purplelink

Hello everyone, I have decided, after the hardest year of my life, that VSG might be the solution. I know my story sounds impossible and hard to believe, but allow me to explain what happened. In September of 2014, I began taking a medication called Aldactone to help with acne. I took a really strong dose for about 8 months. Around 4 months in, I started noticing that my clothes felt tighter, until one day my jeans didn't fit anymore. I started working out longer and harder, replacing my regular cardio days for more Insanity, HIIT and strength, until I was working out 6x per day instead of 4-5x, and at higher intensity than ever before. I have been eating clean and low carb for years, so the only thing I did in respect to that was to make sure I wasn't getting even any 'bites' here and there of someone else's cookie or chocolate -- ever. It didn't occur to me that the medication could be causing this. I kept working out harder, and restricting my diet more and more, while I kept gaining incontrolably. It didn't make sense -- I had maintained my weight of 130 for years, felt great, and had a normal relationship with food. I knew that as long as I put my effort in every day and ate sensibly, everything was fine. Fast forward to May 2015, nothing fits anymore, I look in the mirror and my face looks completely different -- I am NOT this person. I had gained 25 lbs while exercising like a mad woman and eating as healthy and restricted as I ever had. That's when it clicked: it had to be something more than what I was eating / how much I was exercising. I began to suspect about the medication. Sure enough, a quick google search turned up a thread with more than 200 posts with stories exactly like mine. I was devastated. Girls who were doing everything right, who started working out more, eating even more carefully, only to find that nothing they did stopped the weight gain. It's been more than a year since I stopped taking Aldactone, and I haven't gained any more weight, but I also haven't been able to lose a single pound. I do Insanity 3x per week, Body Pump 2x per week, and Power Yoga 1x per week. I bike everywhere I need to go. I walk a lot. I eat a high Protein / low carb diet. I never splurge. I'm even afraid of dark chocolate at this point. And yet, most of the time I'm in a room I'm the fattest girl around. If only people knew how much effort I put into my workouts and my diet EVERY. SINGLE. DAY. I've decided to do the VSG, even though technically I'm a low BMI (currently 155lbs at 5'2). I know some may disagree, but nothing else I've done in the past year has worked. I'm out of options and I'm depressed. My major concern is regarding mental energy after surgery being on such a low amount of calories. Currently I'm taking some appetite suppressants, and although they do seem to reduce my hunger, I notice that I find it hard to think and concentrate (even though I'm not starving)... I feel lightheaded and with very little energy to think. How are you able to think hard and work when you're eating so little? I'm a researcher, so I constantly have to be reading papers, looking up protocols, doing mental math, and just thinking hard most of the time. It scares me that I'll be useless after surgery from eating so little. My second question is related: are you always cold / are your hands always cold after surgery? I notice also on the appetite suppressants that even though I'm not as hungry, so I can get away with eating less, my hands get really cold. I haven't lost nay weight on the appetite suppressants, either, in case you were wondering. Thanks in advance for your responses.

Thanks everyone for your responses. I was actually diagnosed hypothyroid since 2010, so I've been on a high dose of NDT (natural dessicated thyroid, 3 grains per day) since then, all throughout the time I was easily maintaining my goal weight, and also during the Aldactone medication period. At such a high dose, my thyroid itself is entirely suppressed, so it's only the thyroid med providing all my T4 and T3. This dose allowed me to maintain (and even lose a few more pounds) before starting the Aldactone, so I really cannot bring myself to believe that I can't lose weight because I'm not on enough thyroid medication. Last month I was checked for thyroid levels and both T4 and T3 were high, so my doctor indicated to lower the dose. I haven't, of course. My TSH was really low but that's normal when you're on NDT. Of course she doesn't know that, so she freaked out. I haven't been tested for cortisol. As for not eating enough, wouldn't this be an equivalent of the 'starvation mode' that most people here claim to be a myth? I just think that if I'm working out a lot and eating less than I expend everyday, then that should result in fat loss, right? I think of people here who write about stalling a few weeks after surgery (at 800-1000 cals), asking if it might be due to not eating enough, and getting many replies telling them that starvation mode does not exist, calories in, calories out, etc. Isn't this kind of the same here? I live in San Francisco, but I'm from Mexico so I am thinking of choosing a surgeon either in Tijuana or Puerto Vallarta and paying for it myself. It sounds from your responses that you donget cold and have low mental energy in response to the dramatic caloric restriction, which scares me Thank you for your responses again!