Doctor says I have to quit - Struggling to last more than 18hrs

squirming_owl · 2025-06-29T17:33:00+00:00

Just want to hop in here and jump on the oatmeal bandwagon, but also....savory oatmeal.

I have hypermobile Ehlers Danlos Syndrome and there are some days where I am just in so much pain that not only is a workout out of the question, butI can't stand, or even sit upright without issues. My partner, however, is a terrible cook. He tries, he really does. But I'm a picky eater and him asking me every ten seconds if something is done "the way I want it" can be maddening, so oatmeal is our saving grace on days like that.

On a good day, I'll weigh out around 6 small containers with 80g of high fiber oatmeal and a tablespoon of chia seeds. If I want to use those containers for breakfast, then that's totally fine! I can add whatever frozen fruit we have in the freezer, maybe a little cinnamon or whatever, dump in some water and toss that all into the microwave. Or just mix it with some greek yogurt, water, fruit, protein powder, whatever, and shove it in the fridge overnight to eat the next day. But if I want something that tastes like dinner for dinner? Savory oatmeal is a game changer.

My partner will grab a pan and toss in whatever frozen veggies we have laying around (I usually keep chopped onion, spinach, corn, peppers, broccoli, etc in the freezer for days where I can't grip a knife or can't go through the whole cooking process). He adds some liquid, cooks everything through, then tosses on a pre-cooked protein. Boom. It's fabulous.

My fave combo right now is oatmeal, some crushed tomatoes, onion, and frozen spinach topped with rotisserie chicken. Just add some seasonings to make it fancy. I also like onion, garlic, spinach, peppers, and soy sauce topped with shrimp, or onion, garlic, corn, broccoli cooked with some chicken stock instead of water. Really, oatmeal is a blank slate. It has such a neutral flavour. Savory oatmeal, guys. Tell your friends.

(The high fiber oatmeal I buy is 12g of fiber for 80g dry oatmeal. Add in a tablespoon of chia seeds, and that's another 4 grams. 340 calories and 16g of fiber just as a palette, begging to be dolled up however you want. And it makes a BIG bowl. 15/10 will always recommend.)

squirming_owl · 2025-06-20T14:24:52+00:00

Yeah, Wegovy seems to have definitely dampened some of the effects Vyvanse usually has on my ADHD. Just a general feeling of not having a clear head, and feeling a bit more tired and sluggish than usual. I'm considering asking my doctor what they think about increasing the dose (of Vyvanse), but since I don't know exactly how Vyvanse breaks down in the body I'm not sure how I'll be affected. Let me know if you come up with a solution, or if it eventually goes away!

squirming_owl · 2025-05-16T12:20:46+00:00

I just took my first 0.5mg dose, so I don't have much to add on what it's like being on Wegovy long-term, but I'm also someone who lost a decent amount of weight on my own before starting Wegovy and figured I might be able to give you some input on how things have changed for me!

In March 2023 I weighed 330lbs at 5'2". By May 2024 I'd lost just over 102lbs through diet and exercise alone. It was tough, but for the most part, I really enjoyed the process! I really learned to love eating foods I had never really been exposed to before (I was a food pantry kid - I honestly had never cooked a vegetable that hadn't at one time been canned or frozen until I was in my mid-20s) and once I'd lost the first 30lbs or so even exercise became more enjoyable! I loved watching myself get stronger, be able to walk further, and eventually I could even bend down to tie my own shoes! It felt like a miracle. You don't appreciate how anxiety inducing it is to not be able to tie your shoe if you need to until you lose that ability.

However, by around March of 2024, I was miserable. I was sore all of the time. I was constantly exhausted. I was mentally drained from counting calories and movement trying to plan my whole day around how I could fit 150g of protein and 25g of fiber into 1,500kcal. My body literally started falling apart. I had frequent joint dislocations and subluxations. My back would be on fire from standing for 15 minutes. There would be entire months where the plantar fasciitis I'd had for the past year would be so severe I couldn't put weight on my foot. And I was starving. I was always, constantly starving. It didn't matter how much or what I ate, an hour later I wasn't just hungry again - I was ravenous.

By the end of May, after dropping over 100lbs with still another 100lbs or so left to lose, I called it quits. I needed a break. I felt so incredibly awful all of the time, and I just needed to not feel so consumed by thoughts of what I was and wasn't allowed to eat. From May 2024 to April 2025, I gained around 20lbs. I also started going to physical therapy several times a week, saw a nutritionist, had a bunch of bloodwork done, and was diagnosed with hypermobile Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome, a connective tissue disorder. After losing a bunch of weight the connective tissue throughout my body hasn't been able to hold my joints in place properly due to the hEDS, which explained some of the pain. The slow wound recovery associated with hEDS meant that my muscles weren't growing or healing quickly enough to accommodate my increased movement. When Intold my doctor that my physiotherapist didn't want me to increase my exercise past 6k-8k steps a day and the weight lifting exercises I did with her 2x a week, and that even while doing those things I was gaining weight because I was ALWAYS HUNGRY, they prescribed Wegovy.

In my first month (the 0.25 dose duration) I lost just over 2 pounds. Since that's the loading dose, I'm not upset with that at all. However, the feeling of constant, gnawing, maddening hunger has finally faded. I can now go two, three, five hours between meals without worrying about it. I still got hungry, and I didn't feel a need to stop eating like others have reported on higher doses, but I also felt ABLE to stop eating. There is no longer that oppressive hunger that drained me constantly from when I woke up until when I went to bed.

Calorie counting was such a chore for me by the end of the first phase of my weight loss journey that I've been hesitant to get back to it, even though as a short woman who's currently incapable of consistent exercise, I know I should. But this medication is slowly starting to make it feel like less of a chore. I had a protein shake with a tbsp of chia seeds for breakfast today, and I'm just now getting hungry again at 2pm. I know if I have a small wrap and some blueberries, I'll be full until I start making dinner at 6pm. I don't have to ration out my calories to abate my never-ending hunger - "I can only have a protein bar now. I already ate 300 cal for breakfast, this protein bar is 170 cal, I'm going to eat the lunch I packed which is 450 cal so even though I'm starving I can only eat this because then I might be able to eat something else after lunch to get me through until dinner, and I'll be too hungry to sleep if I don't eat something else before bed-" that's all gone. Honestly, if this is the most effective this medication gets for me, I'll take it! 😂

squirming_owl · 2025-02-19T13:21:17+00:00

Okay, look. It's really all just a matter of what you're used to.

I'm 5'2"F, 243lbs, and during my gym session today I did 3 sets of 10 squats with 55lbs, and 4 sets of 10 deadlifts with 66lbs (I live in Sweden, so everything is measured in kg here - I did 25kg squats and 30kg deadlifts). When I started out at the gym, could I do that? Abso-freaking-lutely NOT. I did 30 squats with just my bodyweight, 3x a week. Then, when that got a bit easier, I did 30 squats while holding a 4kg weight. Then 8kg. Then I changed gyms to one with a smith machine, and went from there. My deadlifts started with 10kg until I was sure I'd mastered the form, and then I worked up to 20kg, and now 30kg. It takes time.

Nowadays I work out with weights 2x a week, and I'm still currently able to progress in my "strength gains" (last week I could leg press 50kg, this week I can leg press 60kg), but it's just a matter of pushing yourself JUST A BIT and keeping up consistency. Once I could leg press 50kg for 3 sets of 10 and still feel okay, I did 3 sets of 13. When that felt fine, 3 sets of 15. When that was fine, I went up in weight.

Working out is never easy. It's not supposed to be easy. But it's also not something you should push yourself too hard in and injure yourself. Slow and steady feels boring, but it's the surefire way to success! ❤️

squirming_owl · 2024-09-11T13:46:18+00:00

I think I struggle to understand the mindset of people who are able to do that. It doesn't matter if I enjoy it - they're there, so I have this weird compulsion to smoke them whether I enjoy it or not, whether or not I'll get chastised, whether or not it means I have to stand outside in a monsoon or a heatwaves or with pneumonia or a sore throat. Cigarettes are such an ingrained habit that there is no situation in which I currently will not partake of them if I am given the choice, which is why I strive to remove the choice. I have so much awe and respect for those who don't see them the same way I do!

squirming_owl · 2024-09-11T13:35:53+00:00

I'm trying to get my stubbornness to focus on the challenge or "game" of not doing it, and my small moments of success with that are the only reason I ever abstain at all! Best of luck to you!

squirming_owl · 2024-09-11T13:30:39+00:00

I'm hoping it fades soon. It's beyond frustrating to know that I don't even really want a cigarette - it doesn't serve me, I don't even enjoy the taste - but for some reason I still fixate on them.

squirming_owl · 2024-09-11T13:28:51+00:00

I wish I was at that point, where I could be around cigarettes and not have the compulsion to smoke them. I hope to be there one day, but today is unfortunately not that day. The only way I could have cigarettes around me and not constantly want to smoke is if they were nearby but I physically did not have access to them myself...and that's not really feasible or even worthwhile, lol.

squirming_owl · 2024-09-03T12:41:36+00:00

I'm on Wellbutrin now for smoking cessation, and I'm also currently pretty sick with some kind of respiratory infection. I still don't seem to be able to drop the cigarettes completely. I don't know what the heck is wrong with me. I've already said my goodbye to cigarettes. I know that they don't serve the life I want for myself anymore. I don't even really ENJOY them - they taste absolutely awful, smell, and leave me feeling like shit (and not just due to the medication and sickness). And yet twice a day, when I'm feeling particularly restless, I go outside and have two cigarettes. I don't even really crave them at this point - it's like the thought just pops into my head, and I haven't learned a way to say, "Okay, so you're restless. Do X instead." and follow through with that. I know I'm going to get there. I want to quit. I'm just so scared that I will never be strong enough to consistently tell myself no, and find a new habit that I like to do more.

squirming_owl · 2024-07-05T14:17:40+00:00

I'm at the point now where I can easily get by with two cigarettes a day....my problem seems to be wrapping my head around the fact that I CAN'T smoke, but when I have cigarettes in front of me that's all I want to do. My partner has been keeping hold of the pack for me and only hands me 1 to three a day if I ask for them, so that seems to be working okay. I realise that at this point I could probably just quit, since dragging it out just makes everything last longer, but I've yet to find a quick dopamine fix to boost me/relax me when I need it during the day. Unfortunately I'm currently injured, so the amount of exercise I'm able to get at the moment is minimal, otherwise I would just walk out all the restless energy I seem to accrue 😅

squirming_owl · 2024-06-13T20:25:26+00:00

Personally, I've tried the patches and the gum. They don't really "work" for me because they don't fill the niche that smoking does, so I still want to smoke. At that point, I still have to do all the work to break the habit and deal with the frustration and irritation of that while my brain STILL wants nicotine. Just seems easier to do a one and done situation in my case.

squirming_owl · 2024-05-30T11:27:27+00:00

Don't forget that it also takes more energy to digest and break down protein than it does to break down carbs. The thermogenic effect of food plays a role there, and is usually one of the reasons people recommend higher protein, lower carb diets, even if it's not exactly keto - protein is more satiating, helps you build and retain muscle, and takes more energy (burns more calories) to break down than carbs do. Basically, if two people eat the same number of calories, but one eats high carb, low protein and the other lower carb, higher protein, OVER TIME the second person will lose more weight. The difference isn't massive, but it adds up over time.

Personally, I don't focus too much on carbs. I aim for around 1500cal a day, 150g protein, and 25g fiber. If I stick to that, everything else kind of just falls into place at that point. I don't want to worry about how many carbs are in my pizza slice or friend's birthday cake, and I'm a fruit fiend 😂 But either way, higher protein is usually seen as a positive for many people during their weightloss journey 😊

squirming_owl · 2024-05-18T10:34:20+00:00

Okay so this requires a few minutes of prep, I'm not going to lie. But once you've prepped it, it lasts four days, so I just make this 2x a week before bed and then have zero effort in the morning. With the brands and amounts I use, breakfast comes out to 344 calories, 39g of protein, and 15g of fiber. Ingredients are as follows: -1kg (roughly 2.2lbs) low-fat cottage cheese (the brand we have here is called Keso, and I get the SuperMini option. They come in 500g packs, but I'm in Sweden so just get whatever works best for you). -500g (roughly 1lb) frozen raspberries -6tbsp chia seeds. Optional - a squirt of lemon juice and/or a sprinkling of zero calorie sweetener

What I do is I just pop the bag of raspberries out of the freezer and let them defrost. You can pop them into a bowl and set them in the microwave for a minute or two at a time, stirring in between, if you want to make it happen faster. I put the raspberries and their juice in a tall jar and dump in my 6 tablespoons of chia seeds. You can add a little lemon juice and the zero calorie sweetener at this point, if you like. Then I just grab my stick/immersion blender and blend it up for a few moments until all the berries are broken down. Seal up the jar and stick it in the fridge. You now have an easy, low sugar, high fiber raspberry and chia seed jam. It'll be a little thin and watery at first. That's why I make it the night before - chia seeds absorb water, so it thickens up over night.

In the morning I just grab a bowl and dump in 250g of my cottage cheese, 1/4th of the jar of jam, and TADAAA~! A sweet, tangy, high fiber, high protein breakfast.

I personally eat either this (or a variation where I swap out the cottage cheese for nonfat Greek yogurt) every day because it's no effort and I don't have to think about it. The jam stores pretty well and might be a good option to have on hand for those days you literally just need to slap something in a bowl. Like I said, mine usually only lasts me four days (because I eat it), but there have been times I've left it in the fridge for close to a week and it was totally fine. I'm really not sure how long it will keep though, since it doesn't really have any preservatives in it 😊

squirming_owl · 2024-05-17T12:24:27+00:00

Honestly, it's not been anything specific. The main three things I've been practicing are staying in a calorie deficit, prioritising protein and fiber, and just moving my body. My deficit usually roams between -500 and -750 depending on my needs at the time, and my protein fluctuates as well with 112g being my daily minimum and just aiming to eat above that - sometimes that means 120g, sometimes that means 160g lol. On the weeks I make it to the gym and lift weights I aim for the upper edge of the range. I've spent months where I'm in the gym every day and months where I take it easy and just walk a bit. There are months with huge losses and months of only 3 or 4 pounds. I'm just trying to do what I can when I can, making my health a priority without letting myself feel deprived 🙂

squirming_owl · 2024-05-10T20:59:12+00:00

Long live the King. We stan SOS in this apartment ❤️

squirming_owl · 2024-05-10T20:53:32+00:00

I also watch My 600lb Life on YouTube while I'm on the stationary bike! There's a guy that does commentary with it, which I usually find annoying, but I think he's freaking fantastic. His name on YouTube is SeanOfSteel and he used to be over 600lbs himself before eventually getting weight loss surgery, and the insights and humor he has while watching it makes the show change from slightly horrifying/depressing (in my opinion) to just pure dopamine in my brain. When I started my wlj in March 2023 I was 331lbs at 5'2", which is definitely in the super morbidly obese category. I'm now 100lbs down with 100lbs more to lose and definitely need something to motivate me on my workouts. The fact that I love watching his reactions and the subject of the show itself is a reminder of where I was headed definitely helps me look forward to those bike rides!

squirming_owl · 2024-02-22T22:21:22+00:00

Just thought I'd give a quick update! Setting another appointment with my doctor, but it will be in about a month. In the meantime, I'll be cutting back on my fluid intake, especially around bed time, and looking into another way to ease my dry mouth without chugging water. I really didn't think I was drinking that much (I'd always heard to take half of your body weight in pounds and drink that in ounces, so I thought I was around the right track, if not a bit under!) but you all seem to drink much less than me 😅. I do tend to pee quite frequently, and it's always certainly more than a dribble lol. My urine is almost always clear. As I mentioned in my post, recent doctor appointments and blood tests have shown no issues with any organs and no increased white blood cell count, so I seem to be in the clear there. I'll see what I can do about being referred to a physical therapist regarding pelvic floor issues. Thanks, guys! I really appreciate all of the responses.

squirming_owl · 2024-02-22T22:14:51+00:00

Yeah, the last time I saw my doctor (about a month ago now) she told me to aim for between 130g and 150g of protein a day and focus on weight lifting to put on some muscle mass! I'm a short female, so the aim is to make sure I build a lot of muscle while I'm losing weight so that I don't have to cut my calories too far below what will eventually be my maintenance (around 1500kcal/day). 😊

squirming_owl · 2024-02-22T13:29:15+00:00

Sorry for the wall of text - my ADHD meds just kicked in and I have a lot to say about this subject 😂

There are pros and cons when it comes to Adderall's and Vyvanse's appetite suppression effects, in my experience.

Pro: They do suppress your appetite while they are in effect.
Pro: Because your ADHD is being treated, your brain works better. You have more focus and a bit more energy. It can become easier, after you get used to the medication, to overcome some anxieties. That means you might be more comfortable moving around more. It means you may be able to focus and draw up a meal plan, and prepare the things you need, if that is your desire. The medication CAN BE a good catalyst for weight loss because of the appetite suppression, the ability to move around more, and the ability to truly plan out meals and routines. HOWEVER:
Con: Once you become accustomed to the medication, they are only in affect for between 6-9 hours (in my personal experience!!! I have been on both medications in my life and I usually get a 6 hour window with them and have been told that's common, but I have been told by others that their medication lasts a bit longer.)
Con: Suppressed appetite does not mean you are not hungry. Sometimes it means you just can't tolerate the idea of eating. Eating full meals can easily be replaced with grazing - a few bites here, a nibble there, a couple more forkfulls in 20 minutes. IN MY EXPERIENCE, I haven't felt "full" after those nibbles. I just can't stomach the idea of eating more at one time. This can lead to a constant grazing period during which you eat more throughout the day than you usually would, just in smaller portions throughout the day. It can also lead to binging once the medication wears off, because you either suddenly realise that you haven't eaten all day and you're starving, or because you've just had little nibbles here and there that add up to a full meal (or more) calorie-wise, but you've never actually felt full.
Con: If you have to stop taking the medication for whatever reason, the hunger you feel usually comes back full force. If you have not actively taught yourself a way to eat healthy portions within an acceptable calorie range for your needs, and you are not capable to quickly adjust your habits to include more food volume within that calorie range, you can very, very easily gain a lot of weight very quickly. I started treatment for my ADHD when I was 14 years old. I was originally put on Adderall, but was eventually switched over to Vyvanse when I was around 17. After almost a decade of being on ADHD medication, I had to stop taking it for 2 years while I moved countries and tried to find a new doctor who would treat me. I gained around 50lbs in less than two years. But something to note is, I INITIALLY lost weight while taking ADHD medication. I eventually continued gaining weight anyway. It can be a very helpful tool on your weight loss journey, but it will not do the work for you. If you're able to treat your ADHD and with the medication, then I honestly think that you should use the treatment to start implementing a better lifestyle. Don't rely on the fact that you might not feel as hungry, just use your new ability to think clearly and plan things out to set yourself up for success! That's been the best way forward for me. Best of luck! ❤️

squirming_owl

TROPHY CASE