Weight loss & Exercising [Struggling to meet BMR]

Background information:

Age: 21

Weight: 91 Kg

Height: 161-163

For a long time I've been eating rather little due to a large lack of appetite; this has been going on for a little over two years. I can maybe stomach a meal or two a day. I am well aware this is not healthy and have tried to incorporate more food into my diet by trying to train my body to eat even when I'm not consciously hungry. I continuously gain weight despite this. Over the last year and a half I have gone from roughly 63-64 kilos to 91 because of lack of appetite.

Now I typically eat...

Breakfast:

Milo cereal with low fat milk

A banana

Lunch:

Two slices of bread with tuna on them.

Snack:

Apple

Dinner:

Usually chicken with salad.

I have been diagnosed with Ankylosing Spondylitis. I cannot sit anymore for no more than 20-30 minutes at a time. I must keep active to keep mobile, reduce inflammation and for my sanity. My ESR is 44 (Should be <10) and my CRP is 17 (Should be <2.9) despite being on NSAID medication 

I am currently on Endep for migraines and Meloxicam for the inflammation. I have a membership at the local leisure centre that includes unlimited access to group exercises, the sauna, the spa, the steam room, the pools and the gym. I can't do high impact activities and so I swim for roughly 60-120 minutes a day ( I am still a novice and still learning to swim, so they are often not set laps! Leisure swimming, maybe some water aerobic classes). I have found that this has helped my pain levels significantly and it is not something I want to compromise on. I will also be starting my gym exercises on Monday when my gym plan is organised by my instructor.

In order to keep my inflammation down (Thereby slowing down the progression of AS) and to keep a level of mobility I have to exercise daily. However, because I've gone so long without eating properly I have to now eat a large amount (1600-1800 calories) with my exercising(According to the site) in order to lose weight and be healthy. I am severely struggling to eat this amount of food. I am looking for tips on small things, maybe nuts or whatever that is both healthy, beneficial and high in calories so that I am able to safely meet my weight loss goal. As a full time student living away from home, my parents help a little for my membership, but this means that I can't spend a lot of money on expensive food. I do not have a sweet toothe. I do not eat chocolate nor do I drink soda. I drink orange juice, milk and water primarily. 

Any tips would be very much appreciative! My main worry is that I won't be able to eat enough to lose weight with the amount of exercising I am doing, as this level of exercise will only increase and I absolutely cannot limit my exercising. My plan is to lose inches/weight so that I'm around the 60 kg mark again.

Thank you very much! 

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Struggling with weight ;((

Hi there!

In March 2012 I was approximately 150 lbs I started loosing weight and by August, 2012 I had lost 25 pounds and I weighted 125 lbs at that time. I was eating really healthy lots of veggies, lean protein and going to gym 4 days per week for 1-2 hours. Of course sometimes there were birthdays and celebrations that didn't help to stick with a diet. After those days I was like obsessed and ate about 800kcal/per day to maintain my weight. Well during the fall 2012 and winter 2013 my weight was coming back no matter what.  I could eat 500 cals once a day and another day 1200 cal also healthy things. Well often there were overindulges, but I sincerely ate healthy veggies, lean protein, oats, cottage cheese and everything low fat most of the days. In spring 2013, my weight gaining stopped around 140lbs and I started going to a gym again for every day, doing the same things as the last year, even less cakes and other unhealthy crap but nothing has helped so far. I went to a doctor and got tested my thyroid - everything was fine and I had also had a period disappearing from last year but after I started using vitamin D and Calcium it has showed up again. I have stuck with 140 lbs on the scale for 4 months. And now I am eating about 1200 kcal every day working out for at least 1 hour and the biggest loss I've reached was 137 lbs. And yesterday I had a slice of pizza, some ice-cream and cake in the result my weight came down again to 143 lbs.

Can someone please help me? Tell me what am I doing wrong now? Because this year I don't even have cold hands and it looks for me that my metabolism is even higher now, but on the other hand with weight it looks differently.

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Fewer Families Struggling to Pay Medical Bills: CDC

But some may be skipping needed care altogether, expert says

By Dennis Thompson

HealthDay Reporter

TUESDAY, June 4 (HealthDay News) -- The proportion of families in the United States that can't keep up with their medical bills declined between 2011 and 2012, according to a report from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. But the news might not necessarily be cause for celebration.

According to the report released Tuesday by the CDC's National Center for Health Statistics, the share of people under age 65 in families struggling to pay their health care bills decreased from 21.7 percent in the first six months of 2011 to 20.3 percent in the first six months of 2012.

Despite this improvement, the families of more than 54 million Americans continue to carry health care debt they cannot manage. This particularly holds true for families who are poor or have restricted access to health coverage, said study author Robin Cohen, a CDC health statistician.

"During this time period, those who were uninsured or who had public coverage were about twice as likely as those with private coverage to have problems paying medical bills," Cohen said.

Fewer families may face overwhelming medical bills because some are foregoing health care coverage due to joblessness and other economic factors, an expert said.

The report draws its conclusions from data gathered during the CDC's annual National Health Interview Survey. It defines medical bills as bills for doctors, dentists, hospitals, therapists, medication, equipment, nursing homes or home care.

A drop in the number of families struggling with medical bills may seem like a positive development, but it likely results from darker economic trends, said Kathleen Stoll, director of health policy for Families USA, a nonprofit and nonpartisan health care advocacy group.

Stoll believes that fewer families are struggling with medical bills because chronic unemployment is causing many to skip needed health care.

"When people have insurance, they go to the doctor," she said. "When they lose their job, they often lose their health insurance coverage. Without insurance, they are reluctant to go to the doctor at all. Because of that, they have fewer medical bills."

Stoll said the decrease observed in the CDC study comes while the United States is slowly recovering from its economic downturn, and before the major provisions of the Affordable Care Act become active in 2014.

Health care reform, however, may have contributed to improvements in one area: the ability of the families of young people to manage medical bills.

Health care reform requires private insurers to cover children and young adults up to age 26 under their parents' health plan, regardless of preexisting conditions. This provision took effect in September 2010.

The CDC study found that among children up to 17 years old, the percentage of those who were in families having problems paying medical bills decreased from 23.7 percent in the first six months of 2011 to 21.8 percent in the first six months of 2012. That improvement slightly outpaced the overall improvement in families' ability to pay medical bills.

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