Posted by Racer on December 7, 2004, at 0:18:03
In reply to Re: Visceral Obesity » saw, posted by Fallen4MyT on December 6, 2004, at 23:08:04
The RD was just talking about weight gains from day to day at our last session. That four pounds? Not real, just normal variations. That salad for dinner ain't all that great an idea, either. First of all, as Fallen pointed out, if you try to starve down, your body thinks it's hit a famine and will slow your metabolism. When that happens, it gets much more -- um -- efficient at holding onto anything it gets. That's why you're more likely to regain weight after losing with a fad diet -- and why you'll usually regain more than you lost.
Also, doctors are not always really aware of all the implications of the drugs they prescribe. There are still many doctors out there who think that Prozac promotes weight loss! It does, of course, for about the first two months. It's only after that that it packs on the pounds. If your doctor was saying that the meds haven't caused you to gain weight, so much as your tendency to try to starve yourself down followed by binging, that's one thing. If, on the other hand, he's saying that you're gaining weight because you're eating too much, well, he's just following an old and honored tradition in medicine: blaming the patient. Sucks.
That abdominal fat thing is about the ratio of waist to hip measurement. Regardless of your weight, that ratio is a good predictor of health risks. I forget the exact details -- I'm very overtired right now -- but that's a real worry, because it can lead to Metabolic Syndrome X, which you don't want. It's got a lot of portions to it, but the most important is insulin resistance, which will lead to Type II diabetes, which can lead to absolute hell. If that's what he's worried about, get detailed information from him and follow the instructions for diet and exercise to the letter. It can be reversed. (Unless you're on one of the meds that will cause diabetes even without weight gain. And he's unlikely to tell you if one of yours falls into that catagory.)
As for how to get some of that weight to stabilize, drink lots of plain water. Not tea, diet soda, juice, or anything like that. You can drink all those things, but drink plenty of plain water, too. Those four pounds weren't weight in the real sense, they were fluids. The best way to flush that extra fluid out of your system is to drink enough plain water to flush it out. That doesn't mean two gallons per day, just at least 64 ounces. I promise you, it will help. It also helps fill you up a bit. (In fact, that's one of my anorexic tricks, although it was more like two gallons a day...)
Best way to lose weight is to eat a good, balanced breakfast every single day, without fail, to give you energy and fuel to get through your morning. Then, have something healthy as a mid morning snack, like a glass of milk, or an apple. For lunch, eat something with a balance of protein and carbohydrate, with a little fat, but not much. Something like a ham sandwich with lettuce, tomato, maybe onion, mustard and a little bit of mayonaise. Then, when you hit that mid afternoon slump, have another glass of milk, or -- my favorite -- a glass of V-8. That should get you through to dinner, which is where you cut back a bit. Veggies, protein, a little starch. For dessert, have a pear. See? You're having five meals a day, but you're probably eating less than if you try to starve yourself down. (Even when I'm starving myself most, I eat at least three meals a day, usually with a snack, as well. I couldn't get through the day if I didn't.) The more you try to restrict your eating during the early part of the day, the more likely you are to over-compensate in the evening. That will lead to gaining weight.
And here's a big one: check out portion sizes! Get a scale, and find out how much you're really eating. It might surprise you. Check the food pyramid portion sizes, and compare those to what you're eating. That plate of spaghetti in the restaurant? Probably about six portions...
I know, I'm just giving you how tos, instead of telling you the other part of it. I'll make it up now.
These drugs do cause weight gain for most people. A lot of doctors just say it's our fault, not the drugs. Or, my favorite so far, The T From The Planet Unsupervised Intern told me that anti-depressants do not cause weight gain -- it was just like on birth control pills, when you take them you eat more and don't exercise enough. Hello? Earth to TFTPUI? She was young and female and inadequately supervised. I was tempted to take her in printouts from PubMed showing her what an idiot she was, as well as the psychology article I'd recently read about how damaging to clients it was for a T to blame the patient for weight gain...
I'm sorry. I can only tell you that I've done the outrageous weight gain from ADs, and been told it was my fault, and been bloody miserable because of it. I hope it stabilizes soon for you.
PS: I owe you an email. Sorry -- got something major going on, but as soon as it's done, you're first on my list.
poster:Racer
thread:425099
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/eating/20041128/msgs/425492.html