Health Barriers and Weight Loss

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DesignatedGinger
DesignatedGinger Posts: 16 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Hello everyone! To begin, I've had great success with MFP and at one point lost 25 pounds. Even though that wasn't a tremendously high number, I was proud of my discipline and commitment. Albeit, at that weight I was at the bottom end of what was considered healthy weight (5"9 at 125 lbs) and ended up going back up to 135 lbs which was comfortable. However, over the course of two years I've gained nearly all that weight back which has brought about quite a bit of frustration at myself and . I have not stopped being active (I love Zumba, Bolly X, yoga and jogging when the weather is warm enough) though managing a low calorie intake has been difficult and I shall better explain why:

I have recently been diagnosed with a sleep disorder that's only progressively gotten worse with as well as quite a few nutrient and vitamin deficiencies that likely contribute to my chronic headaches. These headaches always increase in severity when I don't eat or limit my food intake (hence the struggle with a low calories) and make it hard for me to perform at higher intensities because I feel exhausted on the daily. While I was able to initially lose the weight several years ago over the course of a few months due to having an active job and light exercise, the health concerns have only gotten worse and my environment has changed. Anyway, due to these concerns I've put strict calorie counting on hold for now knowing there will be likely weight gain because of it. I'm also trying to listen to my body and only eat when I'm hungry and stop when I can tell I'm actually full.

But for those of you who have health conditions (either chronic or otherwise) that cause barriers for your weight loss and health goals, what do you do to help overcome them? As someone who is trying to get back to a place of health and balance, what advice would you give? I apologize for the length and appreciate the feedback!

Replies

  • goldthistime
    goldthistime Posts: 3,214 Member
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    My health problems aren't particularly interesting or serious, but my answer is just to go slow. You have enough challenges to deal with without adding the stress of a challenging deficit. But I also want to point out that at 5'9" 150lbs your BMI is normal already. Have you considered body recomposition instead of just weight loss?
  • DesignatedGinger
    DesignatedGinger Posts: 16 Member
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    goldthistime wrote: »
    My health problems aren't particularly interesting or serious, but my answer is just to go slow. You have enough challenges to deal with without adding the stress of a challenging deficit. But I also want to point out that at 5'9" 150lbs your BMI is normal already. Have you considered body recomposition instead of just weight loss?

    Thank-you for your response! Yes, going at a slower pace may have to be how I start again despite my lack of patience with myself. Knowing I've met my goals before has been a major source of frustration. But that's a mindset change I'll need to adjust to.

    I've read some on recomposition but with all I've read I've become apprehensive at attempting. I like the concept though I don't have a ton of experience and am unsure of the best way to get started. :/
  • goldthistime
    goldthistime Posts: 3,214 Member
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    DesignatedGinger wrote: »
    goldthistime wrote: »
    My health problems aren't particularly interesting or serious, but my answer is just to go slow. You have enough challenges to deal with without adding the stress of a challenging deficit. But I also want to point out that at 5'9" 150lbs your BMI is normal already. Have you considered body recomposition instead of just weight loss?

    Thank-you for your response! Yes, going at a slower pace may have to be how I start again despite my lack of patience with myself. Knowing I've met my goals before has been a major source of frustration. But that's a mindset change I'll need to adjust to.

    I've read some on recomposition but with all I've read I've become apprehensive at attempting. I like the concept though I don't have a ton of experience and am unsure of the best way to get started. :/

    Maybe this will help:

    http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10177803/recomposition-maintaining-weight-while-losing-fat/p1
  • lorrpb
    lorrpb Posts: 11,464 Member
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    I'm sorry for your health issues. If you read threads on here, you know that many people with serious health issues have found ways to get healthy, lose weight, get fit, and possibly beat back some of these Issues. Based on your comments, it seems that you've set up a dichotomy between gaining and losing. There's another option called maintaining. Perhaps you should make maintenance your first goal. Maintaining is better than gaining.

    Counting calories doesn't give you headaches or health issues, but restricting too much can. I suggest you could log calories but not restrict. Just log and count for 2-4 weeks to see where you are. Then plug your stats into MFP and set to maintain. Eat at maintenance for a month, and see how that feels. Then set MFP to lose 0.5 per week, which is a 250 deficit. If that doesn't work for your headaches, try 100 per day deficit. That would still be 1 lb per month. Not history making, but still progress. You might also consider trying different macro ratios to see if one helps more than another.

    You also might need to reconsider what is a healthy weight for your stats. 125 or even 135 is quite low for 5'9". I'm 5-7 and 125-130 is the low end of healthy BMI range, so your target weight is likely underweight, although I haven't looked it up right now,
  • DesignatedGinger
    DesignatedGinger Posts: 16 Member
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    goldthistime wrote: »
    DesignatedGinger wrote: »
    goldthistime wrote: »
    My health problems aren't particularly interesting or serious, but my answer is just to go slow. You have enough challenges to deal with without adding the stress of a challenging deficit. But I also want to point out that at 5'9" 150lbs your BMI is normal already. Have you considered body recomposition instead of just weight loss?

    Thank-you for your response! Yes, going at a slower pace may have to be how I start again despite my lack of patience with myself. Knowing I've met my goals before has been a major source of frustration. But that's a mindset change I'll need to adjust to.

    I've read some on recomposition but with all I've read I've become apprehensive at attempting. I like the concept though I don't have a ton of experience and am unsure of the best way to get started. :/

    Maybe this will help:

    http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10177803/recomposition-maintaining-weight-while-losing-fat/p1

    I'll take a look! Thank-you!
  • DesignatedGinger
    DesignatedGinger Posts: 16 Member
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    lorrpb wrote: »
    I'm sorry for your health issues. If you read threads on here, you know that many people with serious health issues have found ways to get healthy, lose weight, get fit, and possibly beat back some of these Issues. Based on your comments, it seems that you've set up a dichotomy between gaining and losing. There's another option called maintaining. Perhaps you should make maintenance your first goal. Maintaining is better than gaining.

    Counting calories doesn't give you headaches or health issues, but restricting too much can. I suggest you could log calories but not restrict. Just log and count for 2-4 weeks to see where you are. Then plug your stats into MFP and set to maintain. Eat at maintenance for a month, and see how that feels. Then set MFP to lose 0.5 per week, which is a 250 deficit. If that doesn't work for your headaches, try 100 per day deficit. That would still be 1 lb per month. Not history making, but still progress. You might also consider trying different macro ratios to see if one helps more than another.

    You also might need to reconsider what is a healthy weight for your stats. 125 or even 135 is quite low for 5'9". I'm 5-7 and 125-130 is the low end of healthy BMI range, so your target weight is likely underweight, although I haven't looked it up right now,

    Quite a few people and it's reassuring that so many people have had success even with these barriers, far more severe than my concerns. It shows that any health goal can be accomplished, which helps motivation.

    That's a fair assessment I think, with how my focus has been on one or the other rather than the middle ground. Counting calories can cause a special kind of headache unrelated to health concerns. ;) I like this idea of re-evaluating the baseline. I've gone through changes and it only makes sense to re-evaluate and build from there. And that being said also, re-evaluating the healthy weight may be wise also. I have struggled a long time with a body positive image where being skinny is of more value than being healthy and strong. It's a hard mindset to step away from especially when I liked how I looked when I was on the lower end. However, At this stage it's a change that needs to happen. Thank-you so much for your input!
  • lorrpb
    lorrpb Posts: 11,464 Member
    Options
    DesignatedGinger wrote: »
    lorrpb wrote: »
    I'm sorry for your health issues. If you read threads on here, you know that many people with serious health issues have found ways to get healthy, lose weight, get fit, and possibly beat back some of these Issues. Based on your comments, it seems that you've set up a dichotomy between gaining and losing. There's another option called maintaining. Perhaps you should make maintenance your first goal. Maintaining is better than gaining.

    Counting calories doesn't give you headaches or health issues, but restricting too much can. I suggest you could log calories but not restrict. Just log and count for 2-4 weeks to see where you are. Then plug your stats into MFP and set to maintain. Eat at maintenance for a month, and see how that feels. Then set MFP to lose 0.5 per week, which is a 250 deficit. If that doesn't work for your headaches, try 100 per day deficit. That would still be 1 lb per month. Not history making, but still progress. You might also consider trying different macro ratios to see if one helps more than another.

    You also might need to reconsider what is a healthy weight for your stats. 125 or even 135 is quite low for 5'9". I'm 5-7 and 125-130 is the low end of healthy BMI range, so your target weight is likely underweight, although I haven't looked it up right now,

    Quite a few people and it's reassuring that so many people have had success even with these barriers, far more severe than my concerns. It shows that any health goal can be accomplished, which helps motivation.

    That's a fair assessment I think, with how my focus has been on one or the other rather than the middle ground. Counting calories can cause a special kind of headache unrelated to health concerns. ;) I like this idea of re-evaluating the baseline. I've gone through changes and it only makes sense to re-evaluate and build from there. And that being said also, re-evaluating the healthy weight may be wise also. I have struggled a long time with a body positive image where being skinny is of more value than being healthy and strong. It's a hard mindset to step away from especially when I liked how I looked when I was on the lower end. However, At this stage it's a change that needs to happen. Thank-you so much for your input!

    I'm glad my thoughts were helpful. Now you know that being healthy and strong Is more important than perceived appearance or body image.
  • staraly
    staraly Posts: 54 Member
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    Hi DG. You say you have a lot of nutritional deficiencies but you don't say what the cause of those are. If you have an underlying problem then this would need to be addressed before you can loose weight safely. I've had a lot of problems with sleep and random nutritional deficiencies over the years, along with a lot of other weird symptoms. I have even had the occasional sleep seizure when things were really bad. I don't have access to good quality health care so I've had to read a lot of research and experiment on myself. My health has drastically improved since I worked out that most of my problems are to do with leaky gut and started working through a leaky gut protocol. I've had to do a lot of trial and error supplementing, elimination dieting etc until I started to feel better. I'm not 100% yet but well on the way and can now lose weight normally. I couldn't lose anything before & just kept gaining no matter what. And as for the sleep seizures, I took the lowest dose of 5htp I could for about 2 months, taking regular breaks to prevent depending on it to sleep. I also no longer take any of the medicines that reduce stomach acid that docs had me on for years.
  • DesignatedGinger
    DesignatedGinger Posts: 16 Member
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    staraly wrote: »
    Hi DG. You say you have a lot of nutritional deficiencies but you don't say what the cause of those are. If you have an underlying problem then this would need to be addressed before you can loose weight safely. I've had a lot of problems with sleep and random nutritional deficiencies over the years, along with a lot of other weird symptoms. I have even had the occasional sleep seizure when things were really bad. I don't have access to good quality health care so I've had to read a lot of research and experiment on myself. My health has drastically improved since I worked out that most of my problems are to do with leaky gut and started working through a leaky gut protocol. I've had to do a lot of trial and error supplementing, elimination dieting etc until I started to feel better. I'm not 100% yet but well on the way and can now lose weight normally. I couldn't lose anything before & just kept gaining no matter what. And as for the sleep seizures, I took the lowest dose of 5htp I could for about 2 months, taking regular breaks to prevent depending on it to sleep. I also no longer take any of the medicines that reduce stomach acid that docs had me on for years.

    Hello Staraly!

    The deficiencies I am not sure exactly what causes them except for my iron which I've had most of my life. Wow, sleep seizures? That's a bit scary! I am glad you are moving in a positive direction! I feel like the more I talk with my doctor (I have been working with her since December) that I will finally get the answers others weren't able to help me find. I don't want to slap a band-aid on the problem. I definitely don't want what I've got going on to keep me from doing physical activity.

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