theslickpanther
New Member
Background:
6'2, 250 pounds, male, 25 years old. 5 years ago I was fairly fit and healthy, 185 pounds, worked out 5 times a week. After low calorie dieting for 1 year to try to cut my small amount of belly fat (which didn't work) and having no energy, I gave up on dieting and very quickly gained about 30 pounds of fat, as well as stretch marks on my belly. I then tried low carb, and eating only one meal a day, which made me gain an extra 10 or 15 pounds across the following year or two. Then, since that wasn't working, i tried doing fairly extreme fasts (7 day fasts, 3 day dry fasts, extended periods of one meal every 2 days, etc), which ultimately made me gain another 15 or 20 pounds or so. In those 5 years, strictly avoided sugar, but also avoided almost all PUFA (high fat diet). My energy from 5 years ago has never come back since dieting, and if anything is much worse after all the low carb and fasting.
Finding Ray:
About a year ago, I found Ray's work, and slowly started adding sugar and fruit into my diet, as well as gelatin, coffee, etc. All this extra sugar didn't make me gain weight (but didn't make me lose weight either), to my pleasant surprise, and made my brain fog disappear as well as generally feeling all around better and happier. About 4 months ago, I decided I wanted to try to lose weight again, so, after listening to Ray mention this weight loss diet in an interview with the Strong Sistas, I did a diet of just milk, OJ, 1 carrot and 1 egg a day. I lost about 8 pounds in the first month, which ever since has also stopped working to lose weight. Since this diet was tiring and I had stopped losing weight for a month or two, i have slowly added back in other fruits, honey and cheese.
I have also recently started talking IdeaLab's Tyromax, going at about the equivalent 1.5 grains for the first 2 weeks, before upping it to 4 grains for the following two weeks, since I wasn't getting any effects from 1.5 grains (and Dr Broda Barnes says 4 grains is the upper limit one should take of thyroid). This hasn't affected my weight at all, and has infact made me very tired. I am planning on taking a few days/weeks off from thyroid, since it isn't working and is making me tired.
I have absolutely no energy for working out, which I used to enjoy quite a lot before dieting and fasting, and struggle to complete even a few sets of exercises before being way too tired to continue.
My diet is quite peaty (milk, juice, fruit, honey, cheese, coffee, red meat + bone broth, sugar, coconut oil and butter, daily carrot salad, weekly oysters + liver).
Lifestyle wise I went through a fairly stressful period 2-3 years ago, but I am no longer very stressed, and make sure to get some sun and walk each day.
What Do I Do?
Can anyone advise me on how to actually lose weight and regain my energy? I feel like nothing at all works for me, and can barely even imagine successfully losing weight anymore (learned helplessness?) after trying and failing so many different things.
I am currently thinking of perhaps needing to supplement pregnenolone/DHEA (even though I am fairly young, which makes me think they probably wont work for me, but I don't have many other ideas), or even progesterone (which Ray mentions in Nutrition for Women section on Fasting as being the only steroid capable of restoring the thymus after damage from fasting, but I am a bit iffy on this as a young man since it can shrink penis etc).
Please recommend any ideas to me that could help me break out of this slump, regain my energy for working out and lose my excess 50 pounds of weight. Seems like absolutely nothing works for me. Open to any and all ideas.