Couple of questions

[Melontwisting]

Since developing some health issues a few years ago, my weight has rocketed (although the increasing, unexplained weight gain very closely followed the other health issues). I have a few questions 🙏

1. Would WLI work on someone like me? Is there anyone who is in a calorie deficit, but whose body is still gaining weight? I have tracked and I know it doesn’t make sense, but much of what is happening with my body now doesn’t make sense. Has anyone else been in this situation and found WLI helps?

2. How low is too low with regard to calories? Will it further mess up my metabolism if I decrease even more (I’m on 800-900 cals)? Anyone been in this situation?

Would whoever is managing your health issues be able to advise on this? Are they concerned about the unexplained increase in weight despite being in a large calorie deficit already? That would seem quite urgent to investigate what the cause of that is.

Mounjaro might help as it changes how your body responds to eating, by stimulating insulin production and reduces your blood sugar. There is some evidence it affects how you utilise your stored fat as well. That may help, if issues with those things are affecting your weight gain. But, you have unexplained weight gain, so it may not be relevant.

I don't think anyone would suggest going below 800 calories, that isn't any kind of sustainable diet and would be likely to be severely lacking in nutrition.

I would agree with @SilenceInside , if you're gaining weight on 800 calories then you need to get some medical advice, in my opinion. I hope you get sorted

My metabolism is quite damaged and I could not lose weight no matter how little I ate but WLI helped me. For me it is a combo of insulin resistance, thyroid, hormones, inflammation and likely messing up my metabolism with extreme diets! When I spoke to a GP they said age and hormones can cause people to gain weight. WLI have helped me but I know there is a small percentage of people who do not respond. Personally I would say try it and see if it helps - I would speak to your gp about the issues you’ve been having and ask their advice on the WLI.

Personally I would advise against going down to 800 calories a day as your body won’t be adequately nourished, you won’t get necessary nutrients and will likely just damage your metabolism further. You can also cause organ damage and disrupt your hormones by eating too little. Someone posted an interesting bit of info they were told by a nutritionist about how cutting good fats from our diets actually causes insulin resistance and can cause weight gain so I would perhaps look at what you are eating instead of just the calories. Use a food tracker app to make sure you are getting the right amount of protein, fats and fibre to help your body and metabolism to function. I am bad at this myself so I am trying to add porridge, walnuts, avocado, yoghurt and cottage cheese to my diet to try and fix things a bit. Even on WLI I had stopped losing for over a month but started losing again when I started adding some nuts and avocado to my diet.

Personally I think speaking to a gp would be worth your while, they can check your bloods and see if anything is out of whack and give you advice on different options. If they won’t do bloods there are a few private blood test companies online - I went with Blue Horizons a few years ago and then took the blood test results back to my gp.

Thank you. I have tried to seek help. GP was futile and so was dietician. I thought dietician would help and had hung a lot of hope on that. I wondered whether WLI might have a welcome side effect like reducing inflammation.

Mountjaro has had a great effect on inflammation for me - it has helped a lot with stomach inflammation, bloating and I seem a lot more flexible but I have also been doing things like aquafit and swimming which would be part of that. A few doctors have mentioned to me that their patients have had reduction of inflammation on mountjaro and if you look at the threads under WLI here a lot of people have said it reduced inflammation and helped with mobility.

It did have side effects to begin with, I found I got pain and sulphur burps if I didn’t eat enough or often enough, if I didn’t get enough fibre, if I ate junk food and if I didn’t drink enough water. I was taking Mountjaro (about to switch to Wegovy which I am nervous about). Now I have found my balance and my body has adjusted the side effects are gone.

I definitely would try WLI before cutting down calories in an extreme way. I would also suggest getting blood tests for hormones, thyroid, insulin resistance etc… and if anything shows bring it back to your gp (or change gps and bring it to someone who will listen).