Wellness

[makeup addict]

Hi Hckynut,

Sorry this is long.

You should take it as a compliment! You are a wealth of health information and it's fact based not fad based.

It could also be a difference in dosages of the meds as well. I take a high dose for fibro. I know there is something called serotonin syndrome. Experienced that when I didn't listen to your advice or my doctors.

Due to my medication, I'm not suppose to take weight loss drugs. I know the only way to lose weight is calories in, calories out, but the weight wasn't coming off and my friends who were doing the weight loss pills were losing 30-40 pounds compared to my five. So after I begged the doctor, she agreed if I were to be monitored. We started on the low dose to two months. Lost a few pounds, so we bumped it up to normal dosage. HUGE MISTAKE!! Two days later, I was in Urgent Care with high blood pressure (never had before or since-always normal to low pressure), racing heartbeat, sweating, facial twitches (that was bizarre), and nausea. The weight loss med, Meridia, caused an overload of serotonin. It took a month for the side effects to wear off. Sadly I still have rapid heart beat. Oh, my friends who lost the weight fast???? Have gained it all back.

I now know to lose weight, I have do it the nice, slow, and smart way. I'm counting calories. I'm slowly making changes to my diet. I no longer drink soda or sweet tea; only water, juice, or milk. The juice is the only "sweet" thing I drink. No more sweets. I'm also working out more.

I do have a question: My doctor has done ecg and an ekg. Heart is normal and healthy. Bad news is I still have a fast pulse. It stays around 104 resting. On the weight loss drug, resting was 120.

Since this is usually a target for working out, any thoughts as to how I can figure out what my exercise target should be? If 104 is resting, I don't know how to figure if I'm working out too hard. I know when I start to yawn a lot, I need to slow the pace down, but other than that, I have no idea to figure out what's normal for me.

Sorry this is long, but I do value your info and opinion.

TIA!