weight loss help (medical)

millyaulait

[Sorry if this is in the wrong board.. I wasn't sure where to post it..]

Ok, I'll try to make this short..

In the past year I have gained over 100lbs due to medications. I've always eaten extremely healthily and I am relatively active. Despite eating healthily and exercising every day I have continued to gain weight more and more.. I can't really continue gaining for the sake of my health and my sanity!

Has anyone got any experience with medication-induced weight gain? If I'm eating extremely healthily, having a calorie deficit & exercising, then what else can I possibly do to try and lose weight? I'm not gaining muscle or even toning up. I need help, unfortunately I just can't come off the meds.

Any help would be suuuuper appreciated. Thanks~ :}

consultant31

Certain types of drugs can cause weight gain. But in almost every case, the doctor will be able to switch you to another medication that has the same desirable effects but which will not cause weight gain and may even help you to shed a few pounds.

See your Doctor who should be able to help.

System

Also is there anyway you could talk to your GP about being referred to a dietician? They would probably have more experience with helping people try to loose weight gained through medication?

(Also i know you mentioned exercise but there's also a scheme by which you can be put forward which means tyou get discounted exercise and help from someone to plan what is best for you-think its called GP referral scheme or exercise on prescription? Through this i've been able to afford to go to fitness classes,swimming and the gym-all at a reduced rate)

VfM4meplse

100lb over one year is excessive - I have never seen anything like this myself - but the health risks are implicit. I'm surprised that your GP hasn't addressed the weight gain as part of your management plan. Continuing to gain is not an option, even on steroids, and you're right to want to take control of this but again I don't understand why your muscle mass isn't increasing if you are exercising even moderately. You sound like a medical mystery.

lostinrates

Yes, I have experience this. In fact I have a complicated medical situation which makes this worse (as well asthe relatively minor PCOS I am also hypo thyriod and have a problem with my hypothalymus, so I feel as if everything has been stacked against me). When I first got ill my weigth more than doubled very, very quickly. Each time things stabilised on a new drug and I felt as if I was soewhere I could tackly it from something else would go wrong, my drugs would be altered....

..for the first tie in six years my drug cocktail is ''right'' and with out any serious alteration to eating I've been losing 1-3 kilos a week throughout december.

The only way to tackle it safely is with your doctor. I strongly recommend seeing a dietiticain etc if offered, even if you really feel you know foods/eating well. For a start mine was a strong support in agreeing that I was doing everything possible to control weight...

also, on recommendation of MSE users I started using Calorie count website, not just adding up my calories and keeping food diaries my self. Its been truely inspriing and really useful....for record keeping for me, and even though I understand nutrition reasonably well, has shown me some flaws in eating patterns etc.

The thing is, I did try losing weight before being medically ''under control'' and frankly, it was very bad for me and probably set back my health significantly, and I got quite ''unhealthy'' about eating behaviour: which in the long term..if you are lucky, is not going to help the health problem either.

Before being ill I knew I had ''a good metabolism'' as I ate fairly little and had to exercise a lot to maintain weight, its only while being ill with more serious stuff the PCOS came to light as possibly contributory to a terrifying speed of weight gain, and later the thyroid issue. Its importnant for me to understand that this is not just the pills, but part of ...how I am anyway....I'm a ''good doer'' and the medical conditions and medecine have compounded that. Just unlucky!

I'm seeing a new ditician with an interest in endocrinolgy this year and I'm really looking forward to more guidance as to how I can help myself. But I have to say my GPs have been mixed, but the GP I have now is AMAZING. I have come off one medecine, as I explained that at this point (6 years after falling ill) weight really was a priority and I felt that ithad become as limiting and distressing as my ongoing health problems. It took some convincing, and I go in weekly o be monitored ...and we have a set level of health I must maintain to stay on the current cocktail. But if they see you are playing ball and trying very hard they are truely supportive, if you have the right GP.

I'm also, sadly, aware I'm not going to get my previous body back. I'm aiming to be healthy and active and well, not sylph like: although its taken a good deal of time to come to terms with that its also probably a factor that I did eat little and exercise lots o maintain my previous figure that contributed to be getting so unwell in the first place!

The answer, though hard, is the same for ''people like us'' as it is for anyone else losing weight: fewer calories in, more expended, but the complications make it harder, and less predicatable (e.g. I didn't exceed 1700 calories ths week, over Christmas yet gained!) but the trk is to find healthy ways to do this while managing the illness you have and its new limitations.

Good luck!

Edit: I post in the 7lb a month threads organised by The Dragon on this board. Its a friendly group, a lot of us use Calorie count, and at least two of us have medical complications with losing weight. I find this helpful on a day to day basis.

millyaulait

Thanks everyone, I really appreciate all the suggestions/info. I will definitely contact a GP about it.. They are usually hopeless around here but I'll give them a chance I suppose :P If only there was a magical pill that could reverse it all!