Losing weight… fairly quickly without hanging skin

Arthuritis

This was my experience of desperation when early in my RA diagnosis and in my desperation to avoid pain, I tried changing my diet, mainly to see if there was any pain relief. During this time I was also being treated for bacterial infection so pumped full of antibiotics.

Before RA I was an avid gym goer, weights, cardio etc. and while that helped the weight loss was never dramatic.

Here I was, stopped going to the gym since the first lockdown, and started weighing myself.

My diet change was nothing special.

1. No bread. I mean seriously - None!
2. smoothies made of Tesco pre-prepared dark green salads (not the colourful tomato lettuce sweetcorn and onion salads), I mean the boring spinach, rocket and baby leaf. Flavour with just some ready made Tesco spice.
3. vegetarian self imposition.
4. no sugary anything.

within about 6-8 weeks I’d gone to my high school weight I had not seen in decades!

I had tried fasting and keto during my younger gym days, but the loss was never that dramatic, and I always got ugly loose skin. This did not happen on the above “boring cheap diet”. What’s more, I was never hungry, after a smoothie you have no desire to eat anything more.

As soon as the infection was gone I found my RA had also subsided, and I slowly got back on a normal diet, took those digestive bacteria capsules (to stop the antibiotic runs), yoghurts and even bread. Sadly the weight slowly crept back.

Now I am experimenting again, and think the key is bread and the gut biome (or absence of some elements of it). This week my diet has been mainly the colourful crunchy salads daily with limited tea & toast, and I got some weight loss of a few kilos, but not as dramatic, no 6pack starting to show like before!

Will keep you posted if anyone is interested.

frogmorton

Arthuritis I am definitely interested.

My sister is losing weight ATM and is vegan like me she strongly advocates 'boring'

I eat as much colour as possible as much raw as possible and as much variety as possible including beans and seeds. I am also a fan of improving my gut microbiome and although I adore it think bread is not good at all for me😕

The only thing which worries me is that I think my stomach doesn't like my 3 staples onions, garlic and mushrooms so i am going to have to try them and test it one at a time. This week it's been onions and I think they might have to go but what on earth can I replace them with?

Take care

Toni x

swimmer60

I'm seriously trying to get down to my pre op weight. So no bread, potatoes, pasta, avoided cakes, pastries, puddings anyway. Daughter has got me eating fermented foods, as meant to be good for inflammation and gut health. I eat as many colourful veggies as possible, also a lot of fish but not meat. So far I've lost 5lbs in two weeks. Only another 5 to go....🙄

Arthuritis

@swimmer60 @frogmorton Well done both of you, particularly for not resorting to expensive diet drugs!

Sadly the body’s metabolic system has no ethics, it sees fish, eggs, cheese, chicken, shrooms or beans as protein sources, the only difference being how long they take to digest. I suspect I didn’t get loose skin because my low protein vegan diet meant it had to cannibalise my would be loose skin to feed its protein requirements and as that requires greater energy expenditure, in the presence of alternative dietary protein, there is no need to re-absorb the loose skin to release the protein in it.

@frogmorton The garlic onion mushroom challenge… tough one! Maybe you could just reduce the amount of onion or try different preparation methods. Both garlic & onions contain volatile sulphur compounds that give their distinctive smell but you don’t need much to benefit. Dry & cooked versions have very little left, so if that offers relief you could simply cut back so it’s better tolerated. I have problems with garlic & onions too, as they often ferment easily even in the fridge, resulting in unwelcome bacteria that will make you “gassy”! Unfortunately I can no longer take much of fresh onion, garlic or even coffee, as they “aroma” compounds all irritate my bladder. With shrooms there’s such a huge variety that you could try different types. Tesco does have a wild mushroom offering, which while not as varied as John Lewis, is still quite good. You can also buy dried wild mushrooms varieties, these are/were a big import from Italy where they have some of the tastiest varieties!