Morbidly obese but have no appetite

janejellyroll · August 2021

OP, I think before you change anything about your food selections or adding more calories, you should take a period of time when you commit to using more accurate methods to measure your intake so you can know what you're currently eating. If you're like most people, it's possible that you're underestimating your actual intake. This isn't specific to you and it has nothing to do with deliberate deception. It's that accurately measuring intake is HARD for people and it's a skill that we often have to learn.

Good luck.

PAV8888 · August 2021

@milenazh37 , especially for someone who has reasons to believe they're operating a couple of standard deviations slower than the mean, 3.5kg in two months is EXCELLENT progress. It is probably "easiest" for you if you keep your effective deficit in the 20% or less range, maybe going up to 25% of actual TDEE while above BMI 30. So about a lb a week sounds quite good and well done!

scarlett_k · August 2021

sheiladerksen wrote: »

scarlett_k wrote: »

I suspect you're eating more than you think you are. Two years on 800 kcals you'd certainly be losing weight and possibly keeling over. Or dead.

Not helpful and basically saying I'm a liar..... If you actually read my post, I was looking for people who have taken Amitriptyline and gained massive amounts of weight in a very short time, not be criticized, analyzed and shamed for what I supposedly am eating! I have been through 2 dietitians who have analyzed my diet, so who are you to diagnose me?! It's people like you who totally put me off sites like this.

Deleted, wasting my breath aren't I 🙃

kshama2001 · August 2021

PAV8888 wrote: »

I have a question for my fellow MFPers:

What exactly will be accomplished by the OP opening up her diary?
She has already STATED that she is not weighing her food.
She has already STATED that she is "watching" her food and not measuring it with precision.
Clearly stated.
In her post where she describes eating a bit of porridge and a 1/4 small plate of this or another.

So. For those of us who would like to give her pointers on how to log properly: why would we need to look at her diary to do so given the above information which includes the fact that she does NOT log accurately?

To the OP I have only one suggestion: Do not eat less than 800 Calories. Do not eat less than 1200 Calories. Do not eat or drink ANYTHING until you've put it on a scale, measured it, recorded it, and only then allowed it to enter your mouth.

Yes this includes milk going in your coffee and using a scale (conversion tables switching weight of milk to ml exist. the temperature and fat content has a smaller effect than the eyeballing involved in measuring ml visually as opposed to using a scale)

Yes. Until you learn how to do this weighing and recording fast a LOT of food will be eaten cold while you keep salivating and feeling pretty dang uncomfortable BUT, NOT allowing yourself to eat before you complete your mission.

So yes. You will win and weigh every single morsel and bite, recording it, moving your plate to your table, and sitting down to eat your food undistracted by TV, books, or anything other than logging

Try this while eating 1200 Calories a day. Weigh yourself when you wake up, naked, after using the washroom. Plot your weight on weight trend app... and let me know in 4 to 6 weeks that include a full menstrual cycle what your weight trend change has been!

Best of luck.

"Please share diary" is my standard first response on most "Why am I not losing weight" threads because I am not willing to invest more energy into answering the question unless they are willing to share their diary. I don't want to spend time playing 20 questions when all the info I seek is in the food and exercise diary.

However, if I had read this more carefully I would have made the same suggestions to the OP as you did - weigh and log meticulously for at least a month, weigh daily with a trending app, and then get back to us. (With an open diary.)

Cheesy567 · August 2021

I’d add in, look for sources of fat in the diet that aren’t making it into the diary… there’s no dressing listed in the salad. There’s also no fruit and very little carbohydrate listed in the diary examples given.

One might want to cross-reference shopping receipts and bank statements/ credit card statements with the diary to see, if indeed, that what is being logged is all that is being eaten. It can be easy to forget to log a quick stop at a corner shop for a snack, for instance. Or, if one buys a jar of peanut butter monthly but only logs one tablespoon weekly on their Sunday toast, then there’s a fair bit of peanut butter missing, isn’t there? There might be some “quick bites” that are thought to be harmless that actually add up calorie-wise by months end. (I speak from personal experience, not being accusational 😉👍🏼)

And I offer insight as someone on medications that cause weight gain and limit weightloss, with medical issues that interfere with exercise and metabolism. It complicates things, and yes, causes extra layers of frustration. I’m so sorry you’re dealing with all of this.

sheiladerksen · August 2021

milenazh37 wrote: »

I'm someone who is currently fighting amitriptyline-induced weight gain. I was put on it in December for depression and neuropathic pain, 50mg a day. I was in the second trimester of my second pregnancy and by the end of pregnancy I didn't gain much more than I did in my first pregnancy. So, everything seemed fine until couple months after birth when I realised I haven't lost a single kg (I was literally the same weight as I were just before birth) and I was staring at a 15kg haevier person than I ever was. For almost 40 years of my life I was able to eat whatever I wanted and never to have any serious problem with body weight. To cut the long story short, after many careful observation of my current lifestyle, it turned out that amitriptyline ridiculously increased my apetite. What was normal for me during my whole life (like, being able to only eat two squares of a chocolate bar in one go) was suddenly increased like five fold or so (I could now eat the whole chocolate bar). The only thing that helped was a meticulous measuring of everything I ate and using fitbit to ensure I'm in a calory deficit. I'm down ~3.5kg in two months, this is painfully slow, but at least it's showing that I have some control over it (I really don't want to stop amitriptyline because the effect it has on my neuropathic pain is really life changing). So, if you want an advice from a fellow "amitriptyline-suferer": measure everything meticulously! As someone said, nothing goes into my mouth unles it was on a scale. Yes, I was that person who took a kitchen scale to a dinner with friends, but I was super determined to figure out what the f was going on - I'm overweight for the first time in my life. And if you want an example of what amitriptyline does to apetite - I realized that if I were to eat as much as my current appetite demands, I would be eating upwards of 1000 Cal over my daily needs... That is horrifying. And it explains how I managed to gain about 5kg within a month after birth, roughly all the weight that I "lost" when they took out the baby, placenta etc. I know you said you had no apetite, but I also thought there was nothing wrong with my apetite for two months, while eating at a ridiculous calorie suficite. So, start measuring and logging religiously to get an idea of exactly how big is your deficit/suficit. That's my honest advice.

Thank you so much for your post! Yes it is true I am not weighing things, just going by what is said on product info and what my 2 dietitians have suggested and recorded. I will now be the person walking around weighing everything lol. Did you by chance have hypothyroidism after taking amitriptyline?

callsitlikeiseeit · August 2021

sheiladerksen wrote: »

milenazh37 wrote: »

I'm someone who is currently fighting amitriptyline-induced weight gain. I was put on it in December for depression and neuropathic pain, 50mg a day. I was in the second trimester of my second pregnancy and by the end of pregnancy I didn't gain much more than I did in my first pregnancy. So, everything seemed fine until couple months after birth when I realised I haven't lost a single kg (I was literally the same weight as I were just before birth) and I was staring at a 15kg haevier person than I ever was. For almost 40 years of my life I was able to eat whatever I wanted and never to have any serious problem with body weight. To cut the long story short, after many careful observation of my current lifestyle, it turned out that amitriptyline ridiculously increased my apetite. What was normal for me during my whole life (like, being able to only eat two squares of a chocolate bar in one go) was suddenly increased like five fold or so (I could now eat the whole chocolate bar). The only thing that helped was a meticulous measuring of everything I ate and using fitbit to ensure I'm in a calory deficit. I'm down ~3.5kg in two months, this is painfully slow, but at least it's showing that I have some control over it (I really don't want to stop amitriptyline because the effect it has on my neuropathic pain is really life changing). So, if you want an advice from a fellow "amitriptyline-suferer": measure everything meticulously! As someone said, nothing goes into my mouth unles it was on a scale. Yes, I was that person who took a kitchen scale to a dinner with friends, but I was super determined to figure out what the f was going on - I'm overweight for the first time in my life. And if you want an example of what amitriptyline does to apetite - I realized that if I were to eat as much as my current appetite demands, I would be eating upwards of 1000 Cal over my daily needs... That is horrifying. And it explains how I managed to gain about 5kg within a month after birth, roughly all the weight that I "lost" when they took out the baby, placenta etc. I know you said you had no apetite, but I also thought there was nothing wrong with my apetite for two months, while eating at a ridiculous calorie suficite. So, start measuring and logging religiously to get an idea of exactly how big is your deficit/suficit. That's my honest advice.

Thank you so much for your post! Yes it is true I am not weighing things, just going by what is said on product info and what my 2 dietitians have suggested and recorded. I will now be the person walking around weighing everything lol. Did you by chance have hypothyroidism after taking amitriptyline?

and there we have the problem.

milenazh37 · August 2021

sheiladerksen wrote: »

milenazh37 wrote: »

I'm someone who is currently fighting amitriptyline-induced weight gain. I was put on it in December for depression and neuropathic pain, 50mg a day. I was in the second trimester of my second pregnancy and by the end of pregnancy I didn't gain much more than I did in my first pregnancy. So, everything seemed fine until couple months after birth when I realised I haven't lost a single kg (I was literally the same weight as I were just before birth) and I was staring at a 15kg haevier person than I ever was. For almost 40 years of my life I was able to eat whatever I wanted and never to have any serious problem with body weight. To cut the long story short, after many careful observation of my current lifestyle, it turned out that amitriptyline ridiculously increased my apetite. What was normal for me during my whole life (like, being able to only eat two squares of a chocolate bar in one go) was suddenly increased like five fold or so (I could now eat the whole chocolate bar). The only thing that helped was a meticulous measuring of everything I ate and using fitbit to ensure I'm in a calory deficit. I'm down ~3.5kg in two months, this is painfully slow, but at least it's showing that I have some control over it (I really don't want to stop amitriptyline because the effect it has on my neuropathic pain is really life changing). So, if you want an advice from a fellow "amitriptyline-suferer": measure everything meticulously! As someone said, nothing goes into my mouth unles it was on a scale. Yes, I was that person who took a kitchen scale to a dinner with friends, but I was super determined to figure out what the f was going on - I'm overweight for the first time in my life. And if you want an example of what amitriptyline does to apetite - I realized that if I were to eat as much as my current appetite demands, I would be eating upwards of 1000 Cal over my daily needs... That is horrifying. And it explains how I managed to gain about 5kg within a month after birth, roughly all the weight that I "lost" when they took out the baby, placenta etc. I know you said you had no apetite, but I also thought there was nothing wrong with my apetite for two months, while eating at a ridiculous calorie suficite. So, start measuring and logging religiously to get an idea of exactly how big is your deficit/suficit. That's my honest advice.

Thank you so much for your post! Yes it is true I am not weighing things, just going by what is said on product info and what my 2 dietitians have suggested and recorded. I will now be the person walking around weighing everything lol. Did you by chance have hypothyroidism after taking amitriptyline?

Actually I just checked my thyroid this week, so some 8 months since starting amitriptyline - no, everything seems fine (I have fibromyalgia and in the past ten years every doctor would check thyroid, but it was OK every time).

@PAV8888 - Thank you! Yes, it is a decent progress, it just feels super slow to me compared to the amount of effort... The change in apetite is drustic but subtle, if that makes any sense

. E.g. where I would have before taken one piece of something (meat, cake, bread...), and hear from granmas, aunts etc how I'm not eating enough, I now take two. Nobody notices anything since it is still in the relatively normal range of eating, but for me this double the amount I always ate!

Morbidly obese but have no appetite

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