Hey Kelly, I have a question for you because I can\t figure it out on my own. I work out on a regular basis-usually cardio twice a week (once swimming, the other running) and I do yoga twice a week. I also work as a server 3 times a weeks (so a TON of walking at a quick pace). Sometimes I get to be too busy to workout for a few days (since I’m also a full time student) and I find whenever I don’t workout for a bit (over Christmas I stopped for the entire 3 weeks and then now I’ve stopped for another week) I actually lose weight. But not on the scale “losing weight” but instead, my clothes start to fit a little bit loser. I’m not very muscular so I don’t think it’s the fact that I’m losing muscle that suddenly my pants are feeling a little less tight. I am pretty active in normal life-since I don’t have a vehicle I walk pretty much everywheree-but I can’t figure out why this happens when I stop working out. Any ideas? Thanks!
SarahF
Im no doctor, and to find out for sure, you should talk to one. I can offer my personal experience, though, as this happens to me, too. The reason this happens to me is I have hyperthyroidism. Everyone’s first thought is usually, “cool, bitch, you have been blessed with a fast metabolism, rub it in.” But, in actuality, its a pain in the ass, and I exercise to slow down my metabolism.
When I was bulimic, I wreaked havoc on my body. Part of what happened was I gave myself hyperthyroidism. It seems counter intuitive, as you would think that starving yourself of nurishment would slow your metabolism down, which it did, but once I started eating healthy, it went completely the other way. The doctor gave me a choice: I could take a radiation pill that would kill my thyroid, (he said the side effect was I would be radioactive for a few days, and couldnt eat off silver ware and when I went to the bathroom, I would have to flush 3 times as to not make the next person impotent) and then take a pill every day for the rest of my life to synthetically do what a normal thyroid would, or I could try and control it with diet and exercise. I chose the latter.
So, instead of working out to increase my metabolism, I actually exercise to slow it down to where it should be naturally. Because of my hyperthyroidism, if i don’t work out for a while, my metabolism skyrockets again, and I drop weight. Perfect example: over Christmas, I went and visted my sister and her kids for a week, didnt exercise (barely moved actually- thank you cable and The Tudors) ate my weight in Christmas cookies and ham, and dropped 3 pounds.
So why don’t I just not exercise, eat whatever I want and not gain weight? Because when I let my thyroid get out of control, the other side effects aren’t much fun.
When you have hyperthyroidism, your body runs extremely fast- everything does. Graphic, but it causes your digestive system to go into hyper mode so things aren’t properly digested. I get red, itchy spots on my abdomen, my hands shake, and worst of all, my adrenaline goes nuts.
You know when someone pops out from around the corner, and your heart jumps, then races really fast for a few moments? Mine does that for absolutely no reason. I will be in the middle of a session at work, and get the feeling that Im in danger and need to leave. I literally have the fight or flight reaction for no reason (and for some reason my first instinct is flight- good to know that if i were ever in a ctual danger, my gut reaction is to run like a wimp) For the longest time I thought I was having panic attacks, but now that I know its my thyroid I can kind of calm myself down. There’s no stopping them, though, and some are worse than others. Your body just surges adrenaline for no reason because everything is heightened.
With that said, your body gets sick of running so high, and sometimes you just crash. There are days where I almost can’t get out of bed, and have zero energy.
If I exercise consistently, my weight stays the same, I don’t get the adrenaline surges so much, and the spots are fewer and farther between- but when I miss workouts my system gets out of wack. Its great motivation to workout knowing that my body will go into a tailspin if I don’t.
I don’t know if you have hyperthyroidism, but I would talk to your doctor. I have a pretty severe case, and have to get blood work done once a month (which I actually haven’t done in a long time) to make sure everything is ok, but other than that, I control it on my own. Just knowing what it is was the biggest part for me.
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