boysmom

I went gluten-free last June. At that time I weighed about 224 and was eating 800 - 1200 calories a day (all I could eat that last month or so was eggs, yogurt, oatmeal, and an occasional potato because my stomach was so upset everything I ate made me sick). Even eating so little I was not losing weight. After eliminating the gluten I dropped 25 pounds by Thanksgiving (end of Nov). My weight leveled off over the winter, then I gained back about 5 pounds. Now that spring has begun to return I've dropped that 5 pounds in the last couple of weeks and hope to start heading back down again.

In my case, one of the keys to weight loss for me is that I have to make myself eat enough. If I stop when I'm satisfied I'll eat about 1300-1400 calories, and gain weight. If I boost to 1500-1600 I level out. I have to log my food and watch carefully to get 1800 calories consistently to lose. I know it's counterintuitive, but it's what has worked for me. I suspect part of my plateau this winter is because after losing 25 pounds I thought I should drop that level a bit (shouldn't need so many calories now, right?) WRONG. Now that I'm pushing 1800 consistently again, I've lost that 5 I picked back up.

I would strongly suggest logging food. Not only does it help you be aware of how often you eat too much or too little food, but it also can help to pinpoint other dietary sensitivities that may crop up during the healing process. I've discovered, for example, I need to watch nightshades, although I never knew I had a problem with that until the gluten cleared out of my system.

I know some do it manually, but I use Sparkpeople.com Their website has calorie counts of many plain foods, as well as name brands and even many gluten-free products, so I'm not always having to find calorie counts myself. You can also log things like how much water you drink daily, which vitamins you're getting enough of, etc which can be helpful for getting back on top of low levels.

Thanks, Lisa, that is promising that patience may pay off.

Neroli, it looks to me (from your sig info) like you're still fairly recently off nightshades as well? So maybe after some more time you will be able to add a limited amount back in.

I first noticed that potatoes caused abdominal bloating shortly after eating, and overall water retention and joint irritation/inflammation by the next morning. As time went on I began to react similarly to tomatoes and peppers and I had a really BAD experience with a plate of eggplant and zucchini very early in my gluten-free life (don't think I like eggplant enough in the first place to make it worth risking that again). As I thought back I remembered that I have in the past had D and cramps with green peppers occasionally, which I had blamed on the wax the groceries shined them with. It didn't happen every time I ate them, but I only remember it happening with raw green peppers. One of my gluten symptoms is that in the night I begin to feel short of breath and my heart rate speeds up a little and feels like my heart is pounding out of my chest... so much so that I can see my stomach jump and hear my heart in my ears. With nightshades I have a much milder version that I can usually ignore and go back to sleep, whereas with gluten I will be up for a couple of hours before it settles enough I can sleep.

I would probably ignore a little stomach irritation and even the heart pounding, but the 3 days of joint inflammation and water retention are too much to ignore. I find that now that I'm getting used to feeling good so much of the time I have a very low tolerance for feeling less than optimal. LOL

Once I got the gluten out of my system, I became aware of a similar, but slightly milder, reaction to nightshade vegetables. I am avoiding them (mostly) but feeling the loss of tomatoes and bell peppers even more than wheat. I'm wondering whether this is an outright allergy, another sensitivity or intolerance, or just being unable to digest them at this stage of healing. I've been gluten-free since the beginning of June and the only other sensitivities I've noticed so far seem to be manageable on a rotation schedule (ie as long as I only eat them every 3 days or so I don't have a problem). I did have to limit corn and rice for the first few months, but haven't noticed any problem with those for a while. So can anyone offer me hope that one day I will be able to eat tomatoes again? If so, how long did it take you to heal enough to eat them safely?

I was diagnosed 8 years ago with 'panic attacks' after a brief bout with some sort of episode where it felt like heat exploded in my chest, spread throughout my body, my heart started pounding, I felt nauseous and like I couldn't get my breath. Afterward I was totally drained, weak, and shaky. Each episode became milder and farther apart until about 6-8 weeks after the first, and strongest, they didn't happen any more.

Over the intervening years I may have had 3 or 4 more isolated and very mild attacks, until about 6 weeks ago when I went to the ER believing I was having a heart attack. This one was MUCH stronger and came in waves separated by strong shaking in between. After and EKG and some time on a heart monitor they decided what was happening was an esophageal spasm and gave me a cocktail that stopped the whole thing in its tracks. During the time they were running the tests the waves had become mild enough that by the time they made the diagnosis I had finally recognized it as the same attacks I'd had 8 years ago. I'm not trying to say none of you are really having panic attacks, I'm just wondering how common this misdiagnosis is, because aside from the potential for neurological effects, this could explain a simply digestive reason some of you might notice an improvement.

I'm still in the testing stage to find out if I have celiac or gluten intolerance, but my own experiments with eating gluten free have shown that eating gluten free for about 3 days seems to cause a HUGE improvement in my overall health not just the attacks, but if I eat gluten the attacks start again, although blessedly milder than the one that sent me to the ER.