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Possible Endocrine-Related Metabolic Dysfunction

was anorexic, about 2-3 years ago. I'm 5'3", and at my lowest I got down to about 95 lbs. I got into treatment, and starting eating to gain back the weight, but I couldn't make the gaining stop. Eventually, it got to the point where I was eating 1800 calories a day, swimming 3 hours a day (with a team) and still gaining ~2 pounds a week. I couldn't understand it. We went to every doctor we could think of, testing thyroid levels, taking blood tests, but everyone just insisted that everything was normal, that I just had to wait until my metabolism moderated itself.

It's not moderating itself, and it's been 2 years. I gained up to a high of 170 lbs, at which point I started taking an appetite suppressant and using a very low carb diet, 1000 calories a day, and was able to lose ~30 pounds. Then, I tried to readopt a more normal diet...and gained back 10 pounds and counting. Now I'm back to 150, and eating 1000 calories, approx 75 grams carbohydrates per day, and I continue to steadily gain a pound a week; relatively sure it's not muscle.

Additionally, I've sometimes wondered about potential blood sugar abnormalities. Sometimes, if I eat a "normal" amount of sugar (for instance, if I eat a cookie, and am not able to immediately combine it with protein) I get piercing headache that lasts for hours. Do you think blood sugar could cause the inexplicable confusion mentioned below?


I'm honestly getting close to depression right now. I have breakdowns on a weekly basis, it seems, because everyone's giving me advice like "Oh, just eat a normal diet of 1800 calories and lots of fruits and veggies and everything will even itself out" and "Exercise and weight lift!". Check, check, check, check. This isn't normal, please trust me; it's not that I don't know how to eat or that I don't exercise. According to predictions, my metabolism is about half of what it should be, and I have no idea how to get it back to normal. I feel so alone, and sometimes just get so angry at my body that I just want to hurt myself, because I feel like I'm never going to live a normal life where thinking about what I can and can't eat consumes every second of my day.

Please. If anyone has any ideas, I need them. As a result of this incomprehensible disorder, I have developed severe depressive and obsessive behaviors in relation to food, because I have to maintain constant control over what I eat in order to not balloon out of control (Example? I ate 1500 calories for ONE DAY instead of my normal 1000, still exercising 45-60 minutes daily, and I discovered that I had gained 2 pounds in the week that took place during my next weigh-in). I have lost my ability to feel emotions other than self-disgust and frustration, because whenever I try to relate to other people, I run up against my brick wall of envy, that they don't have this secret demon they have to battle every single day. I've never been in a relationship as a result, and I'm terrified that I'll never be comfortable enough with the mystery that I have become for that to be a possibility. So I appeal to anyone who might have any inkling, or know where I could go as I try afresh to find some solution to this...right now, all I can see looking into the future is cycle after cycle of self-hatred and frustration, with myself never finding happiness or contentment, and that future terrifies me...you have no idea how much of a godsend it would be to know once and for all why I have the metabolism (literally) of someone in a permanently catatonic state.

Thank you for your considering my dilemma
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Avatar universal
The same exact thing happened to me only the downward spiral was a little worse. When you switch back to your old ways your body retaliates. After losing 65lbs as a kid, I went to the extreme getting the last 10 lbs in high school. In college I started eating three regular meals a day thinking that it would be fine having joined the college swim team...Not. I steadily gained weight! Then all of a sudden I experienced gastric distress that lasted months. Doctors dismissed everything to stress. I began to get sick and the fatigue/ confusion that I had always had got worse along with odd skin rashes and skin color.
Basically you have to find the right doctor and do your own research. I went through dozens of doctors until someone finally agreed that my thyroid was waaay off. It still isnt an easy fix. You have hypothyroidism that was probably set off by changing your diet so many times. The problem is that it effects all of your organs and hormones. There is also an increased chance of autoimmune disease. Because of this imbalance I have terrible allergies, PCOS, and developed an allergy to gluten (not quite celiacs).
What you should do: Increase your thyroid function: take supplements like kelp, l- tyrosine and general thyroid function supplements
Start taking birthcontrol to keep your hormones in check, and go two weeks without gluten (not all carbs) to see how it effects you.
Helpful - 0
231441 tn?1333892766
Hi,

you are in a very difficult situation.  I really feel for you.

Being anorexic would have put your body into starvation mode and now that you are eating, it is still acting as if it is starvation.

Some ideas:-

1.  What were your actual thyroid hormone levels?  TSH, FT3, Ft4?  I am asking, becuase I would like to know that your levels are truly normal.
2. Have you been evaluated for PCOS.  Some women with this (polycystic ovarian syndrome) can only lose weight / maintain weight on very strict diets.  If you have this, you may benefit from the drug metformin, which is an insulin sensitiser.
3. Please consider a low carb diet.  This diet would severely limit fruits and starchy veges, but will have plenty of salads, low carb veges.....    Definitely you should take a good multivitamin and be consious of nutrition.
4. Consider being tested for celiac.  Some people who are gluten intolerant may also find it very hard to maintain their weight if they're eating gluten (wheat, barley, oats, rye).

Hope these ideas could help.
Helpful - 0
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