18 months after starting keto! And I already weighted 200 at that point. So there!
John, hang tough man. This is tough news to receive, but explore options, as stusser suggested, and it’s now or never to start reigning in habits. Lots of times, incurable/irreversible conditions are in fact greatly mitigated by healthier life styles. Keep us posted, and check in here for encouragement!
So I’ve been sticking around 1800-2000 calories per day, closer to the lower #, and watching sodium intake. Which resulted in me peeing like a fiend for a few days (I’m a salt-aholic, have been for as far back as I can remember. . .I used to salt my pizza, eat the toppings/cheese, then salt the crust and eat that, so I’m damn lucky low blood pressure runs in the family).
For psychological reasons, Saturday is going to remain a cheat day, but not one where I let myself go crazy. We had pizza that night and I had four pieces, which is high in calories but I can eat an entire large pizza by myself (never let it be said I do things in half-measure). I then had 7-8 Halloween-sized Milky Ways while we watched Looper on Netflix. These splurges are massively helpful for me to maintain healthier eating habits throughout the week. I did this back in the first half of 2019 and lost right around 60 lbs, most of it in the first few months.
The good thing is during the intervening years my job had seen a massive increase in IT staffing, so what I used to do by myself is now performed by four (and we’ve cut the # of separate domains down from 14 to 7. . .I have no idea how I kept up with it all years ago, no way I could do it now). So much less work-related stress, hard to describe how much less.
If you are worried about diabetes, is 4 slices of pizza and a couple of candy bars a lot of sugar in an evening?
Your salt intake, OMG, I’m glad you’re still with us. I have sodium deficiency and I couldn’t imagine that much. Talk to your doctor and ask if salt substitutes are a good option for you such as potassium chloride (nu-salt), and if you can throw caution to the wind when you use it for that explosive salty taste you may miss :)
John, I’m saddened to hear about your issue. Stay tough and do what you can for it. My mother had CHF and addressed it with a lot of things and extended the dire prognosis greatly, like as in decades. She had horrible habits, including smoking, but was able to address a lot of them with time.
I would seek a second opinion like the others here are stating. Preferably, seek a heart expert. They will probably have you do a full workup again, but think of it as getting more information as to how to address your problem and extend the time you have here. Stay positive. A lot of progress has been made in heart health over the last few years.
Honestly I’m really surprised his doctor didn’t even mention any sort of surgical solution, given the severity of the situation and his weight. Unless he’s like 8 feet tall, that’s one high BMI.
Stusser, did you have that surgery by chance? You’ve posted about it multiple times here as “the solution” because other things “don’t work”. If you have some personal experience that would be interesting to hear about if you’re willing to share.
No I haven’t, but I’m overweight, far less than JR, and doctors have suggested it. Same with the semaglutide, which I may actually try.
Saying most people fail to lose weight and keep it off longterm via diet and exercise is hardly a contentious statement. It’s just, well, true. Of course you try that first, but JR is no spring chicken and I assume he’s given it a shot, probably dozens of times over the years. It’s fucking hard.
Quitting smoking is notoriously difficult and I had no problem doing that. I just stopped smoking and endured it. Dieting is like continuing to smoke, but cutting your consumption way down while the pack on your desk constantly tempts you, because you can’t simply stop eating entirely.
When a doctor tells you that if you don’t do it, it may kill you relatively soon, it provides a lot of motivation. When I found out I was having heart issues and the doctor told me to stop drinking, I stopped.
I’ve never been addicted to alcohol but I imagine quitting drinking is similar to cigarettes, while dieting longterm is much more difficult because you can’t stop eating entirely.
I can see that providing a strong incentive, but JR said he just had four slices of pizza and a bunch of candybars for dinner. For me, I can’t even eat 3 slices unless I’m super hungry.
Mine was my doctor saying “You’re 45. Do you want to be on statins? Because if you don’t do something, I’m putting you on statins.”
I got her call in the middle of me eating (as was typical at the time) a whole fucking pizza by myself. I threw it out, researched for a few hours, got some new food that was healthier, and crash-coursed that motherfucker for 45 lb over 6 months. A forceful doctor’s wake up call can be a lot more effective than “You know, you could use to lose some weight.” And yes, I’ve maintained the weight being off for ~ 5 years now - no need to be as restrictive anymore, I watch my weight constantly and adjust the diet as need be to keep myself in line.
If it were me, I’d talk to my doctor about a timeline: if I don’t lose X amount of weight in Y months, we’re scheduling surgery for Z. Want to skip surgery? There’s at least an alternate path to avoid it, and if you absolutely can’t, then the surgery is scheduled.
That seems reasonable, sure. And there’s semaglutide too, which is a lot less scary than the other S word.
Everybody is on statins now.
No, they aren’t.
My doc put me on statins even though my cholesterol actually wasn’t far out of line. There’s a general feeling these days that rigorously controlling cholesterol offers substantial health benefits so pretty much everybody over the age of 45 or so who isn’t in fantastic shape and can tolerate statins should probably be on them because there’s a correlation link to better overall outcomes-- and they don’t exactly know why.
I have thought that too. It’s difficult to give up any habit such as smoking, drinking, etc., that has a tangible reward. Going cold turkey seems to work for some, but you gotta eat! Can’t cold turkey that.
I’ve also read that exercise doesn’t make a big difference with weight loss. It’s always good for health reasons but diet is the most important part of a weight loss plan.
Yes, it’s all about how many calories you consume versus expend. Anyone who’s watched the calorie counter on a treadmill knows it’s a very small number, you might briskly walk for an hour and burn the equivalent of a single cookie.
Semaglutide and surgical options both decrease appetite although again, nobody really knows why yet, their mechanisms of action aren’t fully understood.
I’m 45 and my BMI is just below 30. But my blood pressure is like 120/60, resting heart rate is below 60, and blood work is all well within normal. And I exercise regularly. My doc has never yet mentioned statins, even though I’m overweight with a family history of heart disease.
My brother’s specialty is bariatric surgery. He never expected to get into it – he was a general surgeon for decades, but really enjoyed being able to use laparoscopic tech for previously invasive surgeries (like appendix and gall bladder removals and such. Actual quote #1: “I get to play with all the cool toys.”) So bariatric procedures became a side thing he’d do, but being a small town doctor in mid Missouri, that side of his practice started to take off, and became his specialty. He’s now kind of The Guy in the midwest for that kind of thing.
Anyway, he’s stuck with it not because he’s in demand…but because of how rewarding it is for him on a mental level. As he’s told me, he’s changed more lives for the positive doing this type of surgery than he’s ever done as a general surgeon. An actual quote #2: “Every week we’re potentially curing diabetes and heart disease for a patient.”
His procedures involve a ton of pre-surgical counseling and screening, and a lot of post-surgical professional nutrition and even psychiatric counseling. It’s not a lazy quick fix that some media outlets like to portray it as. But yeah, for folks whose lives are endangered by weight issues they cannot shake, bariatric procedure should be in the conversation.