Weight Loss Support Give and get support here!

Reply
 
Thread Tools
Old 05-21-2014, 06:59 PM   #1  
Junior Member
Thread Starter
 
Amariel1981's Avatar
 
Join Date: May 2014
Posts: 10

S/C/G: 258.2/258.2/170

Question Returning Member

I joined this community years ago, but have long since lost my account info. So here I am on a new one.

I've been having SO much trouble with my weight. I know everyone does, but I just can't figure out the problem. I've been seeing a doctor for about two months now for weight loss. He's an actual MD, but he deals in alternative medicine. He's had me on supplements for my thyroid, adrenals, and hormones. But nothing is working. If anything I've GAINED a pound or two. I don't know if my problem is my eating habits or my exercise habits. Any help would be appreciated. I'll list my supplements in case it helps.

Nature Thyroid - thyroid support
AdrenaSense - feeds and heals adrenals (herbal mix)
K-Min - diatomaceous earth for digestive detox
EstroDIM - blocks estradiol
saffron - decreases appetite and weight, helps depression
Myomin - Chinese herbal mix to balance hormones and block estradiol
Bioidentical progesterone cream (NOT from horse urine)
Green Coffee Extract - prevents blood sugar crash after meals
Transglucosidase - Converts starch to fiber

I also take a B12, a hair, skin, and nails supplement, and one for bone health. Yah, it seems like a lot but it's not really. Just kinda pricey. He also has me on HCG, though I'm almost done with it. No idea if he will put me back on it or not. And no, he said I didn't have to follow the "diet plan" for it. But something is wrong, and I have no idea what. Please help.
Amariel1981 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 05-21-2014, 07:20 PM   #2  
Just Me
 
nelie's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jan 2003
Location: Maryland
Posts: 14,707

S/C/G: 364/--/182

Height: 5'6"

Default

Have you been counting calories throughout your weight gain to see any trends? I'd recommend signing up for something like myfitnesspal.com to get an idea of how many calories you are eating.
nelie is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 05-21-2014, 07:41 PM   #3  
banned
 
Pattience's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jan 2014
Location: Tropical Australia
Posts: 1,270

S/C/G: 80.2kg/66kg/60kg x2.2 for lb

Height: 165cm/5' 4.5"

Default

Well you haven't told us anything about your diet or exercise program.

But what i'd do is ditch all those supplements. Sounds like you are being taken to the cleaners financially.

Take oroxin for your thyroid. If your thyroid is stabilised that's the not the problem. I take the synthetic hormone. I have absolutely no problem with it. My mother takes the natural one and i think she is taking too much of it because she is very very skinny and is showing premature osteoporosis. But that's not to say that should be the case for anyone else. She's just clearly not getting her hormones tested.

If anything you could be insulin resistant but your doctor should be able to tell you that. and if that's the case none of those other things are going to fix it.

Read the articles on the website nutrition wonderland for seratonin, leptin, insulin and others if you find them interesting.

Also i recommend the book The Don't go Hungry Diet by Dr Amanda Sainsbury- Salis. I don't follow her program to the letter (which is basically IE) but the concepts she discusses (famine reaction, set-point and the fat break) are useful and i believe correct. Her program is based on what science knows about the hormone leptin which is the hungry hormone. She is one of these scientists herself. There is an argument or belief among many scientists in the field that the reason most people can't sustain weightloss or keep it off is because of the hormone leptin. An explanation in her book gives a solution which i found completely convincing and i'm working with it.
Pattience is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 05-21-2014, 08:00 PM   #4  
Junior Member
Thread Starter
 
Amariel1981's Avatar
 
Join Date: May 2014
Posts: 10

S/C/G: 258.2/258.2/170

Default

Eating and exercise habits.. Not very good. I don't snack a lot, but I don't eat too healthy in general. I can't cook very well so I can't make my own meals very well. I tend to rely on microwavable stuff. I also don't drink much soda. Maybe one can a month, at the most. And it's always stevia soda. I also use either stevia or monk fruit sweetener in my coffee and tea. And most of my tea is caffeine-free herbal. I'm pants at trying to keep track of what I eat. Or at least the measuring part. I can't eyeball stuff at all. And if I make up a salad, how to you figure out the calories of all the stuff in it? So I never bothered with the whole measuring thing.

As for exercise... I'm also pants at that too. I did some today. About half an hour of Just Dance! on the Wii. I know it's not much but it's something I can do.
Amariel1981 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 05-21-2014, 08:17 PM   #5  
Just Me
 
nelie's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jan 2003
Location: Maryland
Posts: 14,707

S/C/G: 364/--/182

Height: 5'6"

Default

Well if you are doing microwavable stuff, are you doing things like microwave meals? Those have calorie counts on them.

And calorie counters keep records of what you eat. It isn't hard to add ingredients of a salad or stuff you eat. You can add recipes and things that you eat regularly are good. For pre-packaged stuff, it is even easier.

I highly recommend getting a calorie baseline by counting calories for at least a week to see where you are at. Once you know where you are at, then you can improve.
nelie is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 05-21-2014, 08:19 PM   #6  
Junior Member
Thread Starter
 
Amariel1981's Avatar
 
Join Date: May 2014
Posts: 10

S/C/G: 258.2/258.2/170

Default

Yah, packaged stuff is easy. It's more...other things. Like back to the salad. How do I tell how much lettuce I use? How much cucumber? How much cheese? Etc.. I don't want to have to weight things. Or am I thinking too much into this.
Amariel1981 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 05-21-2014, 09:24 PM   #7  
Just Me
 
nelie's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jan 2003
Location: Maryland
Posts: 14,707

S/C/G: 364/--/182

Height: 5'6"

Default

Well you estimate as best you can. For vegetables, it really won't matter much if you eat 1 cup or 4 cups, its not a lot of calories. I'd focus on the more caloric items and again estimate. If you want to lose weight, you will need to change what you are doing now and I think it is a good idea just to see where you are at and see where you can make changes.
nelie is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 05-21-2014, 11:26 PM   #8  
banned
 
Pattience's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jan 2014
Location: Tropical Australia
Posts: 1,270

S/C/G: 80.2kg/66kg/60kg x2.2 for lb

Height: 165cm/5' 4.5"

Default

What i do is measure it by the cup.

OK here's some advice about cooking easy meals and measuring out portions.
I really think you need to want to take this on if you want to lose the weight and keep it off and be healthy. so its worth learning how to do this properly. but no one expects you to get it right within a week.

It takes time to learn how to cook and manage food well.

For all my vegie measurements that i want i use a cup. So buy a set of plastic measuring cups and spoons they are really useful for cooking as well.

You should be aiming for 2.5 to 3 cups of vegetables per day. And about 5 different types. A serve of lettuce of leafy vegies is half a cup. But more is fine.

I don't measure tomato, i just say one tomato. In fact i don't measure my vegies anymore but you should to start with to get a sense of what's about right.

I measure milk by the cup and yoghurt.
Cheese should be weighed. About 30grams is an ideal serve but you will get away with more than that in the beginning.

Also consider buying yourself some digital kitchen scales. They should be good quality so ask around and don't buy the first thing you see. They can be expensive so be careful you don't want to break the bank.

Cooking:
Start with some recipe books. Get yourself one or two good books. You might want to ask some title advice from book shop people or others here.

People like Delia Smith, is good for basic anglo food.
Buy a nice mediterranean or french, italian , greek or spanish book. Mediterranean is fantastic especially french. Don't go for fancy restaurant food. Look for traditional recipes. The word is often on the cover but try to get a book written by some with a background in the culture.

Gradually build a small library of cook books. Small! And avoid books about cakes and pastries and tarts.
Look for a nice vegetable book
a salad book
fish and seafood

Try your hand at learning to cook some basic things like bread, or pasta, or other things you have never ever considered before. Its fun and interesting to learn how to make these things that take a bit of extra time. Mostly i only do them once but i am always glad of the experience. Same goes for lots of interesting asian dishes.

The french are very good with soups.

So its good to learn to cook with recipes when you are not much good at cooking. But there is also an art to picking a recipe so that's one reason why i suggest not just picking anything online. Lots of recipes are very ordinary and disappointing.
Go for traditional fare.

Don't spend too much money on kitchen equipment at the start. You want wooden spoons, egg flip, whisk, decent chopping knife, a small food processor of some sort can do things like pesto which are hard to do with a bamix, a ba-mix for soups and fine chopping. Two or three saucepans with lid, i use a pressure cooker for my dried bean and lentil dishes and soups. A solid base fry pan, measuring jug, chopping board, some dried herbs, some spices - whole are better, a coffee grinding machine to grind up spices or a pestle and mortar, some baking dishes.

Have fun.
Pattience is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 05-22-2014, 07:27 AM   #9  
Senior Member
 
Palestrina's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jun 2009
Location: New York, NY
Posts: 4,607

S/C/G: 215/188/150

Height: 5'4"

Default

When I used to calorie count a scale was the most important tool I've ever owned. I would measure everything in grams. When I made the transition out of calorie counting I stopped measuring raw veggies, the calorie count was so low that I didn't want to restrict myself. So I'd just use one whole head of romaine, half a cucumber, half an avocado, one whole carrot. I did however measure out the dressing and whatever protein was going in there.

These supplements you are taking sound very strange to me. How does one convert starch into fiber? I've never heard of this type of alternative medicine. If you are open to alternative health you may want to seek out an accredited homeopath, osteopath and/or accupuncturist. I'm weary of anyone that tries to sell me supplements. So you've tried it, it hasn't worked so what more reason do you need to stop?

Quote:
Originally Posted by Amariel1981 View Post
Yah, packaged stuff is easy. It's more...other things. Like back to the salad. How do I tell how much lettuce I use? How much cucumber? How much cheese? Etc.. I don't want to have to weight things. Or am I thinking too much into this.
When someone says something like "I don't want to have to..." it leads me to think that there are certain things you are unwilling to do. That's fine, we all have limits and boundaries. But exercise, nutrition and good health are not to be taken for granted. I do not count calories or weigh my food or even restrict my eating with a diet. But I'm very conscious of what I eat because I want to be healthy. I guess you could say I practice moderation and portion control. But nothing good comes from "I don't wanna" in fact it can really hold you back. Instead of thinking of what you don't want to do think about the people who might have the misfortune of not being able to do something you take for granted. Such as:

I don't wanna exercise - think of someone who may have lost the use of their legs and wishes they could exercise!

I don't have time to exercise - there is someone much busier than you on a treadmill right now

Anyway, these are the types of things I think about to keep in a good positive mental direction. We move to live, enjoy it while you can. You don't have to do formal exercise or go to a gym to be healthy and active. Take a walk, take every opportunity you have to walk, plan activities outside with friends, find something you enjoy and get to it. This CAN be fun.
Palestrina is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 05-22-2014, 08:22 AM   #10  
Recovering Pantry Pest
 
ICUwishing's Avatar
 
Join Date: Dec 2008
Location: Michigan
Posts: 3,248

S/C/G: 174.5/162/149

Height: 5'7"

Default

Phone and iPad apps like LoseIt have a barcode scanner that lets you scan a microwave meal and bring in all the nutritional data, which saves a LOT of typing. The database is pretty big and it doesn't do a bad job.
ICUwishing is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 05-22-2014, 09:07 AM   #11  
Junior Member
Thread Starter
 
Amariel1981's Avatar
 
Join Date: May 2014
Posts: 10

S/C/G: 258.2/258.2/170

Default

Transglucosidase is basically an enzyme that stop the flood of glucose after eating a starchy meal. So it limits how much starch is made into sugar, and instead tells the body to convert it into prebiotic fiber.

But anyway, I think I MAY have found part of the problem. I'm consuming more calories than I thought I was. At least on some days. Like yesterday I had a Big Mac with a medium fry. Not something I have all the time, but that was a lot more caloric than I thought. Even if it's not 100% accurate, I guess keeping track of my food is something I may need to do.
Amariel1981 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 05-22-2014, 09:39 AM   #12  
Just Me
 
nelie's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jan 2003
Location: Maryland
Posts: 14,707

S/C/G: 364/--/182

Height: 5'6"

Default

Well I think keeping track of your food at least for a short while gives you an idea of your problem areas. There is nothing wrong with consuming frozen meals if it works for you. For many that consume fast food, they often downgrade to something less caloric like instead of a Big Mac and medium fry, how about a hamburger (no mayo, mustard instead) and a small fry? Progress, not perfection will help you and you can tweak as you go along.
nelie is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 05-22-2014, 09:51 AM   #13  
banned
 
Pattience's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jan 2014
Location: Tropical Australia
Posts: 1,270

S/C/G: 80.2kg/66kg/60kg x2.2 for lb

Height: 165cm/5' 4.5"

Default

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prebiotic_(nutrition)

IN other words a weightloss drug. Personally i think you are flushing your money down the loo. According to the wiki article, it might not be doing what it claims to do. There doesn't seem to be enough studies done on this stuff yet.

I don't see much on the net of any meaning about trans.... At least not on page 1 of google. Nothing that tells me anything i can understand or that i would consider trustworthy. I certainly wouldn't be buying it on amazon.
Pattience is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 05-22-2014, 12:08 PM   #14  
ending 7+ years of yoyo
 
EmmaD's Avatar
 
Join Date: Dec 2008
Posts: 1,601

S/C/G: (body fat) >34.5%/?/<25%

Height: 5' 6", small frame, "obese" body fat

Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by Amariel1981 View Post
Transglucosidase is basically an enzyme that stop the flood of glucose after eating a starchy meal. So it limits how much starch is made into sugar, and instead tells the body to convert it into prebiotic fiber.
This is a bit of a divergence from the original post, but I looked up transglucosidase out of curiosity and found a recent study out of Japan - the conclusion was that taking this enzyme decreased blood glucose levels and prevented body weight gain in type-2 diabetics by "inducing the production of oligosaccharides in the alimentary tract and modulating gut microbiota composition."

Transglucosidase improves the gut microbiota profile of type 2 diabetes mellitus patients: a randomized double-blind, placebo-controlled study

The study did not include a lot of people but it is intriguing. From the Discussion section:

Quote:
... Two groups of beneficial bacteria, Bacteroidetes and Firmicutes, are dominant in the human gut.
... a relative proportion of Bacteroidetes was decreased in obese people in comparison with lean people and that this proportion increased with weight loss on a low-energy diet.
... obesity has a microbial component, which might have potential therapeutic implications.
I find the relationship between obesity and bacteria in the digestive system fascinating. I will be looking into this topic more

To the OP: Do you have type-2 diabetes or pre-diabetes? Here is an older study that suggests transglucosidase doesn't do much for healthy people but does have a beneficial effect for those with impaired glucose tolerance ("pre-diabetes").

A Novel Strategy in Production of Oligosaccharides in Digestive Tract: Prevention of Postprandial Hyperglycemia and Hyperinsulinemia
EmmaD is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 05-22-2014, 12:14 PM   #15  
Junior Member
Thread Starter
 
Amariel1981's Avatar
 
Join Date: May 2014
Posts: 10

S/C/G: 258.2/258.2/170

Default

I'm pretty sure I don't have diabetes, though I'm at risk for it. My maternal grandmother had it. I don't know anything else, as that's all that was included in the adoption papers. As for pre-diabetes, I don't know. I sometimes have blood sugar issues, but that's only if I don't eat or drink anything for a while. Then I tend to get hypoglycemic until I eat something. But it doesn't happen often. If there is a way to test if I am pre-diabetic I will see about getting tested when I have the money. But as of right now, I think I'm pretty normal with the occasional low points now and then.

And you should talk to a lady I work with. She thinks almost EVERYTHING wrong with people stems from digestive issues one way or the other.
Amariel1981 is offline   Reply With Quote
Reply


Thread Tools

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off
Trackbacks are Off
Pingbacks are Off
Refbacks are Off



All times are GMT -4. The time now is 07:09 AM.


We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites.
Copyright © 2024 MH Sub I, LLC dba Internet Brands. All rights reserved. Use of this site indicates your consent to the Terms of Use.