Has anyone had medical reasons that kept you from losing?

acarstensen3
acarstensen3 Posts: 3
in Health and Weight Loss
I'm just feeling so discouraged. No matter what I do, the scale just isn't moving. I'm ready to ask the doctor for help. Has anyone found a medical reason that kept them from losing weight? Anything that I should consider?

Replies

  • missy_1975
    missy_1975 Posts: 244 Member
    An Underactive thyroid makes it a b!tch to lose weight, but it is possible. A blood test will show up if there is an issue. Other metabolic conditions such as PCOS often make it tougher too.

    Medication will help the other symptoms of an underactive thyroid (depression, feeling cold, losing the edges of eyebrows, gynae probs, low sex drive), but in most people's experience, the meds don't help you to shift the lbs.

    Check the boards for thread on not losing, there's tonnes of them. Ensure you are measuring and logging everything (denial is a wonderful thing, except when you want to see results), and that you don't have unreasonable goals such as losing 2lb per week if you don't have a huge amount to lose.

    Good luck!
  • WinnerVictorious
    WinnerVictorious Posts: 4,733 Member
    you've provided no particular information about your settings/goals. your profile is locked. your diary is not viewable. i don't see how anyone can provide you useful feedback.

    yes, there are a number of medical conditions that can cause slower metabolisms. maybe you have such a condition. maybe you don't. the first step is to make sure all of the non-medical reasons have been ruled out. these are things such as incomplete or inaccurate logging, incorrect BMR/TDEE calculations, whether you are meeting your goals on a daily or weekly basis or not, etc.
  • slieber
    slieber Posts: 765 Member
    I have hypothyroidism. Along with a few other symptoms, I gained 10 pounds in two weeks even though I had been doing about 7000 cals a week exercising (it was summer and I was in almost all day ballet training). I was exhausted all the time, too, for no reason (yeah, I know the training but I am quite fit - the sleepiness came on suddenly through the day). Had joint aches and all, as well.

    The sudden wait gain was what drove me to the doctor, though. It was so odd. Blood test and voila!

    I have an awful time losing, even on the synthroid, T3, progesterone and DHEA.
  • krissy_krossy
    krissy_krossy Posts: 307 Member
    Underactive thyroid. It's a pain and, lucky for me, runs in literally ALL the females on my mom's side (including me.) Urgh.
  • tara7779
    tara7779 Posts: 20
    I have PCOS and it makes it alot harder to lose. I take meds and viamins. They help but the only way I really start ls if I exercise too.
  • dqgirl1
    dqgirl1 Posts: 39 Member
    PCOS.........its a total B****:sad: I take meds and have to have a super controlled diet.....just to keep the lbs from coming.........I have to workout lke a maniac to actually lose.lol but Im finally doing it!! good luck and message me if you want
  • rabbyduby
    rabbyduby Posts: 123 Member
    type 2 diabetes will do it to you.
  • acarstensen3
    acarstensen3 Posts: 3
    you've provided no particular information about your settings/goals. your profile is locked. your diary is not viewable. i don't see how anyone can provide you useful feedback.

    Sorry I was feeling down, and posted in a hurry. Didn't have time to post too many details before I had to leave. I was only eating 1400 cals/day, and exercising 3-5times/week (and not eating burned calories) Recently I started reading about bmr/tdee. 20% off of my tdee would put me at around 2100/day, and my bmr was 1800-1900 cal/day. So I've tinkered with my goals so that I have 1800/day. I've still stayed around 1600-1700, and the scale is not only going down, its going up. I was mostly looking to see if others have suffered from any biologic disorders that have hindered there weight loss journey so that I would have some ideas to research. Thank you for your comment though.
  • LottieLou13
    LottieLou13 Posts: 574 Member
    you've provided no particular information about your settings/goals. your profile is locked. your diary is not viewable. i don't see how anyone can provide you useful feedback.

    Sorry I was feeling down, and posted in a hurry. Didn't have time to post too many details before I had to leave. I was only eating 1400 cals/day, and exercising 3-5times/week (and not eating burned calories) Recently I started reading about bmr/tdee. 20% off of my tdee would put me at around 2100/day, and my bmr was 1800-1900 cal/day. So I've tinkered with my goals so that I have 1800/day. I've still stayed around 1600-1700, and the scale is not only going down, its going up. I was mostly looking to see if others have suffered from any biologic disorders that have hindered there weight loss journey so that I would have some ideas to research. Thank you for your comment though.

    How long have you been doing TDEE -20% ?

    I have PCOS and Grave's (thyroid disease) and so far I've not had a problem dropping weight because of those illnesses.
  • sarahunderwood1
    sarahunderwood1 Posts: 8 Member
    I have an underactive thyroid and heard all of the stories about it being hard to lose weight etc and i think i was just using it as an excuse at first! It can hinder weight loss, but once you are on the correct medication it shouldn't affect it too much (according to my gp). I've lost two and a half stone so far so it's not impossible.
  • acarstensen3
    acarstensen3 Posts: 3
    How long have you been doing TDEE -20% ?

    I have PCOS and Grave's (thyroid disease) and so far I've not had a problem dropping weight because of those illnesses.
    [/quote]

    I've been doing tdee since sunday or monday. before then I was doing 1400/day. Maybe I'm just being too impatient.
  • LottieLou13
    LottieLou13 Posts: 574 Member
    How long have you been doing TDEE -20% ?

    I have PCOS and Grave's (thyroid disease) and so far I've not had a problem dropping weight because of those illnesses.

    I've been doing tdee since sunday or monday. before then I was doing 1400/day. Maybe I'm just being too impatient.
    [/quote]

    That'll be it. You need to give it at least a month of trying something new before you can say its not working
  • Thisisnotadiet
    Thisisnotadiet Posts: 89 Member
    I currently have low thyroid hormones (fixing this by seeing an endocrinologist) and I found hard (but not impossible) to loose weight. I have been there before, so I know when this happens. Speak with an endo. My doctor has been super understanding and she suggested that I send her a report of my meals and exercises downloaded from MFP. You may not have any problem but it is worth a check, and thyroid issues are generally easy to fix. Good luck!

    And just to clarify: once you are on medication the hormones are back to normal, you can loose weight as fast as every other person with your size, exercise level, calorie intake.
  • janalayn
    janalayn Posts: 510 Member
    I have hypothyroid after removal of a tumor and half of my thyroid. When my meds are right i'm good ... when they aren't nothing I can do can keep me from gaining. Just had to have my meds increased after gaining 25 pounds from my lowest weight. Maintained this month and hoping for a loss next month.

    Talk to your doctor about what you are doing and have him test you.
  • Elif84
    Elif84 Posts: 287 Member
    I have Type 1 diabetes and it's hard for me to lose weight. It took me years to lose 35 pounds. Since I lost it so slowly, it's easier to keep off.
  • cheerbabe080790
    cheerbabe080790 Posts: 86 Member
    Actually high thyroid hormone can make it hard to. While some people who have Grave's disease (hyperthyroid) are skinny, there are many who can''t lose weight easily...like me lol! Also, I had a brain tumor too and that kept me from losing. The stress and its affects on my hormones made it difficult. Yours could be any number of things. If you are truly working out hard 6 days a week and you are truly eating a diet between 1500-2300ish and you still aren't seeing results... then you should go see a doctor and have him/her see what the deal is.
  • aakokopelli7
    aakokopelli7 Posts: 196 Member
    I have MS, and PCOS. One makes it hard for me to exercise (sometimes) the other makes it hard to lose weight. I basically decided to ignore both and lose the weight no matter what those two A-holes had to say about it. So far it's working. I also don't take any medication for either. I am not my conditions and I have no excuses.

    ....but that's just my twisted way of looking at it. I keep it positive and it's always about mind over matter for me.
  • blink1021
    blink1021 Posts: 1,115 Member
    I have hypothyroidism and do not have trouble dropping weight if I can keep myself out of the fridge. I was told by my doctor as long as I take the medication and my thyroid function is normal on the lab work there is no reason I can't drop the weigh if I put in the effort. I also take the lowest amount of levothyroxene there is. They found my thyroid issue when I went to the doctor for not feeling well and I was depressed and crying all the time.
  • dawnreid2012
    dawnreid2012 Posts: 108 Member
    I have hypothyroidism and have had problems losing weight as well.. My dr put me on synthroid or the generic for it anyways and it didnt help with weightloss but she noticed that I was retaining fluid so she put me on a fluid pill and I dropped almost 10 pounds in fluid before I started my weightloss journey.. It just depends on you and your situation.. Check with your dr and see what they say.. Its better to be safe than sorry.
  • missstephanielynn
    missstephanielynn Posts: 20 Member
    PCOS :(

    I'm on MFP because monitoring my eating usually really helps with getting my hormone levels in check. I don't want to have to start taking meds!
  • JenniBaby85
    JenniBaby85 Posts: 855 Member
    I have an underactive thyroid, and PCOS. They both make it SO hard to lose weight.
  • breasyd2
    breasyd2 Posts: 32
    I have hypothyroid, PCOS and endometriosis. I eat correctly for my disorders, am on meds, and work out like a mad woman. I do all that just to avoid gaining weight and in order to be healthy. It is frustrating to do all this and still be incapable of losing weight, but it so much better than the alternative of continuing to gain weight and not be healthy.

    If you do find that you have medical reasons for not being able to lose, do what your doctors say and don't give up even if the road to weight loss is still really difficult.
  • Melodypharmon
    Melodypharmon Posts: 56 Member
    PCOS. Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome
    Way to combat it is to have a low carb diet (eat like a diabetic would to control blood sugar) and take a bunch of cinnamon pills.
  • squirrelzzrule22
    squirrelzzrule22 Posts: 640 Member
    Some types of birth control. Gained excessively and COULD NOT LOSE on Yaz. Went off it for a while then switched to a different bc and had a much easier time. Every woman is different and will respond differently to different hormones but on Yaz I went from a stable weight to gaining about 30 lbs in less than six months.
  • bdur76
    bdur76 Posts: 155 Member
    You've lost 22 pounds. Great job on the loss!

    Make sure your accurately tracking your calories. Weigh and measure your food, give it time and the results will come.
  • JWB42
    JWB42 Posts: 112
    I truly believe in the 80%/10%/10% theory.
    80% of weight loss is what you eat.
    10% is exercise
    and the other 10% is genetics.
    So, you can control 90% of what you do to help you lose weight.
  • htrshort
    htrshort Posts: 5 Member
    I didn't have the time to read all the other posts, so forgive any repeats. Everyone would tell me "as long as you burn more than you consume, you have to lose weight." yet, 16 months later, I was 115lbs heavier. Yes, there are some common medical conditions which can cause your body to hold onto weight, hypothyroid being the most common. But, there are a lot of lesser known things as well. I was on a 1200 calorie a day diet for 6 months and gained 40lbs. Yet all my labs are in the "normal" range. I have a serious neurological condition, am on a bunch of meds (none of which are known to cause weight gain, by the way), and can't be as active as I used to. One of the things that happened to me was that those and other issues confused my metabolism into thinking I was starving. So, every single calorie I ate was converted to fat since my body didn't think it knew if I'd get a meal tomorrow and it wanted to horde energy so it would have something to burn if it didn't get any food.

    I completely disagree with the comment that you should rule out all non-medical issues first. Assuming you have a decent relationship with your primary care physician &/or decent insurance, there's no reason to not mention it. Lots of insurance companies cover preventative care at good rates to encourage this. If there is something medically going on, there is no good reason to let it continue longer just to test out non-medical reasons. Not only will that make you continue to pack on pounds (lengthening the time it'll take to get them back off), but usually medical stuff that impacts your weight will be impacting other body systems which you might not yet notice. Plus, even if there's not one thing medically going on, your Dr can make suggestions about the best types of proteins, carbs, etc, ensure you're not sacrificing nutritional elements you need as you cut back calories, etc.

    There are also some really good medically supervised weight loss programs. I did weight watchers and wanted to shoot myself in the head. Then, I found a medically supervised program and, after gaining weight every single day for 16 - 18 months, I've now lost 16lbs in 7 weeks. Because of my unique issues, I see the Dr every week with this supervised program. My husband's doing it with me and doesn't have any medical issues, so he doesn't see the Dr except every 6 - 8 wks or something. But, they do blood work on both of us every 3wks. If anything shows up out of range, they retest the next week. They send the labs to our Dr too, so he's completely aware of what's going on with us and, if something shows up out of range and I don't call to make an appt, his nurse calls us to make an appt. It alleviates any concerns about any medical issues which might be causing weight retention as well as ones which we might have developed by being over weight for a couple years. It also ensures we're accurately tracking everything. It's so easy to think you're writing everything down properly, but it's amazing how off our perceptions almost always are on actual portion sizes, etc.

    I hope that some of this is helpful for you. Best of luck in your weight loss! Try not to get discouraged - not only is it completely normal for loss to wax and wane, but also if you're working out you can be getting healthier and more fit and not actually lose weight. My mom got into the habit of working out every single day. She gained weight, but lost 2 sizes. An inch of muscle weighs more than one inch of fat. So, if you're burning fat and building muscle, you may weight more but be a smaller size. Try to focus on body fat percentage and how your clothes fit just as much, if not more, than the actual lbs on the scale

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