I'm posting as I'm at my wit's end with this and feel so lost. I'm F, short and weight 78 kg, starting 88 kg. Classed as obese, trying to lose weight for health reasons.
When I put my stats into the TDEE online calculators, they all give around 1300-1400 calories as my basal metabolism. I live a very sedentary lifestyle now because of Covid restrictions, used to do cardio 4 times a week. Now I just walk my dogs for an hour a day and WFH, never get my heart rate up so I disregard any calories that could be burned through exercise.
So going off 1400 a day to maintain, I started eating 1100-1200 calories a day. I am very meticulous now about calorie counting, I've looked up calories from things I used to eat and I was easily eating 3500+ a day.
I was fine at this amount for about 2 months, then I started to suffer from alarming heart problems. I would be kept awake at night with palpitations + other physical symptoms. One night it was so bad I was about to phone an ambulance, but my family made me some food and I felt a bit better.
I got in touch with my doctor and they said I should have gone to the emergency room from the symptoms I was describing, so I know I'm not overreacting. The doctor sent me for blood tests, ECG, scans - nothing wrong with me. No deficiencies or anything unusual. My blood pressure is a bit high but it was the same as it was a year prior (hence wanting to lose weight!) and not high enough to cause alarm. I was frustrated, and kept eating 1800-2000ish calories a day as eating less calories was the only lifestyle change I'd made, so I thought it might be the cause of the heart problems, and upped my calories.
I wasn't bothered by the heart palpitations for 2 months. I was back to normal. But I wasn't losing any weight, just maintaining. So I dropped my calories again, down to 1400 this time. Slow and steady, I thought. The heart palpitations came back within a week, and I did lose weight that week finally.
I'm so frustrated! The only way I can lose weight is to keep my calories that low, and yet I get these terrifying heart issues when I do! I don't feel dizzy or light-headed or even hungry when I eat 1200-1400 calories, I feel satisfied. But my heart starts giving me problems.
I don't know what to do, I need and want to lose weight, and I'm capable of doing it but when the palpitations start I don't sleep all night long, and then I can't function properly at work because I haven't slept. My doctor has said everything is fine, nothing is showing up as wrong. Are palpitations just part and parcel of weight loss? I've really been on a weight loss journey in the past so I don't know if this is a normal way for the body to behave.
I don't want to lose weight but end up at a healthy weight with heart problems, that would defeat the purpose. But I need to lower my blood pressure for my long term health, and my doc said the obesity is the lifestyle factor I should focus on because I don't drink or smoke.
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source https://www.reddit.com/r/loseit/comments/n0vzcw/do_you_always_have_to_suffer_through_heart/
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