37F | 5'4" | Starting Weight: 290.0 | Lowest Weight: 172.6 | Current Weight: 186.6 | Goal Weight: 145.0
I've struggled with my weight my entire life, and gained around 100 pounds from a medication I was on in my early 20s. I'm one of those people that lost and gained the same 30-40 pounds multiple times, but nothing ever "stuck." About 2 years ago, after being diagnosed with multiple auto-immune and arthritis-based conditions, I was basically desperate to do anything to try to feel better and reduce the pain/inflammation, so I started by focusing on whole foods, then walking daily, then following an anti-inflammatory Mediterranean diet. After a few months, I also started going to physical therapy multiple times a week and doing quite a bit of resistance training.
For the first time in my life, weight loss was actually easy! I routinely lost at least 5-10 pounds a month, and ended up losing nearly 120 pounds in about 15 months. Then in October it just completely stopped. At first, I wasn't particularly concerned because I knew I would probably hit a plateau at some point. I had also recently changed physical therapy providers and was lifting heavier weights so I thought that could be part of it. While I don't totally trust my body comp scale, it seemed to think I had gained 3 or 4 pounds of muscle so when I was weighing a few pounds heavier, I didn't mind as long as it was muscle. I hung out around 175 for a couple of months and since it was Thanksgiving/Christmas and we traveled for several weeks, I wasn't being strict about tracking calories or anything and planned to basically make a push to lose the rest of the weight after the first of the year.
January came and I became more focused on weight loss again, started tracking again, upped my walking, all the things, and nothing happened. Not only did I not lose any more weight, I was slowly starting to fluctuate up into the higher 170s. Around April, I started seeing weights in the low 180s again. After a last-minute cross-country trip at the end of May for a funeral, I came back home and the scale was 196.6. I freaked out about the prospect of being over 200 again, so for the last 3 weeks, I've been incredibly on track. I tend to get very inflammed when traveling, and I did drop the 12 pounds or so I was up within a few days. But despite doing all the "right things," I'm just not being able to budge from the mid-180s.
I have historically used MyFitnessPal, but I switched to LoseIt last week. I track and weigh/measure everything. I drink a ton of water (about 1.5 gallons a day). I do pretty well with my protein goals and great with fiber. I have been very strict about my anti-inflammatory Mediterranean diet as far as no added sugar, tons of vegetables, only lean protein, no red meat, a good amount of beans, etc. A typical day is a smoothie for breakfast with something like strawberries/blueberries, lots of spinach, and pea protein, usually a bowl for lunch with something like chicken/shrimp, zucchini, beans, and rice, and normally something like fish with a couple of veggies for dinner. I'm not a big snacker, I usually have a coffee with Fairlife milk in the morning and possibly an Oikos Triple Zero yogurt in the afternoon, before or after physical therapy.
As far as exercise, I live in southern Arizona and temps have been 110+ lately, so walking outdoors has mostly not been an option, but I do typically ride my exercise bike 4-5 times a week. I also have physical therapy twice a week where I do strength training both with resistance bands and weights. I usually do additional sessions of that at home throughout the week. In other seasons of the year, I typically walk 5-6 days a week and hike 1-2 a week. I have been considering purchasing a walking pad to use during the hot summer months.
I've worked with a dietician for almost 2 years since just a few months into this weight loss journey. For a variety of reasons (mostly TMJ-related easting restrictions and then a serious bout of gastritis), there were times when my ability and desire to eat were affected so eating 1200-1300 calories was about all I could manage, but for the majority of my weight loss, I was eating more like 1500 calories. When my weight loss plateaued, my dietician initially suggested eating more like 1800 calories, but I feel like that's when I started gaining from 175ish back up to 185ish. I tried going back to around 1500 calories, but that didn't seem to move the needle either.
When I joined LoseIt, they suggested eating around 1350 Monday-Thursday and 1550 Friday-Sunday based on the parameters I provided. I tried that last week and that was fine, I averaged about 1440 calories (with exercise the average was 1200) and felt satiated for the most part, but I actually ended up gaining weight! It's so frustrating to me because I'm typically able to eat 100% at home Monday-Thursday and the scale will start trending down, but then the second I eat away from the home, I gain it all back and more. I obviously try to limit eating out, but the reality is that it is going to happen 2-3 times a week when I'm socializing with friends. Thursday night I attended a potluck, but I was incredibly mindful about what I ate. I brought chicken breast and a broccoli salad where I'd have something lean to eat. I only got one small plate. I had pre-tracked calories before I arrived to know how much to get. Same thing Friday when my husband and I went out to dinner. I picked a healthier option, I knew exactly what I was going to order, only ate half, tracked everything. And then Saturday I hosted a party, but same thing, was really mindful, stuck to the light options, really ate slowly and listened to hunger cues. And after all of that, to be up almost a pound and a half versus down the pound and a half I should have been is just so incredibly frustrating.
I recognize that the higher sodium in foods outside the home probably account for my weight being up and that it may drop again in the next couple of days, but I'm just so tired of feeing like I'm stuck in this cycle of thinking I'm losing again and then it just going right back up. I know that I'm working against my body as far as inflammation and that I do have physical limitations that prevent me from more aggressive forms of exercise, but I just feel like something is "wrong" at this point. My dietician doesn't seem to understand my level of frustration, my therapist seems to think I should just accept that this is my new "set point," and my husband thinks I'm massively overreacting since I'm literally 100+ pounds smaller than I was. But now that I'm smaller, every extra ounce seems to go straight to my stomach and I'm so tired of feeling like I look like I swallowed a basketball. I've worked so hard to just feel like I never look good in clothes or to feel like I'm still the biggest girl in photos.
And I'd be lying if I said I don't care about aesthetics/appearance, but really and truly, it is more about my health to me. With all of the health problems and diagnoses, I ended up developing high blood pressure and I desperately want to get to the point that I'm able to discontinue those medications. I also want to do everything I can to limit extra weight and stress on my joints. I also don't want doctors to ever be able to use my weight as an excuse of why I'm in pain or things like that. I also know menopause my not be far around the corner, so I just very much feel like now is the time to lose the rest of the weight as I know it will likely only get harder the older I get and the more my medical conditions progress.
I know that's a lot, but what can I do to lose another 40 pounds? I feel like I've tried everything. I keep trying to get to the bottom of what changed and the thing is there's a million variables. Around the time my weight loss stalled, I had quite a bit of medication changes. I had to discontinue my Celebrex (NSAID) due to the gastritis not healing, so it stands to reason inflammation is a bigger challenge (though last time my inflammation markers were checked they were in the normal range for the first time ever). As my gastritis healed, I was able to come off my high dose of Omeprazole and also decreased my Famotidine and I do think those had an impact on my appetite. Also with the gastritis, I had to discontinue some of my anti-inflammatory supplements like Turmeric and Vitamin D. Also last fall, I found out I was extremely anemic so I did have to do a round of high-dose Iron, but that has now corrected itself and is back in the normal range. I also had an unsuccessful procedure to get steroid injections in my SI joints in October and then surgery to remove an endometrial polyp back in December.
I'm just really at a loss as to what the issue is. I eat so clean and I focus so much on whole foods, that I just don't know what more improvements I can make at this point. I personally believe that things are not always as simple as CICO, but at the same time, the "math is just not mathing" at this point. Please help!
