My bf needs help
 

Hello everyone, sorry to use the men's corner, but I have to ask you guys about this, since it is my boyfriend who's having trouble. In the past two years, he's been gaining weight like crazy, without really changing his habits. He's 26 and eats normally (no fried stuff, loves veggies and steamed fish). One day, all of a sudden, he started gaining weight. He tried controlling his diet and going to the gym and the more exercise he did, the more weight he put on. He is a chef and therefore knows a bit about nutrition so I am sure he is eating sensibly. It's been almost 2 years since he started putting on weight and he's gained about 50 kgs, which is A LOT. Nevertheless, his blood tests are perfect, no cholesterol, no sugar, he's very healthy. Right now he's being tested for Cushing's syndrome but all hormonal tests appear to be quite normal except for the fact his testosterone levels are lower than normal. He's also developing painful gynecomasty although he's never taken steroids or anything like that, and gets terrible stretch marks all over his body. His body fat is mainly on his butt, stomach and thighs, but he looks very weird, when he's naked and he tenses his muscles, you can sort of see them under the fat, and his upper body seems not only normal, but toned.

Do you have any idea of what this could be? We're going crazy with this, most doctors just tell him to stop eating doughnuts and it's really starting to affect him emotionally.

Is he eating too many donuts? Or maybe just too much in general?

Is he a "closet eater" and just doesn't want to tell you what he eats when you are not with him? Does he taste any of the dishes he cooks as a chef? Does he track his food and exercise daily

There is no way to know for sure what someone eats unless you are with them 24/7. If all the medical test are coming back normal I would take a closer look at his food consumption and daily exercise.

No, he's not eating too much, I have been with him 24/7 for weeks and I know for a fact he's eating normally, obviously if I had any reason to think he's not I wouldn't post here for help.

He's a chef. He has to be eating something at work as well as eating at home. Has he changed jobs and so changed the type of food he tastes at his restaurant? Does he drink alcohol and has his pattern of drinking changed (type of drink, frequency)?

Has he tracked his food, put it in a log in accurate quantities and shown that to his doctor (a week's worth, for example). Even if he's eating more, that doesn't explain the suddenness of this change. When the change occurred, what else was going on? Did he stop smoking around that time, for example?

What happens when he fasts, for a day, for example? Can his doctor give him a referral to a dietician? Perhaps also a hormone specialist?

The reason medical people harp so much on the calorie side of things is that the smoke usually points to that fire. Maybe your boyfriend does have Cushing's. I hope not, but at least you two would know the explanation for this big change in his body.

My doctor recently ordered a lot of blood tests while I was waiting for an appointment with a specialist. I asked for the blood tests because I said I didn't want to waste time if there was another answer to be found. I wanted to see the specialist with the background knowledge of the results of those tests. Wow, was it expensive! The specialist didn't even ask me about those tests. At least I know. But it was costly - and ended up in the 'deductible' of my insurance. Oh, well.

He's a chef but he's been unemployed for a long time, there aren't any bad foods in his house,and since he's short on money very rarely eats out; and yes, he has tracked his food following a dietician's orders and followed his personal trainer's work outs, but the more he exercises the more weight he gains. He has never smoked. He is getting his hormonal tests done, but I was asking in case any of the men here had experienced anything similar.

It sounds like some sort of hormonal imbalance or autoimmune disease. Doctors are not Gods - go to different ones until one actually listens to you. Low testosterone would not be random - it is probably for a reason.

Thank you for your answer. Yes, actually his hormonal tests showed his estrogen levels are twice what they should be, so it's obviously a hormonal imbalance, I've been looking for some info and I think it might be Klinefelter's syndrome, but we'll have to see what the doctors say.

reply
 

hello, your bf could possible have all of his fat cells located in his lower body, which is very unusual for a man. If he led a sedentary childhood that would explain that. If not, fat will almost always succumb to physics. Burn more than you take in. Walking, stair climbing, elliptical anything done for an hour a day total with a sensible diet should see progress. ENCOURAGE HIM! Walk with him.

If you are 100 percent sure that he’s not sneaking food somewhere he might have some sort of hormonal issue or have thyroid issues. Now this is not an accusation on your boyfriend, but are you sure he’s not sneaking in anything? There’s a lot of people who do not know how many calories they are taking in.

And 50 kgs (100 pounds) that is an awful lot to gain without there being an underlying issue.

Keep us updated with the results!

Yay! His doctors have been giving him testosterone replacement and he's lost 16 kgs so far. They believe it's Klinefelter's syndrome, although to be completely sure they still have to run a genetics analysis. But he's doing much better now. Thanks everyone for the comments and support.

I wish I had seen this earlier - I'm a hormone researcher and I would have yelled KLINEFELTER's!!! Sudden weight gain after hitting adolescence is very common in Klinefelter's men.

He may note other body changes (deeper voice, increased body hair, larger testicles, etc.), as he keeps on the Testosterone and so should you, so don't expect the ride to be over! I hope that the therapy helps.

Thank you taubele! Well, he's doing fine for now, we'll see how it goes :)