Ummm.. Wow

[HappyFun Ball]

I went for my 3 months check up with my Dr, Dr. P.. He's a multitasker, he has an urgent care, med spa, weight loss clinic and a general practice.. I've been going to him for 5 years, he's a good guy, he has a thick Indian accent so it can be hard to understand him. Now I'm chunky, I'm 5'11" and weigh 260 (Dr.P nurses said that he will very rarely suggests his weigh loss program, he doesn't want people to think he's trying to make them to things they don't need).

We came into my room and told me my cholesterol was 575.. Now me not knowing much about cholesterol I'm indifferent, until I looked up the numbers, 190 is very high and mine is 575? He mentioned his weigh loss clinic and told me that I really needed to lose weight, he didn't care if I went through him or where but my cholesterol was through the roof.. Plus I have a pretty sever Potassium, Vitamin D and Iron deficiency.

[Seshat]

If you find his work good in other ways, give his clinic a try.

It may or may not work for you - different people find different health improvement techniques work for them - but you sound generally impressed with this guy.

MY major technique is not to aim specifically for weight loss. I aim for health improvement. I am just as pleased that my blood pressure has trended towards normal and my liver function has become normal, as I am that my fat percentage is trending towards healthy.

Look after your body. It's your only tool for interacting with the world.

[Sapphire Silk]

I'll second Seshat: whether you go through your doc or elsewhere, I'd start a program to work on your health.

I disagree that weight loss is not important. For you it is very important. You fall into the obese category for your height based on your BMI (I'm the same height you are). Your weight ideally should be 150-160 lbs, though that would probably be too low for either of us

Set a modest goal: 30 lbs in six months, 60 pounds in a year. That works to about 1.5lbs/week ish. Very doable.

You also need to seriously evaluate your diet. For a cholesterol level that high, you must eat a massively high fat diet. Do you mostly eat fast food? Cutting that down (and eventually out) will help enormously.

However, I WOULD have the cholesterol redone at another lab, just to verify the findings and make sure the lab didn't screw up. That IS an insanely high level.

Also, have you discussed a cholesterol lowering medication with your doc? Normally, I would encourage you to try diet first, but if your cholesterol level really is that high, you are really risking your heart health. You have a couple of options: "statins" like Lipitor, or niacin (or a niacin based drug called Niaspan). Niacin (vit B3) is thought to raise HDL and lower LDL and even repair damaged blood vessels. There have been some disappointing studies on Niaspan lately though (it should not be given in combo with a statin), and there are side effects in some people (flushing or redman syndrome). You should discuss medication with your doc if a repeat cholesterol level confirms it to be as high as the first test.

I said weight loss is important. Here's why: you need to lose weight to . . .

1) reduce stress on your heart. It takes a lot of effort to pump blood into an overweight body.
2) reduce stress on your joints. You can actually wear them out faster the more overweight you are (I can attest to that one personally).
3) you increase your risk of heart attack and stroke exponentially
4) your risk of diabetes is shooting through the roof. How was your fasting blood sugar? Diabetes often goes hand in hand with heart disease. It can lead to blindness, kidney failure, and peripheral artery disease
5) Peripheral artery disease. The smaller blood vessels in your extremeties (especially the feet and legs) get occluded with plaques from the high cholesterol and don't allow the tissues to perfuse with oxygen and nutrients. The skin color turns dark red (dusky), swells, you develop open sores that heal slowly. If you have diabetes, these sores get infected and can lead to amputation. The good news is you can reverse some of this damage if you get on it EARLY in the process (I'm there myself). Regular exercise can help build new pathways for blood to flow (collateral circulation) that can restore perfusion. But if you wait until your whole leg turns dark red, you may be too late.

So yes, please be proactive on this asap.

Your doctor's clinic might well be a good place to go. Since you are confident that he is not pushing unnecessary services on you, I think you can try his clinic with some confidence and he seems to have an interest and skill at weight loss. Your program should be overseen by a physician, and he seems to be a good one to go to.

Keep us posted!

[Seshat]

My bad.

It's not that I don't think that weight loss is important, it's that I believe that weight loss (usually) comes together with other health improvements.

Hm. Or more precisely, that if you improve your health in other ways, your weight will trend towards what's healthy for you. (ie: someone with a too-low weight won't get weight loss, he'll get weight gain.)

[HappyFun Ball]

I was prescribed Simcort (It's a Statin and Niacin.. I think) this was a couple of years ago and I had a SEVERE reaction to it. My face and hands swelled up and my skin turned this nasty brownish purplish color. He did call in a med for the cholesterol (I'm not sure what yet, I'm waiting until payday to get it.. As I said he's Indian and a little hard to understand sometimes) I am gonna go to his weight loss clinic tomorrow to make sure my insurance covers it as he it would.

My diet is pretty poor.

[Der Cute]

When my GB was misbehaving, I suspected cholesterol. I had my tests done, and the doc said, well, you're a bit high but not OMGWTF high. I can prescribe you a drug.

I told him, no, sorry, I can do this with diet. Give me six weeks.

I ate brown rice cooked with broth (low sodium) but spiced. I ate super super lean meat. I ate a lot of A LOT of veggies. Hint: get the bag that's already sliced up for stir fry (fresh). Put bunch in small bowl. Put 1 or 2 T of water in bowl, nuke for 1 min - steamed.

Gradually my body got rid of the old food I'd been eating and my stool reflected it. I lost a few pounds doing this, AND the cholesterol dropped.

So, how about you chat TOMORROW with a nutritionist - and say, Here. I'm overweight, and my doc says I have high cholesterol. What can we do that tastes decent but gets me moving in the right direction for those 2 issues?

[Seshat]

My diet is pretty poor.

Generic diet information:

About a third of your food for the day/week should be grains and grain products. This includes breads, pasta, rice, barley (eg as part of a soup or stew), most breakfast cereals.
Try to have minimally-refined grains: whole barley, whole-grain breads, brown rice or a low-GI rice (such as basmati rice).
Grains: wheat, rice, barley, millet, oats, corn/maize, sorghum, rye, triticale, quinoa, buckwheat, fonio.
Products made primarily from any of these count as your grains allotment.

About a quarter of your food for the day/week should be fruits or vegetables, with about five units of veggies for two units of fruits. (EG: have an apple and a banana as snacks during the day. Have a salad with lettuce, tomato and carrot at lunch, and beans and potato at dinner.)
Fruits and veggies are any plant material which isn't grains.

Every day you should have a serve of protein. If meat, it should be lean meat (not fatty), and you need a piece about the size of the palm of your hand. This applies to mammal meat (red meat), bird meat (poultry), fish and other seafood meats, and also other meats (some people do eat reptile meats, for example).
If not meat, you need legumes and extra grains. The quantity of each should be about as much as you can hold in one hand (before cooking).
Legumes: all types of peas and beans (including soybeans), lentils, bambara, vetch and lupin.
Nuts also contain protein, but for a complete protein (ie, all the amino acids humans need), you need either meat, or grain+legume.

Daily, try to have two serves of dairy food. Dairy food is any milk or milk product, eg cheese, butter, buttermilk, yoghurt. Cream (and butter) are the fats from dairy products,
If you are vegan, check with a nutritionist: though many soymilks and ricemilks contain the necessary nutritional ingredients we get through dairy products.

Fats and oils:
You DO need some fats and oils. There's a cluster called 'essential fatty acids' which - as their name implies - are essential to human health. Add a teaspoon of olive oil, canola oil or flaxseed oil to your salad. Eat oily fish once a week. Have a handful of pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds or walnuts for a snack. Eat leafy green vegetables.
That's all the fats and oils you need.

Sugars & other carbohydrates.
If you eat all the other stuff, you'll get plenty of sugar.

Treat foods.
Most humans have a psychological need for treat food. Allow yourself some. If you can figure out how to have your treat food as part of the stuff above (eg, a smoothie made with milk & fruit, but no added sugar), GREAT!
If you feel a need for chocolate cake, eat it slowly. Savour each mouthful. Once you realise you've had enough to sate your psychological need, wrap the rest in glad wrap and put it in the fridge.

[BeeMused]

That's what I learned at a weight loss clinic as well, Seshat. Eating that way gives you all the nutrition you need and it's surprisingly easy to follow. They taught us to make a list and plan for the day: "Damn I've already had 3 servings of grains etc for the day, now what am I going to eat at the evening..."
Now I'm used to it, so I don't do lists anymore, but when I stop losing weight, I start again.

We learned to read nutrition labels as well, hidden fat and suger and salt adds up really fast, which makes ready made food so dangerous. Cooking from scratch it's a bit harder and takes a bit more time, but it's worth it, because you have control over the food you eat.

Another important thing is serving size control! We learned to use our own hands as well, a handfull of veggies is one serving... even when you eat out you can estimate the right serving size that way. That handfull measurement works for children and adults.

Eating 3 to 5 meals per day is important too. Fasting all day and then eating everything at night makes you eat more than you should most of the time. Regular meals keep your blood sugar levels regular, low blood sugar can make you ravenous and that is a bad thing when losing weight.

I've attached the nutrition pyramid we used at the clinic.

1 treat
2 servings of fat (i.e a tea spoon of oil, a handful of nuts, etc)
3 servings of dairy, 1 serving of meat/fish
4 servings of grains/carbs
3 servings of veggies, 2 servings of fruit
6 big glasses of water (or other lowcal drink)

To lose weight leave off one serving of carbs and one serving of fat.

All this helps me to lose weight slowly but constantly.

[Seshat]

If you're still hungry after eating that list, you can always add more veggies.

Fruits, grains and tuberous roots contain sugars or substances that the body converts to sugars. Nuts and seeds contain oils. Meat and dairy contain fats.

However, if you're trying to lose adipose tissue (fat), you can safely 'fill up' on leaves, stems & flowers.

Leaves are easy to identify. Stems: rhubarb, celery, the length of an asparagus (may as well eat the tip too), and the like. Flowers: broccoli, cauliflower and the like.

Check with your doctor or nutritionist: you may be fine to also eat extra of some grains, fruits, seeds or tuberous roots.

[teh_blumchenkinder]

I'm gradually adjusting my own diet to reflect low-glycemic loads, more specifically Dr. Weil's ideas-- which can be found online! It emphasizes fruits and veggies, then whole grains/pasta al dente/beans/legumes, then healthy fats and then other protein sources like fish and seafood, eggs low-fat meats/cheeses/products... I'm leaving out some stuff, but basically, stuff that dumps glucose into your system quickly tends to stress your system out, inflaming it. Many diseases like diabetes and heart disease(s) (and oh so many more) can be blamed on inflammation. Me, I'm 'into this' because I'm hypoglycemic, ie more sensitive than your average body to swings in sugar (ie glucose). Brown rice instead of white, strawberries instead of pineapple... even then, eating some of these foods are okay, just not every day! Don't forget water. Water is very important to anyone, not just 'dieters.' There's other threads on diets, 'diets,' and such... but make sure it's something you can live with. After all, if you don't like the food you eat, you aren't going to be motivated in every possible way to eat better. There is so much yummy stuff that is actually healthy! It's amazing... like strawberries. (why yes I'm eating strawberries right now why do you ask?)
EDIT: it will take a while to get your iron levels up to par, but there's healthy stuff out there that you can get potassium from... and D3 comes in a pill form, since I hates the sun. Not the best way... but eh. I also tend towards needing more anyway.
DEFINITELY talk to a dietitian and nutritionist. Two different things/people... look it up... btw, self-education is one thing I encourage. Tons of stuff online, just make sure it's credible!

[BeeMused]

but make sure it's something you can live with. After all, if you don't like the food you eat, you aren't going to be motivated in every possible way to eat better. There is so much yummy stuff that is actually healthy!

This is so important! A lot of those fad diets are impossible to follow for a long time, you follow it for some weeks, lose weight, but after that you ditch it and start gaining weight again.
Good thing I love almost all veggies! Add a nice lowcal and lowfat dip/sauce and I'm happy. Yummy!

Bad eating habits are hard to overcome, finding healthy foods you like (and there are lots) makes it easier. This includes trying stuff you never had before, you're in for some tasty surprises! At the clinic we could vote one thing out, for me it was raw tomatos (I hates them!), anything else had to be eaten, at least one bite to try it.

[teh_blumchenkinder]

Lowcal/fat dressings are easy-- especially when you make them yourself! There's awesome recipes out there for the picking on the intertubes! I promise. Watch out for lowcal/fat stuff, frequently the companies add in sugar and other not-so-good stuff to make it taste awesome. And remember, fat is healthy, just like most foods-- just not too much or too little! Your brain is a fat-based computer! It runs on sugar! (glucose)
EDIT: I promise, after eating fruit for a while and no refined sugar/honey, once you try something like ice cream again, you'll find it too sweet!

[ralerin]

I'm following Atkins at the moment, 3rd week of Induction (technically there's 2 weeks but zi went an extra week). It works for me. I'm discovering a lot of new things, like raw peppers are not bad, aspartame makes me gain weight, I like different sorts of vegetables. Next week I will be following the ladder of Ongoing Weight Loss and adding foods back in, slowly.

Someone else said it earlier. You can either beat yourself up because the pounds are not dropping off or you can celebrate the fact you are following a way of eating that works for you. I am on the Atkins Plan because It works for me.

[teh_blumchenkinder]

Eating right alone won't fix every problem. Right now, I'm in the middle of "fix mah diet" stage... and I need to start exercising more purposefully. Right now my exercise consists of walking. Which I haven't been doing, because it's blazing hot out, and I'm still adjusting to it. (*grumbles* 95F/~35C is hot for me)
I'm young. I need to do muscle toning work, at least (I want a thinner gut )! Flexibility and strength are important throughout your life, and it's not just little old people that reap the benefits of even simple exercise during medical crises.
Exercise is recommended for those with conditions ranging from fibromyalgia (yeh, I see that other thread, and YIKES) to diabetes to IBS. And even no condition!

Thankfully ditzing around in a pool for an hour or two and some weights will do the trick for a few months a month or two...
EDIT: HFB, I want to know if that crazy-high number was an oops or real! It's scaring me...
EDIT: aspartame gives me migrianes if I drink too much... but I treat myself to a Diet Coke once in a while 'cuz I like the taste every so often.

[Der Cute]

Psst. For Iron, eat the dark green veggies AND use Slow FE, OTC meds. BUT when you ingest iron, you need Vitamin C to really make it stick to your body. AND speaking of sticky...extra extra fiber..iron can clog up the rectum.