Louisa's Weight Loss Blog

New research by Birmingham University suggests that exercise does not help to alleviate period pain. 650 students aged between 18 and 25 were surveyed with 28% confessing to regularly experiencing moderate to severe period pain.

Researchers took into account weight, general health, mood, ethnicity and whether or not participants were smokers when assessing the results of the study.

Astonishingly, researchers could only conclude that exercise only helps on a case by case basis, i.e. some women may find it helps. Royal College of GPs chairman Professor Steve Field said women with period pain should do what works for them and exercise might make them feel better in general but this is little comfort to the thousands of women like myself who suffer debiliating pain every month.

I have vomited due to the pain experienced, my stomach can bloat to twice its size and I need to visit the bathroom far more often. I’ve missed work as I’ve been physically unable to get out of bed and I regularly experience migraines too. I’ve had a laparoscopy to find out what might be the precise cause of my monthly problems. I’ve been prescribed an awful amount of pain killers and hormones. Some pain killers have made me like a zombie they’re so strong…

Personally, this new study has not surprised me as I have found exercise to be unhelpful to me. Thanks to 11 years of experience dealing with period pains, I have some advice to offer women who are trying to lose weight:

• Keep a diary of symptoms and come to know WHEN they will occur. I get a migraine when I ovulate so I know very soon when one is on its way and if I am not at home, I have time to get there before my vision is obscured and I’m vomiting.
• See your doctor, the contraceptive pill can often help women but I have found this not to be the case. I am clearly a freak of nature – I should be put in a test tube and studied.
• Periods are not an excuse to overindulge in chocolate – see my blog post on chocolate cravings and why women crave chocolate
• Try herbal remedies and aromatherapy before you drug yourself up to the eyeballs with pain killers
• Try gentle exercise like yoga but if you don’t feel up to high intensity stuff, don’t do it! Walking is preferable to sitting on the sofa for a week
• Warm baths are lovely and make you feel nice and clean. If you’ve had a hard day at work, treat yourself with a bath rather than a whole pizza!

You may have noticed that today is Wednesday. Well done for that, I noticed it too. What you may also have noticed is that I should have weighed myself on Monday night and I haven’t posted my results yet. Why did I neglect to impart this information?

When using bathroom scales, your weight can vary between different sets

Because I haven’t weighed myself this week! Why would I do such a thing? I’m on a diet, surely I should be charting my progress?

Yes, that is absolutely correct, I should be charting my weight loss progress (using the slimming aid Proactol), but when weighing yourself there are things to take into consideration. If you follow these rules, you should not be disheartened

• Always weigh yourself with the same set of scales. Remember when Phoebe in Friends said “Maybe all the rulers are wrong…” she wasn’t far wrong! All weighing scales are calibrated, meaning that you pay more for your scales to be calibrated more ‘accurately’. It doesn’t matter if your scales cost £5 or £500, stick to the results on the one that you use because your weight will appear to differ. This is not particularly encouraging when you spend the week working really hard to lose weight so don’t open yourself up to the trauma of weighing yourself at your mate’s house. I’ve seen myself scales that vary between 1-7lbs but I saw one girl post in a forum that her scales were a whole 15lbs out compared to the weighing scales at her doctor’s surgery. That is a massive difference! This is why I have been using my wii fit and my wii fit ONLY.
• Always weigh yourself at the same time of day. If you weigh yourself first thing in the morning after going to the toilet and before a sip of water passes your lips, of course you will weigh less than you will do at night after three meals and 2 litres of water have (hopefully!) gone through your body that day. Typically, people weigh 3-4lbs more at the end of the day. If you choose to weigh yourself in the evening, that’s your choice but don’t be upset if you weigh yourself in the morning and the next time you weigh yourself you appear to have lost nothing.
• Weigh yourself naked. Add jeans, jewellery and a thick jumper and you’ve added a whole lb in weight. Stop torturing yourself! I don’t weigh myself naked because so far Jonny has been filming me do it for this website… I’m hoping he’ll sort out the videos soon.

Total Chunk Top Tip: Always weigh yourself with the same set of scales. All scales are calibrated differently so results could very wildly from scale to scale. Don’t torture yourself by weighing yourself on lots of different sets of weighing scales.

Hello!

My name is Louisa and I’m 23 years old. This website is my weight-loss diary and I will be including weekly weigh-ins and a daily food and exercise record.

Over the past few months my weight has crept up by a whole stone (14lbs) and my clothes don’t really fit anymore. I used to have a great bum and now it just sags. I really want to look my best for my boyfriend and I used to love his reaction to my body. I want my old body back and I want to share my story with you.

You hear loads about the women who lose 100′s of lbs but nothing about ordinary women trying to lose small amounts of weight whilst living a busy life style.

To help me, I am going to take a slimming aid called Proactol which I will tell you more about when I start tomorrow.