Do I just need to lose weight?

[BarbaraVineFan]

I have put on a lot of weight in the past few years due to stress, being a single parent and unable to easily find time to exercise etc, and am currently in the obese category- I think I have about 3-4 stone to lose :(

Recently I have gone through a very difficult time with being made redundant and having to move house, so my stress has increased further. I have also noticed that my ankles and feet have started to swell up quite a lot and by the evening they feel heavy and tingly. Initially I thought it was the heat, but I’ve started to worry that there may be a more sinister cause like diabetes or venous insufficiency.

i can’t quite bring myself to go to the doctor at the moment because I’ve been under so much stress already. I’m thinking that if I just start a proper weight loss regime then this issue might go away- maybe the doctor would just suggest losing weight anyway.

What do you think- should I try to lose weight first and then go to the doctor if my feet continue to swell?

It’s not either/or. You can do both.

You should be maintaining a healthy weight regardless.

Both would be my suggestion. Start losing weight and also go to the GP about the swollen legs.

Yes.

I'm sorry to hear you've been having such a hard time of it recently. I really think you need to ring your GP first thing tomorrow though.

Either they will tell you that it's not an immediately urgent problem so you can stop stressing about it or they will tell you that it is something more urgent and will then be able to start solving the problem.

Is there anything you can do to make contacting the doctor less stressful? Write a note and say to the receptionist, "I'm very stressed so I have written down what I need to tell you." Then read the note. Or ask a friend to contact them with you? I've contacted nurseries for a friend before, it was for her child but she was super stressed so she sat next to me, I rang them, explained the situation, they would then ask to speak to her briefly to give consent for me to speak on her behalf, and then it'd go back to me again.

@SaltyCara why do you think I need to ring so urgently?

Both. Lose weight and see your GP. I have a few fat friends. They don’t swell up of an evening.

One of my legs has always been a bit more swollen than the other - well since my 20s. Last summer it got quite bad so I had an ultrasound and nothing showed up. The plan was for another doctor to look it again this year once it starts swelling again but so far no real swelling - the main difference is I have lost 20 lbs, been eating a bit better and have also been doing more steps on average - I had got up to about 12-14k steps a day average but has dropped to approx 9k with the heatwave. So it could likely be weight and exercise related but also worth checking with GP.

Get yourself some compression for your legs asap. Swelling that goes down can turn into swelling that doesn't go down.

I was very overweight and had joint pain in my knees and ankles and gout like pain in my foot. I lost weight and they’ve stopped entirely; in fact they cleared up as soon as my diet changed and I lost the first stone, of many.