Where Is My Weight Hiding?

[Tobit 0]

I'm trying to understand why I weigh so much on the scale when I don't have major significant visual signs of fat. Everyone is shocked when I tell them how much I weigh, myself included, because they tell me it's not possible based on looking at me. Even my doctor was surprised at my last physical.I am male, 35, 73.5" tall and weighed 300 pounds two months ago. Today, after adjusting my diet, I am down to 290 pounds. Looking in the mirror, my fat is mostly in my belly and breasts but it doesn't look like 300 pounds to me nor anyone else. I have a 44" waist. My belly has not lapped over my belt. Most people guess my weight around 250 to 265. My cholesterol levels and blood pressure are perfect. However, I just recently learned that my testosterone levels are super low and I am seeing an Endocrinologist next week to begin injection therapy after trying gel therapy for 2 months with no positive results. No other health problems.I acknowledge that I am fat, and, according to clinical terms, obese, but I am just confused because I know people who actually look obese who weigh less than me and I am trying to understand why.According to all the charts, I am supposed to have a target weight of 174 pounds at my height. I was also just denied health insurance coverage for not being height/weight proportional. I can't imagine weighing only 174 pounds, I think I'd look like a toothpick at that weight. However, I do want to get my weight down to the 200 pound range.Very open to suggestions and feedback. Thanks

[Watermonkey 0]

Dude! I'm not a Dr. or anything, but DUDE! Your testosterone is low because of your diet! And perhaps your activity levels! Stay away from the needle pushers and do some research on the subject! For God's sake! I can't understand why people are so willing to blindly trust the medical community and so unwilling to trust their own intellectual prowess. Wake up! People who visit the medical establishment are much more likely to fall ill or die than those who don't. Don't get me wrong, I visit the doctor every now and again too, to maintain control over my asthma condition and for yearly checkups they require to maintain status at the Veterans Administration. But when some quack suggests I go on some new medication, I never let them just prescribe it without grilling them over the pros and cons. I hate taking meds, especially pills, and I'm a strict minimalist when it comes to drugs and hormones are very dangerous! Let your body do its work and if your lower levels of testosterone are irritating to you, change your diet and activity levels, walk a mile a day, cut out the sugar-water (all soda pop, all fruit juice -unless it's actually fresh squeezed by you personally), cut out all pre-packaged convenience "dinners" or other prepared foods, and eat natural whole food. If this is a problem, sit down with your significant other and explain that quality of life is more important than social status, eating out, diamonds, and nice cars. Tell her to quit her job and learn to cook, well. You and your spouse need to understand that without a healthy diet and having an active lifestyle, you'll loose quality of life, you'll fall ill more often, and you'll be far more likely to develop kidney disease and or diabetes -both of which are absolutely at a epidemic rate in developed countries and getting worse, not better! My wife retired early from a music career and was domestically challenged when I met her. She took the time to learn to cook, though, because we slowly realized that we were being poisoned by eating prepared food. So now she makes a 16 quart stockpot of soup that contains lentils, tomato paste, carrots, spinach, rosemary that is from a live plant that lives in the house during the winter and is transplanted in the garden in the summer months, other fresh spices grown here, (greens are generally grown in our garden too) chard, double filtered well water that contains no chemicals, and probably a few ingredients I'm not thinking of at this moment. It takes an entire day plus cool down overnight to make this wholesome staple and when it's cool the next day it goes into containers and into the freezer to wait for us to use it. A batch lasts several weeks as a rule. We eat it every day for lunch and feel less energetic when we don't get to have it. We eat cheese made from RAW cow's milk only thus we get the active enzymes with it, drink a glass or two of red wine from Europe during lunch. I even roast my own coffee beans, just to save money and obtain more control over the flavor and freshness. When the wife works at home, she isn't as exposed to the corrupt tax system, she doesn't spend money on the commute to and from work, doesn't waste money on the morning latte and pastry, doesn't waste money on lunch, doesn't have to buy the stylish expensive clothes or pretend to like people she can't stand. Working at home, she saves your health by preparing your nutritious lunch, making a fresh and from-scratch dinner, maintaining a clean and relaxing home environment for you to want to come to after a day at work. All these things are far more valuable than her work unless she's making a huge salary, in which case perhaps you should consider taking that traditionally female role and stay home from work. It's nearly impossible to experience a healthy lifestyle, truely healthy, when no one is at home all day preparing fresh, whole, natural, tasty food to nourish us. Americans (and presumably other developed countries) eat more empty calorie food than ever before and it's causing obesity and health problems like never before. It'll catch up with you sooner or later unless you make the educated informed changes. Think the Royals eat the garbage most people do? They do not. They actually have their own working farms that supply everything from RAW milk and cheese, organic beef and pork, you name it. They eat a diet completely segregated from the main stream food supply. Because they know the main food supply is full of toxins and poisons. You know how they know? ...

[Tobit 0]

Your testosterone is low because of your diet! And perhaps your activity levels!

Could you please cite some references on this? I have studied this problem since I was diagnosed with Hypogonadism three months ago and you are the only one who has ever said it was caused by diet. My diet isn't perfect but it's a lot better than it used to be and my tesosterone levels are getting lower not better.
Edit: The only link to diet and testosterone I have found is to make sure you eat plenty of foods high in Zinc just as red meat and certain fish. Well, I eat a lot of fish and meat already and very little of the junk you cite.

Thanks
Edited March 29, 2008 by Tobit (see edit history)

[Watermonkey 0]

Look, as I said from the beginning, I'm not a doctor or dietitian. And I'm sure your problems didn't start yesterday so you've done some homework on the subject. First question: Why is having lower testosterone bothering you? You're aware it decreases normally as we age, right? What is the significance of having lower testosterone such that you're considering actually getting shots?Second: Have you considered that simply being overweight is causing an imbalance? Even if it's not, it's not healthy either. Lose weight until you're at about 205 - 210 and see if you improve.What, specifically, do you eat and drink?Doctors have very little if any dietary education as a rule, so they're not going to suggest you tackle that aspect of your life. Changing your diet and eating right doesn't send their kids to Yale, you know? I've got considerably more dietary education than most physicians I've ever met and I've only studied it on my own time. Common sense rules the day, though, when we're talking about food. What you may not be aware of is McDonalds doesn't actually sell "food" in the strict sense of the word. The items people shove down their throats sold in fast food restaurants contain very little if any nutritional value, are shockingly high in sodium, are nearly all created in a laboratory in New Jersey, and many of the ingredients that are sold in Amerika are outlawed in many countries around the world. Two examples: Aspartame and MSG. Both of these chemicals have been shown in independent (suppressed) laboratory tests to cause diseases including but not limited to cancer. Both are found in copious quantities at your favorite fast food joint, and in other restaurants supplied by Sysco and other suppliers. It's increasingly difficult to find any food in a restaurant any more that is prepared from scratch from good wholesome ingredients and when you do it's probably going to cost you at least $50 per plate. All I'm saying is, the intrusion of a needle which bypasses all the body's natural defenses should be the very last option for a thinking reasonable person. Not the first option, or second, or third...Edit: I forgot to mention. Apparently some oils normally used for cooking (olive, peanut, rape seed, rice, sunflower, safflower...) contain either female hormones or male hormones. I don't recall which is which, but some research should reveal that answer.

Edited March 30, 2008 by Watermonkey (see edit history)

[bishoujo 0]

The physical structure of your body could also contribute to weight. I had a friend who's very slim, but her weight renders her to be nearly overweight. She said that her doctor said it's because her bones are heavy. I'm never very interested in biology, so I didn't bother to do any research, and I can't ascertain whether it's true. But I suppose some people who don't look fat could appear to be actually heavier than they look. For example, muscular people look trim and lean, but their muscles certainly contribute to their weight.I do suggest though, that you try to reduce your weight instead of worrying about weighing heavier than you look. At least get yourself down to 200lbs as you wanted to, then you can worry about the charts. If you have a healthy weight, you probably wouldn't even need to worry about health insurance for the moment.

Edited March 30, 2008 by bishoujo (see edit history)

[disneyreporter 0]

How muscular are you? A lot of times people who are out to lose weight sometimes end up gaining more weight because they end up building muscle. Muscle weighs a lot more than fat. Weight isn't always the issue. If you aren't huge (big belly, sagging skin, etc), then your weight probably isn't an issue. Just stay active!