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Diets and Hyponatremia and Hyperuricemia - OH MY!

Turns out, that little warning in the front of every diet book you've ever seen about checking with your doctor first is there for a reason. Let me just say, that after reading the book, The Rice Diet Solution, and implementing it for the most part, that I think the diet could be very good for a certain group of people. Despite the bad things that happened with me.

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The Rice Diet Solution, as I mentioned earlier was developed for sedentary, severely overweight people who have existing heart conditions or are at immediate risk of getting them. It's for people who can't, because of their physical state, exercise in any real way. The only one of those things that describes me is severely overweight.

Had I checked with my Dr. and told him I was planning on doing this diet and the workout plan I had in place, I think all of my problems would have been avoided. If I had just followed The Rice Diet Solution and let my only exercise be walking 15-30 minutes a day, I think I'd weigh 260lbs right now. I, on the other hand, figured if a sedentary person can lose 25lbs the first month and 3lbs a week after that, then if I work out like a madman and follow the diet, I should lose at least as much and maybe more. All while getting the benefit of the exercise. As it turns out, I'm not a doctor or I would have known better.

If you'd like to know why I gained 10lbs after following this diet or a protein increased variation of it for about 5 weeks before finally going to the doctor, read on. If you don't really care why it happened, then be advised, I know what was going wrong, and I'm working on fixing it. I weighed 279.5 today which is down 8.5 lbs from when I saw the doctor last week and almost back to square one after about 38 days.

I weighed 278lbs when I began the diet and followed it almost to the letter for 2 weeks. I listed myself at 280 because that is what I was on the Monday I officially started, but I had gone from 278 to 281 in about 4 days of also following the diet. I just hadn't officially started, so I listed the higher weight as my official. I chronicled my one bad day, but also showed that on the average, my daily calorie intake was much lower than the calories I should have been burning. On top of that, with low sodium and such a low calorie level, I should have dropped a good 8-10lbs of water in those first 3 weeks. In about 25 days instead of going from 278 to what I hoped would be below 260, I was up to 282.5.

In the first 2 weeks, not only had I gained weight, but I was also getting weaker with each trip to the gym and I had no energy. By the 3rd week, I had added protein and while I was still gaining weight, at least the gym was working like it was supposed to. My workout partner and I had been doing a very high intensity high set workout where we lifted 6 days a week. It has rep variance designed to both increase stamina and strength in the same workout. I was at least getting stronger and my stamina was growing now.

After 4 weeks officially, or about 32 days, I had gained another 3.5lbs, but I was getting stronger. I had now, in the time I expected to lose 25-30lbs, gained 8 instead. There were other things happening too. My shoes were incredibly tight. My ankles were swollen to the point that they both looked badly sprained. They were inflexible, but putting weight on them didn't hurt. My knees were beginning to feel stiff as well. I realized my entire lower legs were so swollen the skin was tight. The skin was so tight it was very sore to the touch. At this point, I made a Dr's appointment. In the two days between scheduling it and going, I gained another 2lbs.

So, in about 5 weeks, while averaging 1300 calories per day and working out 5-6 days a week, I had gained 10lbs. The doctor took one look at me and said I was clearly holding a lot of water. I knew this, and I figured that meant maybe 10lbs. I still didn't understand how I could have done what I had been doing and only held my own. It turns out, I hadn't. I had vastly underestimated the amount of water I was retaining.