Diet?

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A little help here would be greatly apreciated. A long time ago I was around 230, and lost weight down to 125. However I only lost weight by eating foods I was slightly allergic too(rotation diet), and going off my medication. Well needless to say I had to start medication again, and walla I went back up to 200 pounds. I had to stop the medication comletely, go on different vitamins/minerals, and stop eating allergen foods alltogether.

Well long story short I had candida medications(I had multiple tests proving I had candida) as well during thistime, as well as less then 30 carbs a day for over 3 months, with 2 candida medications...
I didnt lose a single pound during this time either, and I was eating lean meats, fruits and veggies, drinking water and exercizing like nuts.
I have reintroduced the common food allergy foods into my diet, (on a rotation basis) am exercizing, have a slow metabolism(Ive had tests to prove it), drink plenty of water, try not to each sugary foods.(its really hard when one is allergic to the common food allergens), eat plenty of lean meats, fishes, fruits and veggies, and Im still the same weight!! !
Infact my doctor* still thinks I have candida, and my mother is blaming my weight issues on me, just because I ate a hamburger, and had 1 DIET soda. (I dont usually stray away from my "healthy diet"*, however a friend and I went to a movie and she treated me to dinner).
What am I doing wrong??!?!?! Im taking vitamins/minerals, drinking water, eating fruits and veggies, lean meats and beans, and Im exercizing! How can I STILL have candida, and still be the same weight??!?!?!
If it helps Im 5'5, and currently STILL around 200 pounds. I have given up sugary and starchy foods, common food allergens, and caffeine, with the exceptions of NATURAL sugar(once in a great while), VERY FEW diet drinks, occasionally eating some lean NATURAL bread with lean NATURAL cheese, and maybe once a month eating a small lean healthy burger at a restaurant.
I also cant afford to be completely allergen free for the rest of my life atm.(Mother and I make my own allergen free foods, that are lean and healthy and for the most part taste great, however once in a while I can have certain foods as listed above).

I also have noticed that my mother is the same way, except Im mainly almost all muscle, and even thogh Im still the same weight as I was about 4 months ago, I go from a size 12/14 to a size 18+. Wtf? Is this muscle mass? Water retention? (I drink water when Im hungry)
Help please? What am I possibly doing wrong?!?? I have been eating less then 1200 calories a day(for the majority of the time), and exercizing!

are you sure about the 1200 calories? do you measure and weigh?

Yes I measure. My mother though gestimates(and shes 99 percent ALWAYS been spot on with everything she gestimates). I have used the food scale(and still use it) at home to prove it to people that my mother doesnt have to measure food and stuff to tell how much things weigh.(However she has used tricks, like using the size of her fist to gestimate a cup, and figured out how many lines on the glass is about 8 oz). I however measure with measuring cups everything I eat and drink(except when I rarely go out to eat, then I use my mothers tricks up above).

I had an allergen free shake for breakfast, (its loaded with protein, has fruits and veggies in it), ate a small sandwhich. (One small piece of mothers homemade allergen free bread, with no mayonaise on it, and lean meat for lunch). For dinner I had a lean turkey burger(no bun), loads of veggies,(not fried, and used herbs and spices on them only) and a very small slice of watermelon. I have had 64 ounces of water today, and I have done my muscle and cardio exercizes. ( I walked briskly for 30 minutes, played xbox sports game, and did about 15 minutes of pushups, situps, and arm exercizes).For a snack I had light goat milk.

All in all the shake was less then 350 calories. The sandwhich less then 400 calories, and dinner plus the goat milk was less then 600 calories.
My normal diet usually is the same, with few variations. (Ill vary the shake with different fruits and veggies, maybe eat fish, and a salad for a snack/ a meal instead of a sandwhich)

I have to admit though in the past 3 weeks I havent been able to exercize as much as I normally do. I was really sick with some virus thing that wiped me out(missed 3 days of school, 2 days of work) and was extremely stressed with extra work hours, and summer finals. (Yes I worked make up and extra hours, on top of school finals when I was sick).

a 5' 5" person eating 1200 cals per day should lose weight even without exercising. i don't understand why you aren't losing weight. low thyroid could be a small factor, but i don't think it could account for the amount of weight you have.

Have you had your thyroxin levels checked? When diagnosed with low thyroxin stimulating hormone and given synthetic thyroxin, quite a few people report weight loss when they have been taking Levothyroxin for a long period of time. Its not immediate, but after a year or so, I have known people gradually lose 2 or 3 stone with no other change to diet.

About 1 in 50 women and 1 in 1000 men have low Thyroxin.

Its only relevant for you if you aren't producing enough, as otherwise you would have too much which causes other complications.

I have had my glands check(thoroughly) and my adrenals and kidneys are the only things that are suffering. However I have added kidney and adrenal supports into my diet.

I would like to add that I have bowel movement issues that doctors havent been able to help me with much.
No matter how much water I drink, fruits and veggies and exercize.... I eitherget backed up(dangerous level) or I have very loose stools. Either way I take probiotics(tested for parasites, poisoning which I did have salmonella before, and good and bad germs), and still continue to have stool thats a different color, and stinks like rotten eggs and hurts to go. It also hurts my colon and feels like Im being poked in random places. *Sigh* I can see red streakson my stomache(very minor) during my stomach pain attacks.

I do have to say though that since getting allergy tested(over 200 foods and chemicals) that my stomache aches have decreased, same with the stomache issues, but theystill happen(even on days thatI havent eaten any allergy foods).

Would someone please help me with these weight and stomache issues? Id be ever so grateful!

Well to know whether or not you're muscle weight, either get calipers and use an online calculator to check your bodyfat, or go on a scale that checks your bodyfat by sending electrical impulses. Generally for a woman, 16-20% is ideal and then about 30% is where you'd look fat. But, generally, if it wiggles, it's fat.

I'd try like, upping the calories to normal levels, 2000 or more, or at the very least 1700-1800. Why? Because the body cannot handle long term calorie restriction well, especially without the use of stimulants. Your body ends up going into basically starvation mode where it'll store anything you put in. This is how you'd stay alive, if you were, say, locked in a concentration camp or something. So, you might just wanna eat more. It's possible you might gain a few pounds initially, but sometimes the initial gain is just water or the food you put in. Try eating more calories for, say, a week or two, and see how things are, and see if you gain lots of weight. You probably won't, is my guess. I could be wrong, if you gain 50lbs, then, you know, stop, but if you only gain, say, 5lbs, then your body will get used to digesting, say, 2000 calories a day again. If you really wanna lose weight, I'd say don't cut the calories much and instead up the activity level.

As far as candida and the rest, I don't really know. You could, however, try eating a lot of garlic and leek family (scallions, onions, etc) in general and see what happens. They have a propensity for killing stuff. That and hot pepper, too, propensity for killing things. Ginger, too, good at killing things, and these are all thermogenic foods that'll burn fat.

One other thing to look into, according to TCM theory, and I've had great luck with this, liver cleansing medications. A strong one is "long dan xei gan" which taken for prolonged periods could be bad, as some of the medicines have a potentially toxic type of herb in them, and due to them being made in China, you don't know what is what. A safer one is cassia, cassia tea is good for liver detox. Chrysanthemum tea is also good, and it tastes wonderful. A theory regarding bodyfat is, and I think this is true, the body uses fat to store toxins. You start cleansing the body, the body will start releasing the toxins, and the fat will go away. One last herb to try is astragalus, it's great for beating colds/flus, etc.

Avoid caffeine, as it's harsh on the liver. If you ever drink coffee in the morning to initiate a bowel movement, the reason why is it causes the liver to produce more bile. I've cut my coffee/caffeine intake mostly to a single cup with 2 spoons of instant coffee in the morning, and feel much better for it. Ginseng is better if you need a boost, as it's not addictive like caffeine. My favorite ginseng is Siberian ginseng, not a true ginseng, but overall smoother energy, and without as much raised blood pressure as Panax/Korean ginseng. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eleutherococcus_senticosus Also cheaper than Korean, too.

For food, it's possible you need some more fat in the diet, too. Some people don't need much fat, others do. You need at least a little, so saturated fat is good, ie, a few strips of bacon or some eggs, and olive oil and stuff like that is great, too. Lots of polyunsaturated fats aren't good, though, as there's not much of a way to naturally get them. IE, soybean oil can only be made by chemical reaction, same with corn oil, etc.

That's about all I can think of.

It sounds like the probiotics just aren't enough to restore your healthy gut bacteria. This guy has a blog all about restoring healthy gut bacteria:

http://coolinginflammation.blogspot.com/


from his blog:

I realize that some of this advise seems alarming. But if you follow only one or two of his recommendations, it still could help.


I think you have a gut flora problem because of your history of both Salmonella and also because of the Candida overgrowth.

I balloon up rapidly if I eat much more than 500 calories daily (and much lower, if they're from carbs).
Some people just have slow metabolisms.
I'm sure you eat 1200 a day because you found eating more didn't cause weight loss,
or it caused you to gain?
There's never been a study on the "starvation response" in humans that demonstrated it to cause statistically-significant reductions in total energy expenditure, so far as I am aware.

Update, Ok I have lost 3 pounds somehow.
I guess the only difference is that I have gone to the bathroom? I remember when I was orginally weighted a lot my doctor decided to have my stomache xrayed or something like that and I was backed up with stool all the way up my chest. She gave me laxatives(cause nothing else worked at the time) and told me to drink ONLY water, well I passed out from drinking only just water, went to the ER and was told I needed electrolytes...

Well now that I have gone to the bathroom, I do have to ask a few questions, everytime I have to go to the bathroom I get really sharp stab burning pain in a series of pokes. What is this? Sometimes I get gas with it, and runny stools that smell like rotten eggs???
Also this may not have to do with my diet per se, but Id like to know, almost everytime I drink something cold, my chest starts hurting, and or I start coughing which causes my chest to burn like its on FIRE, and my throat starts wheezing and tickleing???
Its not anaphalictic shock is it? Im not drinking anything that Im allergic too in these cold drinks(like I drink fruit juice, rice milk, potato milk, goat milk, etc) but when these things are really cold I start coughing like up above...? Help please and thankyou?

from some of the other info on his site this guy sounds like a quack. i'm sure there is some truth in what he is saying but a lack of sources and information contrary to generally accepted nutritional recommendations (polyunsaturated fats are unhealthy saturated fats are healthy) makes me suspicious.

i really don't think i have any better advice but be aware that some of his recommendations could be dangerous.

i know a lot of dairy fat is not a good idea for certain people
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/06/120613133040.htm

maybe he is not as much of a quack as i thought

Are you sure that you haven't just been running well under starvation levels for calories per day for so long that your metabolism is completely and utterly messed up?

I had issues with candida myself, but I instead used apple cider vinegar as treatment and is appears to have worked. Perhaps it's something you can look into? It works by making your stomach acid more acidic. It breaks down food better and candida won't survive the ph change. I went from not being able to digest legumes (plus a thousand other foods) at all, to having a whole can of peanuts to myself without any problems.

Tip: Some apple cider vinegars are more disgusting than others. I've heard good things about Braggs apple cider vinegar, but have not had the luxury of trying it. Instead I got generic brand and it tasted awful! I had to mix it with honey and warm water to get it down. The vinegar still worked, but damn... So nasty.

I love apple cider! I have it in my water!
How much should I be drinking though as I still think I might have candida? I put in a teaspoon a day.

I could never find a straight up answer on any google searches. They ranged from a teaspoon to 2 tablespoons 3x day. What ended up working for me was a tablespoon once a day. If I knew I was going to be eating something that gave me problems in the past, like popcorn, I would take another tablespoon beforehand.

I hope it works! I know how unpleasant stomach problems can be.