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sarahsweets · Dec 19, 2021, 05:13 AM

Hey @SprinkL3
A couple of things
I know I have mentioned it multiple times in this thread and no one (or maybe I missed someone) has really shared what they think about weighing themselves everyday.
how do you feel about that? Personally I think its the worst thing a person can do, heavy or thin, diet or no diet. Its not reliable, stable and can trigger food disorder/disordered thinking and eating. Plus home scales are generally a good baseline but unless you have a certified company come and mechanically "balance" it every month like a Dr office you have no true way of knowing its accuracy. It would be a better idea for someone monitoring their weight or trying to lose it to go once a month to the same dr office and use their scale.
I gained covid weight, who didnt? Locked down in cold weather with nothing but the comfort of a limited person or people who didnt indulge? I had a very active summer and was fortunate to have dropped the extra yet here we are at xmas time and I know by my clothes that the extra pie and cookies have put a little weight on me. But I will absolutely not be weighing myself until after the New Year. I refuse to ruin my holiday punishing and hating myself.
I did/ do have a metabolic issue. Genetically I look just like my grandma and all 7 of her sisters. They worked a farm during the great depression so I know they were active and couildnt possibly overeat.
I know I am rambling. People can do what they want but I am certain that weighing yourself everyday is terrible for the psyche.

I speak as someone who was obese, had the roux-n-y gastric bypass, and kept the weight off for 14 years (well 127lbs give or take the 20 that I flip flop with). To some, especially now when WLS is soaring and people get the gastric sleeve pretty frequently, it might seem like I had it easy.
Like all I did was lie down and have surgery and never had to think about it again. It is not easy. It is a tool and life adjustment that you have to commit to. I should look up the "failure"/ revision rate of these procedures because I personally know from my years in AA 6 women all who had a wls procedure and everyone of them lost and regained the weight within a few years. 2 of them had the same surgeon as me and 1 had a revision that didnt take. So if it is 'easy' it would work on everyone right? I cant stress enough the value of a lifetime adjustment. The bypass didnt reduce my stomach capacity and make me not hungry. The procedure I had actually reattaches the 'new stomach' to the small intestine and to do that about 100cm of the small intestine had to be removed. What that did was literally and fundamentally change the way I process and digest food; and make me sensitive to things like heavy fats and sugars. It was the smaller portions and the new digestion that made it work for me. It literally changed the way I metabolically process food for energy. It also change the way I metabolize meds too but thats another thread.

Not to hijack but I urge you to google " orexin receptor and weight and sleep" something along those lines.
My sleep doc is treating my for clinical insomnia ( not mental illness but physiologically caused) and sedative/hypnotics like ambien,lunesta,sonata, temazapam etc are generally not good long term. I am not saying you shouldnt take them long term but the long term side effect profile is concerning. Plus even though I am fully able to take medicine and not abuse it (ive had a pain medication ive used on an off for a couple of years, and various times of benzo use) I noticed some of those side effects from the gaba-targeted medicines. But he tried me on 'belsomra' which didnt work and now ive had dayvigo and it is probably working about 70%. I have to figure out the cpap situation because I cant seem to find a mask that doesnt press on my sinuses. But he told me to read about it and the orexin receptor and I was stunned.
Ok enough from me.

Quote:

Originally Posted by SprinkL3

I have since packed away my size 14's and now wear size 16s. I'm petite - 5'2" (really, 5' 1.5", but my doctors always record me as 5'2", which messes with my BMI and risk factors). I'm >35% BMI. I'm now about 190 to 195 pounds, give or take. I fluctuate between 180 and 198 pounds. My fluctuation has always happened this way. I'm always 10 pounds this way or that. It's never a consistent number, even if I'm not wearing anything on my own weighing scale. I might need a new scale.

Earlier this year, I was around 165. That's how much weight I've gained. I'm really sad.

I need to change my diet, but it is hard.

I have CFS/ME and other physiological disorders, so it makes exercise impossible. I can try to walk, but then I have mental disorders preventing even that - meaning, preventing my going outside. Still, I try to do what I can.

My goal for 2022 is to improve in small steps. That's what my T suggests, and that's also what my rec rehab T suggests.

I plan on reading three diet books - FODMAP (my primary care and former nutritionist and former GI specialist doc suggested), the Obesity Code (my former primary care suggested), and the Diabetes Code (to prevent diabetes since I'm prediabetic, though without the diagnosis because I'm just at the cusp of having high blood sugar and not enough for the diagnosis). I will see what my diet should look like when I combine all three.

There are ways to lose weight when exercise is not in the cards, but it is extremely difficult because it involves intermittent fasting and a strict lifestyle change. I'm not sure that I'm up for that challenge, but to initially lose the weight and then find a healthy balance of eating and living after that might work.

I don't know. People always lose weight then regain it, which is what the Obesity Code book discusses; it's why short-term weight loss with calorie counting and exercise only does so much before you regain it a few weeks to a few months later. It always happens, since weight gain has to do with metabolic disorder/dysfunction/disease, and since our adipose cells can only be shrunk and not decreased (we all have a set amount, and the processed foods we had and our mothers had since birth affects our genetics and metabolism), This is why obesity is managed like mental illness; it's not our fault. We can have metabolic disorders, including obesity, but remain thin because of our strict restrictions and/or exercise regimens, which is part of managing (but not always feasible as you age and become more disabled, etc.). This is why obesity itself is a disease. Even our hormones that don't detect fulness, or even our "addictions to food" are caused by certain metabolic disorders and possible hormone and neurological disorders, as opposed to individual choices and so-called will-power. The more we reduce stigma and responsibility on weight and instead see this as a disorder to be managed, the better we can manage it and see the seriousness in how we live - not based on dieting (the yo-yo thing) or calories, but rather based on what our bodies are intolerant of, what our bodies need, and what limitations we have.

Some can lose weight, some may need surgery, and some may not be able to lose weight at all. This obesity/metabolic disorder is the #1 risk factor apart from age for severe Covid-19 disease and death and long-Covid disabilities. Even for normal-weight persons, if they have a greater number of adipose cells, even though they've managed their weight and had weigh loss, they can still be at high-risk for severe Covid disease. It's similar to that of former smokers who are at risk for severe Covid-19, regardless if they've quit smoking or continue smoking, though the benefits of quitting smoking is much better than continuing. In a similar vein, our adipose cells may shrink during weight loss, but the amounts remain, which can still be conduits for Covid-19 to grow, sadly.

Our immune responses also are affected by both age and adipose cells. The fatter the adipose cells and/or even the greater the number of shrunk adipose cells during weight loss or weight management may still affect immunity, which then affects severe flu and/or severe Covid-19 diseases. As we age, it gets harder and harder to deal with immune functions and adipose cell maintenance. It's a fact we accept, and it's something that we can learn to live with by understanding our limitations apart from others without metabolic disorders (others with normal amounts of adipose cells who only gain weight but are never obese).

So, the more scientists, doctors, and the general public accept that obesity is a metabolic disease, the better we can actually manage it and destigmatize it from placing blame on individuals with such diseases.