Weight loss and dieting AMA

amother

Wed, May 05 2021, 11:44 pm

Hi everyone!
I’ve been seeing a lot of threads here about weight loss and different strategies and questions people had. Imas struggling with food plans and ideas and keeping the weight off, or just plain losing it!
I gained a lot of weight suddenly due to an issue which got resolved but the weight stuck and I had to get ride of it myself. It was an extremely frustrating journey since I was always pretty normal weight wise and to be gaining that much weight in this point of my life was kind of scary and overwhelming. I just wanted to share some tips I learned along the way, some from my own experience and some from top doctors from around the country since I spent years trying to figure this all out!

Please feel free to AMA I am more then happy to try and make your dieting day go better! I am by no means an expert or professional just an Ima who tried everything and traveled hundreds of miles to find the solution and in the meanwhile picked up some pretty interesting ideas.
And please please- be nice! If you don’t think a suggestion is good for you just ignore it ... maybe it will help someone! It took me awhile to build up the confidence to write this. And yes I’ve lost over 50 pounds so far! Very Happy

First things first- find the right doctor! Too many doctors or nutritionists left me sobbing in my car after they berated me and make me feel like a loser. Find a weight loss specialist that praises your goals and encourages you! Doesn’t make you feel like it’s all your fault when it’s not always!

-get your blood work done. Weight gain or the inability to lose weight can many times be caused by an underlying health issue. And not just a basic panel, go to a specialist and have them check everything if you think there may be a cause

- don’t be embarrassed to ask for medication when you are trying to lose a lot of weight. It can be very helpful when monitored by your doctor of course when your body needs that extra kick to start. And don’t feel bad if you can’t lose weight when you try everything. It’s ok to need med intervention. Oh gosh how long I avoided this when it could have helped me so much! Medicine kickstarted my journey and alerted my brain OK it’s time to lose weight now!

-exercise can be extremely challenging. Especially when you are already not feeling your best. Trust me literally 5 minutes every day of continuous exercise helps tremendously! For me, a stationary bike worked the best because I was able to sit while exercising. Now I’m feeling so much better and can up the resistance but if I listened to the doctors who insisted on 30 min a intense exercise a day- I would have never done anything!

- carbs don’t have to be your enemy. Sugar is! Sugar is the worst and the best thing the eliminate completely from your diet. The first thing you’ll see gone when you cut out the sugar is bloating! It will make you look skinnier almost immediately. It’s so hard but so worth it. Carbs should be minimized and eaten towards the end of the day, not in the AM when they go straight to your bloodstream.

Thank you for reading all this it’s getting sooooo long !!! So now... AMA Smile

amother

Wed, May 05 2021, 11:52 pm

amother [ Chocolate ] wrote:

So interesting that you say this because I have always heard that if I do eat carbs, eat them early so I have the whole day to burn them off, and cut off the carbs by end of lunch.

I know, it’s a pretty new study by a group of top doctors. Pretty interesting! The point is when you eat them first thing they go straight to your bloodstream and affect your body much more. Towards the end of the day you’ve eaten more foods and your body can stabilize carbs a lot easier. Think of it as taking medicine or vitamins on an empty stomach- they tell you to do that because it goes straight to your bloodstream and it’s way more effective! Or when they tell you to take meds WITH food, so the side effects don’t bother you as much. Same concept!

Chana Miriam S

Thu, May 06 2021, 9:12 am

Congratulations! When did you start your current journey? Also curious which medicine?

And just going to comment that our bodies can’t tell the difference between sugar and other forms of carbs. It’s all the same to our insulin response and liver if fructose. From a circadian perspective it is better to eat carbs earlier in the day when the insulin response is more cyclically active, not when the body is winding down for the night. BUT that applies to all foods, no matter the macronutrient. if you can stop eating three hours or so before sleep, that’s always the better option because digestion slows massively at night and can disrupt sleep. If it’s carbs, it won’t help to have blood sugar high for a longer time.

Last edited by Chana Miriam S on Thu, May 06 2021, 9:21 am; edited 1 time in total

amother

Thu, May 06 2021, 9:20 am

andrea levy wrote:

Congratulations! When did you start your current journey? Also curious which medicine?

Thank you so much! Too kind!
I actually started losing weight only a year ago, after hopping around to doctors for years to get help with the unexplained weight gain. It wasn’t an easy or quick, but it was progress and any progress counts!

I’ve taken multiple meds and a combination too when I’ve had plateaus on the recommendation on my doctor, but I would say the most basic or common one is phentermine. I didn’t specifically need help with controlling my appetite but I’ve learned medication does a lot more then what the standard drug advertises. This actually sends messages to your brain that the body is ready and willing to lose weight so allow that process to happen (neurologically) and I needed that step in order to lose weight.

It’s easy to dismiss meds like- oh I don’t need that, or that’s not for me I know how to control my appetite etc etc ... I was very lucky to find an extremely kind and helpful doctor who took away that shame and also explained there are multiple ways to use any given med which was fascinating to me.

amother

Thu, May 06 2021, 9:25 am

[quote="andrea levy"]

Quote:

And just going to comment that our bodies can’t tell the difference between sugar and other forms of carbs. It’s all the same to our insulin response and liver if fructose. From a circadian perspective it is better to eat carbs earlier in the day when the insulin response is more cyclically active, not when the body is winding down for the night.

Sorry if I wasn’t clear! What I was saying is to direct your carbs towards the end of the day. Not right before going to sleep but say, 5 pm. So there is plenty of time to break it down before bed, but your body is ready to tackle them without the shock like it is in the AM. Of course this may not work for everyone but there has been new studies that it’s been working really well for a lot of people especially those who cannot manage completely cutting carbs from their diet. Sugar is a no-go immediately from me - like a never ever if you can Smile

Oh and another trick to this is eating your carbs in the last part of your meal. So if you have an omelette, toast and some salad eat the egg and veggies first, leaving the carbs for the last part of your meal. Basically the point of this is that the order in which you eat you food matters

Chana Miriam S

Thu, May 06 2021, 9:30 am

amother [ OP ] wrote:

I don’t have an issue with drugs in general. I tried Ozempic which gave me ongoing digestion issues and also my labs went nuts. Like my triglycerides were high for the first time since I started this 4 years ago! It was nuts! I think that drugs have their place but there is no magic. Clearly you are doing other things at the same time!

I am personally of the opinion that we have to do multiple interventions for ourselves at the same time, encompassing food, activity, drugs, if desired and then the psychology of the situation which according to the research is what creates long term maintenance. Many people think of this concept as adopting a new way of life. I know that’s how I see it.

Weirdly, long term weight maintenance is mostly classified as a year of having lost 10% of your body weight but studies often start WITH the actual loss itself, making it much harder to see how the long term works. Which is where researchers think the commitment to a wsy of life comes in.

I’m glad that you’re happy with your journey. It breaks my heart regularly to see others suffering and I Think stories of ongoing success need to be told, so others know it isn’t hopeless. Thank you for sharing!

amother

Thu, May 06 2021, 9:34 am

andrea levy wrote:

Oh yes I wholeheartedly agree! You can’t just pop some pills and expect magical weight loss. Ozempic is a killer. I’m happy to PM you with any info I’ve got and if it can help you it would make me so happy. This journey is very tough and not explored enough. Nutrition isn’t always the end all answer.

Chana Miriam S

Thu, May 06 2021, 9:47 am

amother [ OP ] wrote:

I think that if it works for a person, they should do that. My problem was eating normally and then an hour or two later as my blood sugar fell from my over abundance of insulin, I would madly start eating. Even carbs thought if as healthy did this to me. I just can’t handle them at all.

I’ve seen references to eating order in the literature and the consensus is ‘more research is needed’ however a lack of evidence does not mean something is not true, it means there isn’t a definitive body of scientific evidence for it. So, for example it might work with some people’s eating behaviour but many studies I’ve seen that calculate blood sugar after doing this doesn’t bear that out in bs levels. Again though, people should do what works for them and keep searching for what works if they haven’t yet found it.

I also think that research often starts because patients do things and physicians see change. My own obesity specialist felt that she was failing until one of her patients shared what was working for themselves. She researched it and started suggesting to other patients and saw change. My doctor at the anxiety clinic (was referred there years ago to see if they could help medicinally with my weightloss but nothing at the time worked.) has had a number of patients that upon changing ways of eating had drastic change in their mental health status, and their recovery and stability Was incredible even where they’d had no progress in years. He said no one ever told him that what we are could affect our mental health and now he’s advocating for that research.

Most doctors get very little nutrition training so it’s really important for us to share what works for us with others and also our medical people.

I think we can most of us agree that sugar is the devil!

amother

Thu, May 06 2021, 10:04 am

amother [ Denim ] wrote:

OP what happens when you go off the meds and your appetite or your brain goes back to however it was before?

No, I just needed that extra trigger to get my body in motion. Once I’m losing the weight it doesn’t come back thank g-d. But I’ve also been eating well and keeping in control of what I eat. It’s not just the meds it’s a combination. But some people need that extra push to get them going as they can’t lose weight on their own. It’s kind of like a head start?
There are no withdrawal symptoms, and they are made to be taken short term.