chichi2130 Member

Wacoal 855170 (link to Amazon) I wear a 34DD and I love them (the bands can be tight... i get them in my regular size, but some people recommend ordering these a band size higher)

I've seen Planet Fitness locations (online, not in person) that actually do have squat racks. It depends on the management at the location. I'm a member of PF for the same reasons you've mentioned. Mine has Smith machines (which I refuse to touch), dumbbells up to 75lbs, and fixed barbells up to, I believe, 110lbs. I've…

Thank you all for the words of encouragement :) I'm very much looking forward to round 2 tomorrow

Well, the good news is that strength training is usually recommended for people with hyperthyroidism because it will help maintain your muscle mass, which will help maintain bone density. Hyperthyroidism can cause osteoporosis, so this is obviously important, especially as a woman. The way I looked at my Graves disease was…

Also, as far as diet, talk to your doctor. My endocrinologist literally said, "if you're eating cake every day for dinner, I want you to continue to do that." Obviously I was not eating cake every day for dinner, but it was more important to get my levels back down to normal and diet/exercise can change what your…

So, before I was diagnosed, I unintentionally lost a bunch of weight - somewhere in the area of 25lbs. 25lbs for me was a lot. I looked sickly. I had to be eating like 3000 calories/day, but it's part of the disease. A lot of what I lost was muscle. My legs would burn from walking up a single flight of stairs, not to…

I also have Graves disease, am 28, and am on methimazole. Are you me? You really should be on a beta blocker like propranolol. It's dangerous to maintain a resting heart rate that's that high. I was diagnosed 2 years ago and now I'm maintaining good thyroid levels with the methimazole. I was on propranolol for about a year…

Why can't it be controlled in the meantime? I also had tachycardia due to an autoimmune disease, but I was put on beta blockers while we were getting everything else under control. I wasn't allowed to do anything more than take a leisurely walk until my heart rate was within a safe range.

It actually sounds like you have T3 and T4 levels and not TSH, which is good, because the T3 and T4 will be the main factors in how you feel. I don't know what your test ranges were, but if they're "slightly high" then you would have hyperthyroidism, not hypothyroidism. Most people with thyroid issues have underactive…

I have normal-to-high arches and I tend to underpronate, so I'm sure that has something to do with it. But it turns out it was probably a sock issue. It happens a lot less when I wear thinner socks with wider toe boxes.

In for motivation... I seriously have the biggest girl crush on all of you inspirational ladies! Keep up the good work!

I have a friend who was a vegetarian for several years and then started eating meat again (same reason as you -- she was always sick and her doctor basically told her she needs to eat meat or she's not going to feel much better). She started off with chicken. Try putting a few pieces of chicken breast in a salad or over…

I've only tried yoga a few times, so I am far from being an expert. It's a lot harder than it looks and seems like it would help you strengthen (core, mostly) and increase flexibility. It obviously burns calories, but I would have no idea how many. I say, if you're curious, give it a shot. It can't hurt. Edit: In addition…

The cardio machines at my PF have headphone jacks. You just plug in and select which TV you want to listen to.

Talk to your doctor about your concerns, but, from what I've seen, the cardiac issues occur mainly in patients with a history of existing cardiac issues. You may also experience some cardiac troubles (high heart rate, hypertension) if your dose is too high, bringing your T3 above normal. Those problems generally go away…

^this. Since you've never use one before, it could take you a while to get it in... and you may go through a few of them before you get it right (if you can feel it, you most likely need to get it further in there), but once you use one, I can't see how you would ever want to go back to pads. The first time I used one, I…

Agreed with the above posters. If your goal is 1200 calories and you burn 800 exercising, you need to be taking in 2000 calories from food. And like fpelletier said, 1200 is probably too low anyway. You need to find your BMR and that number is the minimum your body needs just to survive.

I'm a 34DD and I love my Wacoal (#855170) bras. That model provides lift and separation and keeps everything in place. The band runs a little tight, so some people recommend going up a band size, but I personally like the security of the tighter band.

Along the lines of getting a pedometer, my father used to take me for bike rides and he bought me a cyclometer (?). I'm sure there have been technological advancements in that area since I was a kid, but I had one that attached to the spokes on the wheel and displayed my speed and distance traveled on a little LCD screen…

Online calculators put me at about 38%, which seems fairly accurate judging by those pictures...

I'm not a doctor... Your FT4 looks good, in my opinion, but your FT3 might be a little low, even though it's in range. You may want to ask your endo if you can try a T3 replacement, such as Cytomel, in addition to the L-Thyroxine. L-Thyroxine is used to replace T4, but if your thyroid isn't producing adequate amounts of…

No, it's not. Mine also gets into the 160-170 area. When I'm doing any sort of interval training, I generally increase the intensity again when my HR gets down to the 130 area.

Honestly, yes, you probably did only burn 72 calories. I usually burn 90-100 calories per mile - at 5mph, heart rate fairly steady around 165 bpm.

Finally recorded my measurements... this is hard to take in because I was about 25lbs lighter and 4 inches smaller on each measurement just about 5 years ago :-/ (Graves Disease messed me up big time) 5'6" 170lbs 41-33-43 Gotta take control now...

BMR is what your body uses just to stay alive. This means you would burn 1340 if you were in a coma. They say you also burn about 500 calories a day when you're breastfeeding, so you need to be netting AT LEAST 1840 (this should actually be more, since I'm sure you aren't spending your days literally not moving at all).…

Don't take this advice. You're netting 900 calories? ...while weightlifting and breastfeeding?! You definitely need to be eating more.

Free T3 and Free T4 are absolutely the most important things to check at this point for you... I'll give you an example of how much TSH can vary. These are results from my bloodwork over the past year. (Note: I have Graves Disease and am on methimazole, a thyroid suppressor) T3 Range 2.0-4.4 -- T4 Range: 0.82-1.77 -- TSH…

How do you feel? Have your levels drastically changed since your last check? I'm not a doctor, but, in my experience, they look fine...

I was experiencing heavy sweating at night while I slept, hand and internal tremors, very high heartrate, muscle atrophy (think: can't walk up a flight of stairs without being in pain and out of breath), migraines, always hungry/eating (like 3000 calories a day, but still losing weight), and others... It's easy to tell -…

I was getting blisters on the bottoms of my toes, which seem to have been caused by the socks I was wearing. I started wearing thinner cotton socks for my runs, which are a lot better, but I'll eventually be looking into non-cotton socks.