even if you were only able to go to Saturday classes, perhaps you could take a short walk in the evenings when you return home after work.

runlorirun

I have IBD. I have to be very careful about what I eat and watch for hidden triggers when we eat out. I have found that exercise does helps, even if it's just walking slowly. I know it won't matter what I weight, this problem wont go away. I have found, for me, working out in the morning is much better.

Good luck!

abcerc

I also have fibromyalgia, and another doctor suspects lupus as well. From what I understand, fibromyalgia and RA share a lot of the same symptoms, so I can totally understand the chronic pain situation. There are days where I literally feel like I have sand bags strapped to my arms, legs and shoulders. I can tell you, my pain was much worse when I was working full time. At one point, I was taking Lyrica- and it was helping, but now that I'm able to stay home and take better care of myself, I'm not needing the Lyrica at this point. I know that doesn't help much with your 14 hour days- but when you do have "down time," take it. Turn off the phone and email, and focus on you. That's easy for me to say, because I'm not there- and I understand the demands and responsibilites you have- but there is only so much one person can take, and you really need to take care of you. I have found that if I am able to rest some, it really helps me feel like exercising later (or the next day). If my stress level is high, my pain level is high. One thing that is a tremendous help is my hot tub! If you don't have one, consider it- ours is just a basic 6 person tub from Home Depot- but it absolutely does wonders for my pain. As far as exercise, the best thing I've found is swimming. For whatever reason, the water helps take away the "stress" that my body feels, and I'm able to exercise longer and harder in a pool than with any other form of exercise. I know this started out as a question about weight loss help... and I'm still new to this- but I do know that if I can't control my pain, exercise is not happening! I'm also working on changing my diet to involve more "anti-inflammatory" foods. As I come across things that help, I'll keep you posted. Hang in there!! You have done some amazing stuff already, and you should really be proud!! You're an inspiration to me.

Cosmic_Unicorn

Chronic back and hip pain here. My doctor is doing x-rays and treating me for osteoarthritis in the meantime, which is a huge step up from getting psh-awed from every other doctor for the last year. Which is understandable, since I'm only 21 and female and complaining about chronic back pain like an old man.

But seriously, if I stop moving and start just sitting for even a few days I lose control of everything. Incapacitating pain for weeks, inability to stand, sit, or walk, muscle spasms, the whole bit. It sounds like a lot of other people here have the same thing worse than I do so I guess I don't have to explain it. I used to mope around feeling sorry for myself and I just got out of shape and gained tons of weight from comfort eating, which caused even more pain in the long run. So I suffered through it and started doing light body weight exercising to build core and spine-supporting muscles and walking 1-3 hours per day to keep moving, and eventually I felt much better. I was still in pain every day, but it was much more managable, even with just regular ibuprofen.

I recently started a job where I'm half field work and half lab work. The field stuff is really great. It's 8-12 hour days of hiking and digging holes, which is still hard on the back but much better. The other half are terrible 8-hour days in a chair, which brought the pain and spasms back. I'm trying really hard to walk as much as possible (I force myself to drink a ton of water so I'll have to walk to the bathroom more often, lol) and take stretch breaks, but it's a challenge every day and I mostly grit my teeth and wait for field days to feel better.

So the moral of my story is keep at it to lose weight and be active, because it WILL make a difference, even if it seems impossible now. And you've lost so much weight so you know you can do it! If you move your workout to the morning could you not just save that time from the evening and go to bed earlier? Because you don't want to be sleep deprived, for sure.

LATTIL

Thanks for all the replies! I'm still reading, but yes, I used to swim when I first started losing weight but the chlorine in the pool ate my skin up. I appreciate the shared experience!