how to lose weight with adrenal fatigue

[annc3333]

Hi I’m a post menopausal woman of 61 with long standing adrenal fatigue caused by a high carb diet years ago (moderate healthy carbs for last 18 years) plus a 32 year career as an elementary school counselor in a high poverty school–an unrelenting frenetic pace from 7:30 am until 4:30 every day dealing with a constant barrage of very tough and emotionally draining issues. Two years ago I completely hit the wall with exhaustion to the point it was scary and I stopped bouncing back after a summer off. I had to get through two more years when I was really in no shape to be doing what I was doing. But, five months ago I retired and many improvements already–overall happier, sleeping through the night most nights, nightmares are gone. However, I need to lose weight, I put on 20 pounds over the past five years (and I was already 20 pounds over weight) and can not lose even one of those pounds. My body just shuts down my metabolism after literally five days (I did ten weeks of a low calorie diet and lost 3 pounds the first week, one pound the second and no pounds for the last 8 weeks!) I just tried a low carb/high fat diet thinking it might work better than just calorie counting but I woke up at 2:30 am since I started–horrible night sweats, grinding hunger and weakness. That’s not going to work! I also have a ton of foods I can’t eat, coconut, nuts, citric acid, vinegar, bone broth and fermented foods, etc. I was exercising every day with long walks up and down hills but came down with severe plantar fasciitis so I am very low on exercise right now. I feel like I’m not making progress. Any suggestions?

[Annabel]

Hi Annc3333,

Hormonal imbalances and adrenal fatigue can definitely contribute to stubborn weight gain.
https://adrenalfatiguesolution.com/adrenal-fatigue-making-fat/

I would say that addressing your stress levels is the first order of business. It sounds like you’ve come a long way with that already. But your yo-yo dieting is putting stress on your body that it just doesn’t need right now.

It would also be good to know what you are eating. You mentioned a few foods that you can’t eat, but what does your daily diet look like?

As for exercise, how about a biking, swimming, or even the exercise bike in the gym? It’s important to stay active.

[annc3333]

Thanks for the reply, Annabel. My daily diet is 100% clean because I have IC and vulvodynia, if I eat processed foods I have pain. My foods are pretty much: milk and greek yogurt, blueberries, most vegetables, beef, chicken and fish, sunflower seed butter (organic, nothing added), butter and olive oil for added fats, rice cakes, a sweet potato now and again, and lots of salt about the only seasoning I can use. About two to three times a month we are out for dinner and I eat whatever is served, including desserts and bread, sometimes I’ll have some dark chocolate at night. When I am dieting it is hard to get below about 1300 a day wihtout waking up like I said above.

Yesterday I moved all my meals later–breakfast at noon, lunch at 4 and dinner around 8 and I slept great. What do you think about trying that? Am I making things worse by not eating in the morning?

Sorry for going on so much. And thanks again for your thoughts.

[Author]

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