One year, 50 pounds (w/ pictures and a question)

David,

I am not a doctor but have an educated enough guess regarding many of your symptoms. My father suffered from indigestion, headaches, poor sleep, fatigue and was easily agitated. Breathing issues were on and off, but overall he simply felt crap a great deal of the time. At the age of 87 he was rushed to a prestigious hospital with a mysterious shutdown of his intestines and it still took my suggesting they check for Celiac Disease - the surgeon literally rolled his eyes at my insistence of a blood test. Long story short, my dad is a Celiac and was undiagnosed for decades, but ALL of his symptoms vanished once he set out on a gluten free diet. The doctor said that being of Western Irish descent heavily predisposes one to carrying the two Celiac Disease genes and that it was a shame he was undiagnosed for almost his entire life.

Trust me, if it is gluten that leaves you feeling generally unwell taking gluten out of your diet for a week will lead to very obvious positive changes. As a child of a Celiac I was tested and told I am only gluten intolerant - meaning gluten won't cause permanent damage to my health, but it certainly makes me feel rough overall. I get a raspy asthma like thing in my lungs, chronic insomnia and migraines if I overdo gluten on any given day. When I am strict in removing gluten I feel a decade younger and actually manage to sleep before the sun comes up - gluten brings on wicked all night sleeplessness!

Oh lastly, my father did suffer from shakiness and erratic blood sugar before being diagnosed - I can remember him holding on to a railing once and thinking it was low blood sugar, but all these things went away within days of dropping gluten. The thing is all the doctors he had seen over the many decades wrote the many symptoms off as stress related or simply part of the aging process. Do yourself a favor and spend a few minutes researching your symptoms online as American doctors are so behind the rest of the world when it comes to understanding how gluten can significantly rock the health of their patients.

I hope you don't misconstrue my lengthy post as being pushy - it is just you mentioned so many of my father's symptoms that I felt the need to share. Congrats on the weight loss and best of luck to you.

I wish I read this 5 years ago:flowerforyou:

Removing wheat from my diet (all gluten products) most of the above symptoms went away, my migraines became 1x a week than 9-10 a week, and in addition my arthritis in thumb joints and feet all but disappeared. Gone! Wow.

So the info you put out there is important to someone

One last thought - when my Dad was in the hospital he was literally dying according to the medical staff and they ran tests on organ function but failed to check his vitamin D. When I insisted his regular physician do so it was at 7 and his doctor said something about his very low level being responsible for his inability to stay asleep. This vitamin can cause weight gain and difficulty in getting the new weight off, even with diet and exercise. If you have not had your D checked lately and wish to skip the doctor, simply get a finger prick test from the Vitamin D Council via the post.

Oh, and to arewethereyet, the migraines I used to blame on moderate Guinness consumption back in the nineties felt the same as the migraines I get today with a slice of whole wheat pizza!

I tried REALLY hard not to respond to this post due to negative/arguments/statements.
But I must.
Get gluten out of your diet. I did 95%, 5 years ago. HUGE difference.
Lost weight, feel so much better !
I lost only like 10 lbs after cutting WAY back on gluten but that in itself gave me the incentive to keep going on the weight loss train.
Do it. Try it. At least for 2-3 weeks. You WILL feel better.

First off congrats on taking control of your health and your success.
Secondly, I would see a dr. about your question.
Third, I would focus on reducing body fat percentages while building muscle and not so much dropping weight anymore.

I'm no pro but from my experience that's what I'd do. Sounds like you are already doing great btw; guessing maintenance should go well if you stick with what you have been doing.

Good luck buddy.

I wouldnt see whats the problem. You have a good diet, limiting portions of foods you enjoy is key and from what you described you do just that on most days. Im not against eating over maintenance every now and then. All I can say is Vitamins, but honestly its gonna have to be a doctors call on whats wrong. I have no clue. Good luck!