I find my 40s to be a time when I am hearing from my doctor about conditions like blood pressure and cholesterol.

So....my question to all of you is....how has your health conditions improved due to weight loss?

my blood pressure went from 120/80 to 100/70 plus, i got my pcos under control so they didn't see a need to put me on metformin, ( a drug that reduces insulin levels)

Cholesterol went from borderline to 176 because of improved eating.

The biggest suprise is my BP, which has been @ 130/85 since I was 18 years old and normal weight. Didn't increase with my 100 lb. weight gain, but has been dropping along with my weight. Now 110/70.

I'm just starting back again, but when I lost about 10 pounds last year, my BP went down to a normal healthy range.

I am on meds for bp, cholesterol and acid refulx. I really, really would like this weight loss to help me get off these meds. I wonder if it is the weight loss or the weight loss and the exercise. I have heard that 30 minutes of walking a day can do wonders for your health.

BP went from 130/80 to 110/70. Total cholesterol went from 200 to 160, and HDL increased from 38 to 55. I can also stand on my feet for 9-12 hours now without feeling exhausted and achy (I do that for 1 week out of every 6 for my job as a physician).

I feel it is the way of eating and exercise that I'm doing to get the weight loss rather than the actual loss itself as when I was this weight on the way up, the cholesterol numbers and BP not nearly as good AND I'm 20 years older.

Most of my life, even when I was in good health, I looked at weight loss as a way to improve my health. I did a lot of unhealthy things to lose weight, thinking it didn't matter that the good of weight loss overshadowed the bad of crazy weight loss methods (I'm not too sure of that logic, anymore. I wonder if some of my current health issues are as much do to the unhealthy weight loss strategies as the weight itself. I firmly believe that some unhealthy strategies for weight loss do more to put on weight than lose it, in the long run).

"This time" is different, in that improving my health has resulted in weight loss. I decided to only make changes that would be healthy whether or not they resulted in any weight loss at all - changes I could commit to making whether or not they resulted in weight loss at all.

Weight loss has been slower this way - but it's also felt effortless. The weight coming off has been more of a happy accident than as a result of intense work.

The first two years of health changes I didn't lose any weight at all - but I did gain a lot of health improvements (some of my most dramatic ones). The next two years of changes resulted in more weight loss but I can't seperate how much of the health improvements were due to weight loss, and how much were due to eating better, establishing better sleep patterns, and exercising more.

I'm not exactly advocating the "Health at Every Size" movement's position (that weight doesn't matter), but I do think that eating healtier and moving more have health benefits independent of weight loss - they may even be the main source of health benefits and the weight loss is just a happy side effect.

I've learned a lot about how different foods effect my mood and general health, and if I had been only paying attention to weight loss, I wouldn't have learned those things. Making this about healthy behaviors rather than weight has been a miracle for me. Taking weight out of the equation for me, has been the best thing I ever did for myself.

Neurodoc...that is great you can stand so long without hurting. That says a lot. Also, for your hdl to go up....WOW.

Kaplods...I am intrigued about how foods affect your mood and overall health. I don't even know where to begin, you know? How did you get started and how did you figure out a certain food affected your mood? How did you narrow it down? This sounds great to me, but I just don't know how to start. Hope this makes sense.

Careysings...Are you saying your numbers are good now? Sorry....I got a little confused.

After losing 50 lbs....
My blood pressure is perfect
My cholesterol is perfect
My type one diabetes is under such perfect control, I no longer have to see an Endocinologist for the first time in my life (been diabetic since I was 7)
I have much, MUCH more energy

Yes, numbers are very, very good now. And I attribute that to what I'm eating and how much exercise I now get rather than being 168 lbs instead of 265. Because I was 168 lbs. when I was 29 years old but at that time my BP was much higher. However in my 20s, I did not eat a very balanced diet or exercise as regularly so I give credit to the healthier behaviours, rather than my current weight.

careysings....I get it now Sorry I got confused. Yeah, as I pop my bp pill, I can't help but think my behavior has caused it. I am 5"2 and 146 so I am not obese....but I do carry ALL of it on my belly! Also, I have eaten basically just sweets the last decade (or so it seems) and haven't exercised at all.

I can walk a 20 minute mile which seems pathetic. I am 43 years old.

I started with HEALTHMINDER Personal Wellness Journal (a.k.a MemoryMinder Personal Health Journal) Health Diary and Symptoms Log

On the advice of a doctor to keep a symptom log, I looked on amazon and found the MemoryMinder Personal Health Journal (the newer edition is called the Healthminder personal Wellness Journal).

It included symptom checklists as well as places to write food, medicines, weather, mood......

It really takes months to notice clear patterns, especially since some patterns (at least for women) can be on a monthly cycle. During my period and a few days before, I craved carbohydrates (especially chocolate and sugar in general) and red meat (the only time I really had a strong preference for red meat. The rest of the month I can take it or leave it). I knew about the chocolate (I really don't like chocolate except during that TOM), but the beef was news to me. Although hubby noticed before I did - he began calling me werewolf, because of the moodswings and cravings for meat.

My doctor recommended low-carb, and I began noticing that I felt a lot better on low-carb. My pain from arthritis and fibro was way down, I had more energy, I felt better than I had in years. I could see in my journal that the more carbs I ate, the worse I felt. I didn't know whether it was the carbs or certain carbs that were responsible, so I started "testing" them.

When I tried giving up wheat entirely, my skin started looking better than it had in years. I have rosacea and seborrheic dermatitis (face dandruff essentially, but it can actually become open weepy sores, crusting over and the skin swelling and infecting. Hubby calls it face-rot, and that about explains how bad it can be). On low-carb, my face was free of rashes and my entire face was flesh-colored more often. Usually (on a higher carb diet) my nose and cheeks are always pink to red. I even got fewer normal breakouts.

Some of these patterns I found because my hubby or I had a hunch, and then I tested for it in my symptom/food journal. Some of the patterns I found because I looked back through my journal and looked for patterns. If I thought I found one, I'd test it by going without the food for a couple months, and then add it back. Then take it away, and add it back....

I do have a background in research methods, so I understand how easy it is for coincidence and placebo effect to play a role. You think you've found a pattern, but you're not sure if it's psychosomatic, placebo effect, or coincidence. And all I can say to that is the more often you repeat your experiment, the more likely you are to find real patterns.

An essential post I am forwarding to DS with Crohn's. Thank you for taking the time to post.

kaplods...thanks so much.....very clear to me what to do now