I wonder if anyone can help me, sorry in advance for the long post!
I suffer from a muscle weakening condition which makes it very tricky for me to exercise like I used to - it is a very hard condition to manage because there are so many triggers. I also have fibromyalgia and osteoarthritis and inflammatory arthritis. I am on a LOT of medication, most of which say ‘can cause weight gain’ 🙄 Anyway, I had to give up work in 2020 because all of my medical conditions caught up with me. I have been unable to go to the gym for years now, I used to be able to do some walking but even that is out of the question now due to pain, the only ‘proper’ exercise I get these days is swimming when I’m feeling well enough.
The consequence of all this is that I have put on nearly 3 stone since retiring from work. Admittedly, I have had weeks on end when I have been unable to even get out of bed but I have been told now that I have diabetes - I have been given the opportunity to control it via diet and exercise rather than medication (because I am only ‘just’ diabetic and I take so much medication already). However, no matter what I do or eat I just cannot lose any weight whatsoever. Obviously, I can’t do too much on the exercise side of things due to my various conditions but I am eating healthier and trying to avoid sitting down for long periods. However, one thing that I have to do nearly every day, is relax on the bed in the afternoon (sometimes sleeping, sometimes reading) because if I don’t then I crash.
I am finding it all so frustrating and it is impacting badly on my depression, I just don’t know what to do so any helpful advice would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
Suzi
Written by
blackphoenix
2023 June
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Firstly, I'm sorry to hear that you're struggling with so many health issues, that must be very hard.
Secondly, I'm happy to say that weight loss and diabetes management can be achieved with diet alone. Here are a couple of things for you to have a look at:
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Lack of exersise has a much smaller effect on weight gain than most people realise. Your arthritis is an inflammtory condition of the joints and fibromyalgia is an inflammatory condition of the nerves. You need to eliminate your systemic inflammation, which is probably caused by the ingestion of refined seed oils and refined carbohydrate as found in processed food which is also the cause of your diabetes and causing much of your depression.
The answer is to eat real food and avoid seemingly benign foods like bread and fruit juice which are actually harmful. Switch to olive oil and avoid thing like sunflowr oil and palm oil. Try to put your hands on a book called "The Pioppi Diet".
Thank you for your advice, I will definitely take what you have said on board. However, we rarely eat processed foods. We always make meals from scratch using fresh ingredients (I can get them as often as needed because I am retired now), the one food that I don’t eat now is chips, I just don’t like them anymore. I avoid bread like the plague - I have ulcerative colitis and eating bread and processed carbs causes me to flare very badly. We do use olive oil but also use one if those light spray oils to cook sometimes. So although there may be some inflammation from my diet from the occasional meal out or treat, there truely isn’t that much processed food that I eat these days. I mainly drink drink water (at least 1 litre a day) and cannot drink alcohol because of all the different medications that I am on. This is why I am getting frustrated, I have been eating healthily, have cut out anything that will make me flare but yet the scales won’t budge 😞
Anyway, I will see if I can get hold of that book, thank you so much for the recommendation 👍🏼
That light spray oil may be having a greater effect than you think and your pre diabetes suggests to me that you're not identifying your sources of carbohydrate correctly.
I lost more than 5 stone when I was younger so it’s not like I don’t know how to lose weight per se regarding food, it’s just that now my ability to exercise is limited mainly due to my generalised Myasthenia which I feel is having a cascade effect. It’s been established through the extensive tests that I have had, that most of my inflammation has come from the various autoimmune diseases that I am suffering from after an incident in 2014 which triggered something dormant in my genes. Autoimmune diseases rarely ‘travel’ alone so if you get diagnosed with one then invariably the chances are you will be diagnosed with at least one more.
Thanks for that very informative video, I’ve never seen that one before and it is very true what he is saying. I was always Vit D deficient and had to have several courses of high Vit D prescribed. Thankfully I now have that under control thanks to taking 1 x 2000 IU Vit D every day. One thing he didn’t mention is that the body doesn’t naturally absorb Vit D very well, thus I also take Vit K2 which helps the body take onboard the Vit D.
I appreciate you putting me onto this guy, he seems to have a lot of good stuff on his channel 👍🏼
Not exactly the same as you but, have cfs/me and can understand the exercise issue as am in the same boat and was pre diabetic. I don't think people who haven't been on this type of "ride" can fully understand the absolute frustration that having to finely balance your system just to get from day to night has on you.
I don't know about you but sometimes I just can't be bothered explaining because it becomes too much effort. It sounds like you are trying really hard with your diet and the ulcerative colitis will be a factor on your diet too. I have IBS from the cfs/me and it can be a bit of a nightmare for sure!
I was able to loose 3 stones. How I lost weight without exercise was that I did go to slimming world but, I also swapped things like sweet potato instead of white potatoes, whole grain rice instead of white rice and stopped so much fried food. I increased my vegetables and fruit as well as soya milk/soya yogurt as I was dairy free and wheat free any how. I know you are on different medications that can cause weight gain and it may be worth talking to your GP to see if there are any alternatives that could help. Also, see if you can get a referral to a dietician to discuss foods that could help with your underlying health issues.
Thank you for your reply, it’s good to hear from someone else who has been through this kind of experience. TBH, I don’t really eat fried food, if we ever have bacon we cook it in the oven, we use the air fryer to cook things too but never add any extra oil to things. With suffering from generalised Myasthenia Gravis, which is the muscle weakening condition that I suffer from, it can affect my swallowing very dramatically and at those times I have to eat a soft diet which can be limiting especially seeing as at those times I am often confined to bed so I’m reliant upon my husband to make my meals for me.
I will try some of those substitutions that you have suggested ☺️
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