Menopause weight challenges

I understand, having certain health challenges can make weight loss very difficult. From my own experience I can tell you that getting in enough protein while cutting your calories so far down can be a real challenge. As of late, I have found egg whites to be extremely helpful, I add them to smoothies. I also have found that getting in enough nutrition can be virtually impossible while calories are so low without going for two nutrient dense foods. 1) Blackstrap molasses 2) Nutritional yeast.

The blackstrap molasses I use a teaspoon in hot cashew milk up to 3 times a day, and the nutritional yeast 1 heaping teaspoon with a broth cube, up to 3 times a day. It helps to break it up into small nutritional doses as your body can not absorb that much in vitamins at once, and will just excrete it. It also helps keep something in your stomach so you don't feel like you are starving half to death.

I wish you the best, and hope that you find healthy success!

1000 calories a day is likely too few calories, unless you are quite short (no, I am not being sarcastic). Google "Scooby calculator" and it will give you accurate calorie counts for your height, weight, and age. You may be doing more harm than you realize. I would also suggest seeing your doctor. Are they giving you thyroid medicine? Hormone treatments? There are lots of options, hopefully with your doctors help, you can find something that works for you. Ain't menopause grand? I swear, I can look at a food magazine and put on twenty pounds. Best regards.

mysteps2beauty wrote: »

purebredpolly wrote: »

I understand, having certain health challenges can make weight loss very difficult. From my own experience I can tell you that getting in enough protein while cutting your calories so far down can be a real challenge. As of late, I have found egg whites to be extremely helpful, I add them to smoothies. I also have found that getting in enough nutrition can be virtually impossible while calories are so low without going for two nutrient dense foods. 1) Blackstrap molasses 2) Nutritional yeast.

The blackstrap molasses I use a teaspoon in hot cashew milk up to 3 times a day, and the nutritional yeast 1 heaping teaspoon with a broth cube, up to 3 times a day. It helps to break it up into small nutritional doses as your body can not absorb that much in vitamins at once, and will just excrete it. It also helps keep something in your stomach so you don't feel like you are starving half to death.

I wish you the best, and hope that you find healthy success!

Wow. It's amazing you have lost as much as you have....I guess once you overcome cravings in the beginning it becomes tolerable??? I have sugar cravings especially when stressed. When I was pregnant with my kid I would take Brewers' Yeast and milk for each meal cause that was all I could tolerate. Guess I'll go back to that for a meal replacement. Do you exercise much and would you mind sharing your age? You can inbox me.

Mysteps, it took me several years to get that much weight off due to thyroid, and a little over a year ago I crashed, and burned, and ended up in ICU. My thyroid damaged my heart, and I nearly died. I have not recovered, I am in stage 3 CHF, and at stage 4 they will put me on a heart transplant list. I am doing everything in my power to reverse gears on the CHF, but they say that if my heart was to recover, it would have done so in full this past year. I am on 22 medications, and am now entering menopause. Because of these medications, coupled with menopause I have not been able to drop a pound this past year despite continuing on the same path that helped me shed the first 67 pounds. Right now I am attempting to revamp my diet so I can safely stay at a low calorie intake, and not damage my health further. In my effort to lose more weight, I was reducing my calories drastically, which meant I was reducing my protein intake. HUGE mistake! My endocrinologist was very concerned after viewing my blood test results this last time, and suggested I add in egg whites. I have found them to work well in smoothies. Not having enough protein will cause your body to cannibalize itself (according to my doctor), in particular your heart muscle.

Now I log into MFP everyday, no matter how bad I feel, even on days when I am too ill to converse with folks. As well as I continue to follow a low calorie, low saturated fat diet, no matter how sick, and exhausted I am for that day, however, I don't always log it into MFP food log, but it does get logged in a book for my endocrinologist, along with a picture diary to show my endocrinologist each 3 month visit. I do my best to keep up with my friends here, and cheer them on, but like I said, I am pretty ill at this point, so I have blocks of time I can't do more than log in. However, if you would like to be my MFP friend, I'd love it! I'll do my best to keep up with your progress, and I'll cheer you on when I can.

EDITED TO ADD:

*No, exercise with my heart in it's condition is not advisable. I attempted doing a walking in place program, against my cardiologist's wishes, and I ended up in a deep trouble. I am still attempting to recover from that foolish venture.

*I am 50 years old.

*I still have cravings, I do my best to find low calorie options so I don't go out of my mind and end up engulfing the entire contents of my pantry.