THINNER-Me? Maintain/gain weight

JWdaughter

Anyone ever read Stephen King's book "Thinner"? About a fat guy who (somehow) sells his soul or something and loses weight-but keeps on losing until (???) I kind of forgot how it ends, but being King, I don't think it ended well for the protagonist.

Anyway I feel like that is what happened to me. ONly I didn't sell my soul. Over the last 13 years I lost about 120 lbs from originally 309# In the first 9-10 years I maintained at 180 or so which was still fat, but for me, I felt pretty skinny. I lost a few pounds more orig. and then settled into the 175-185 range. Then, in the last 3 years it came off without me trying. First I went down to 150. I was so excited to get to 150!!! Woowee!! But I kept losing weight and wasn't really trying. Great. Had to meet the aquaintance of a tailor to keep up, but, ok, never too rich or too thin, right? Well, last year I got a tummy tuck (as you can imagine I really needed by now). It was cheap in Qatar (about #1200 for a surgery that would be nearly $30K in the states). Well, I went from about 142 to 134 or so. then creeped down to 130. Then, one month ago I moved to Egypt. Food different, got the stomach bug for 2 weeks, lost appetite altogether, don't like almost anything I eat. . . I am probably less than 120 now and officially underweight.

In 3 weeks I had lost 10#! I am scared silly. I know I need to eat more, but I can't. I am not anorexic-I try to eat! I want to eat, i LIKE to eat. (How do you think I ever got to over 300# otherwise?). Anyway, I had clothes altered right before I left that now have 3 inches give in the waist and I'm scared. No one here understands me, and like in America, all the fat middle aged ladies can't imagine why another middle aged lady would complain about losing weight! Women here tend to gain weight a lot once they hit their 20's, so unless you look sick, they are all pretty impressed at a non-fat middle aged lady.

The fun of being skinny has worn off. Worse, I have gotten arthritis and I am halfway convinced it is exacerbated by my nutrition/intake levels and I need to eat what I can to mitigate THAT issue. I am only 46 and I feel about 100 right now, even if I look kind of good at first glance. My bones bug me. Any ideas on weight maintainance issues?

shamus100

Go see your doctor and tell him / her what has been happening.

Jadeen

Have you been to a doctor? Sounds like you should make an appointment. You could also talk to a dietitian about what kind of diet you need to maintain a healthy weight.

Iamallcool

Try to go to American Restaurants in Egypt to see if it makes a difference for you at least little bit. If it does not work, go see your doctor.

panhandlegirl

Yes, get to a doctor ASAP. There are several reasons why you could be loosing weight. One of the things we ask at the hospital when we admit a patient is "Have you lost > 10 pound in the month without trying?"If the answer is yes, the doctor wants to find the reason for the weight loss. Get to the doctor ASAP.

Scully

You should definitely see a doctor. It could be something easily fixable, like a hyperactive thyroid, or it could be something else. You want to know if it's something bad, right??

Anyway, Thinner is the only Stephen King novel I've ever read. The guy pissed off a gypsy, who stalked him for a while and uttered the word "thinner" to him and cursed him. He ended up wasting away and dying.