Intro and a Queston about PP & hypoglycemia

[staceyo]

Hi everyone, I'm Stacey. I am in my 30s and thanks to eating SAD, I've gotten myself into quite a fix. I am 225 lbs (5'7") with a 49" waist (yes, you read that right). :eek: :eek: :eek: I carry my weight in my belly...I'm quite an apple. :peeved: :peeved:

I am addicted to sugar. I feel old and exhausted, and I'm always out of breath. I've been on an antidepressant for years now and I think it helped contribute to my weight gain (100 lbs in 8 years). I snore. I'm always tired and lethargic. I get winded just doing regular housework. And lately, I can't comfortably fit in the bathtub!!! :mad: What a mess. Of course I'm married to someone who is super fit and healthy, so I feel like a gigantic blob. I am very inactive.

I need to do the PP. I am ready to commit and make a lifestyle change. My problem is that I seem to have some type of bad reaction when I try to eat healthy. I've tried many times before. For example, I usually eat a pastry, chocolate milk and a tea for breakfast (:eek: ). When I eat that, I feel satisfied and full and I don't think about food again until nearing lunch time. If I eat a protein meal for breakfast (or any other time), I don't feel hungry, but a couple of hours later I feel like I am hypoglycemic. Shaky and anxious. It happened this morning again. I had a large ham and brie omlette with a glass of water. By 11:00 I started feeling hypoglycemic, so I made a protein shake. Then I still felt off. Any idea what could be happening??

[Mitra]

Welcome, Stacey :).

It can take your body a bit of time to get used to the lower carb levels. At least in the early days, it might be a good idea for you to make sure that you actually use the carb allowance for each meal and snack - about 10g carb per meal, 5g per snack. You can get that by including some fruit or veggies, or by having a cracker, or low carb bread with your omelette, or having milky coffe - whatever suits you.

I find that I generally do better if I have at least some carbs, though others are fine without once they get past the first week or two that it takes to adjust.

[Missy]

Hi Staceyo! Welcome to our group! I don't have any specific advise for you...other then what Mitra wrote...which SHE'S always right on with advise...I'm just basically another fellow BLOB! :D lol

This group is GREAT in giving you suggestions or specific advise to ANY question you might have...so don't be shy, ask. I know when I was brand new to this that advise was invaluable!

I just wanted to welcome you! :D

[maxlharris]

Hi everyone, I'm Stacey. I am in my 30s and thanks to eating SAD, I've gotten myself into quite a fix. I am 225 lbs (5'7") with a 49" waist (yes, you read that right). :eek: :eek: :eek: I carry my weight in my belly...I'm quite an apple. :peeved: :peeved:

Hey Yo, Stacey,

Welcome to the group. We are in a similar predicament. I am in my 30's, 225 and an apple (I was 265, and 46 inch waist at 6'2). Predicament a little different now, but I know where you're starting from, mostly.


I am addicted to sugar. I feel old and exhausted, and I'm always out of breath. I've been on an antidepressant for years now and I think it helped contribute to my weight gain (100 lbs in 8 years). I snore. I'm always tired and lethargic. I get winded just doing regular housework. And lately, I can't comfortably fit in the bathtub!!! :mad: What a mess. Of course I'm married to someone who is super fit and healthy, so I feel like a gigantic blob. I am very inactive.

It's sad about SAD. What anti-depressant? Some are associated with weight gain, some don't have this problem. While I would never suggest anyone switch their anti-depressant for weight loss effects, if the weight is a bigger problem than the depression, you might want to look into it. WebMD has pretty comprehensive descriptions of observed side effects on pretty much everything prescribed nowadays. So, if you don't want to share, you can do your own research there and maybe work with your doctor to find a better med. Again, from personal experience, for me, the depression has always been a bigger issue than the weight, although I'm finding, with less weight, I don't have as much of the depression problem.


I need to do the PP. I am ready to commit and make a lifestyle change. My problem is that I seem to have some type of bad reaction when I try to eat healthy. I've tried many times before. For example, I usually eat a pastry, chocolate milk and a tea for breakfast (:eek: ). When I eat that, I feel satisfied and full and I don't think about food again until nearing lunch time. If I eat a protein meal for breakfast (or any other time), I don't feel hungry, but a couple of hours later I feel like I am hypoglycemic. Shaky and anxious. It happened this morning again. I had a large ham and brie omlette with a glass of water. By 11:00 I started feeling hypoglycemic, so I made a protein shake. Then I still felt off. Any idea what could be happening??

A few things:
1- I am happy to hear that you are ready to commit to a real lifestyle change. PP is a plan for life, and that includes a permanent change in how you look at food and activity. No "diet" works in the long term because once you go back to SAD (standard american diet / sedentary american days), you go back to where you were before. Or worse.

2- It takes a few days to adjust to La Vida Low Carb. You can expect to have cravings, feel tired, be hungry, and even have flu like symptoms. After a few days, when you are fully switched off the cheap fuel of carbs and running on fat for energy, you should have the hunger reducing properties and the general sense of well being that are commonly associated with LC. In old school Atkins, you could pretty much eat till full during this period.

3- You might try breaking meals up into smaller, more frequent meals, like maybe 5-6 a day. Supposed to be better for your metabolism, and might help deal with hypoglycemic type symptoms to boot.

Again, welcome to the board.

[laughingW]

It sounds to me like your body is completely used to running on sugar in the morning. So when you have a breakfast with no sugar in it at all, what a huge change and it comes crashing to a halt.

Personally, I had a big carb habit and big apple shape too, and I hated that morning crash with a passion. Trying eating every two hours did not help. There was still not enough carb. I was severely "out" of the enzymes and things to run on anything but carbs.

I "eased into" PP finally, starting with level 2 of 40-55 ECC for a couple of weeks, then going all the way down to level 1.

That way, I could have 15-20 ECC of carb with each meal and it felt WONDERFUL compared to both the high-carb breakfast or the crashy nauseous one.

By the time I was down to level 1 ECCs I could hardly remember how awful it was in the beginning and my body was adapting nicely.

[Shadow]

Stacey - Welcome! I also "eased" into the program over the period of a a couple weeks. Once I was at level 1, I found that eating smaller meals with mid-meal snacks worked perfectly to keep the hypoglycemic symptoms at bay :).

[mepc06]

Stacy...welcome and ditto what everyone else said before me.
I too carry my weight in the gut. My "blob" was a lot larger than yours though when I started. Make little changes as first and keep changing until you get comfortable with what you're doing. Sometimes the biggest mistake is going cold turkey.....sometimes however, it's the best thing also....Only you can decide which direction you should take. Some people find it easier to ease into low carb. I don't do a lot of the prepared low carb stuff, I typically just eat normal, healthy, whole foods. It'll take some trial an error to find out what kind of foods will work best for you and fit into your lifestyle.
The key is to not give up, just cuz you feel blah.....It'll be well worth the any effort you make to get where you're going.

Michelle

[staceyo]

Thanks for the welcome, you guys!! Max, I've been on several different SSRIs, currently on Prozac. I'm in the situation where the depression is a bigger deal than the weight, so I don't want to switch. I've never found one yet that let me lose weight. I always had a problem with depression, even when I was skinny. But maybe it was a carb sensitivity. Who knows.

Laughing, I agree---I am totally running on sugar! :eek: My body doesn't know what to do with the good fuel! Lol. I'll take everyone's advice and ease into the program.

[maxlharris]

Thanks for the welcome, you guys!! Max, I've been on several different SSRIs, currently on Prozac. I'm in the situation where the depression is a bigger deal than the weight, so I don't want to switch. I've never found one yet that let me lose weight. I always had a problem with depression, even when I was skinny. But maybe it was a carb sensitivity. Who knows.

If I recall correctly, Prozac (have used three different periods in my life) is kind of weight neutral. You lose some while under treatment (not much) from the appetite reduction (theory) and then, when you aren't feeling depressed, you might gain a little (thought to be from normalization of existence).

I am led to understand that it can be hard to lose while on SSRIs. I am also led to understand that Wellbutrin doesn't have any impact on weight loss, and that Effexor is maybe associated with some gain.

At any rate, since the depression is the bigger issue, stick with the Prozac. Work PPLP and, while you might lose slower than others, you'll still get there. It's also possible that, with the PP style of eating (and weight loss) you might want/need to reduce your dosage or be able to eliminate the med altogether. I am depression med free and happy for the first 6 month period of my life that I can remember. This might have more to do with my thyroid med, but who can say when you jerk a lot of levers around. You might, when you next talk to your doc, get your thyroid function checked out, fwiw.

Any rate, welcome to the board and the PP life.

How's the AM hunger?

[laughingW]

Work PPLP and, while you might lose slower than others, you'll still get there. It's also possible that, with the PP style of eating (and weight loss) you might want/need to reduce your dosage or be able to eliminate the med altogether. I am depression med free and happy for the first 6 month period of my life that I can remember.
I totally agree with this one. Work with PPLP and good fats and what not, who knows how great you will feel.

Me, too. Depression free, I mean. I used DesMaisons' "Potatoes not Prozac" to raise serotonin naturally. (SSRI's just recycle the low serotonin you already have. They don't make more)

That was before PPLP but I think the principle is the same. Quit the bad stuff, put in the good stuff, and wahla.