Who's lost a lot of weight: questions

**jubei33** · Posted On: 10/19/2007 11:18pm

OK, so I've lost a lot of weight since I got a good job. Steady employment has yielded free time--hobby time if you will. When I started out of college I didn't have much time for exercise, just study and working, the exercise I got was weak, like lifting weights three or four times a month, playing frisbee, judo etc. My diet was pretty shitty too. So, like most red blooded Americans, I bought the larger size jeans at pennies. To date I'm a stocky 77 kg (thats 169 lbs for the metric illiterate). I started at 210 lbs a year and 4 months ago. This is a lot of weight to lose in a year and I think I might be feeling it, so I have some questions, maybe from someone who's been there?

I get sick alot more than I did before. I kind of attributed it to a combination of lack of sleep, training stress and the shock itself of loosing the weight, but I'm not sure. Has anyone else had the same problem? What did you do to correct it? How long did it take you to equilibrate?

NOTE: before you post go to the doc---SHHHHH! got it covered.

**feedback** · Posted On: 10/20/2007 2:02am

What are you eating? Take a multivitamin and some good Omega-3's daily. Make sure you're drinking at least 8 cups of water a day and getting at least 8 hours of sleep.

**jubei33** · Posted On: 10/20/2007 3:15am

well, mostly veggies, broccoli, spinach, rice, potatoes some beans too. chicken for meat, occasionally a hamburger steak. I'm in japan right now so its mostly local stuff lots of rice with everything.

Sleep is an issue for me, I have a new born so its a little tough to get a full 8 hours.

As for omega 3s, I eat fish a lot here. Mackerel and salmon are the most frequent. Is the fat content per serving sufficient do you think? Or do you absolutely recommend the suppliment?

**feedback** · Posted On: 10/20/2007 10:32am

It might be sufficient as long as the fish is absolutely fresh and healthy. The heavy metals and toxins in most commercial fish negate the positive effects of the Omega 3's and DHA's.

**gangrelchilde** · Posted On: 10/20/2007 2:26pm

Am I reading this correctly when I see that you're feeling this way after 16 months? That concerns me a bit. I dropped from 170 and change to 128 (now I'm back up to 132) in about 6 months and didn't feel bad at all. It does concern me that you're still feeling run down. My personal opinion would be to get the multivitamin. You may need extra nutrients, especially now that you're active. I made sure that when I began dieting, especially since I am a vegetarian, I got a multivitamin stat.

**jubei33** · Posted On: 10/20/2007 5:47pm

well its not so much a general malaise, but more that I get sick like once every two months. I used to catch a cold once a year before.

**HappyOldGuy** · Posted On: 10/20/2007 6:50pm

Running at a calorie deficit, you will get sick more. I'm at about the same situation (205 to 170 in 8 months) and I have gotten the flu 4 times in that period, which is about 4 times more than I would have gotten sick before. I take a multivitamin, and I've recently added glutamine and vitamin c post workout, so we'll see how that works out. Of course at this point I'm about where I want to be, so hopefully it won't matter as much.

Now I just need to move some of it around.

**hpr** · Posted On: 10/20/2007 7:06pm

I went from 220 to 180 in six months with a more sane version of Atkins' (in essence changed my carb sources to vegetables, ate the same amount of meat etc as before) this year. I've had no flus, no nothing. Of course I felt tired and drained along the way (and ketosis adds it's own flavor too in the beginning), but no sickness at all.

Stress and too little sleep for too long are my bet.