"Maximum Weight Loss Diet" and rheumatoid arthritis

[Plants4Life]

Hello,
I have a rather paradox problem and really need help. I am 18 years old and was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis at the age of 8.
Through the years I went true high doses of Iboprofen (1600mg a day), but nothing really helped. Then 4 years ago I heard that the vegan diet could benefit me with this condition. Back then I didnt knew about the HFPBNO approach by Dr. McDougall, so I had a very standard unhealthy vegan diet loaded with oil and processed food. But surprisingly my rheumatoid arthritis went away and I didnt had to take any more drugs for several years, because I had no pain and all the inflamation markers were normal. Six moths ago I discovered Nina and Randa, because I stuggled with acne, bought their book "The clear skin diet", and changed my diet to HFPBNO without overt fats to clear my acne. Two months ago I noticed the pain coming back slightly and now I have pain in my knees, hips and schoulders again. Also my c-reactive protein is back up. This is very confusing and depressing because my current diet (six months now) is obviously much healthier than my previous junk vegan diet. My doctor wants to put me on 1800mg of Iboprofen, but I am really sceptical and dont want to go back on drugs.

In a day I eat:
oats, banana, blueberries

millet, kale, broccoli, tomatoes, beans

brown rice, peas, kale

Macros: 80 10 10 Carbs: 550g Fat: 40g. Protein 120g

In the process of clearing my skin (Till now I didnt manage to fully clear my acne) I went through an elimination diet (only brown rice, sweet potatoes, kale, beans, broccoli, approximately 2500 kcals) for 1 months but that didnt healped my rheumatoid arthritis and didnt cleared my acne.

I dont use oil and never cheated just once in those six months. Because I lost weight (6kg), and now am slightly underweight 60kg for 5'9 181cm I eat many calories (3300, before 2500 kcals) to try gaining my weight back and to not further lose more weight (unfortunately that didnt helped till now). I thought about, that this could be the trigger for my rheumatoid arthritis but I'm not sure. And If so what could I do? I cant risk to lose more weight and already eat in the concept of caloric density (bulk is beans, whole grains), but at the same time dont want to go back to this unhealthy vegan diet that confusingly fixed my RA problems, because I dont want my acne to become worse...

Any help is apprechiated and I am really interested If somebody can explain me why my rheumatoid arthritis is coming back on this healthy diet, that should make it go away...

Kind Regards!

[GeoffreyLevens]

Welcome! I would suggest writing in detail everything you ate regularly on your previous diet in one list and same for current diet in another. See what the differences are, both in what you are and what you are not eating now compared to then. And check your pm's

[DanTheYogi]

brown rice, sweet potatoes, kale, beans, broccoli

It's very possible you were reacting to one of these foods. As Jeff always says, no food is safe until you have tested it.

For me, I have a very sensitive stomach, and I have found it is often the quantity of certain foods and not necessarily any one particular food. If I eat too much bulky, high fiber foods, I get IBS-like symptoms. Often times the dose makes the poison.

[calvin]

...I...now am slightly underweight 60kg for 5'9 181cm... I eat many calories (3300, before 2500 kcals) to try gaining my weight back and to not further lose more weight (unfortunately that didnt helped till now)...

You mention "80 10 10 Carbs: 550g Fat: 40g. Protein 120g".

500g Carbs = 4x550 cal Carbs = 2200 cal Carbs = 72%
40g Fat = 9x40 cal Fat = 360 cal Fat = 12%
120g Protein = 4x120 cal Protein = 480 cal Protein = 16%
Total calories = 2200 + 360 + 480 = 3040 Total calories

Regarding your weight/height:
60kg = 132lbs
181cm = 71in = 5' 11"
This indicates a BMI = 18.4.
That's a very respectable BMI. I don't understand why you feel you need to gain weight.

[Lyndzie]

You are at a healthy weight for your height. Teens have a different BMI chart than adults.

https://www.cdc.gov/healthyweight/bmi/calculator.html

[calvin]

Both the Adult BMI Calculator and the Child and Teen BMI Calculator at

https://www.cdc.gov/healthyweight/assessing/index.html

and the NIH,

https://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/educat ... micalc.htm

all three, agree with an 18.4BMI for Plants4Life.

Apparently an 18y/o is close enough to adulthood for BMI calculation purposes.
Nor does it matter in this particular case whether "Girl" or "Boy" is chosen in the child/teen calculator.

[Lyndzie]

Maybe I input the wrong numbers. I got a BMI of 18.7. Not a big difference, true. Many people are not done growing or “filling out” yet by the age of 18, and will continue to mature over the next 4 years still.

[Plants4Life]

Hello,
as i mentioned in this post: viewtopic.php?f=7&t=59113, I suffer from Juvenile Rheumatoid Arthritis! Since I have a doctors appointment next week, I have to decide what my next steps should be. As I explained in the recent post, I was one year or more symptom free without any drougs, but as I switched 5 months ago to the maximum weight loss diet for batteling my acne I experience symptoms again. I have to add that the pain came back as It got colder, that may have an influence on the disease. Because I dont wan't to go again on a high dose of nonsteroidal anti inflammatory drugs I wan't to know what else I can do. Since the pain came back after ditching nuts and seeds, my first thought was, that It could have something to do with having less omega 3 in my diet, eventhough cronometer sais I get enough of that (1.7g). Schould I introduce some more overt fats again to see If it get's better, eventhough my skin will get significantly worse? Another thought of mine is, that I eat to much calories (3500), because when eating less I tend to get underweight (62 kg, 181cm). I also browsed through the forum and many people say that the elimination diet could solve my problem. Can I cure my Juvenile Rheumatoid Arthritis savely with the ED? I am afraid that I will lose more weight wehen on the ED even if I eat high calories, since beans are not allowed. Any help is apprechiated, right now I'm feeling very helpless...

[jamietwo]

Welcome! I would suggest writing in detail everything you ate regularly on your previous diet in one list and same for current diet in another. See what the differences are, both in what you are and what you are not eating now compared to then. And check your pm's

I would do what Geoffrey suggested above. Instead of doing a full-fledged elimination diet, this will help you identify the foods you are eating in more quantity now than you did before. Try eliminating those foods first to see if your symptoms are relieved. If so, you can add them back, one at a time to find out which one(s) is/are a problem. I understand your concerns about your weight. I always lose weight on an ED, but taking this approach should help you find the problem fairly quickly. Good Luck!

[Plants4Life]

Welcome! I would suggest writing in detail everything you ate regularly on your previous diet in one list and same for current diet in another. See what the differences are, both in what you are and what you are not eating now compared to then. And check your pm's

I would do what Geoffrey suggested above. Instead of doing a full-fledged elimination diet, this will help you identify the foods you are eating in more quantity now than you did before. Try eliminating those foods first to see if your symptoms are relieved. If so, you can add them back, one at a time to find out which one(s) is/are a problem. I understand your concerns about your weight. I always lose weight on an ED, but taking this approach should help you find the problem fairly quickly. Good Luck!

Before I went on the MWL I ate the same foods, only that I also included high fat foods. The only difference are the overt fat foods. I thought It could be a lack of DHA, so I introduced back flax seed for two weeks witch the result that my acne got worse but the pain didn't went away. So after two weeks I decided to go back to the MWL. Jamietwo I read through your blog posts about your ED. In the end you say that you have to take a medication to control your pain levels, so did the ED not work for you? Thats discouraging to hear...
Greetings!

[jamietwo]

Jamietwo I read through your blog posts about your ED. In the end you say that you have to take a medication to control your pain levels, so did the ED not work for you? Thats discouraging to hear...

But I haven't given up on the ED. Perhaps I shouldn't offer input since I'm not yet a success story, but I plan to be someday!

Of course, there are no guarantees that an ED will work.

Best of luck to you.

[Plants4Life]

Jamietwo I read through your blog posts about your ED. In the end you say that you have to take a medication to control your pain levels, so did the ED not work for you? Thats discouraging to hear...

But I haven't given up on the ED. Perhaps I shouldn't offer input since I'm not yet a success story, but I plan to be someday!

Of course, there are no guarantees that an ED will work.

Best of luck to you.

Ok good to hear! Reading your Blog it sounds like you really put much effort in your journey, that's great! I'm just not convinced to 100% if the ED is worth the try. I would say that my pain levels are rather moderate, but I can still feel the pain and it's annoying, next week I schould know how high my c reactive protein is. I just don't wan't to take those nonsteroidal anti inflammatory drugs again, because they really mess up your gut in the long term... Also I'm 18 years old and don't know if It's really safe in that age to be so restrictive. Also you mentioned having headache. I have the same problem, most of the days I feel lightheaded/ headache and I'm curious If you got rid of the headaches?

Greetings!

[jamietwo]

I'm curious If you got rid of the headaches?

Hmmm, I don't normally get headaches, so I went back to my journal and searched for headache. I only found one reference! Definitely not a regular occurrence with me - thankfully!

I'm sorry you're experiencing headaches - or any of this at such a young age. The doctors first suspected I had Lupus in 1999 when doing pregnancy lab work. I was formally diagnosed in 2003, and I didn't medicate until 2013, so I had a 14-year run with no meds. Had I not been the sole provider for my family and also homeschooling my child, I might have chosen not to medicate at all. I hope you find the answers you're looking for. I can think of a couple of people who no longer post here very often that were very successful with the ED in recovering from their autoimmune diseases. If you haven't seen them, check out these journals:

Nicoles
viewtopic.php?f=21&t=20611 and
viewtopic.php?f=21&t=43380

Katydid's Star McDougaller story isn't a journal but you can search for posts by her - she shared great info!
https://www.drmcdougall.com/health/educ ... y-stewart/

[Plants4Life]

I will start the ED tomorrow. Got a MRI Scan last week that revealed serious inflamation in my knees, hips and schoulders. My doc said I have to take NSAID's again. Before I take the meds, I will try the ED to see If my JRA is diet related. Now to my question. I will start with sweet potatoe and kale. Any recomendations for a second starch, to get more kcal's in? What will be the best, brown rice, millet or Quinoa?

[calvin]

...What will be the best, brown rice, millet or Quinoa?

Any of those choices is good.

However, I would suggest hitting the problem harder by going sweetpotato-Only for 3weeks or rice-Only for three weeks. But that's easy for me to say. YOU're the one that's going to be doing it.

Here's the deal. Let's say you do both sweetpotato and millet. And suppose your symptoms don't inprove. Now you don't know which of the two OR both are the problem.

So you switch both of them out for, say, rice and quinoa and try again. Thing is, either sweetpotato or millet might have been ok.

To me, one and one only starch at a time seems a better use of time.

If the ED gets boring, I would tough it out and just live with boredom for a while, long enough for a good test. I've gone rice, millet, yams, russets, and oats for weeks at a time without getting bored so have been fortunate that way.

Anyway, i hope to hear about your results.