This deals with a couple different issues... nutrition, mental health, physical health, etc Posting it here, if there is a place where it would be better please move this.
About a year ago I decided to lose weight for no other reason then because I felt like it. This was done through simply paying some attention to what I ate. Instead of two burgers with fries and a coke it was a burger with water. Instead of 10 pieces of pizza it was 3-4. This worked and over 8months I quickly lost about 90lbs. While a little faster then what most consider normal it was not a crazy amount for someone with my starting weight(260lbs). During this time I felt good, never overly hungry etc. About 4 months ago I decided to start working out, again just because I felt like it. However, with working out came some information on nutrition... some of it good a lot of it bad. Before I simply ate less. Now I began to pay attention to what was in food. I began to count calories.. obsessively... I still wanted to lose a little more weight so during this time when I started working out I was eating roughly 1600-1800 calories a day(i found out later that this was a ridiculously low amount as my current maintenance amount WITHOUT working out is around 2750). During this time eating around 1600 calories and working out I felt great, better then I ever did. While I payed attention to what I was eating I was not obsessed with food.. more on that later. This worked for about 3 months. However over the course of about a week I began to feel weaker and weaker, to the point I decided to stop working out for a week to try and recover. After a week of not working out I felt no better.. perhaps worse. During this time I searched extensively for information on what was going on with me and quickly came to some startling conclusions that are obvious in hindsight.
I was practically starving myself and on top of that I was working out.
Now don't get me wrong, I thought what I was doing was healthy. Loosing weight from being very overweight was certainly a good thing and working out instead of sitting around all day was good as well. However, my lack of knowledge led me to go about these things in a questionable way that obviously put my body through a lot of stress.
Anyways, once I figured out how much less I was eating then I should be over the course of a couple weeks I bumped my calorie intake to find my maintenance which is roughly what I eat now, 2750. I have not gained or lost a pound over the course of a month. However my feeling of weakness( to the point of it being too much effort to hang out with friends) has continued (along with other psychological problems that I am only now beginning to recognized.) I figured eating at maintenance would allow my body to recover however it seems that that may not be the case. Over the course of these last couple months I have read a lot about food and nutrition and it began to be all I thought about. However I did not think too much of this as that is normally how I am with things that interest me. What began to concern me is when my only thoughts throughout the day revolved around food... After finishing a meal I immediately planned the next one. At the end of the night I am deciding what I will eat tomorrow. Before I even open my eyes in the morning I am fantasying about eating. On the occasional day I decided not to count calories and eat as much as I was hungry for I would eat till I was in physical pain, as soon as it subsided I would quickly make something else to eat and be in pain again this would continue all day long. It is not that I could not stop myself this is just what I wanted to do if I was relying on myself to regulate what I wanted to eat naturally.
I also have lost a lot of sense what what I may prefer over something else. A bowl of steamed broccoli is just as appealing as a steak or pizza or a burger. Just the act of eating is overwhelmingly enjoyable no matter what it is. The psychological problems I mentioned earlier were hard for me to describe until recently when I read an article about the Minnesota Starvation Study . The things the participants experience was like reading a list of things I had written down about how I was feeling and behaving yet failed to recognize. Once I found this and showed it to others they immediately agreed.
General information:
I don't really care what I look like and was only doing this all because I felt like trying to lose weight one day. No other reason and I have no problems if gaining the weight back is the best solution for me. However, I would much rather find a happy medium as I don't believe my starting weight was very healthy however currently my psychological health is a far greater concern.
I am certainly not trying to be destructive to myself and am fully willing to try anything and everything to regain a healthy relationship with food and myself.
I cant tell if this is all nutrition related or if its a combination or my normally obsessive personality and some depression mixed in..
I got results from my blood work back recently and was told my liver enzymes are elevated. I am going back in for a ultrasound in a couple weeks. How likely is that to be related to my weakness?
I am currently toying with the idea of eating without care, I would rather be overweight then weak and mentally stressed.
Any help is greatly appreciated. I will respond to any additional questions or comments asap for the next couple hours
About a year ago I decided to lose weight for no other reason then because I felt like it. This was done through simply paying some attention to what I ate. Instead of two burgers with fries and a coke it was a burger with water. Instead of 10 pieces of pizza it was 3-4. This worked and over 8months I quickly lost about 90lbs. While a little faster then what most consider normal it was not a crazy amount for someone with my starting weight(260lbs). During this time I felt good, never overly hungry etc. About 4 months ago I decided to start working out, again just because I felt like it. However, with working out came some information on nutrition... some of it good a lot of it bad. Before I simply ate less. Now I began to pay attention to what was in food. I began to count calories.. obsessively... I still wanted to lose a little more weight so during this time when I started working out I was eating roughly 1600-1800 calories a day(i found out later that this was a ridiculously low amount as my current maintenance amount WITHOUT working out is around 2750). During this time eating around 1600 calories and working out I felt great, better then I ever did. While I payed attention to what I was eating I was not obsessed with food.. more on that later. This worked for about 3 months. However over the course of about a week I began to feel weaker and weaker, to the point I decided to stop working out for a week to try and recover. After a week of not working out I felt no better.. perhaps worse. During this time I searched extensively for information on what was going on with me and quickly came to some startling conclusions that are obvious in hindsight.
I was practically starving myself and on top of that I was working out.
Now don't get me wrong, I thought what I was doing was healthy. Loosing weight from being very overweight was certainly a good thing and working out instead of sitting around all day was good as well. However, my lack of knowledge led me to go about these things in a questionable way that obviously put my body through a lot of stress.
Anyways, once I figured out how much less I was eating then I should be over the course of a couple weeks I bumped my calorie intake to find my maintenance which is roughly what I eat now, 2750. I have not gained or lost a pound over the course of a month. However my feeling of weakness( to the point of it being too much effort to hang out with friends) has continued (along with other psychological problems that I am only now beginning to recognized.) I figured eating at maintenance would allow my body to recover however it seems that that may not be the case. Over the course of these last couple months I have read a lot about food and nutrition and it began to be all I thought about. However I did not think too much of this as that is normally how I am with things that interest me. What began to concern me is when my only thoughts throughout the day revolved around food... After finishing a meal I immediately planned the next one. At the end of the night I am deciding what I will eat tomorrow. Before I even open my eyes in the morning I am fantasying about eating. On the occasional day I decided not to count calories and eat as much as I was hungry for I would eat till I was in physical pain, as soon as it subsided I would quickly make something else to eat and be in pain again this would continue all day long. It is not that I could not stop myself this is just what I wanted to do if I was relying on myself to regulate what I wanted to eat naturally.
I also have lost a lot of sense what what I may prefer over something else. A bowl of steamed broccoli is just as appealing as a steak or pizza or a burger. Just the act of eating is overwhelmingly enjoyable no matter what it is. The psychological problems I mentioned earlier were hard for me to describe until recently when I read an article about the Minnesota Starvation Study . The things the participants experience was like reading a list of things I had written down about how I was feeling and behaving yet failed to recognize. Once I found this and showed it to others they immediately agreed.
General information:
I don't really care what I look like and was only doing this all because I felt like trying to lose weight one day. No other reason and I have no problems if gaining the weight back is the best solution for me. However, I would much rather find a happy medium as I don't believe my starting weight was very healthy however currently my psychological health is a far greater concern.
I am certainly not trying to be destructive to myself and am fully willing to try anything and everything to regain a healthy relationship with food and myself.
I cant tell if this is all nutrition related or if its a combination or my normally obsessive personality and some depression mixed in..
I got results from my blood work back recently and was told my liver enzymes are elevated. I am going back in for a ultrasound in a couple weeks. How likely is that to be related to my weakness?
I am currently toying with the idea of eating without care, I would rather be overweight then weak and mentally stressed.
Any help is greatly appreciated. I will respond to any additional questions or comments asap for the next couple hours