Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with weightloss and weightgain

Just tell me what to eat so I don't have to think about it.

Felicity Rilke — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 13:03:28 -0800

What's the best/easiest way to increase my protein intake when eating is difficult for various complicated reasons? I am starting chemotherapy in two weeks for my second ovarian cancer recurrence in less than two years. To manage the associated anxiety, I am taking Wellbutrin, Celexa and Oxazepam daily. The combo (particularly the Celexa) has killed my appetite and made me pretty food-averse. Switching to something else is not an option. I've lost about 14 pounds in the four weeks since I started Celexa but I need to slow down/halt the weight loss before I start chemo. I also need to increase my protein intake to 90-110g a day (ideally the higher end of that) while undergoing chemo.

That seems like an unobtainable goal right now and it's just going to get harder once I start treatment. Meat and eggs are mostly intolerable. I can't eat a lot of soy. I can't have whey or casein protein powder. I can only eat a small amount of legumes a day (1/2 a cup, maybe a full cup depending on the preparation).

Adding protein seems pretty daunting since I don't want or can't have most high protein things that I can think of.

Typical food for a day is a piece of toast with goat cheese and tomato, an apple, and a bowl of something for dinner (last couple of days it's been about a cup and a half of whole grain pasta with a kale+walnut pesto and roasted vegetables). I'm eating the same thing every day with occasional variation in dinner.

What are the most protein-dense foods I can add? Simpler is better. I'm interested in snacks/small things. I don't mind having to prepare something, as long as it is something I can prepare and snack on for days, so recipes are welcome. I'm not worried about gaining weight at this point, just stopping the weight loss.

Unhungry Bear

galadriel — Fri, 02 Sep 2011 08:24:50 -0800

Old dog losing weight, can't get her to eat more volume; what can I safely add to her food to help her gain weight back? Saedy Bear is losing weight again, but her tests come out as normal as can be expected. Among her various other issues, she has a jaw condition that means she doesn't like to open her mouth or chew. I give her as much canned food as I can get her to eat, but she gets tired of eating after a while, and what she will eat over the course of a day is clearly not enough now.

She's got some food allergies (primarily beef); this is about the only canned food I can get on a regular basis that won't make her sick and lose even more weight. I checked, and the senior and puppy varieties have fewer calories than the adult, dratitall, so I can't just switch to a higher-cal version of the same thing.

Is there a good oil, perhaps, or powder maybe, that I can add to her food to help her gain weight back? What's good for old dogs? If it's too hard to eat she will just walk away, so it can't make the food too soupy or too chewy or sticky. I tried giving her some peanut butter yesterday--she used to like it--but it's too much trouble now.

She's in reasonably good shape all things considered, has even been playing more since we adopted another dog a couple of weeks ago--I think maybe the additional activity is burning too many calories.

Ask your MetaFilter if birth control pills are right for you!

DestinationUnknown — Tue, 08 Mar 2011 17:50:28 -0800

This is a long boring question about birth control pills (specifically Yaz and Levlite) and weight gain. I'll attempt to be concise, and make this make sense, though it may not work because this is a long crazy-making saga.

From roughly 25-31, I was on Levlite. (Though there were two periods during that time when I was off the Pill for something like 6 mos- 1 year, then I went back on.) It made my life easier in a million ways. Then Levlite was discontinued. Around that time I moved, and started going to a new Gyno. She gave me a Rx for Yaz. OK, fine. I took the Yaz, and had none of the obvious side-effects, so I assumed I'd easily found a replacement Pill.

Around that time I started gaining weight. I didn't connect this to the Yaz, first of all because I hadn't gained weight on Levlite (I'd lost it, in fact) and also because when I'd moved my routine had been disrupted. I figured I'd gained the first 5 lbs because I had stopped my usually thorough calorie counting, and had eaten more than usual for a few weeks. But when I went back to my normal eating habits, I didn't lose the weight like I usually did after a short period of laziness. Instead, I kept gaining. I gained ~45 lbs that year. I asked my Gyn. if it could be the Yaz. She said no, that of any Pill Yaz would be the least likely to cause weight gain, and she told me to eat fewer carbs. But, she said if I wanted, I could try Ortho Tri Cyclen Lo instead. So I did, for several months. No weight loss, and there was some minor but annoying difference with that, worse cramps or something, so I went back to the Yaz. I was freaking out this whole time, of course; I have the body type where an extra 5 lbs is obvious and not in a nice curvy way. Also I'd been fat for a few years in High School, and hated it. I'd lost almost all the weight I wanted and maintained that, about 5 lbs above my ideal, for over a decade. Occasionally I'd gain ~10 lbs, but I could always correct that. So I really hated not being able to apply my usual strategies. Stupidly in retrospect, I stayed on Yaz, and stayed fat, for about another 8 months.

Finally I decided to go off the Yaz as an experiment. It took a year, but I lost about half the extra weight without changing anything else. (I was careful about what I was eating, but no more than usual, like I said, I always am.) The last 20-ish lbs have been much harder to lose; I'm still working on that.

Now to the question(s), I promise. I would love to go back on the Pill, because it made my skin clearer, my PMS negligable, my periods lighter,and my cycle predictable. It seemed, even, though I could be wrong here, that it made it easier to maintain my weight. But I don't want to go on another new Pill and risk gaining weight again or hampering my efforts to lose the rest of the extra lbs. And now my dependable Levlite is gone. I assume if I could get some other Pill with the same active ingredients (Ethinyl Estradiol/ Levonorgestrel), that will work equally well. Question #1 - is this assumption correct?

There's a generic of Levlite that AFAIK is still produced (Aviane.) But, wouldn't you know, I'm allergic to it. The other brands with Ethinyl Estradiol/ Levonorgestrel are, according to this, as follows: Alesse®-21, Alesse®-28, Enpresse™ 28, Jolessa™, Lessina™-28, Levlen®, Levora®, Lutera™, Lybrel™, Nordette®, Portia™, Preven®, Quasense™, Seasonale®, Seasonique™, Sronyx, Tri-Levlen®, Triphasil®-21, Triphasil®-28, Trivora®. Question #2 - are any MeFites in the US currently taking any of the above pills? Or have they been discontinued too? (Or in Canada, even? If it's legal I could order from there, or get my family there to send me some, or even drive up there to a pharmacy if I had to.) You'd think it would be easy enough to ask my Dr. or a pharmacist for this info, but I spent hours trying to find out during the Years of Fatness, and got nowhere. Which is why I'm asking here. My insurance does not cover Rx's, so I don't care whether it's generic or not. I do tend to be allergic to generics, but I'd try anything that might be the same, aside from Aviane which I'm definitely allergic to, that is.) If I asked for a Rx for a certain Pill I'm sure my Dr. would give it to me - she's great, she just seems to think the only options are Yaz, Ortho Tri Cyclen, some other similar low-dose Pill whose name I've forgotten now, and the Nuva Ring which I don't want to use.

And a sort of bonus Question # 3, for anyone else who has gained weight on a Pill and then gone off that Pill - what was your weight loss like? How long did it take? I'm afraid I might be fucked up permanently somehow and will never get back to the weight I was at before, though logically I don't see how that could be. (Pre-epmtively, in case anyone thinks I'm being unrealistic, I should say I was not thin before this weight gain. Just normal, a bit pudgy in places, but I was comfortable. I feel very uncomfortable with these extra ~20 lbs, it's obviously not the right weight for me. Also pre-emptively, I know I'll have to work harder at 34 than I did in my late 20s, I'm not expecting to be able to eat a ton of food and still lose weight. I've always had the metabolism of a drowsy snail, normal thyroid test results notwithstanding, so I'm used to hard work and sacrifice and I'm totally OK with that. I just want to know about the Pill side-effect fallout.)

If anyone read all that, thanks for reading all that!

Exercise makes you fat.

timory — Thu, 17 Feb 2011 12:56:19 -0800

I started exercising and eating less, and I'm gaining weight. I highly doubt I'm building muscle. Is this going to stop eventually? For the sake of relative brevity, please trust me when I say that I'm super informed about nutrition. I minimize white flour, sugar, and processed foods, I count calories (and I know what a good calorie range is for me), and generally don't have trouble losing (small amounts of) weight.

After gaining 10 pounds last summer (toll for passing the bar exam, I guess), I really want to get rid of it. And then some, ideally. Normally I can just count calories (about 1500-1800 does the trick), but it just hasn't been working this time around. I think that part of it has to do with how much I was walking while I was in law school, and how little I'm doing that now that I take public transport more.

Buuuut, I finally found an exercise I can't get enough of - Just Dance for the Wii. Don't make fun of me too much, it's super fun. Anyway. I've been busting ass with this thing for two weeks without increasing my food intake (if anything I'm eating less and making sure to get lots of protein and fiber), and I feel awesome. More energy, body hurts in a good way, feeling happier, all that stuff.... except I've gained about 5 more pounds.

Only 2 weeks + zero weight lifting (only dancing around like an idiot!) makes it seem super unlikely that I've gained 5 pounds of muscle. I started measuring my waist and hips, and I am no bigger in that sense, but that's not saying too much. A dress size for me is upwards of 20 pounds, so it takes a whole lot for me to look bigger.

If this is useful at all, I'm female, 5'7 and about 205 pounds. I know that makes me morbidly obese on the BMI scale, but I'm odd... I look about 160 and wear a size 14, and my body fat is just under 30%... not good but nothing scary.

What the heck?! I'm going to keep at it for all the other benefits, but why on earth am I gaining weight if I have a calorie deficit? I'm playing this game with all my might about an hour a day, which at my weight ends up being about 300-400 calories at a clip, estimating conservatively. On top of about a mile of walking per day and a restricted calorie diet, I really should be losing weight. In fact, I WAS losing weight (albeit very slowly) before I started exercising! I'm not eating more, so I thought that the pounds would fall off.

Time to toss the scale?

Can anxiety cause weight loss despite adequate nutrition?

DeltaForce — Sun, 09 Jan 2011 12:02:27 -0800

Can anxiety cause weight loss despite adequate nutrition? Two years ago, I changed my diet, and began eating very healthily. Lots of fresh vegetables, salmon, etc. Definitely lower on the carbs. I lost about 7 pounds (went down to 110, I had always been about 115-117). I then added back whole grains, more starchy veggies, and went on a "diet" (not for weight loss) that had a big emphasis on balancing hormones, so I would always combine fats, protein and carbs. I was eating three solid meals a day with several snacks, and my weight went back up to about where it had always been. But I felt great...until I began experiencing severe anxiety. I had an episode that left me unable to eat or do anything for almost an entire week and I dropped down to 110 pounds in a few days.

Since then, I have tried to no avail to gain weight. This past summer I went down to 100 pounds despite eating a lot of healthy food. I went to the doctor and had some tests done. The results said that my thyroid and everything else is okay. I have no intestinal distress so malnutrition as of the result of an allergy such as celiac disease does not seem likely.

Like I said, I definitely eat enough and people always ask me how I stay so thin. I am 20 years old and have never had this problem before. The only thing is that I am still very anxious on a daily basis.

My question is, is it possible that my anxiety is using up all of the calories I consume? How can I fix this? Doctors have been unhelpful. I am tired of feeling like a breeze could blow me away and of looking so gaunt. Some relevant info is that I am 20, female, and I have very little muscle. Will building muscle round out my figure, and perhaps allow more fat to be gained as well?

Thank you.

Leptin doctor?

zeek321 — Tue, 12 Oct 2010 19:55:20 -0800

Can someone recommend a "leptin aware" doctor, nutritionist, or dietitian in Philadelphia? All the basic blood tests show me to be in perfect health, but I'm way too hungry between meals, have no energy, keep getting sick, and, if I wait too long between meals, I lose both my appetite and too much weight, too fast. And I start having panic attacks. If not a specific person, what kind of doctor (e.g. an endocrinologist???) should I make an appointment with?

Not a Loser

Scattercat — Sat, 16 May 2009 04:13:46 -0800

GlandFilter: My SO has a problem. She has numerous symptoms of thyroid imbalance, but she shows up on tests as normal. Now she's trying to lose weight. Basically, she's been exercising regularly and trying the low-carb diet. Absolutely no refined sugars, some carbs (i.e. fruit, mostly) along with lots of fiber and water. Eating several meals spaced out through the day. She's been keeping a food diary; 1200 calories per day. After four weeks, she has lost... nothing. She's currently two pounds under her starting weight; last week she actually went above it slightly.

In addition to the apparently stubborn excess weight (which appeared inexplicably several years ago, without any change in eating/activity habits, and has lingered since), she also has a family history of thyroid issues (mother and grandmother), a personal history of depression and anxiety (which didn't respond well to drug treatment), disrupted sleeping patterns, is always cold (to the point where she's running a space heater when I'm actively sweating and turning on a fan), and has unexplained fatty deposits in odd places like the back of her neck. However, blood tests for hypothyroidism came back "low normal." So my question here is twofold:

1) Does anyone know of a good way to lose weight under these conditions? Anything we're not already trying, that is?

2) Is there any other medical diagnosis that would explain sudden weight gain of this kind? Alternately, is there any way to get treatment for hypothyroidism if you're a textbook case but your scores aren't in the official "abnormal" range?

I can't go to the gym and am gaining back the weight I lost - HELP!

lxs — Sun, 03 Aug 2008 19:39:01 -0800

I can't go to the gym and am gaining back the weight I lost - HELP! About three years ago, I lost around 30 pounds through exercise. Since then, I've combined cardio and weight training, usually working out five times per week. I usually did pretty intense cardio (about 45 mins of HIIT on a treadmill).

I moved out of my apartment and am housesitting for a friend until I move to a different city. Because of moving costs, I had to let go of my gym membership and I feel like my the weight I lost is quickly coming back. In addition, since I've stopped exercising daily, I CANNOT STOP EATING. I feel like I constantly have to be shoving something into my mouth. It's a compulsion worse even than smoking (which I quit about three years ago) was for me. Food is on my mind CONSTANTLY. I feel disgusting and out of control, and it's really affecting my mood, etc.

My question is how I can survive these two weeks until I can get moved and signed up to a new gym. I have a really crappy elliptical machine at my disposal, but it sucks and is located in a really hot basement. I'm fine with walking as exercise, but since I'm used to doing lots of intense cardio, I feel like walking doesn't accomplish enough. I haven't run outside in years because it always hurt my shins and knees badly. I have two 10 pound weights as well. Any ideas for how I can combine these ingredients (or lack therefore of) into a temporary exercise solution?

Thanks in advance for any suggestions.

Will going off of Paxil help me lose the weight I gained while on Paxil?

dumbledore69 — Sat, 13 Oct 2007 18:50:44 -0800

I gained a lot of weight after going on birth control pills & antidepressants. Will going off these make it easier to lose this weight? In college, the year I went on birth control pills was the year I gained 50 lbs. That was several years ago. Two years ago, I went on antidepressants. First I was on Effexor, then Paxil. Right now I am on both Paxil & Wellbutrin. The first year I was on antidepressants, I gained 70 lbs. In a single year. The second year, I worked my ass off and lost about 15 lbs, which I keep yo-yoing with, despite my best efforts to keep it off and keep losing. Note that I have never had trouble losing weight before OR keeping it off with minimal effort. My efforts have been far more than minimal with crappy results.

Three months ago, I went off of birth control pills & am now using non-hormonal birth control methods. So far, I am still struggling.

My question is - assuming that the weight gain was a side effect of the antidepressants, will going off the antidepressants make it easier to lose the weight I've put on?

I'm really interested in personal anecdotes.

I know you are not my doctor/pharmacist/etc & that my mileage will vary.

How to regain weight lost through misery?

Ted Maul — Sun, 30 Sep 2007 05:31:36 -0800

Help a broken-hearted bloke gain back some of the weight I've lost due to breakup-related depression. You might have been there before - I actually haven't. She was my first love and the end has hit me really, really hard. I've been trying to make a real effort to eat and sleep, but having returned to university after a difficult summer, all my friends have noticed that I'm even skinnier than before and people are worried about me. I don't want to ask for breakup advice, I've read all the threads. But I think I'd feel a lot better if I could look in the mirror and not see such an emaciated and pitiful figure.

Eating more's a no brainer, but I seem to get full so quickly now that I can't finish most meals when I sit down to eat. Is there a proven way of "training" my stomach to fit more again? What foods and drinks should I be going for? Perhaps a supplement?

I really think that "regaining my figure" is an important step in moving on. Not that I feel ready for that, but that's no reason not to take care of myself.

Thanks in advance for any help.

Please help me determine the cause of my recent weight gain.

sequential — Mon, 20 Aug 2007 14:44:40 -0800

Please help me determine the cause of my recent weight gain. The Problem

A bit of history is probably important to answer the question. Since March, I have lost 59 lbs by calorie restriction, a healthy diet, and cardiovascular exercise. I have not trained with weights other than carrying 2 lb hand weights and a 8 lb to 20 lb weight vest while walking. Furthermore, I have not used any weights during the time period in question. Last Sunday, I weighed in at 176.5 lbs, my lowest weight since high school. On Thursday, I weighed in at 182 lbs. Last night, I weighed in at 189 lbs. At each of these weigh ins, my percentage body fat was approximately 14% (+/- .5%).

My weight can easily swing five pounds in a 24 hour period of time depending on calories consumed, hydration levels, regularity of bowel movements, and the timing of my weigh ins. That said, these factors remained relatively constant throughout the week and do not, alone, account for the twelve pound swing in my weight.

Caloric Intake and Expenditure

My caloric intake for the week was approximately 15k calories. My caloric expenditure for the week, on top of my RMR, was 9k calories, as determined by a Polar F11 HRM worn during all exercise. This would, presumably, lead to weight loss. However, 2k of the additional caloric expenditure came on Thursday and another 3k of the additional caloric expenditure came on Saturday. Both days resulted in significant calorie deficits.

Theory, Being What It Is

It is my understanding that when the body is stressed through exercise and calorie deprivation at these levels that the body stores extra energy in some form, which can account for temporary weight gain when one might expect weight loss. This has happened several times to me and the weight melts off after a few days without any substantial change in my diet or exercise. However, such a change in my weight has never been so large before. Is this a plausible answer to my question? What is this mechanism called? Are there other factors I am not considering?

Calorie intake and gaining modest amounts of muscle

peep — Wed, 20 Jun 2007 14:22:12 -0800

Calorie intake and gaining modest amounts of muscle (i.e. not hardcore body-building). Plus, what is happening when your muscles are getting stronger and harder, but you've been running on a calorie deficit and losing weight? I know that the question of "can I gain muscle while I lose fat?" is plastered all over the internet, and the answer from anyone remotely reputable is "no" followed by a bunch of stuff that seems to muddle the answer, summed up with, "not really."

So I think I understand the basics: to lose fat you consume fewer calories than you expend. To gain muscle, you must do weight-bearing exercise and eat more calories than you burn. But is that last part correct? Must you eat more than you burn, or do you try to break even with calories in/calories out? This would be for an average (in height, weight, and fitness level) woman who is trying to gain 5 or 10 pounds of muscle.

Also, I know that there is no such thing as "toning" or "firming" a muscle. You can build muscle or lose muscle. So what is happening when your muscles are getting stronger and harder, but you've been running on a calorie deficit and losing weight?

Note I am not talking about just the definition of the muscle, which is probably just from fat loss allowing the muscle to show, but actual physical hardness of the muscle, plus the ability to lift more or heavier weight.

How do I gain weight(fat) while remaining healthy?

sdis — Sat, 10 Sep 2005 10:31:29 -0800

How do I gain weight(fat) while remaining healthy? I went to a program this summer where I was eating very regularly, very much, and walking a mile or two a day (significantly more than my normal amount of activity).

I lost 10 pounds, and I was skinny before the summer began (I had a stomach flu and lost 5 pounds there and didn't get it back before the summer began). So now I'm too damned skinny[i.e., I'm colder than I was, and I get lightheaded when I skip a meal unlike before, and I'd rather look a little more flabby and a little less starving kid], and I got tested for everything from west nile virus to lyme disease to tapeworms, and got nothing that the doctor can find. She's recommended I wait a month or two and see if I return to my normal weight.

So I'm trying to gain my weight back for health reasons, and after seeing Supersize Me, I'm guessing that lots of crap food could up my weight but not do a great job with bettering my health. How do I give myself a little 10 lb cushion o' flab to keep me warm in the winter without hurting my health?

(Muscle is good too, but I guess I'm mostly talking about fat here)

How much weight will I gain?

bunglin jones — Wed, 03 Aug 2005 22:38:09 -0800

Can your weight increase by a greater amount than the weight of the food you eat? It seems to me that if I eat 500g of cake, then it couldn't possibly increase my body weight by more than 500g. Does this make sense? All my searching regarding this stuff deals in calories rather than mass/weight.