Struggling to keep my weight down due to chronic pain.

A quick recap of my weight loss journey so far: I weighed 198.4 lb at my heaviest in 2014. My BMI was 33.4. I lost 77.1+ lb in 2015 and weighed as little as 114 lb at my smallest (19.2 BMI). I adjusted my caloric intake a little and my weight went up to a more healthy 121.2 lb (20.3 BMI) which I managed to maintain for the next several years.

However, in 2017, I developed chronic migraines and daily persistent headaches, both of which have reduced the quality of my life significantly and made it difficult to stick to my previous caloric intake. I can't even work or go to school at the moment, that's how bad it's gotten. I spend every waking hour in some level of pain which makes me depressed. Skipping meals or eating too little makes me more susceptible to having migraines, so I have to eat something every 2.5 to 3 hours. It's very difficult to diet at this point in my life and there doesn't seem to be a solution in the horizon. Future is looking bleak.

I made a post in August announcing I was going to get "back on track" as my weight had began to slip. In an ideal scenario, I would've hit my goal weight by now, but it's only gotten worse since then (I weigh 134.7 lb now) and I can no longer find the motivation to maintain a healthy weight. I'm living in constant pain and I want nothing more than to be free of this pain. I feel like I can't focus on these other aspects of my life when just being awake is a struggle.

I have failed, just like the doctors who refuse to treat me.

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PCOS and weight loss — is this something that can only be cured with medication?

Hello everyone,

So for context, I recently got diagnosed with PCOS. I posted this in r/PCOS as well but I thought I should post this here too. My symptoms included:

• extreme fatigue
• sudden weight gain
• cystic acne
• unwanted hair growth (esp arms, neck, sideburns, stomach)

I am severely vitamin D deficient 4 ng/dL (range is 12-50 ng/dL). Because of this I have severe joint pain to the point where anything beyond walking is unbearably painful. I’ve been on vitamin d for 6 months and the level hasn’t risen. Doctor is trying a new type of vitamin d for me to take daily, and hopefully will have results.

I have slightly elevated cortisol, but nothing severe enough to suggest a tumor or Cushings. To be on the safe side, endo did a 24 urine and suppression blood test and am waiting on results.

Medication wise, I am currently on birth control. I was in spironolactone before but it did not benefit me even after taking it for a year, and my doctor is wary of me being on spiro and bc at the same time because of a family history of breast cancer (my mom got it at age 32).

Relevant labs: - TgAb: 2, above high normal (ref <or = IU/ml) - ACTH: 63, above high normal (ref 6-50 pg/ml) - Cortisol, total: 23.4 above high normal(ref 4-22 mcg/dL) - DHEA S: 410, above high normal (ref 18-390 mcg/dL) - Testosterone, total, ms: 28, normal (ref 2-45 ng/dL) - Testosterone, free: 1.4 normal(ref 0.2-5 pg/ml) - Glucose: 124 above high normal (ref 65-99 mg/dL) - Fasting glucose: 6.3 above high normal (ref 4.2–5.3 mmol/L) - Cholesterol: 220 above high normal (ref 0-199mg/dL) - LDL Calculated: 140 above high normal (ref 138 mg/dL)

I’m most concerned about the weight gain right now. I am 23 years old, 5”8 and 170 lbs. I know this is only slightly overweight, and I don’t look particularly overweight, but I have been slim my entire life until now. My symptoms kind of crept up on me two years ago. I went from 135 lbs to 170. I have always been active, I used to do HIIT and weightlifting, but because of my symptoms it’s been too painful to do those things anymore. However, as painful as it is, I make an effort to walk 4-5 miles every morning.

I’ve also always been very conscious of what I eat and I eat clean 90% of the time. I rarely drink alcohol, and I barely eat sugar (maybe I’ll have a slice of cake on a friend’s birthday but that’s about it) and avoid sugary drinks like the plague. I have also always tracked my caloric intake religiously. With the onset of these symptoms, my appetite started to decrease as well and I started to eat less than I should be. I eat 1000 calories or less a day. I used to eat around 1200 - 1400. I know this isn’t considered healthy, but I can barely stomach food for some reason.

Here’s what I eat on an average day:

Breakfast: 1 boiled egg, tomato and avocado with lemon juice. 1 cup black coffee Lunch: 1 1/2 cups salad with tofu, arugula, tomatoes, and egg. Half a Grapefruit on the side Dinner: baked salmon filet, half cup of brown rice

I weigh my food for the most accuracy, and I use salt sparingly. I also have always done intermittent fasting (9am - 5pm window).

Anyway, logically, being in a caloric deficit and eating healthy would result in weight loss, right? I’m stumped and so are my doctors. I am so scared of developing type 2 diabetes as it runs in my family and I feel like I’m heading that way. I have signs of insulin resistance as well. My endo just prescribed me metformin and is hoping that this will help, but I’m not too hopeful. Am I doing something wrong? Any insight would be helpful.

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Do you tell someone you're dating you were overweight/obese?

So I am a 24 year old girl and recently started dating (mostly tinder). I am close to 110 lbs and 5'1". I also exercise a lot, mostly team sports, but a little bit of fitness. I however used to weigh 180 pounds, so as you can imagine I have some loose skin. It's not too bad when I am standing, but I don't look as tight as most girls my age. However I was dating someone that I noticed was kind of focused on looks from the beginning. He made some remarks about how I must have a great body and stuff. I didn't really say much about it. So I didn't tell him I lost a lot of weight, because it didn't really come up and I also don't like to really talk about it, because I am not particularly proud that I used to weigh that much. Now when he came to my house he saw a picture of me when I used to be heavier. I kind of saw a change in his demeanor and I don't know what to think of it. Should I have told him sooner or? He still wanted to sleep over after, so I let him, but now I feel like I won't see him again and the reason will be that I didn't have the body he thought I had. I am kind of sad about it, not because I thought he was the one, but it's just frustrating that after losing all that weight I still feel ashamed about my body. And I want to keep working out because that makes me happy, and to improve my body as well, but I know I will never look like I would have looked if I had never let myself go as much as I did. How do you guys deal with weight loss/loose skin and dating? Do you tell people? Do you think I should have?

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Questions as I transition to maintenance

Can anyone who’s been through the transition to maintenance help me out with some questions? I went to the r/ownit sub but it doesn’t look so active there...

1. Is 2000+ calories too high for maintenance? I read a lot of people’s posts about their calories and it sounds unreasonably high? I’ve been calculating everything very precisely with MFP and a spreadsheet I found somewhere on here and that matches my weight loss data, but given my stats (28, female, 5’4”, 120 lb, maybe lightly active, and I used to have PCOS but went on to have my baby girl last year :) ) that sounds like a lot. So far I have gone up to 1900-2000 per day and am maintaining or maybe even slightly losing...but can that be right?

2. What do I do if I binge? I feel like I don’t have a deficit to fall back on anymore, so if I go straight back to eating at maintenance, I’ll just gain weight, right? Do I just slash my calories by a bit every day for a while to make up the difference? (I do see a counselor for my binge eating among other issues, it’s getting better but I still have pretty big binges (3000+ calories) from time to time, so I don’t want to discount the possibility of a relapse happening again.)

3. Why do I hear so often that maintenance is even harder than losing weight? I was planning on just doing all the same things I did while losing, tracking my food, going to the gym a few times a week, keeping track of my weight. So I’m not sure, but I would appreciate tips on what’s been everyone’s struggles with maintenance so I can be prepared.

This is also my SV post - it took me 4 years with a pregnancy in the middle, which is why I lost track of my old account here, but I have lost over 80 pounds now. I’ve got some loose skin, but I’ve also got abs under there now :) So I really want to make the switch to maintenance in a permanent way, cos I never want to go back there again! Thanks for everyone’s help.

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[NSV] I'm dropping my wedding ring off to be resized

https://imgur.com/a/EheTgrt

My weight had gone up and down a lot with an adult low of around the time I was dating my now wife. Years back I went months without wearing my wedding ring because it was far too tight. Eventually I broke down and got it resized so I could wear it again. At that time I felt like I'd given up and accepted my weight as a new normal.

Since June I've worked hard with calorie tracking through MFP. I set the goal to 2 pounds a week and made myself track everything before I ate it. I still eat lots of crap, but I know exactly how many calories is in it. I made sure I got up throughout the day to walk around while at work. I started walking/jogging at least three days a week in the evenings. I started following this sub to read stories and find motivation/hints from people who've been there.

With everything and all the weight lost it never really felt like I was making progress. Sure the scale said I was down, but I still felt like the failure that had given in all those years back. No matter what I lost I still had clothing in the closet that was too small. But recently I noticed that every time I washed my hands I had to work to keep my ring from just falling off. And now I get to have it resized again and it all finally feels real, that I'm making progress and undoing the damage.

I'm thankful to everyone on this sub that share their stories. Mixed in with the successes it seemed like once a week I see a post about how someone is making progress on the scale but not feeling like they were getting anywhere. I would always relate to those. Now, for me, it has all become real. I kept working at it and out of nowhere a life event (my ring almost falling off) suddenly made it all worthwhile. I have a lot father to go to hit a healthy weight but I hope that everyone plugging away at weight loss this upcoming year has that moment where it all sinks in.

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[NSFW] I’m going to stop seeing my loose skin as a consequence and instead start to love myself and my body for what it is and what I have accomplished.

Loose skin after 91-pound loss (NSFW for bare midsection): https://i.imgur.com/usjbGgb.jpg

I’ve posted about my loose skin after my 91-pound loss. I’m 18 years old, female, and 5’3. I started at 230 pounds, I’m now 139, though I’m sure I’ve fluctuated a few pounds up thanks to having to eat more to stay on my feet at work 60 hours a week, plus the holidays totally obliterating me. Anyways, I have a lot of loose skin. Mostly on my belly. A couple months ago, I was looking at my thighs and panicking, thinking they’d gotten bigger, because my pajama leggings seemed a bit snug. But I had not gained weight. Turns out, when I felt around my thighs, it was more loose skin. My skin on the insides of my thighs was wrinkly and beginning to sag down to where my leggings felt snug. I was relieved. It was just loose skin!

I posted about being in the park without a shirt despite the loose skin on my stomach. It was liberating for me. I don’t regret that, and sometimes, I’ll remove my shirt on warmer days when I’m running. It’s no longer a big deal. But now, I’m being even more pressured to remove all my loose skin because I have more now: on my arms, thighs, butt, and belly.

Here’s the thing. For all those out there who have worked their asses off for the body they have now, loose skin or not, whether you’ve hit your goal or you’re halfway there, you don’t have to do anything you don’t want to do. You don’t have to put your body through trauma because of some loose skin. I like to joke around about mine and call it my “pillsbury dough rolls” and squeeze it, because it gives my mom the absolute creeps to look at it. I try to make light of it; it’s only skin! It’s not life-threatening, and it’s actually a little fun to poke at when I’m bored and browsing reddit.

At first, I was extremely self-conscious about it. Like, I would cover it up as much as possible to prevent anyone from seeing it because it was wrinkled and and 18-year-old’s body should NOT look that way. But for hell’s sake, I worked my ass off for 16 months to earn this! It’s not about what happens to me, it’s how I deal with it. I choose to deal with it by poking fun at it and accepting it for what it is: loose skin.

I’m working on loving my new body and myself as a whole for the way I am now. I thought this saggy skin was a consequence, but a consequence is usually a result of a wrongdoing. I did nothing wrong; I did something right, and this is just a result. That is all it is. If I want it removed in the future, I’ll have it removed. For now, I want to enjoy my weight loss to the fullest. I can wear the most adorable and funky clothes I want, in almost any size I want, and I can go for a run without feeling as if I’m going to pass out because I can’t breathe. And at what price? A few pounds of extra skin? That’s all? It’s really nothing to be ashamed of.

So no matter what anyone tells you about your skin and body, love yourself and be proud that you’ve gotten to this point. I’ve said this once before, but it’s more relevant than ever; love yourself. And screw what anyone says. They aren’t going to pay for skin removal, they don’t have to live in your body, and they didn’t help you lose weight. YOU did that shit. YOU made it happen. YOU get to choose how you feel about your journey and yourself as a person.

And if you ever need a laugh, poke that loose skin and say “it’s just dough.”

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I've gained so much weight this year....

Hi. I started this year fantastic, and I think I lost track because I had everyone telling me "I was looking great".

I realized I don't fit into my pants anymore. I am afraid of stepping into my scale. I probably gained 10kg or more.

I know what I have to do, but I just need support. I cannot talk about weight loss to anyone I know - they are all vehemently against it. They say I'm fat shaming, etc. I'm ready to tell my husband to stop buying me treats, and I'm committed to stop drinking on Jan 1st. It's common for us to celebrate things by dining out and I want to stop that.

I'm trying to find a place to exercise but there aren't any gyms near me, and it's winter so it's hard to go for a bike ride or run. My neighbour has a mini-gym on her basement because of that, but I don't have a basement. I want to find spinning or yoga classes close to my office.

I'm just writing to take it off my chest. I'm in a very good place other than that. I have lost weight when I was younger and I think I can do it again.

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