the results

JMA wrote:

I do completely understand how a person can do so much to lose weight and
then give up. I've never totally given up, but it hasn't been easy at ALL.
When you stay at 1200 cal/day and begin to gain weight in spite of
exercising your ass off, it's not easy to keep the faith and in my case all
it did was feed into my eating disorders. I knew maintenance would be a
challenge and I never denied that, I just never expected it to be a constant
freakin fight. Thanks again for the support.


Hang in there, Jenn. It'll get better--it has to. At least you have some
answers now, and with a little luck, soon you'll get the results you
deserve, and will feel better too.

I can relate to what you're going through (not exactly the same symptoms,
but definitely the same weight issues) and it really stinks. You want to
give up. Why work if it's not going to get you anywhere? If you're gonna
gain weight on broccoli, why not just eat some damn cookies? Well, just
think of how much worse off you'd be if you hadn't been working so hard.
Tally up all of those calories you've burned off exercising, divide 'em by
3500 (or even less if your metabolism's slow), and see how much more you'd
weigh if you had given up. Good job on sticking to your plan, and good
luck with the treatment.

-Alison

"janice" wrote in message
...
I believe that this will make you even stronger for the coming weeks.


I think it will be a little easier if what the doctor said actually happens
and the medication alleviates the cravings and lowers my appetite. I wasn't
experiencing mild hunger - it was the kind that would drive a person to eat
the paint off of the walls. It will also help if I start to see weight loss
happen again at a more reasonable calorie level for my weight. Thanks for
the support.

Jenn

"Julianne" wrote in message
news:K5W7c.3159$_U.2904@lakeread05...
I am so relieved that you have an answer and one that you can work with.
I
can't imagine what a challenge it has been for you with your hormones out
of
whack but I honestly believe that you would have been even more of a
hormonal train wreck without the diet and exercise!

Good luck and keep us posted. Did he do anything about the low estrogen
levels? Did he say anything about using Soy Protein for partial relief?

Actually he thinks the estrogen will come up as the dhea and testosterone
come down from the insulin control. The estrogen is also tied into the
calcium thing since the parathyroids respond to estrogen levels so go
figure. Right now concern #1 is getting my body acclimated to the
metformin - it will take a month to get to my actual daily dose. I'm not
supposed to play around with any supplements right now, not even a
multivitamin which is why we talked about using HMR shakes (nutritionally
dense) as a part of my weight loss plan for now.

I do eat soy regularly and always have since I'm not a big red meat eater.
I usually have boca burgers a few times a week and I like some soy cheeses.

Boy what a report, hope the meds kick in real soon that your giant
effort will be rewarded.
Michelle
Ozzie in Switzerland (who's been on too many ski holidays ;-)

WW WI 69.8 / 63.5 / 61kg 134 lbs

On Mon, 22 Mar 2004 18:58:16 -0600, "JMA"
wrote:

Here's a brief summary of what I'm up against according to my
endocrinologist. I have two separate issues.
Issue 1 is low estrogen/high testosterone/high dhea-s combined with the
symptoms I've exhibited have lead him to surmise that I have some form of
insulin resistance. It would be PCOS, but I don't have the symptoms or
blood chemistry for it. He has put me on metformin (the generic of
Glucophage). He said that this combined with my typical diet and exercise
should give me control over my weight again. It's like Chris said about
thyroid meds - it won't make me lose weight by itself but will make what I'm
doing actually work. The doctor told me that this should also provide some
relief regarding appetite and food cravings

Issue 2 is that I've had rising serum calcium levels since last summer and
it's still going up which means I have some sort of growth on one of the 4
parathyroid glands. I'll be getting regular tests to make sure I'm not
forming kidney stones and I'll also be getting a bone scan in a few months
to keep an eye on bone density. If any of these become a problem then I'll
have to get the growth removed. I will need to cut back on high impact
exercise temporarily as I may be more prone to stress fractures but that
only means running 2-3x a week instead of 4-5 (3-4 miles instead of 5-6) and
taking a full day off every week. I've decided not to enter any races in
April or May but I will be running the Dead Skunk 5 mile in June.

That I hadn't completely given up on maintaining my weight loss in spite of
the effort it was taking was a Good Thing and something he doesn't see
often. That this kind of thing would occur *after* losing weight is another
oddity since technically I've done everything right to prevent type 2
diabetes. We discussed diet and that I appear to be somewhat
carb-sensitive. The endo didn't think it would be a bad thing for me to
just give up sugar, flour, and rice altogether as long as I was getting
sufficient carbs from vegetables, fruit, and dairy.

I'll be using protein powder shakes with fruit for convenience and doing
something like Jayjay's meat and salad diet to limit myself to 1200-1500
cal/day in 5-6 meals until I get down to my goal weight and the water stuff
finally stops. It's going to be *months* before I see any results from
this - at least 6 months until the androgen reactions stop.

I do completely understand how a person can do so much to lose weight and
then give up. I've never totally given up, but it hasn't been easy at ALL.
When you stay at 1200 cal/day and begin to gain weight in spite of
exercising your ass off, it's not easy to keep the faith and in my case all
it did was feed into my eating disorders. I knew maintenance would be a
challenge and I never denied that, I just never expected it to be a constant
freakin fight. Thanks again for the support.

Jenn

"JMA" wrote:
I do completely understand how a person can do so much to lose weight
and then give up. I've never totally given up, but it hasn't been easy
at ALL. When you stay at 1200 cal/day and begin to gain weight in spite
of exercising your ass off, it's not easy to keep the faith and in my
case all it did was feed into my eating disorders. I knew maintenance
would be a challenge and I never denied that, I just never expected it
to be a constant freakin fight. Thanks again for the support.

Jenn, we're all here to commiserate and cheer you on too. Sending good
vibes, prayers, smoke signals insert favorite inspirational symbol
here and love s.

--
Walking on . . .
Laurie in Maine
207/110 60 inches of attitude!
Start: 2/02 Maintained since 2/03

On skiing holiday. Back now hope to post more, boy it was a great
season here, 4 weeks of deep powder and 1 week of spring snow. Mmmm
it is snowing now so maybe skiing over easter too :-)

Michelle
Ozzie in Switzerland (who's been on too many ski holidays ;-)

WW WI 69.8 / 63.5 / 61kg 134 lbs
On Tue, 23 Mar 2004 20:04:18 GMT, (Jayjay) wrote:

On Tue, 23 Mar 2004 20:28:04 +0100, Michelle Guy
wrote:

Boy what a report, hope the meds kick in real soon that your giant
effort will be rewarded.
Michelle
Ozzie in Switzerland (who's been on too many ski holidays ;-)

WW WI 69.8 / 63.5 / 61kg 134 lbs



ANd where have you been? I haven't seen you around in a while. Your
numbers look good.

"Dally" wrote in message
...
JMA wrote:

Thanks. I thought about you today as I did my first bench presses with
my
trainer. We were discussing a new exercise plan that would put less
emphasis on running and he asked if I was interested in power lifting.
He's
really pleased with how strong I've become in just a short time. I told
him
it was from carrying around all that extra body weight for so long. I
declined for now but told him it was not out of the realm of
possibilities...

Oh, you've just got to love it: somewhere on internet there's a cabal
of older women secretly plotting to make power-lifting the next Pilates.
I see their influence now. :-) (No doubt they are secretly
worshiping the Goddess Squwaht.)

Dally, "what is she blathering about now"

heehee....I'm glad to be a part of this cabal ( there is no cabal..)

Martha

Nah no such thing as too much fun, by the way it has snowed lightly
for the last 3 days here so looks like I have to go skking again on
Sunday, shame ;-)
Michelle
Ozzie in Switzerland

WW WI 69.8 / 62.2 / 61kg 134 lbs

On Thu, 25 Mar 2004 13:28:02 GMT, (Jayjay) wrote:

On Wed, 24 Mar 2004 07:05:41 +0100, Michelle Guy
wrote:

On skiing holiday. Back now hope to post more, boy it was a great
season here, 4 weeks of deep powder and 1 week of spring snow. Mmmm
it is snowing now so maybe skiing over easter too :-)

Michelle
Ozzie in Switzerland (who's been on too many ski holidays ;-)

LOL... sounds like you've had way too much fun!!!