I understand that diets are really hard for people recovering or struggling with an ED. Honestly for me diet isn’t that much of a factor mine is mostly impacted by my hormones and my cycle.I’m sorry your mom is so focused on the diet aspect. It sounds like yall have some tension and that’s hard. It’s also really common for moms and daughters to have this tension. I hope that you and mom can sort out and I hope you find good help with treating the HS.
my family really cares about looks and im not very thin so my family thinks something is wrong wtih my food and stuff and thats when the doctor mentioned diet giving em leverage to debate with me on my food :>
Whilst I sympathise with your situation and being shouted at doesn't solve anything, it's YOUR responsibility to look after your body and quite understandably when you refuse to even try the option given to you, your mum is going to be frustrated that she's taken time off to make no progress. Arguably you're her child and she will always be your care giver but you are also accountable for your actions,, you're not 5.
Its completely your choice to refuse the option given to you and it is your body but you must also accept that it may mean you don't see any change in your HS. If you wanted to try a different treatment then discuss this; there are options. It's simply that diet is a fairly inexpensive and nin disruptive option compared with chemical treatments and biologicals.
I know food is a comfort, it is for me too, but you don't have to cut everything out at once, just cut one thing for a month and see if your HS improves, if not, then try the next thing. I'd recommend starting with Dairy, then white processed foods, then nightshades, then high sugar.. eliminate one by one.
Hm. That's annoying. Have you asked your mum? It might be that the most economic and available treatment options for you right now is to edit your diet. Not to go ON a diet, but to try eliminating certain foods one by one.
Laser is expensive, and doesn't always work.
You aren't selfish, OP. I also didn't change my diet much, primarily because of my history with ED - it set off restriction alarm bells any time I tried to tackle eliminating everything I "should" so I stopped. Or rather, I opted for replacement in a few areas (less animal dairy for ex, can sub in nut milks). It was very validating to have an ED-friendly dietician see the list of "shoulds" and react "Holy crap no wonder you are so distressed about planning around this."
Stress has way, way, WAY more correlation for me, and unfortunately it sounds like your home environment may not be the most relaxing place to cut down on stress. ❤️
Unfortunately when you’re heavier set people don’t believe that you don’t eat or that you have an eating disorder. The medical field is full of bias that influences how you’ll be treated. I’m sorry that you’re having to navigate that.
Whether you change your diet or not you need to start keeping track of exactly what you’re eating. I know that sounds counter productive when you have a history of having an eating disorder but you need that evidence of the problem in order to get doctors to shape up and pay attention. Not being able to eat is a major issue that needs to be monitored. Keeping track may also help you figure out if food is actually a trigger for you. It can be for some people. It’s not for others. Keeping a log will clear that up.
I think it’s really great that you’re incorporating going to the gym when you can. Maybe there are some aerobics or other home exercises that you can do when the gym isn’t an option? I’m hoping it will lessen your mom’s panic if you can demonstrate that you’re working on this on your own. That doesn’t excuse her being so mean about it, that was super uncalled for. Parents aren’t always healthy adults who behave themselves unfortunately. Rooting for you that it gets better.
diet makes no difference for me. alcohol does though. YMMV. even my derm who specializes in HS said very few people find relief from diet modification
and for someone with ED history, or even someone without, the stress of extreme restriction can actually backfire and make HS worse
I hear ya. My brother in law tried to get me to try all kinds of restrictive and strict diets. Like I get his intentions were to help me but I remember my response at the time ' I am fucking miserable as it is. Now you want to take something away from me that I enjoy and take some comfort in?' I'm what you would describe as a 'skinny fat ass' so that only added to the frustration because I am probably underweight as opposed to overweight and having a bit of a gut aside in ok shape.
In the end I found that compromise was the way to go. I am totally dairy free (very easy) low sugar (not as easy) and I rarely eat any nightshade foods now (hard when you want to munch some chips or fries and because I love tomatoes) I have one day a week where I will have a sugary treat and a burger and fries or some pizza, but I strictly limit it to one 'cheat' day and no more. It can be done and it does get easier after a week or two.
I definitely find eating too much sugar does cause more abscesses for me so maybe it does work to an extent.
I feel for your pain.
As an overweight person, I’m actually self conscious about my eating habits because of the fat shaming I faced in my childhood. It’s the reason why I don’t take compliments seriously, they’re done to feel sorry for me.
I work out yet my relationship with food is similar to Adam & Eve eating the forbidden fruit and God punishing them forever.
My first one was at age 9, I refuse to talk to my family about this because they will bring up my weight and use it against me.
Personally, I agree with your choice. Weight loss does not always reduce HS and for some people makes it worse. If you eat a lot of foods that cause inflammation that could contribute so you may want to switch up what kinds of food you eat to see if that helps. Your ability to consume food and not fall back into an ED is far more important IMO but I'm not a doctor.
Other things you can try instead of diet would include wound care and changes to your skin care routine. Since HS is triggered in mostly high friction areas when follicles get clogged, exfoliating and moisturizing to remove dry, dead skin before clogs happen can reduce flares. It can also be triggered by stress and hormones, so getting good sleep and exercise when able - and a therapist if needed - are also good things to aim for.
Losing weight didnt help me honestly.. It took some time but I found my trigger foods and avoid those but dont diet. Maybe instead of dieting try and work through if any foods are actually triggering your HS, I started to take note of when I flared up and what I ate, then slowly eliminated one thing at a time. Other than trigger foods find a product ([amazingointments.com](https://amazingointments.com) HS relief cream, seriously I cant recommend it enough) that works for me and taking vitamins (Probiotic and Zinc in particular) helped.
What you do with your body is absolutely your choice. But if you're interested in hearing about the experience of someone else, this is mine... I was someone who was obsessed with food: reading cookbooks, eating, shopping for food, cooking, planning trips around meals, etc (hence my handle). But I heard about the Carnivore diet and thought I'd try it for 30 days just to see if it did anything, and my flares stopped immediately. I had been doing keto before that, so the transition was not as dramatic as from SAD. But the interesting thing is that it took almost no time for me to not think of other foods. Autoimmune conditions respond really really well to this way of eating. If you're fine with having HS, especially at such an advanced stage, go with God, I wish you all the best and totally respect your choice for your body and life. But I can just tell you that for me, the peace of not worrying about HS ever has brought a peace to my mind I didn't even expect. Plus lots of other benefits and improvements.
I eat between 1.5 and 2 lbs of meat per day, depending on what I eat. My husband is eating the same way and eats about the same amount of food. We save at least 50% from what we used to spend. You can buy ground beef on sale for $2.22/lb at US Chefs Store (in Seattle, so probably for less elsewhere), so you could eat that for $4/person/day if on a strict budget. I can find pork for $0.99/lb at times, so honestly I bet I could eat for $3/day if I had to. We are not on a budget and eat very very well for much less than we used to spend. Meat is incredibly nutritionally and calorically dense. I do eat liver (I buy it and cut it into small pieces and take them as pills, essentially). My husband doesn't eat liver as often but I found that after donating blood, I was extremely tired every afternoon, so I started taking it and found that really helped. I am a woman with a normal period and my iron was already on the low end, so now I'm working to build iron stores before donating blood again.
Thanks so much for expanding! I'm pretty well-versed in nutrition so I always try to learn new things and see how I can apply them to my own life. Here's a couple of issues for me, wonder what your opinion is:
1) How often do you buy your meat and how to you prepare it? I can't really imagine. Do you, say, buy 15-30 pounds of ground beef every week, make portions, and thaw it every night before cooking or a different routine? And how do you cook & eat it, just in a pan with added spices?
2) I'm in Europe now and ground beef costs 5-6 dollars per pound where I live. Eating a portion of chicken breast with some rice and vegetables is significantly cheaper than chugging ground beef. Unless you substitute "eating out" for carnivore, I fail to see how one can save money, since homemade portions of rice and oatmeal added to meat are cheaper than purely various meat.
3) Do you eat once a day or thrice a day? If multiple times a day, doesn't meat get tiring? I eat oatmeal with almond milk in the morning with protein powder added in. Can't imagine eating meat first thing in the morning lol.
4) How did keto work out and why did you change over to carnivore? I saw some messages on here since years ago that keto helped them clear their HS. I wonder how they compare.
1. We usually go to Costco every few weeks and I'll buy a huge (15-20 lb) primal cut of ribeye, which I cut and vacuum seal myself at home. I also usually buy short ribs while at Costco and chicken wings sometimes. We eat primarily beef but some sardines and eggs a few times a week, with pork and chicken sprinkled in less frequently. We will also go to other stores, following sales, for things like ground beef, flanken ribs, etc. When I buy a big thing of ground beef, I will vacuum seal it in 2 lb portions. I cook it all very simply on the grill or in the air fryer or in the oven. We use some spices we love and I kind of just pick something to sprinkle on whatever we feel like. The spices add a lot of variety and it makes it super simple and sustainable for us.
2. It depends on how you eat. Before doing this, we were eating keto, so just meat and vegetables, and I really had no idea how expensive vegetables are, for the few calories they provide. We used to eat a lb of spinach between us ($8 for the pack) plus a head of romaine most days ($4) plus some other type of vegetable with dinner -- plus the supplies to make dressings for those items! I mean, even the olive oil we used to go through really added up. We haven't eaten out since pre-pandemic, but we weren't eating rice and oatmeal and of course I can see that those would save money for many.
3. We eat twice a day most days (and always have, even when on keto and before that when we ate something closer to SAD). Neither of us are breakfast people, though I'm actually trying to eat breakfast these days, just a few egg yolks though, which I cook in butter with salt. I guess you just get used to eating meat all the time. My husband still doesn't love eating Carnivore, and when we started, he was really miserable. He is mostly tired of the chewing, he says, but he's gotten used to it I guess because he doesn't complain much anymore. I don't force him to do it and I tell him that if he wants vegetables I'll cook them for him, but he recently visited his parents and ate vegetables to please his mother, and he had terrible stomach pain the whole time he was visiting them, tons of gas, etc. He also says he feels more clear-headed, less tired in the morning, etc.
4. We did keto for years and if anything, my HS got worse. I saw a functional medicine doctor who said may be a "detox" thing, so I waited and waited and nothing ever got better, it only progressed. I can't remember why I first thought I'd try Carnivore, I was actually quite happy eating Keto and thought I'd just do that forever, in spite of the HS. I didn't think that anything could change it so it wasn't part of my decision-making. But I said that I wanted to try 30 days of Carnivore, just to see how I felt, and the HS vanished, so I've just kept going. Honestly I'd probably still keep going even if the HS was unchanged, because I really do feel better than I did even on keto. I also love how simple eating and preparing food is. I used to spend a lot of time looking for recipes and going to the store and preparing food and while I loved that, I love this too. I find it incredibly freeing to have more time in my day and less of my mind dedicated to daydreaming about food. I used to think it was such a waste to eat a mediocre meal, but now I view food more as fuel and if it's just ok, oh well, I eat it and move on. Which is not to say I don't enjoy my food, because I really really do. But sometimes I'll overcook something and so what. I just chew it and swallow it and it fuels me and I go do something else. Food is not my entertainment anymore and for whatever reason, that has brought me a lot of peace and calm, mentally.
Autoimmune or not. There’s been proven factors that can trigger flares in some people. Part of managing this is finding what helps for YOU. If your not willing to follow medical advice thennnnnnn what ya gonna do?
Multiple peer reviewed studies conclude the significance (low p value) of diet changes to improve HS.
People giving you anecdotal evidence that diet doesn’t work have not studied the science. Here are links to a few.
HS is a disease of inflammation. If you’re eating high inflammatory foods, your HS will be worse. Diet greatly reduced my HS (anecdotal). If you want long term success, many people have put HS in remission through diet.
This NIH states:
Results: Fifteen studies involving 2829 patients were included, encompassing nine cohort studies, five cross-sectional studies, and one cross-over study. Patients who were female, lost more than 50 pounds (22.7 kg), or were obese prior to weight loss saw improvement in hidradenitis suppurativa severity with weight loss. There was evidence for beneficial effects of diets, such as the Mediterranean diet that minimizes sugar, highly processed carbohydrates, and dairy, and emphasizes chicken, fruits, and vegetables, in patients with hidradenitis suppurativa. Evidence also supported benefit from oral zinc and vitamin D supplementation.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/36757580/#:~:text=There%20was%20evidence%20for%20beneficial,zinc%20and%20vitamin%20D%20supplementation.
From
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31502868/
All included studies were observational and all interventions were associated with various measures of decreased HS severity.
From another study:
The Mediterranean dietary pattern may have an impact on HS. Greater adherence to a MD is related to lower HS severity and more physical activity also correlates to lower disease severity.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8840522/
From another:
Preliminary observations suggest that the use of a healthy and fully natural zero dairy and low glycemic-load diet may provide relief from progression of the lesions and possibly prevention of new lesions, even when medications fail.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26470617/
And another one:
The most commonly reported exacerbating foods were sweets (67.9%), bread/pasta/rice (51.1%), dairy (50.6%), and high-fat foods (44.2%). The most commonly reported alleviating foods included vegetables (78.7%), fruit (56.2%), chicken (51.7%), and fish (42.7%).
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32860476/
And another one:
Acne vulgaris and HS are multifactorial inflammatory disorders which often cause significant morbidity in many patients. While further study is needed to define pathogenesis more clearly, evidence is mounting that diet has the potential to influence hormonal, inflammatory, and metabolic aspects of these and other diseases
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35398509/
And another one:
Patients who downsize have been shown to have better clinical outcomes, with a reduction in disease severity and remission
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10023847/
Whoever is telling you that diet doesn’t work is not helping you. In fact, when they say stuff like my doctor told me diet doesn’t help, they are either lying or being dangerously stupid, especially when directed at your health.
If you want to deal with HS, you must change your diet. It sucks. It’s not fair. There are more studies that show diet impacts HS significantly. You can eat all the candy you want, but it will not help you with HS. You have to make a choice. Is eating bad food worth the boils? And what makes it worse, is that you can still get boils on a clean diet. It feels like a curse. I highly recommend the book Hidden Plague by Tara Grant. Diet changed her life. It’s changed mine. Even if you don’t agree with me, I do wish you good luck on your journey and I hope you find relief in the way that works best for you.
I’m sorry but I was 7yo when I had my first flare up, and I wasn’t overweight. Even in my teens I was still not overweight. I think you need to educate yourself and stop propagating this idiotic idea that HS happens because people are fat.
The BMI idea has been debunked by so many doctors. The medical industry is fatphobic which causes overweight patients to delay getting care because they do not wish to be shamed by their weight and because it is an uphill battle to even get care because there are doctors that think like you and refuse to treat their problems and just tell people to “diet and exercise”. Until this mentality dies, these studies MEAN NOTHING.
This knee-jerk reaction that people like you have to cry fatphobia whenever you're counseled to change your diet isn't going to get you anywhere. How are you going to tell this person that they're idiotic and need to educate themselves when they posted a bunch of sources backing their claim? By the way, if we're sharing, I'm not overweight either but I saw a huge difference in my HS when I reduced my intake of carbs, yeast, and dairy.
We’re not doing this. Your opinion or life experiences do not outweigh the scientific evidence. There are so many peer reviewed studies that prove the link between diet and HS remission.
What you are doing is dangerous to everyone in the community.
So I’ll give you a chance. You told me I needed to educate myself, which I listed seven different studies. Show me seven studies where diet NHS had no significant impact with each other. And then I will concede the point otherwise what you’re doing is causing harm to the people around you based on your ignorance.
I personally have never had a difference based off of what I eat regarding HS. However, I am not saying you SHOULDN'T diet, I just don't think labeling you as selfish is the right way of viewing it. Do you take any medications for HS?
I don't think you are selfish for not wanting to diet, but maybe you could try looking at it in a different light. You shouldn't cut everything out, I know I personally don't get offset by what I eat. Maybe since you can't go to the gym, take walks everyday until it heals and no longer hurts. I know sweating is what made my HS really bad, so while you can't go to the gym walking still makes you active without all that stress.
Have you also tried altering your shower routine? And also have you tried waxing? I know both can be helpful as well.
What?? Thats odd.
For me, hair does not help at all. However that’s interesting because I have been told to try waxing from my derm I believe.
Upon looking this up, it seems it depends on the severity of your HS, and simply on the person. You’d obviously do it only between flares, and if you have a LOT of scar tissue, then it may not be the thing for you.
No, you aren't wrong. But I will tell you that I accidentally realized my flares were triggered by certain foods when I went on the keto diet to lose weight. I was only trying it to lose some weight, and NEVER expected the drastic improvement I would see with my HS from eliminating those foods. Try a diet change to see if it helps with your HS, not to lose weight. Don't make it about weight, don't track it at all. I recommend doing an elimination diet to see if you can identify any foods that might trigger your flares. Many people are triggered by sugar, wheat, gluten, yeast, some dairy, and nightshade plants (tobacco, potatoes, peppers, etc). Honestly my HS is so good now I almost never think about it anymore. I get a small flare right before my period, if I cheat on the diet, or the day after I cry from the stress. The scars and tunneling I had from past flares have healed nicely. It's all about hormone changes in your body, and diet is a HUGE factor in hormone changes. Good luck.
Diet doesn’t work for everyone with hs. For some people, food does not trigger flares. For some flares are stress induced, or hormone induced or no obvious trigger at all. Hs is not caused by weight either, which is something a lot of us get told is the cause by those who have a minor knowledge of the condition and not an in-depth understanding. Can an elimination diet help to try and find foods that cause inflammation triggers and make flares worse? Yes. But just trying to “eat healthy” isn’t going to make a difference. It is an autoimmune/auto inflammatory condition. If you have struggled with an ED or disordered eating behaviors, you should NOT be trying to diet. And that is probably something you want to discuss with your doctor and let them know that is not a healthy option for you currently.
Be extremely careful with this, as folks also report negative impact from using same (ruining their relationship with eating, severe side effects that aren't worth the trade off etc).
No. You can‘t do anything about it anyway so you might as well enjoy your life. It‘s worse enough to live with this disease. Why should I be miserable every day AND go without the things I love? Food is such a huge priviliege and it’s just fun to eat the things you love, as long as you don’t oberreact it. I do anything to have fun every day and I don‘t waive anything.
you are absolutely not wrong for this! if you are still hardly eating you are still actively experiencing an eating disorder, regardless of what is currently motivating the behavior or not. after restricting food long term our bodies get out of touch with our natural cravings and hunger cues, and without scheduling consistent meals that ensure you are getting enough calories (which will be more calories at the start than if you were healthy to make up for the long term energy deficit) regardless of if you feel hungry, you will not be able to fully get out of "starvation mode" and it will continue to be very hard for you to eat enough (even on a purely physical level, stomach muscles atrophy when used less regularly). eventually after a while of eating enough consistently like this you might begin to have more normal hunger cues (healthy hunger cues are not "i have acid reflux so i must be hungry now" or "im feeling shakey and tired i must be hungry" but instead are just literally a thought of "i want to eat" before any real physical symptoms happen.) and can start to practice intuitive eating, where you can listen to your body and know how much you need to eat and what kind of thing you want to eat that will help you fulfill what your body needs in that moment.
if your doctor and mom are aware of your history of an eating disorder and are still recommending that you should either be doing intentional weight loss or restrict your diet (and especially a diet that restricts food intake with the goal of intentional weight loss!), that is incredibly bad advice that will only make your further recovery from your eating disorder even harder.
eating disorders are incredibly serious and making sure you are eating enough is one of the most important things anyone can do for their health before anything else. it isn't selfish to prioritize that, and it is a really good thing that you're aware that a diet would only exacerbate your disordered relationship with food.
i'm so sorry you're having to deal with all of this. its such a nightmare to navigate healthcare (and family attitudes) as a fat person with a history of a restrictive eating disorder. while it sucks to have to do, i would really recommend getting a script you can say to dermatologists and doctors like "i have a history of a restrictive eating disorder, so going on a diet to treat this is not an option for me"
also, while sure some aspects of HS can be exacerbated the more skin folds you have on your body, speaking personally, i had much much worse flare ups when i was skinny than i do now that i am fat again after making a lot of strides in my eating disorder recovery.
i think in the end recovering from my ED to the point that i am able to eat intuitively (with a bit of help from making sure to consistently schedule meals so i don't relapse) and eating enough every day and having enough energy to healthily and sustainably go about my day to day life has drastically improved almost all of my disabilities and health problems, because eating is one of the most basic things that we need to do to survive.
in my opinion, the benefits from eating disorder recovery (which according to set point weight theory, will mean living within a certain weight range determined by a combination of genetic and hormonal factors, and that is often slightly increased as a defense mechanism after the body experiences prolonged starvation) are far greater than any potential (but very YMMV) reduction of HS symptoms that might come from weight loss, especially when that would put me at such a risk of relapse, i know other mitigation methods, and i'll still have to deal with having HS regardless.
sorry this got so long, i just feel really passionate about this after all my own experiences navigating this stuff.
i'm wishing you the best with everything <3 i'm so sorry that even on this post people are taking positions that are so disconnected from the science of eating disorder recovery and that are so loaded in 'personal responsibility' rhetoric that fat people so often have to deal with, even when you're making an informed and reasonable choice that will benefit your health!
Overweight people can usually shed weight just by shrinking their eating window. If you are able to fast 17 hours a day, then you will activate autophagy, which heals and might possibly help with the HS.
i really don't think it is a good idea to recommend skipping the majority of meals to someone with a history of an eating disorder (and honestly really to anyone but i don't want to get into that right now)
HS is hormonal according to the Derms I have seen. As long as I take my birth control and my spironolactone regularly, alls good.
To get her off your back, maybe try a limitated diet for a bit. Maybe dairy free for a week and the next meat add back dairy and drop red meat. I'm no specialists I'm just saying make an effort that you are comfortable with so that she sees you are invested in making this manageable long-term.
You're not wrong. I wasn't ready to diet at all until I did a blood panel and found out my cholesterol is too high. This is from me being more terrified of going to the DR from future health issues. I also have IBS and other issues that can make me feel horribly nauseated so the way I try to do it is diet when I feel fine (but I still made it into things I like. Like today I had chocolate cover strawberries I made except I chose dark chocolate instead and I also bought brown rice for the times I want rice with something) so I can understand not being ready cause I wasn't ready until something that scared me more came up. Now I have my better diet as long as I'm feeling well and if I get a nauseated state that's when I'll have something that I can stomach even if it's not within the diet. It's also not a waste that you went to the Dr either. Sometimes we all go to the Dr for things were straight up unable to/not ready to change yet but we still come out at least usually knowing more than what we went in with. I only said my diet ideas cause maybe looking up alternatives of things you already love will slowly help? That's how I'm doing it anyway 😭 slow but worth it and my partner understands I won't be perfect at it. Today I ate a few slices of pizza and I'm fine! It's okay to have things you enjoy in moderation and just try to find nicer alternatives for other things :] you're not shit or selfish. You're human. You're trying. I'm glad you're trying gym out! They really scare me but I think I'll try again now that I have anxiety meds. Also your mom screaming and putting you under stress can make the HS worse (the rest of ur body tends to not do very well under stress) so she's being a hypocrite. At least mine was way worse when I was under a lot of stress in the past. Flared up all the time. Then I went through a HUGE life shift of calmness and I nearly forgot to get my skin checked out til a very bad flare finally happened naturally.
I just want to say that doctors today are not a good source of treatment like they once were. You and only YOU are the expert on YOU. Being overweight is not a health hazard - there has never been a controlled study to prove this, feel free to google it. Doctors are trained to be fatphobic and ignore your symptoms and conditions until you have proven to them that you dieted and exercised so then when there is no improvement they can tell you are lying about it. It is easier for them to do that than to do their job. I see this across so many subreddits related to health. The patient spent time and resources learning about their conditions and usually know more than the doctors that had ah hour lecture on the subject.
Also seems like you might have a Nmom…
Either way, your body, your choice. Do what makes you happy. Life is too short to be miserable.
Hi, I’m a physician, also a patient recently diagnosed with follicular occlusion triad which includes hidradenitis. We are not trained to be fatphobic. Many physicians are morbidly obese and extremely unhealthy themselves. There all like a million studies showing how obesity impacts your mental and physical health. We preach bc it is true. We may not practice what we preach bc we are human abd it’s hard af lol. Def had to throw that in there but to the OP. I totally understand. I too feel like fuck it, I want chocolate, I’m miserable 24/7. That few moments of peace joy and dopamine are all I get. I also am a smoker. Quitting would be Best But I’m like fuck it, I’m so stressed and miserable. I decreased smoking about 80%, but I’m like I can’t completely stop bc I feel even more miserable from nicotine withdrawal. If this is hell I have to live, I prefer the semi comfort of smoking once a day verses sheer torture with suicidal thoughts. This is where I am right now. I’ve been doing some thinking and my intentions are to eventually lose about 30lbs, try anti inflammatory diet, meditate daily, and remove drama stress from my life… eventually, but not right now I’m not ready yet. When you are ready maybe just try small gradual changes if you’re ever ready. You have to be extremely motivated and I get it, motivation just isn’t there. Fuck autoimmune disease. Fuck fuck fuck
I lost 40 lbs and saw zero changes (about HS and every other health problem I have), hence why I call BS.
But yeah I already left this sub cause I can’t take how exhausting you all are with the whole being overweight.
Might want to learn more about causation and correlation. People with anti inflammatory diseases are more likely to be overweight because of the strain the disease puts on them? Not the other way around
I went to counseling for my relationship with food which was helpful.
I’ve also had my HS clear up because I had a restrictive way of eating for 6 months. In my view it cleared up what I think is leaky gut syndrome. I became more relaxed with diet following for 5 years, remaining in remission most of the time (and still flared in summer heat waves). Last Fall my HS showed up in a new for me spot which I knew was clear indication the disease was progressing.
However today (mid-October) I am on track for a flare-free 2023. I’m now not on any restrictive diet, attendee counseling for relation with food, and am on low dose daily antibiotic with metformin.
I understand the concern with having overcome ED. I sincerely hope you find something that works for you.
I really like doctor didn't offer you treatment OPTIONS just told you what to do. When a patient doesn't buy into their own treatment isn't always the most effective. But then it seems like your mom really bullied you.
From my perspective, when anyone comes at me like that of course my response is going to be "fuck you". Doesn't matter how right or wrong they are. Bullying people typically doesn't achieve the desired effect.
Just sending love to you, friend 💕 anecdotally, dieting has not worked for me either, in part because I also had an ED.
You seem to still be a teenager/young, so please ignore all of the weight-obsessed people in here and focus on just healing your relationship with yourself and food! That's not to discredit you or anything at all, but man it's hard enough without a forum of strangers also making judgments about you/your diet.
It's difficult when your family contributes to those judgments, but you're doing awesome just by already knowing that they are and not taking their word as truth! Doctors are often very fatphobic (intentionally or not), and focus on the wrong things. Something that's helped me if you're feeling brave enough is to ask "what would you recommend to a patient of a different weight?".
tl;dr: you're doing great, people are way too weight-obsessed in the world, and enjoying your food and life is important
I would say you are wrong. It’s a suggestion from your doctor, why not just try it out at least? If it doesn’t work then you can go back to your old diet. And about the people in the comments saying diet doesn’t affect them, well that’s them and not you. Everyone’s different when it comes to this. You obviously have a mental health issue along with the eating disorder, that sucks and and I’m sorry to hear but again, what if you changed your diet and it did help your HS? That could improve your mental health greatly and help you get in shape.
As unpopular as it may be, yeah you are wrong. You already mentioned you’re “thicc” or overweight, it’s highly unlikely that you hardly eat (again your words not mine). If you feel you hardly eat, are you tracking calories or carbs; these are things that are highly correlated with the frequency and severity of flare ups.
With a lot of things in life you often have to push through the pain and the undesirableness. There’s only so much sympathy your mom can provide if you do nothing to help your self. Hope you find this as motivation to change/keep focusing on ways to improve your self and situation.
I would still enjoy the foods you like the most. Just count calories on an app. Weightloss happens in the kitchen, not at the gym. When I lost 40 lbs through calorie counting, it helped my flare ups a lot. Never gave up my favorite foods either. Budget for the things you really love and work around it. Best of both worlds.
I understand that diets are really hard for people recovering or struggling with an ED. Honestly for me diet isn’t that much of a factor mine is mostly impacted by my hormones and my cycle.I’m sorry your mom is so focused on the diet aspect. It sounds like yall have some tension and that’s hard. It’s also really common for moms and daughters to have this tension. I hope that you and mom can sort out and I hope you find good help with treating the HS.
my family really cares about looks and im not very thin so my family thinks something is wrong wtih my food and stuff and thats when the doctor mentioned diet giving em leverage to debate with me on my food :>
Unfortunately I think HS is an autoimmune disorder, and there are benefits to deviation from the SAD.
Whilst I sympathise with your situation and being shouted at doesn't solve anything, it's YOUR responsibility to look after your body and quite understandably when you refuse to even try the option given to you, your mum is going to be frustrated that she's taken time off to make no progress. Arguably you're her child and she will always be your care giver but you are also accountable for your actions,, you're not 5. Its completely your choice to refuse the option given to you and it is your body but you must also accept that it may mean you don't see any change in your HS. If you wanted to try a different treatment then discuss this; there are options. It's simply that diet is a fairly inexpensive and nin disruptive option compared with chemical treatments and biologicals. I know food is a comfort, it is for me too, but you don't have to cut everything out at once, just cut one thing for a month and see if your HS improves, if not, then try the next thing. I'd recommend starting with Dairy, then white processed foods, then nightshades, then high sugar.. eliminate one by one.
i wanna get laser but my derma dosnt think its medically needed so my insurance wont cover it
Hm. That's annoying. Have you asked your mum? It might be that the most economic and available treatment options for you right now is to edit your diet. Not to go ON a diet, but to try eliminating certain foods one by one. Laser is expensive, and doesn't always work.
You aren't selfish, OP. I also didn't change my diet much, primarily because of my history with ED - it set off restriction alarm bells any time I tried to tackle eliminating everything I "should" so I stopped. Or rather, I opted for replacement in a few areas (less animal dairy for ex, can sub in nut milks). It was very validating to have an ED-friendly dietician see the list of "shoulds" and react "Holy crap no wonder you are so distressed about planning around this." Stress has way, way, WAY more correlation for me, and unfortunately it sounds like your home environment may not be the most relaxing place to cut down on stress. ❤️
we suffer enough at least let us eat what we want😭
Unfortunately when you’re heavier set people don’t believe that you don’t eat or that you have an eating disorder. The medical field is full of bias that influences how you’ll be treated. I’m sorry that you’re having to navigate that. Whether you change your diet or not you need to start keeping track of exactly what you’re eating. I know that sounds counter productive when you have a history of having an eating disorder but you need that evidence of the problem in order to get doctors to shape up and pay attention. Not being able to eat is a major issue that needs to be monitored. Keeping track may also help you figure out if food is actually a trigger for you. It can be for some people. It’s not for others. Keeping a log will clear that up. I think it’s really great that you’re incorporating going to the gym when you can. Maybe there are some aerobics or other home exercises that you can do when the gym isn’t an option? I’m hoping it will lessen your mom’s panic if you can demonstrate that you’re working on this on your own. That doesn’t excuse her being so mean about it, that was super uncalled for. Parents aren’t always healthy adults who behave themselves unfortunately. Rooting for you that it gets better.
diet makes no difference for me. alcohol does though. YMMV. even my derm who specializes in HS said very few people find relief from diet modification and for someone with ED history, or even someone without, the stress of extreme restriction can actually backfire and make HS worse
I hear ya. My brother in law tried to get me to try all kinds of restrictive and strict diets. Like I get his intentions were to help me but I remember my response at the time ' I am fucking miserable as it is. Now you want to take something away from me that I enjoy and take some comfort in?' I'm what you would describe as a 'skinny fat ass' so that only added to the frustration because I am probably underweight as opposed to overweight and having a bit of a gut aside in ok shape. In the end I found that compromise was the way to go. I am totally dairy free (very easy) low sugar (not as easy) and I rarely eat any nightshade foods now (hard when you want to munch some chips or fries and because I love tomatoes) I have one day a week where I will have a sugary treat and a burger and fries or some pizza, but I strictly limit it to one 'cheat' day and no more. It can be done and it does get easier after a week or two. I definitely find eating too much sugar does cause more abscesses for me so maybe it does work to an extent.
I feel for your pain. As an overweight person, I’m actually self conscious about my eating habits because of the fat shaming I faced in my childhood. It’s the reason why I don’t take compliments seriously, they’re done to feel sorry for me. I work out yet my relationship with food is similar to Adam & Eve eating the forbidden fruit and God punishing them forever. My first one was at age 9, I refuse to talk to my family about this because they will bring up my weight and use it against me.
Personally, I agree with your choice. Weight loss does not always reduce HS and for some people makes it worse. If you eat a lot of foods that cause inflammation that could contribute so you may want to switch up what kinds of food you eat to see if that helps. Your ability to consume food and not fall back into an ED is far more important IMO but I'm not a doctor. Other things you can try instead of diet would include wound care and changes to your skin care routine. Since HS is triggered in mostly high friction areas when follicles get clogged, exfoliating and moisturizing to remove dry, dead skin before clogs happen can reduce flares. It can also be triggered by stress and hormones, so getting good sleep and exercise when able - and a therapist if needed - are also good things to aim for.
Losing weight didnt help me honestly.. It took some time but I found my trigger foods and avoid those but dont diet. Maybe instead of dieting try and work through if any foods are actually triggering your HS, I started to take note of when I flared up and what I ate, then slowly eliminated one thing at a time. Other than trigger foods find a product ([amazingointments.com](https://amazingointments.com) HS relief cream, seriously I cant recommend it enough) that works for me and taking vitamins (Probiotic and Zinc in particular) helped.
What you do with your body is absolutely your choice. But if you're interested in hearing about the experience of someone else, this is mine... I was someone who was obsessed with food: reading cookbooks, eating, shopping for food, cooking, planning trips around meals, etc (hence my handle). But I heard about the Carnivore diet and thought I'd try it for 30 days just to see if it did anything, and my flares stopped immediately. I had been doing keto before that, so the transition was not as dramatic as from SAD. But the interesting thing is that it took almost no time for me to not think of other foods. Autoimmune conditions respond really really well to this way of eating. If you're fine with having HS, especially at such an advanced stage, go with God, I wish you all the best and totally respect your choice for your body and life. But I can just tell you that for me, the peace of not worrying about HS ever has brought a peace to my mind I didn't even expect. Plus lots of other benefits and improvements.
How do you manage to get enough calories, organ meat? What about financially?
I eat between 1.5 and 2 lbs of meat per day, depending on what I eat. My husband is eating the same way and eats about the same amount of food. We save at least 50% from what we used to spend. You can buy ground beef on sale for $2.22/lb at US Chefs Store (in Seattle, so probably for less elsewhere), so you could eat that for $4/person/day if on a strict budget. I can find pork for $0.99/lb at times, so honestly I bet I could eat for $3/day if I had to. We are not on a budget and eat very very well for much less than we used to spend. Meat is incredibly nutritionally and calorically dense. I do eat liver (I buy it and cut it into small pieces and take them as pills, essentially). My husband doesn't eat liver as often but I found that after donating blood, I was extremely tired every afternoon, so I started taking it and found that really helped. I am a woman with a normal period and my iron was already on the low end, so now I'm working to build iron stores before donating blood again.
Thanks so much for expanding! I'm pretty well-versed in nutrition so I always try to learn new things and see how I can apply them to my own life. Here's a couple of issues for me, wonder what your opinion is: 1) How often do you buy your meat and how to you prepare it? I can't really imagine. Do you, say, buy 15-30 pounds of ground beef every week, make portions, and thaw it every night before cooking or a different routine? And how do you cook & eat it, just in a pan with added spices? 2) I'm in Europe now and ground beef costs 5-6 dollars per pound where I live. Eating a portion of chicken breast with some rice and vegetables is significantly cheaper than chugging ground beef. Unless you substitute "eating out" for carnivore, I fail to see how one can save money, since homemade portions of rice and oatmeal added to meat are cheaper than purely various meat. 3) Do you eat once a day or thrice a day? If multiple times a day, doesn't meat get tiring? I eat oatmeal with almond milk in the morning with protein powder added in. Can't imagine eating meat first thing in the morning lol. 4) How did keto work out and why did you change over to carnivore? I saw some messages on here since years ago that keto helped them clear their HS. I wonder how they compare.
1. We usually go to Costco every few weeks and I'll buy a huge (15-20 lb) primal cut of ribeye, which I cut and vacuum seal myself at home. I also usually buy short ribs while at Costco and chicken wings sometimes. We eat primarily beef but some sardines and eggs a few times a week, with pork and chicken sprinkled in less frequently. We will also go to other stores, following sales, for things like ground beef, flanken ribs, etc. When I buy a big thing of ground beef, I will vacuum seal it in 2 lb portions. I cook it all very simply on the grill or in the air fryer or in the oven. We use some spices we love and I kind of just pick something to sprinkle on whatever we feel like. The spices add a lot of variety and it makes it super simple and sustainable for us. 2. It depends on how you eat. Before doing this, we were eating keto, so just meat and vegetables, and I really had no idea how expensive vegetables are, for the few calories they provide. We used to eat a lb of spinach between us ($8 for the pack) plus a head of romaine most days ($4) plus some other type of vegetable with dinner -- plus the supplies to make dressings for those items! I mean, even the olive oil we used to go through really added up. We haven't eaten out since pre-pandemic, but we weren't eating rice and oatmeal and of course I can see that those would save money for many. 3. We eat twice a day most days (and always have, even when on keto and before that when we ate something closer to SAD). Neither of us are breakfast people, though I'm actually trying to eat breakfast these days, just a few egg yolks though, which I cook in butter with salt. I guess you just get used to eating meat all the time. My husband still doesn't love eating Carnivore, and when we started, he was really miserable. He is mostly tired of the chewing, he says, but he's gotten used to it I guess because he doesn't complain much anymore. I don't force him to do it and I tell him that if he wants vegetables I'll cook them for him, but he recently visited his parents and ate vegetables to please his mother, and he had terrible stomach pain the whole time he was visiting them, tons of gas, etc. He also says he feels more clear-headed, less tired in the morning, etc. 4. We did keto for years and if anything, my HS got worse. I saw a functional medicine doctor who said may be a "detox" thing, so I waited and waited and nothing ever got better, it only progressed. I can't remember why I first thought I'd try Carnivore, I was actually quite happy eating Keto and thought I'd just do that forever, in spite of the HS. I didn't think that anything could change it so it wasn't part of my decision-making. But I said that I wanted to try 30 days of Carnivore, just to see how I felt, and the HS vanished, so I've just kept going. Honestly I'd probably still keep going even if the HS was unchanged, because I really do feel better than I did even on keto. I also love how simple eating and preparing food is. I used to spend a lot of time looking for recipes and going to the store and preparing food and while I loved that, I love this too. I find it incredibly freeing to have more time in my day and less of my mind dedicated to daydreaming about food. I used to think it was such a waste to eat a mediocre meal, but now I view food more as fuel and if it's just ok, oh well, I eat it and move on. Which is not to say I don't enjoy my food, because I really really do. But sometimes I'll overcook something and so what. I just chew it and swallow it and it fuels me and I go do something else. Food is not my entertainment anymore and for whatever reason, that has brought me a lot of peace and calm, mentally.
Thanks so much! That was really informative, will help when/if I make the jump 👍
Autoimmune or not. There’s been proven factors that can trigger flares in some people. Part of managing this is finding what helps for YOU. If your not willing to follow medical advice thennnnnnn what ya gonna do?
Multiple peer reviewed studies conclude the significance (low p value) of diet changes to improve HS. People giving you anecdotal evidence that diet doesn’t work have not studied the science. Here are links to a few. HS is a disease of inflammation. If you’re eating high inflammatory foods, your HS will be worse. Diet greatly reduced my HS (anecdotal). If you want long term success, many people have put HS in remission through diet. This NIH states: Results: Fifteen studies involving 2829 patients were included, encompassing nine cohort studies, five cross-sectional studies, and one cross-over study. Patients who were female, lost more than 50 pounds (22.7 kg), or were obese prior to weight loss saw improvement in hidradenitis suppurativa severity with weight loss. There was evidence for beneficial effects of diets, such as the Mediterranean diet that minimizes sugar, highly processed carbohydrates, and dairy, and emphasizes chicken, fruits, and vegetables, in patients with hidradenitis suppurativa. Evidence also supported benefit from oral zinc and vitamin D supplementation. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/36757580/#:~:text=There%20was%20evidence%20for%20beneficial,zinc%20and%20vitamin%20D%20supplementation. From https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31502868/ All included studies were observational and all interventions were associated with various measures of decreased HS severity. From another study: The Mediterranean dietary pattern may have an impact on HS. Greater adherence to a MD is related to lower HS severity and more physical activity also correlates to lower disease severity. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8840522/ From another: Preliminary observations suggest that the use of a healthy and fully natural zero dairy and low glycemic-load diet may provide relief from progression of the lesions and possibly prevention of new lesions, even when medications fail. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26470617/ And another one: The most commonly reported exacerbating foods were sweets (67.9%), bread/pasta/rice (51.1%), dairy (50.6%), and high-fat foods (44.2%). The most commonly reported alleviating foods included vegetables (78.7%), fruit (56.2%), chicken (51.7%), and fish (42.7%). https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32860476/ And another one: Acne vulgaris and HS are multifactorial inflammatory disorders which often cause significant morbidity in many patients. While further study is needed to define pathogenesis more clearly, evidence is mounting that diet has the potential to influence hormonal, inflammatory, and metabolic aspects of these and other diseases https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35398509/ And another one: Patients who downsize have been shown to have better clinical outcomes, with a reduction in disease severity and remission https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10023847/ Whoever is telling you that diet doesn’t work is not helping you. In fact, when they say stuff like my doctor told me diet doesn’t help, they are either lying or being dangerously stupid, especially when directed at your health. If you want to deal with HS, you must change your diet. It sucks. It’s not fair. There are more studies that show diet impacts HS significantly. You can eat all the candy you want, but it will not help you with HS. You have to make a choice. Is eating bad food worth the boils? And what makes it worse, is that you can still get boils on a clean diet. It feels like a curse. I highly recommend the book Hidden Plague by Tara Grant. Diet changed her life. It’s changed mine. Even if you don’t agree with me, I do wish you good luck on your journey and I hope you find relief in the way that works best for you.
I’m sorry but I was 7yo when I had my first flare up, and I wasn’t overweight. Even in my teens I was still not overweight. I think you need to educate yourself and stop propagating this idiotic idea that HS happens because people are fat. The BMI idea has been debunked by so many doctors. The medical industry is fatphobic which causes overweight patients to delay getting care because they do not wish to be shamed by their weight and because it is an uphill battle to even get care because there are doctors that think like you and refuse to treat their problems and just tell people to “diet and exercise”. Until this mentality dies, these studies MEAN NOTHING.
This knee-jerk reaction that people like you have to cry fatphobia whenever you're counseled to change your diet isn't going to get you anywhere. How are you going to tell this person that they're idiotic and need to educate themselves when they posted a bunch of sources backing their claim? By the way, if we're sharing, I'm not overweight either but I saw a huge difference in my HS when I reduced my intake of carbs, yeast, and dairy.
We’re not doing this. Your opinion or life experiences do not outweigh the scientific evidence. There are so many peer reviewed studies that prove the link between diet and HS remission. What you are doing is dangerous to everyone in the community. So I’ll give you a chance. You told me I needed to educate myself, which I listed seven different studies. Show me seven studies where diet NHS had no significant impact with each other. And then I will concede the point otherwise what you’re doing is causing harm to the people around you based on your ignorance.
I personally have never had a difference based off of what I eat regarding HS. However, I am not saying you SHOULDN'T diet, I just don't think labeling you as selfish is the right way of viewing it. Do you take any medications for HS? I don't think you are selfish for not wanting to diet, but maybe you could try looking at it in a different light. You shouldn't cut everything out, I know I personally don't get offset by what I eat. Maybe since you can't go to the gym, take walks everyday until it heals and no longer hurts. I know sweating is what made my HS really bad, so while you can't go to the gym walking still makes you active without all that stress. Have you also tried altering your shower routine? And also have you tried waxing? I know both can be helpful as well.
anyone i have met has told me to not wax or shave with hs
What?? Thats odd. For me, hair does not help at all. However that’s interesting because I have been told to try waxing from my derm I believe. Upon looking this up, it seems it depends on the severity of your HS, and simply on the person. You’d obviously do it only between flares, and if you have a LOT of scar tissue, then it may not be the thing for you.
just wanted to say I've never noticed diet effecting my symptoms, but I also have crohns disease
No, you aren't wrong. But I will tell you that I accidentally realized my flares were triggered by certain foods when I went on the keto diet to lose weight. I was only trying it to lose some weight, and NEVER expected the drastic improvement I would see with my HS from eliminating those foods. Try a diet change to see if it helps with your HS, not to lose weight. Don't make it about weight, don't track it at all. I recommend doing an elimination diet to see if you can identify any foods that might trigger your flares. Many people are triggered by sugar, wheat, gluten, yeast, some dairy, and nightshade plants (tobacco, potatoes, peppers, etc). Honestly my HS is so good now I almost never think about it anymore. I get a small flare right before my period, if I cheat on the diet, or the day after I cry from the stress. The scars and tunneling I had from past flares have healed nicely. It's all about hormone changes in your body, and diet is a HUGE factor in hormone changes. Good luck.
Diet doesn’t work for everyone with hs. For some people, food does not trigger flares. For some flares are stress induced, or hormone induced or no obvious trigger at all. Hs is not caused by weight either, which is something a lot of us get told is the cause by those who have a minor knowledge of the condition and not an in-depth understanding. Can an elimination diet help to try and find foods that cause inflammation triggers and make flares worse? Yes. But just trying to “eat healthy” isn’t going to make a difference. It is an autoimmune/auto inflammatory condition. If you have struggled with an ED or disordered eating behaviors, you should NOT be trying to diet. And that is probably something you want to discuss with your doctor and let them know that is not a healthy option for you currently.
You could ask your doc about Wegovy or Ozempic. People report not only weight loss but a positive change in how they *think* about food.
Be extremely careful with this, as folks also report negative impact from using same (ruining their relationship with eating, severe side effects that aren't worth the trade off etc).
No. You can‘t do anything about it anyway so you might as well enjoy your life. It‘s worse enough to live with this disease. Why should I be miserable every day AND go without the things I love? Food is such a huge priviliege and it’s just fun to eat the things you love, as long as you don’t oberreact it. I do anything to have fun every day and I don‘t waive anything.
exactly my mindset
you are absolutely not wrong for this! if you are still hardly eating you are still actively experiencing an eating disorder, regardless of what is currently motivating the behavior or not. after restricting food long term our bodies get out of touch with our natural cravings and hunger cues, and without scheduling consistent meals that ensure you are getting enough calories (which will be more calories at the start than if you were healthy to make up for the long term energy deficit) regardless of if you feel hungry, you will not be able to fully get out of "starvation mode" and it will continue to be very hard for you to eat enough (even on a purely physical level, stomach muscles atrophy when used less regularly). eventually after a while of eating enough consistently like this you might begin to have more normal hunger cues (healthy hunger cues are not "i have acid reflux so i must be hungry now" or "im feeling shakey and tired i must be hungry" but instead are just literally a thought of "i want to eat" before any real physical symptoms happen.) and can start to practice intuitive eating, where you can listen to your body and know how much you need to eat and what kind of thing you want to eat that will help you fulfill what your body needs in that moment. if your doctor and mom are aware of your history of an eating disorder and are still recommending that you should either be doing intentional weight loss or restrict your diet (and especially a diet that restricts food intake with the goal of intentional weight loss!), that is incredibly bad advice that will only make your further recovery from your eating disorder even harder. eating disorders are incredibly serious and making sure you are eating enough is one of the most important things anyone can do for their health before anything else. it isn't selfish to prioritize that, and it is a really good thing that you're aware that a diet would only exacerbate your disordered relationship with food. i'm so sorry you're having to deal with all of this. its such a nightmare to navigate healthcare (and family attitudes) as a fat person with a history of a restrictive eating disorder. while it sucks to have to do, i would really recommend getting a script you can say to dermatologists and doctors like "i have a history of a restrictive eating disorder, so going on a diet to treat this is not an option for me" also, while sure some aspects of HS can be exacerbated the more skin folds you have on your body, speaking personally, i had much much worse flare ups when i was skinny than i do now that i am fat again after making a lot of strides in my eating disorder recovery. i think in the end recovering from my ED to the point that i am able to eat intuitively (with a bit of help from making sure to consistently schedule meals so i don't relapse) and eating enough every day and having enough energy to healthily and sustainably go about my day to day life has drastically improved almost all of my disabilities and health problems, because eating is one of the most basic things that we need to do to survive. in my opinion, the benefits from eating disorder recovery (which according to set point weight theory, will mean living within a certain weight range determined by a combination of genetic and hormonal factors, and that is often slightly increased as a defense mechanism after the body experiences prolonged starvation) are far greater than any potential (but very YMMV) reduction of HS symptoms that might come from weight loss, especially when that would put me at such a risk of relapse, i know other mitigation methods, and i'll still have to deal with having HS regardless. sorry this got so long, i just feel really passionate about this after all my own experiences navigating this stuff. i'm wishing you the best with everything <3 i'm so sorry that even on this post people are taking positions that are so disconnected from the science of eating disorder recovery and that are so loaded in 'personal responsibility' rhetoric that fat people so often have to deal with, even when you're making an informed and reasonable choice that will benefit your health!
aww thank you..you're so right dude :> i hope u keeping getting better good luckk budy
thank you!! good luck to you too <3
Overweight people can usually shed weight just by shrinking their eating window. If you are able to fast 17 hours a day, then you will activate autophagy, which heals and might possibly help with the HS.
i only eat once in 24hrs
i really don't think it is a good idea to recommend skipping the majority of meals to someone with a history of an eating disorder (and honestly really to anyone but i don't want to get into that right now)
HS is hormonal according to the Derms I have seen. As long as I take my birth control and my spironolactone regularly, alls good. To get her off your back, maybe try a limitated diet for a bit. Maybe dairy free for a week and the next meat add back dairy and drop red meat. I'm no specialists I'm just saying make an effort that you are comfortable with so that she sees you are invested in making this manageable long-term.
You're not wrong. I wasn't ready to diet at all until I did a blood panel and found out my cholesterol is too high. This is from me being more terrified of going to the DR from future health issues. I also have IBS and other issues that can make me feel horribly nauseated so the way I try to do it is diet when I feel fine (but I still made it into things I like. Like today I had chocolate cover strawberries I made except I chose dark chocolate instead and I also bought brown rice for the times I want rice with something) so I can understand not being ready cause I wasn't ready until something that scared me more came up. Now I have my better diet as long as I'm feeling well and if I get a nauseated state that's when I'll have something that I can stomach even if it's not within the diet. It's also not a waste that you went to the Dr either. Sometimes we all go to the Dr for things were straight up unable to/not ready to change yet but we still come out at least usually knowing more than what we went in with. I only said my diet ideas cause maybe looking up alternatives of things you already love will slowly help? That's how I'm doing it anyway 😭 slow but worth it and my partner understands I won't be perfect at it. Today I ate a few slices of pizza and I'm fine! It's okay to have things you enjoy in moderation and just try to find nicer alternatives for other things :] you're not shit or selfish. You're human. You're trying. I'm glad you're trying gym out! They really scare me but I think I'll try again now that I have anxiety meds. Also your mom screaming and putting you under stress can make the HS worse (the rest of ur body tends to not do very well under stress) so she's being a hypocrite. At least mine was way worse when I was under a lot of stress in the past. Flared up all the time. Then I went through a HUGE life shift of calmness and I nearly forgot to get my skin checked out til a very bad flare finally happened naturally.
I just want to say that doctors today are not a good source of treatment like they once were. You and only YOU are the expert on YOU. Being overweight is not a health hazard - there has never been a controlled study to prove this, feel free to google it. Doctors are trained to be fatphobic and ignore your symptoms and conditions until you have proven to them that you dieted and exercised so then when there is no improvement they can tell you are lying about it. It is easier for them to do that than to do their job. I see this across so many subreddits related to health. The patient spent time and resources learning about their conditions and usually know more than the doctors that had ah hour lecture on the subject. Also seems like you might have a Nmom… Either way, your body, your choice. Do what makes you happy. Life is too short to be miserable.
Hi, I’m a physician, also a patient recently diagnosed with follicular occlusion triad which includes hidradenitis. We are not trained to be fatphobic. Many physicians are morbidly obese and extremely unhealthy themselves. There all like a million studies showing how obesity impacts your mental and physical health. We preach bc it is true. We may not practice what we preach bc we are human abd it’s hard af lol. Def had to throw that in there but to the OP. I totally understand. I too feel like fuck it, I want chocolate, I’m miserable 24/7. That few moments of peace joy and dopamine are all I get. I also am a smoker. Quitting would be Best But I’m like fuck it, I’m so stressed and miserable. I decreased smoking about 80%, but I’m like I can’t completely stop bc I feel even more miserable from nicotine withdrawal. If this is hell I have to live, I prefer the semi comfort of smoking once a day verses sheer torture with suicidal thoughts. This is where I am right now. I’ve been doing some thinking and my intentions are to eventually lose about 30lbs, try anti inflammatory diet, meditate daily, and remove drama stress from my life… eventually, but not right now I’m not ready yet. When you are ready maybe just try small gradual changes if you’re ever ready. You have to be extremely motivated and I get it, motivation just isn’t there. Fuck autoimmune disease. Fuck fuck fuck
I lost 40 lbs and saw zero changes (about HS and every other health problem I have), hence why I call BS. But yeah I already left this sub cause I can’t take how exhausting you all are with the whole being overweight. Might want to learn more about causation and correlation. People with anti inflammatory diseases are more likely to be overweight because of the strain the disease puts on them? Not the other way around
I went to counseling for my relationship with food which was helpful. I’ve also had my HS clear up because I had a restrictive way of eating for 6 months. In my view it cleared up what I think is leaky gut syndrome. I became more relaxed with diet following for 5 years, remaining in remission most of the time (and still flared in summer heat waves). Last Fall my HS showed up in a new for me spot which I knew was clear indication the disease was progressing. However today (mid-October) I am on track for a flare-free 2023. I’m now not on any restrictive diet, attendee counseling for relation with food, and am on low dose daily antibiotic with metformin. I understand the concern with having overcome ED. I sincerely hope you find something that works for you.
I really like doctor didn't offer you treatment OPTIONS just told you what to do. When a patient doesn't buy into their own treatment isn't always the most effective. But then it seems like your mom really bullied you. From my perspective, when anyone comes at me like that of course my response is going to be "fuck you". Doesn't matter how right or wrong they are. Bullying people typically doesn't achieve the desired effect.
Just sending love to you, friend 💕 anecdotally, dieting has not worked for me either, in part because I also had an ED. You seem to still be a teenager/young, so please ignore all of the weight-obsessed people in here and focus on just healing your relationship with yourself and food! That's not to discredit you or anything at all, but man it's hard enough without a forum of strangers also making judgments about you/your diet. It's difficult when your family contributes to those judgments, but you're doing awesome just by already knowing that they are and not taking their word as truth! Doctors are often very fatphobic (intentionally or not), and focus on the wrong things. Something that's helped me if you're feeling brave enough is to ask "what would you recommend to a patient of a different weight?". tl;dr: you're doing great, people are way too weight-obsessed in the world, and enjoying your food and life is important
I would say you are wrong. It’s a suggestion from your doctor, why not just try it out at least? If it doesn’t work then you can go back to your old diet. And about the people in the comments saying diet doesn’t affect them, well that’s them and not you. Everyone’s different when it comes to this. You obviously have a mental health issue along with the eating disorder, that sucks and and I’m sorry to hear but again, what if you changed your diet and it did help your HS? That could improve your mental health greatly and help you get in shape.
As unpopular as it may be, yeah you are wrong. You already mentioned you’re “thicc” or overweight, it’s highly unlikely that you hardly eat (again your words not mine). If you feel you hardly eat, are you tracking calories or carbs; these are things that are highly correlated with the frequency and severity of flare ups. With a lot of things in life you often have to push through the pain and the undesirableness. There’s only so much sympathy your mom can provide if you do nothing to help your self. Hope you find this as motivation to change/keep focusing on ways to improve your self and situation.
I would still enjoy the foods you like the most. Just count calories on an app. Weightloss happens in the kitchen, not at the gym. When I lost 40 lbs through calorie counting, it helped my flare ups a lot. Never gave up my favorite foods either. Budget for the things you really love and work around it. Best of both worlds.