Metabolic and Mental Health

Here’s How Luke Solved 6 Agonizing Health Issues After Losing Substantial Weight Too Quickly.

He fixed the issues by learning from his mistakes and getting professional support.

Purpose of the Story

In this post, I summarize the health issues of a middle-aged man who experienced them after a rapid weight loss attempt. In addition, I provide practical solution steps Luke implemented to rectify problems.

A Brief Background to Luke’s Weight Loss Journey

After reaching his 40s, Luke became overweight, but he was not obese. His parents, unfortunately, died from metabolic disorders before they reached their 70s. His father had a heart attack, and his mother had type II diabetes leading to dementia.

Considering his genetic makeup, Luke got concerned and decided to lose weight based on advice from his friends. He started some diets claiming that his friends lost substantial weight by using them. As it worked for them, he thought these diets would work for him too.

Luke started dieting with enthusiasm. It was initially challenging, but his self-discipline increased after seeing weight loss on the weekly scale. However, after a few months, he started feeling awful both physically and mentally.

Fortunately, after a year, his family doctor identified six issues as reflected in his checks and guided him to reverse the outcomes. But unfortunately, when he started his weight loss journey, Luke had no idea about the issues he experienced after a year.

He regretted but forgave himself and rectified the issues by taking personal responsibility and seeking professional support.

In the following sections, I overview Luke’s issues and summarise the solutions he leveraged for the severe conditions.

Problem 1 — Muscle Loss and Joint Pain

The most noticeable and disturbing issue for Luke was losing precious muscles from his shoulders, chest, legs, and arms. His belly and butts shrank, but he lost muscle strength.

In hindsight, the two biggest mistakes causing muscle loss were performing excessive cardio, especially running on a treadmill and an elliptical machine, and lowering his calories too much. He refrained from eating healthy fats, considering it would make him fat.

His doctor found out that Luke’s daily calorie intake was under 1200. In comparison, his body needed a minimum of 2500 calories to maintain homeostasis considering his body structure. This caloric deficit stressed and inflamed his body.

After a while, he couldn’t run as he lost energy. His muscles got sore. His recovery after running got delayed. His stress and anxiety increased.

His mood was depressed. His focus and attention diminished. Worst of all, his joints started hurting, preventing him from doing even minor workouts like slow walking.

Here’s what he did to rectify the situation.

Solution

As advised by his family doctor, Luke replaced excessive cardio with resistance training.

Initially, he used his body weight to gain strength. Then, he started lifting light weights and gradually increased the amount.

His doctor referred him to a certified dietician who assessed Luke’s medical history and caloric needs. The new diet provided a slight caloric deficiency, but it was high in protein and included some healthy fats.

Bioavailable protein sources, healthy fats, and resistance training protected his muscles. So this customized diet produced an optimal result for him.

Problem 2 — Nutritional Deficiencies Leading to Fatigue and Anemia

Since Luke’s diet was too low in calories, he failed to consume essential amino acids, minerals, and vitamins from his limited food.

Instead of whole foods, he used calorie-controlling diet food packaged for convenience. The labels showed lots of vitamins and minerals in his terms, but in reality, he missed some important ones.

Some micronutrients were too low for his requirements, as confirmed by the dietician. It was an eye-opener for Luke. He promised himself not to believe in promising labels in those commercial weight loss products.

Here’s what he did to rectify the situation.

Solution

His doctor confirmed that nutritional deficiency was the leading cause of fatigue, as his blood tests showed low hemoglobin.

When the physician referred him to a hematologist, the conclusion was Luke had mild anemia. The specialist asked him to attend a few sessions to monitor his status based on the action plan.

Luke was happy that with help from specialists, his family doctor, and the dietician, he fixed his anemic situation. His energy levels got back.

Rather than taking a fad diet, Luke cut snacks and occasionally skipped meals to make his body insulin sensitive. He never cut back on the nutrition his body needed for the sake of weight loss.

Problem 3 — His metabolism slowed down.

When undertaking his fad diets, Luke’s body sensed starvation, so his metabolism significantly slowed. Therefore, his weight loss stopped after a year.

In addition, his slowed metabolism also caused low energy. Therefore, he couldn’t run and did not feel like exercising anymore, even though he was keen to do it. His body simply said enough.

Luke’s family doctor also referred him to an endocrinologist who noticed that his testosterone and growth hormones lowered and cortisol elevated. Therefore he faced noticeable muscle loss.

Having low anabolic hormones and high catabolic hormones was the recipe for muscle loss that he learned in a difficult way. But he was grateful for the knowledge and experience.

Here’s what he did to rectify the situation.

Solution

Luke’s diet significantly increased his energy. As a temporary solution, the specialist provided some treatment to balance his hormones.

The hormonal changes were noticeable in his energy and mood. While he was getting treatment for his knee pains from a physiotherapist, he learned that he needed to increase resistance and isometric training more and lower the cardio.

Luke followed the advice. After a few months, he felt much better. His inflammation markers improved. His testosterone increased, and cortisol lowered to an optimal level. His metabolism was fixed as he started losing visceral fat, which was evident in his waistline but not on the scale as he gained lean muscles.

Problem 4 — He got gallstones.

Luke had no idea his low-calorie diet would cause him gallstones. The pain was unbearable, but his timely treatment solved the problem.

His doctor explained that when people are on low-calorie diets for rapid weight loss, the liver releases extra cholesterol into the bile.

This chemical imbalance due to caloric deficit might prevent the gallbladder from unclogging correctly.

Here’s what he did to rectify the situation.

Solution

To prevent gallstone formation, Luke decided not to have low-calorie diets anymore.

He learned better ways, like time-restricted eating, which worked well for him.

He kept his body well hydrated with sufficient electrolytes from his nutrient-dense foods.

Problem 5 — He had mood swings and brain fog.

After a few months of his diet, Luke’s mood changed from positive to negative. Even the most minor things started irritating him.

With noticeable brain fog, he felt like a little nervous breakdown as his hands were shaking for no reason when watching TV, resting, or chatting with his friends.

Especially when food cravings occurred, he felt awful. He wanted to consume massive amounts of food, but his intellect stopped him from doing so because he kept thinking about the situation of his parents. His body and mind conflicted.

This conflict led to anxiety and depressive thoughts. He lost the joy and started worrying even about small things. Nothing means much in his life. Lack of energy and slowed metabolism did not allow him to do exercise. Therefore he had difficulty boosting his mood.

Here’s what he did to rectify the situation.

Solution

The endocrinologist and hematologist sensing his mental decline and mood swings asked his family doctor to refer him to a psychiatrist.

The specialist initially treated him with medication which responded well. He was happy as the psychiatrist stopped medication in his next session as his symptoms disappeared.

His solutions were restorative sleep after nutritious meals, moderate resistance training every third day, and 30 minutes of aerobic exercise such as walking or swimming. He also lowered caffeinated drinks as he used to think they would expedite weight loss.

After each exercise session, Luke felt fantastic. Since then, he has never experienced mood swings. He was grateful for his holistic solutions improving his body and mind simultaneously.

Problem 6 — Loose Skin

Out of the six, this was the less minor issue for Luke.

After the first year, in addition to losing muscle, Luke had loose skin in his abdominal area and butts, which started disturbing him. He learned that eliminating loose skin can be very challenging.

As I mentioned in this story, it took me a decade to eliminate hanging skin in the belly. It is difficult but possible with time and effort. I explained my situation to Luke, and he stopped concerning about it.

Here’s what he did to rectify the situation in later years.

Solution

For the first year, he did not take any additional actions apart from the above-mentioned points.

However, after a year, his loose skin was not as bad as the previous year. It didn’t disappear, but as he gained more muscles, his abdominal appearance improved.

However, after the second year, he decided to start intermittent fasting. His regime was eating his food in an eight-hour window and fasting for 16 hours which he believed was ideal for him.

After two years, his loose skin was not noticeable anymore. His diet, resistance training, and restorative sleep all had a combined effect to create ketosis and autophagy and allow the body to get rid of loose skin.

Conclusions and Takeaways

This remarkable experience taught Luke that weight loss and fat loss are two different processes. He shifted his focus to sustainable fat loss, muscle retention, and healthy weight management.

Unless there are underlying medical conditions, healthy lifestyle habits are the best approach to losing fat, keeping lean muscles, and maintaining a healthy weight.

Rapid weight loss through excessive calorie-cutting dented Luke’s metabolism, caused muscle loss, created a nutritional deficiency, generated gallstones, and adversely affected his mental health, giving him mood swings and brain fog.

Our mood plays a crucial role in losing weight, especially for obese people with emotional eating problems. In addition, people with low moods struggle to maintain a healthy weight due to emotional attachment to food.

Since metabolism is dented during rapid weight loss programs, people quickly get back the weight they lost or gain more later. Therefore, unless prescribed by qualified healthcare professionals for underlying health issues, we must refrain from rapid weight loss.

Instead of visceral fat loss, rapid weight loss programs might cause losing fluid, muscle, and even bone density. Losing muscles and bone density can be detrimental to our health and lifespan.

In sustainable fat loss, the body mobilizes and burns fat molecules. Time is required for the body to adapt by creating the biochemicals needed for the process. Therefore intermittent fasting worked well for Luke.

Let’s keep in mind that while the body loses weight quickly, it temporarily fails to balance. The body stringently maintains homeostasis as the primary survival mechanism. As I introduced in a previous article, health revolves around homeostasis.

It is a minor issue, but after quick weight loss, people end up with too much loose skin, affecting their mood and self-confidence.

In my experience, fat loss is a kind of trade-off between comfort and desired results.

Without challenging our comfort with regular exercising, striving for nutritious food, fasting, and other healthy lifestyles, losing fat can be challenging unless medical procedures remove the fat. But even a medical operation brings discomfort to the body as it needs to heal after the surgery.

In my perspective, the ideal position to lose fat effectively is to enter the fat-adapted state. This requires some fundamentals in place before starting a program. This optimal strategy allows the body to naturally adapt to chemical changes to initiate fat loss.

As for takeaways for sustainable fat loss and healthy weight management, we may consider the following points:

1 — Refrain from rapid weight loss programs unless medically prescribed.

2 — Focus on consuming whole food in an adequate amount daily.

3 — Burn excess calories with regular exercise without overdoing it.

4 — Consider time-restricted eating, gradually skipping meals, and reducing snacks.

5 — Lower stress by improving sleep quality and resting adequately.

6 — Create meaningful connections, have fun, and seek help when needed.

I hope this story might inspire readers who consider sustainable fat loss, muscle retention, and healthy weight management to follow holistic health principles rather than fad diets or rapid weight loss programs.

I recently documented 7 Metabolic Issues to Shrink Waistlines and Protect Muscles. The story provides a holistic approach with practical tips for lowering visceral fat and maintaining lean muscles as we age.

Thank you for reading my perspectives. I wish you a healthy and happy life.

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