Spectracell Labs posted a very informative blog post regarding vitamins and weight management here that flipped on the light bulb for me today.
I was so thrilled I almost cried.
So let me start from the beginning with a bit of background.
I have expressed in prior posts how I had been overweight, went thru the hcg diet a few times, got down to my ideal weight, and then I gained weight like no other in the next year, unable to control my weight gain with my strict immense willpower when it comes to food. I gained some 90lbs and would have kept going if I hadn't found my Celiac at the end of 2011. Went gluten free and weight gain stopped... but no weight loss ever happened on its own.
Found out last September that I had a severe vitamin B5 deficiency after being tested by Spectracell Labs. Come to find out, this is normal for celiacs, as I think I mentioned in my post back then.
So... I started supplementing B5 after finishing yet another round of hcg dieting that was absolutely fruitless. (No weight loss at all)
Got pregnant in November... and I actually lost a size while pregnant. No crazy food issues either. No major morning sickness that prevented me from eating or anything.
Lost the baby in January... and ran out of my huge bottles of pantothenic acid then. Thinking I didn't need it anymore, I didn't bother to replace them.
I gained 10lbs in the following two months... realized I felt like crap again so I started up the b5 again at half the dose, and realized I'll probably have to supplement for the rest of my life... I just don't absorb it properly.
Ok so now that you have the short and sweet story... the reason for this whole post.
Spectracell mentioned in their blog that B5 is the precursor to the enzyme lipase, which is the FAT BURNING ENZYME.
Holy mother of god... I found the reason why I gained so much weight uncontrollably and now I know how to reverse it.
I've been all about the enzymes lately... I knew I was lacking in lipase but I couldn't figure out why nor how to fix it, other than to supplement with digestive enzymes.
If I look back at my history it all makes sense.
Fasted with the hcg diet a number of times in 2009, likely depleting cellularly stored pantothenic acid. Since I don't absorb it properly, I wasn't able to replenish it. With each hcg round, my ability to lose weight decreased and the weight loss would slow. I notoriously lost less weight than others doing the same diet and even with them cheating on it and me being very strict.
So I gained after I was done with those. A lot. No lipase available to burn fat as energy.
Fast forward to October last year... didn't lose at all... my stores were empty, as referenced by my nutrition report.
November thru January supplementing 1g a day and lost a pant size (didn't lose scale weight, but didn't gain either).
Bottle ends and I gain weight back.
I get a new bottle and flip from taking 500mg to 1g a day... mostly 500mg a day. I fluctuate in size... I don't know my smaller days are related to the 1g or not.
SO... I took 2g today of pantothenic acid. My normal 500 this morning and 1500mg this evening.
I so can't wait to see if this is going to work for me.
I will check in with this later.
As of this morning, I am 225.2 lbs.
In the meantime, check out this wonderfully written article about pantothenic acid:
http://www.coryholly.com/articles/article.cfm?id=172
