doctor rant

[antiheroinc]

i'm a bit fed up with my doctors at the moment.
today, had my monthly blood test to see if my prescriptions are still working the way they're suppose to. no doubt they will be low levels again this month, and they'll talk about changing me to another different drug or two, but nothing will come of it.
while i was talking to one of my doctors i had brought up the subject of losing some weight, he replied "good luck, the medications you are on have a tendency of packing the kilos on to people".
i was not enthused by this response, i've been killing myself at the gym for over 2 months now and haven't lost anything, i've been eating smaller and less, and have been doing at least 2 hours of exercise a day.
another great line from the doctor was "i'd rather you be overweight and alive, rather then thinner and dead". some confidence my doctor has in me, right? i will admit, i've been down that road in the past, but as my psyche evaluation will prove, i'm not that person anymore.
the next subject i bring up is my lack of sleep. he blatantly refuses to give me any sleeping medication because of my prior history.
the last 2 weeks, i've only slept in the daytime for 2hrs at a time.
now i'm always half awake, tired all the time.

these things are just bothering me right now so i hope you guys don't mind if i vent a little. i literally feel like im losing my mind again these days, and i really don't feel like being strapped to a hospital bed again while they decide what to do with me.

so advice? haha

 

[narcossintese]

He´s right.

 

[Ermz]

Seems to be a pretty involved situation. I'm not sure what medication you're on or what predicated it, but I highly doubt anyone here is qualified to answer in any meaningful capacity. Involved medical issues can only be handled by those who are hands on with the problem. Anyone else would just be stabbing in the dark and perhaps offering ideas that are dangerous, despite sounding welcome.

Having said that, I know full well how... uninspiring the doctors here can be. Unfortunately all you can do is grit your teeth, work through it and hope for the best. If the drugs aren't allowing you to drop kilos, then that's it, accept it, manage it as best you can and do whatever possible to get yourself away from the need to use them (if it's within your ability of course). I know it sounds simplistic, but really, your best option here is just not to get sick at all. I've rarely heard of any substantial problems being managed effectively by the doctors - family, friends, myself or otherwise. A lot of the time the meds they treat you with only hide the symptoms and don't treat the root of the issues, so the onus is on you to heal yourself (once again, if it's within your power to do so).

Anyway, best of luck and hang in there.

 

[John_C]

about the overweight and alive vs thinner and dead thing, he's almost certainly got a point. Sometimes thinner doesn't = healthier

 

[Genius Gone Insane]

Not sure if the medical industry is as corrupt over there as it is here. Probably is. At any rate, if you are questioning your doctor and want to know what's best for you, find a med school dropout and ask him/her what to do. They will know. They'll at least give you an honest non-profit driven opinion.

 

[MarcusGHedwig]

You said you were regularly going to the gym - not sure if you're already doing this, but the most effective way to burn fat is by doing cardio of one form or another (ideally jogging or a bike/machine powered by both your arms and legs) for a minimum of 30 (ideally around 45) minutes, and more importantly keeping your heart rate elevated through the entire duration by not ever stopping (though you can reduce your pace for a breather every now and then, but, in the case of jogging for example, you should just jog slowly during those breaks, rather than stopping or even walking).

The pace doesn't have to be agonizing (though you should definitely be huffing and puffing and suitably red-faced by the end), it's really more the duration that matters where fat-burning is concerned. Of course, the harder you push yourself, the more fat you'll burn, but you also risk burning yourself out and getting less and less motivated to keep doing it

 

[arv_foh]

benadryl helps me fall asleep when I'm having trouble, take 2 or 3 of them about 2 hours before you want to go to bed

 

[Splat88]

What levels are they checking in your blood? Thyroid? (TSH, T3, T4)

 

[antiheroinc]

What levels are they checking in your blood? Thyroid? (TSH, T3, T4)

yeah dude, to be quite honest they take about 4 viles of blood for various things. they've been doing it for years so i've started to lose interest in what for, spose i should get to knowing again soon

You said you were regularly going to the gym - not sure if you're already doing this, but the most effective way to burn fat is by doing cardio of one form or another (ideally jogging or a bike/machine powered by both your arms and legs) for a minimum of 30 (ideally around 45) minutes, and more importantly keeping your heart rate elevated through the entire duration by not ever stopping (though you can reduce your pace for a breather every now and then, but, in the case of jogging for example, you should just jog slowly during those breaks, rather than stopping or even walking). (TSH, T3, T4)

yeah i do roughly an hour of cardio, then about 30min of various weights, then another 30min of cardio every night at the gym. they tell me going to the gym is spose to help my mood stabilise out but i usually just go to try and burn myself out so i can try and get a bit of sleep.

 

[ParsonsMatt]

Working out will make it much more difficult to fall asleep.

 

[Harry Hughes]

You said you were regularly going to the gym - not sure if you're already doing this, but the most effective way to burn fat is by doing cardio of one form or another (ideally jogging or a bike/machine powered by both your arms and legs) for a minimum of 30 (ideally around 45) minutes, and more importantly keeping your heart rate elevated through the entire duration by not ever stopping (though you can reduce your pace for a breather every now and then, but, in the case of jogging for example, you should just jog slowly during those breaks, rather than stopping or even walking).

The pace doesn't have to be agonizing (though you should definitely be huffing and puffing and suitably red-faced by the end), it's really more the duration that matters where fat-burning is concerned. Of course, the harder you push yourself, the more fat you'll burn, but you also risk burning yourself out and getting less and less motivated to keep doing it

Doing HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training) is not the magical formula that it's made out to be as far as losing weight goes.
The reality is really, calories in = calories out is the only really set thing as far as losing weight goes, so it doesn't matter if you walk instead of doing HIIT, if you sit on your ass and do nothing and just reduce your daily calories intake, as long as you fall below the maintenance metabolic rate level, you'll lose weight

Working out will make it much more difficult to fall asleep.

If you do it pretty much right before bed, yes, but several hours before will generally be fine

 

[Harry Hughes]

To the OP, you need to stop killing yourself with exercise, seriously. Not next week, not in a few days, but now.
Even if you were getting a good night's rest, you body is being pushed over it's limit.
Add to this the fact you have only been sleeping 2 hours a day, and your body will have NO chance of having the proper recovery.
What I can tell you for sure, is that you are giving your central nervous system AND immune system a serious hammering.
You are also most likely breaking down muscle mass doing what you're doing, which will only get you further away from your goal since losing muscle mass means you're body fat percentage is not decreasing at the rate you'd like.
You are just going to run your body into the ground and make yourself seriously sick.

To be honest, it just sounds like you kinda jumped head on into an exercise program without spending a serious amount of hours doing the homework first on what you need to do.
You NEED to have off days from your workout program, and you do not need to do that 30 minutes of cardio after the weights, nor do you need to do daily cardio. 45-60 minutes in a 24 hour period maybe 3-4 times a week should be plenty for anyone. Hell, even 20-30 minutes will be enough if you push hard enough.
Look at the elite body builders for example. None of those guys work out every single day (I suspect not even the guys on steroids, which increases the rate of recovery, work out everyday), because more time in the gym does not mean more results.
Nutrition and adequate rest/recovery are absolutely essential to any weights program. Personally, I hit the weights 3 times a week and get 7-8 hours sleep a night, and I only hit a body group once a week. I'm seeing good results visually, and my strength has definitely gone up.
If you do not have that right, you are just spinning your wheels.
You might get stronger for a while (the beginner gains in size and strength), but you will quickly plateau and your CNS will hate you for lifting everyday.
You will just not be seeing any real results, simply put.

Until you start getting sleep, I'd recommend you drop the weight training entirely dude. Your body is already fighting a losing battle to keep the immune system in check with such little sleep, and doing weights will only make it worse.

 

[006]

You can also take Melatonin like an hour or two before you want to go to bed, those can make you really drowsy and they are a natural supplement, something your body produces when it's sleepy time.