Okay people really f****ing piss me off. When I lost my first 30-50 pounds I would tell people oh I've lost a lot of weight and they would give me looks like "sure you have" but from 195 down the weight loss has been a lot more noticeable. I am still 185 and comfortably a 12 apparently sometimes a 10 in the bigger running clothes but certainly still overweight by any standard. I lose weight at a rate of 1-2 pounds per a week and I eat between 1200-1600 calories a day and even allow myself to eat 2000 calorie a day once a week if I want to just so I don't ever feel deprieved. Thing is I have horribly dizzy spells sometimes. Originally I thought it was Afib since my dad has it and my heart rate was high for awhile but I cut down on caffeine and I started meditating and my resting heart rate has calmed down to 105 which is still a little high but not the 125 it was sitting at for awhile. My blood pressure is 122/70 which is pretty decent by any standard and I drink plenty of water so I am not dehydrated. The thing of it is when I ask people what the problem could be multiple members of my stupid @$$ family pretty much said they think I must be starving myself and that I have lost too much weight lately. I tell them ummmm no I eat plenty and I have not been losing weight rapidly it's taken me almost 10 months to get to where I am now and they act like they don't believe me and I'm lying about my current weight and that I simply must not be eating. The only good suggestions I got were 1. you could be developing diabetes or 2. it's anemia. The anemia doesn't make sense to me because I checked what I was eating and the cereal I eat almost every day is 90% of my iron for the day my soy milk is 4% a cup, almonds which i snack on almost everyday 6%, and peanut butter which i eat atleast a few times a week is 4% so there is no reason I should be iron deficent. The diabetes thing doesn't make sense to me because I've lost almost 70 pounds so my risk should be much lower not higher. In either case I need blood work and since I have no insurance that is not gonna happen so I'm gonna have to just try and live with whatever it is. The point is I think its rediculous that I work my butt off for months on end and I eat right and people want to sit there and basically say right to my face that I must be starving myself that I'm a liar and that I would be stupid enough to ask them what was wrong with me if I was starving myself. People are flipping ******ed! I'm still fat by any real standards for petesake! And I'm not some sort of anorexic! What the **** is wrong with people!

oh and just to show how rediculous these people are being. here is a picture of my current weight.

Wow..sounds like they're incredibly supportive *rolls eyes*

It sounds like you've been doing amazing losing weight in a very healthy way so kudos to you! It's weird that they're now just noticing but sometimes when you have a mental image of something it's hard to see gradual change but sooner or later it hits "wow! totally different!" (for example I keep thinking of my cat as a kitten so some days it's freaky when I realise how big he is).

As for being dizzy, high heart rate, and good blood pressure, I'm in the exact same boat. I hope someone has a good answer there for the reason because I'm very interested in knowing it as well. Keep up the awesome work! You know you're doing it right and you're not anorexic so just try to take a deep breath and maybe some primal screaming to release the frustration lol

I'm beginning to get dizzy spells when I first stand up - getting up quickly. I haven't had that in EONS. I keep checking to see if my BP is getting too low, but it's not. Just checked - 114/72 - pretty darn perfect. I think what I have is a normal head rush thing... maybe with less weight and more fitness I jump up faster which creates that head rush.

But a resting heart rate of 105 - especially when you are exercising, is really high. Have you talked about it with a doctor? I've been working out for only 3.5 months and my resting heart rate went from 85 to 60. And when it was 85, my BP was through the roof high.

If you haven't had blood work done for awhile, what will it hurt to have things checked out? Of course, your family is being ridiculous. In their mind you are losing FAST.. and when it's not your own body, you don't realize it's actually been a month or two months or whatever. They can't see/understand the 1-2 pounds a week as they aren't experiencing it and, of course, because it's all 'new' (this weight loss) it's the easy thing to blame.

My mother in law is a doctor and she keeps telling me to not exercise so much. Not to lose too much and she has nothing to base that off from. She specialized in Neurology and Psychiatry and has never dieted in her life (she has always been naturally thin and only started to gain a bit of extra weight with her move her). Her idea of losing weight is to starve herself - eating only a chocolate bar for most of the day. And of course, she's not very successful with that approach.

My husband on the other hand sees what I'm doing - exercising 1 hour a day, eating 1200-1600 calories a day and eating no simple carbs. He has no worries about my weight loss or eating strategy at all and my recent excellent blood work basically confirms that what I'm doing is working and working in a heathy way.

But really, instead of guessing why you are getting these dizzy spells, I woul dhave it checked out.

I know the feeling. We had a temp at work who always tried to get me to go out to lunch to the greasiest, unhealthiest places and obviously I would say no. Then she would look at my very healthy lunch (that i brought from home) and say "that's ALL your eating? OMG!" etc., etc. It brought me to tears some days!

@berryblondeboys I CAN'T get it checked out because I don't have insurance and since it's not an emergency I can't go to the ER. I applied for state insurance but they said someone in my age range needs to be knocked up or have proof of a serious need to qualify. All the women in my family have high pulse rates my heart rate has been between 85-105 as long as I can remember well except when it was 125 for a few weeks but that was just plain crazy.

Congrats on all the progress you made, and you'll just have to ignore the insensitive things that people say.

I'll trust you that you're not starving yourself. That said, it could still be some sort of deficiency. You are eating less than you were. The iron added to foods, like your cereal, is notoriously hard to absorb. Since you don't want to go to a doctor, it's kind of hard to check.

I obviously don't know what your financial situations is like, but you can go to a doctor and just pay. A regular office visit isn't going to be thousands of dollars, as long as you don't go to an ER. They might have some useful information.

@zoodoo613 I make $800 a month and pay around $600 in bills.

Well I guess that idea won't work.

I'm sorry about no insurance. I was that way until I got married. It's so fricking stupid that in this prosperous country that so many people are uninsured or under insured...

So, if this is a family thing, do these women exercise? Are they heavy? WHat has been the explanation of the high resting heart rate?

While I just looked and 60-100 is considered normal resting heart rate - I don't know if that includes those that are exercising/fit. Yours used to be 125. Which for sure is too high.

Here's a good link on high heart rate (I know you are smart and google things to death and probably already know this stuff - but just putting it out there for others): http://www.buzzle.com/articles/high-...eart-rate.html

Here's another: http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/e...cle/003399.htm

Another possibility, of course, is hyperthyroidism. Yes, you can be hyperthyroid and be overweight because not everyone loses weight with a fast thyroid. Do you have other symptoms for it? You definitely described symptoms for Tachycardia.

Are there any free local clinics in your area you could qualify for?

That being said, stop telling your family unless you are about to pass out- obviously they aren't supportive and could possibly be jealous.

You may have a vitamin deficiency, are you taking any vitamins right now? If not, just add a multivitamin to your day, within 2 weeks you hopefully will feel a difference (try to find one with 800 IU's of vitamin D- you don't need anything pricey- Kroger sells vitamin for very cheap)

I'm also wondering if for right now your body is adjusting to the lower blood pressure, at one point my blood pressure was very low so I was always dizzy. I also had a vitamin deficiency. I ended up getting off of the blood pressure meds my doctor gave me and then started taking vitamins daily and it went away completely after a month.

When you lose a lot of fat you can also lose a lot of vitamins that were stored in that fat so it makes sense to start taking some just in case

Good luck- remember your family aren't doctors so let them talk! I'd have said "oh wait are you a doctor? No? Okay then..." lol.

There is this clinic where you live: Still expensive for bloodwork though. Here's their cost breakdown on bloodwork: http://www.bradentonurgentcare.com/bloodtestcosts.shtml.

Please check around for a clinic that allows you to pay on a sliding scale. I would start by phoning large area hospitals. You need bloodwork and a complete physical.

@berryblondeboys most of the women in my family are pretty fit actually. my mom's kids are the only ones who have issues with weight because we were raised with an unhealthy relationship with food but no one else in that side of the family really has any issue with their weight and most are pretty active. no explanation for the high pulse rate was given i was just told not worry about it because it was a family trait. the women on my mom's side of the family have very long life spans (my great grandma is still healthy and able at 92 and just got remarried) so i don't think it's something that would really affect me in the long run.

my dad's side of the family on the other hand is a mystery. he was adopted and he never searched for his real family before he died. i know its afib that did him in but it's hard to say if it was his lifestyle that did it to him. he had serious issues with binge eating and chain smoking and got up to over 360 pounds before he developed health complications and got up to over 400 pounds before he ended up in the hospital the last time.

My menstraul cycle is pretty regular, I love the heat and shake like a chiwawa in the cold, pretty regular movements, nothing on my neck, and I usually lose slow and steady so I don't think hyperthyroidism could be the issue.

Well, that rules out a lot and your higher resting heart rate very well could be your family trait.

When do you notice these light headed spells? Does it happen regularly? After a long time between eating? Any other symptoms accompany it?

@berryblondeboys it happens a 1-3 times a week usually if I space out my meals too far but i eat a heavy breakfast and I'm usually not hungry at all when it happens. i also feel kinda week and i don't feel like moving around much because it makes the dizziness worse. brings down my mood and occasionally i'll sweat a bit but not like dripping sweat or anything just a light sweat. i also tend to pee a lot on the days it happens but i'm not really sure if there is a connection there.