The pill! started retaining water, what do i do?

[4BADASS]

I'm asking for a friend..

She started taking the pill and gained some weight.

She has a pouch now and says its all water. She doesnt look as toned as before but she still does about a 1 hour of cardio a day.

Shes a vegaterian, so to get protien in her body is a challenge. (pure vegees and fruit)

She refuses to left weights, which is another problem.

Shes about 5'7 and use to weigh about 107 now she wieghs about 117.

And most of it is in the pouch and mid section...


Ladies whats the best thing for her to do, while taking the pill.

She asked me about therma pills and i said that wouldnt be good because you dont lift weights. I dont think it would look good if teh skin tightin around bone..lol

Help anybody..

 

[Sassy69]

Hard to really provide a solution to the right problem here --

- First the pill can cause water retention & weight gain. It might worth while for her to let her OBGYN know this and perhaps experiment w/ different pills (diff dosages). Also is she experiencing any moodiness or anything that would indicate the pill she is taking now is the right dosage for her? If not and it is appropriate, then I guess that's just one of the sides of birth control. The other option is another birth control method.

Her general health -- shiat - 5'7" & 107 lbs -- sounds fairly underweight to me. Being vegetarian does not mean you have to eliminate protein from your diet. The body needs protein in one form or another. We have some very knowledgable regular posters who are vegans here -- perhaps she should post her diet & ask for some feedback. Otherwise it probably wouldn't hurt her to get some education in basic nutrition / see a nutritionist.

Is she getting ANY physical exercise? Doesn't have to be lifting - but something?? Anything? "Refusing" to consider weight training seems fairly closed minded to me.

What are her goals? And how does she intend to achieve them? You are right abou the thermos - there's no such thing as a magic pill to lose weight. There are things you can take to SUPPLEMENT a good diet & exercise program tho....

 

[starfish]

Yasmine is a BC pill that is not supposed to cause water weight gain. I've never used it though, just what I heard.

 

[4BADASS]

well it might not be teh pill...

she has been doing the same rutine for about 2 years now.

30 minutes cardio and 45-60 minutes aerobics...

she says they use wieghts in the aerobic classes but we all no the difference.

I think she might be in a rut..doing the samething so long..
Her diet sucks , she doesnt eat breakfast, she doesnt eat until lunch and its very light.

vegees and fruit.....
and cereal for supper....

THATS IT..

more help people, and if you can tell me how to get her to lift weights, that would be great.

 

[Sassy69]

I don't know if this girl considers herself anorexic or is "afraid to eat" or anything --- I refer you to the stickies at the top of this board about why women should lift. I would also ask her to consider her diet. She's eating almost nothing but simple carbs - the vegies are always great, but lots of fruit is just fructose which of course is basically sugar. Cereal -- well what's just more sugar. And on top of that she's doing a pile of cardio which will only act to cut back on whatever muscle she does have. Have her read the article in the stickie I referred to and see if it makes any sense. What is her response? If she refuses to take a look at her diet, then she's just gonna be stuck in that circle of malnutrition and "skinnyfat". If she's not seeing any results from the exercise she is doing, that should tell her something about what its doing --- nothing. Time to change. Hopefully this will spark some understanding of the need to check out some good basic nutrition & exercise education. Challenge her to try a change in diet for 3 weeks and see if she feels better, sees some results, etc.

 

[MS]

I think the pill is the least of her problems. She's set herself up to gain fat IMHO. With or without weight training, she needs to eat a lot more protein, and prolly a lot more calories divided into sensibly spaced meals. As Sassy said, excess fruit and cereals are gonna make it hard to attain her ideal body. This may be a much bigger task than you, as her friend, can take on. She may only respect the advice of a certified dietician or trainer. Maybe you could find her a good one?

 

[4BADASS]

O God..

I new the answers, I just had to hear it from some one else..

 

[4BADASS]

Shes HOT, but she thinks shes UGLY!

This might be a women thing, but

My girlfriend thinks shes ugly or not as good looking as she really is.
she thinks she is fat. Or puts herself down.
She compares herself to the models in fitness mags and late night 900 number commercials...

Shes the best looking girl in the gym I'm at now but cant see it.

She works out 6 days a week and has a cute little kick ass body!

She says shes alwasy been like this, the slightiest change to her body and teh world is going to come to an end.
If she gains 2 pounds, look out! She ll be in the worse mood ever.

I keep telling her how good she looks and her response is " Yeh right".

Well now i have the best looking girl with low selfestiem.

Is there anything I can do? People are starting to think she is crazy when she talks about her self like that. Because they see a Pam Anderson..

or maybe all girls are like this?

 

[Sassy69]

Oh man. Sounds like some self love issues too. Self confidence, self-satisfaction, self respect whatever you want to call it. She needs to spend some more time looking inside instead of outside. Sounds like you have been very supportive as well -- but she has to like herself first. The media is responsible to a certain degree for distorting people's, especially women's & girls' images and expectations of themselves without providing the education that should go with it. Like I initially said -- print out the two stickies at the top:

http://boards.elitefitness.com/forum/showthread.php?threadid=91924

http://boards.elitefitness.com/forum/showthread.php?threadid=93209

She needs some serious education in basic nutrition and training. She already spends the time in the gym. If its not providing results after 2 years, that has GOT to tell her something. Show her this stuff. See if any lights go on.

I spent more years hating myself because of my weight & feeling like I had to apologise for how I looked / how my clothes fit, etc etc etc. Two points in my life made the difference: The first happened after I turned 30 (so yes, I spent at least 16 years since puberty hating my body) when I finally just got tired of feeling that way and just decided if other people didn't like how I looked, fuck em, they don't have to look then. The second was when the light finally went off about how diet & exercise go together. I'd been lifting since I was 16 because I loved it (and remember this is the early 80s -- girls did the Jane Fonda thing, not the Arnold Schwartzenegger thing). But I also spent a lot of time starving myself, getting depressed, eating, then getting more depressed because I couldn't ever lose weight. Now I'm still fighting my weight to a certain degree, but I also know that I can manage it with diet, exercise & training. But I dont 'starve to get there. My goal is to compete in another bodybuilding competition this summer, but my ultimate goal is to have a killer quality of life style so I can age gracefully and drive that Harley when I'm 90. And I'm basically pretty happy with myself.

Maybe you should even print out this whole thread for her. You can't make her change, but maybe you can point her in the right direction to at least make her aware. If she's that hung up on gaining weight, I HOPE it would be worth her while to learn how to fix it so she doesnt' live in fear of that one more pound. Skinny is not pretty. Its malnourished. Tight & toned is beautiful because it is strong & resilient.

 

[Sassy69]

Are we talking about the same girl in all these posts?

If so, see my above post. If not, then pick out the stuff from my above post that applies to the g/f and the stuff that applies to the first girl.