My stats:
- 37M, Caucasian, 183 cm (6'), 83 kg (183 lbs), 30% body fat (bf), I live in the UK
- No smoking, no drugs, rarely alcohol, decent diet
- Medication history: nothing since 11th May. Before that - in August 2017 I started taking Aripiprazole, which induced severe depression. I stopped taking it after 3 months and got prescribed antidepressants (Sertraline) and Sulpiride. Stopped taking Sertraline in September 2019. I was also tapering off Sulpiride (from 200mg) since January 2021 and stopped taking it on 11th May.
The problem:
I have 0 results from exercise and diet, i.e. I can't lose any fat. My weight and body composition stays the same regardless if I diligently exercise and watch my diet or sit all day (I work from home) and eat anything. It has been like that for the past 2 years, since I started taking Sulpiride/Sertraline. Before that I was naturally skinny - 63 kg (140 lbs) and around 14% bf. I started lifting and got to 81 kg (178 lbs) and 18% bf. My body always responded to exercise/diet immediately, I could burn fat or build muscle at will by simply eating more/less calories. Then I had to stop because of an injury and started taking the meds. Since then, I'm 30% bf and NOTHING works. Only if I starve myself (eat less than 1400 kcal) I'll lose a bit of weight, but my bf stays the same and the weight immediately comes back once I start eating a bit more (still less than 2000 kcal though).
What I do:
- Exercise: weightlifting (30min, 3 times a week), fast cycling (30min, 1-2 times a week), brisk walking (45min, at least 3 times a week)
- Diet: around 1500-1600 kcal, 120-150g protein a day. No sugar, fast/preprocessed food, ready meals, etc. Everything I eat is weighted and logged in an app
Tests I did:
- General blood tests
- Liver function tests
- Urea and electrolytes
- Lipids/cholesterol
- Full testosterone profile
- Full thyroid profile
- Full iron profile
- Prolactin
- Vitamin D
- Fasting glucose
- HBA1C
All came back normal apart from cholesterol which was a bit too high. My testosterone used to be quite low (total test: 9 nmol/L [7.9 - 31.3]) and prolactin high (1200 mU/L [45.0 - 375.0]) on Sulpiride so I thought that was the reason for my problems, but now I stopped taking it it's back to normal (total test: 22.94 nmol/L, free test: 0.4529 nmol/L, SHBG: 35 nmol/L, Free Androgen Index: 65.5:1 ratio).
Any ideas what might be wrong? Is there anything else I can test? Cortisol, maybe?
Sorry for the long post, but I'm at my wits end. My doctor just ignores the problem ("you got old"). Thank you for reading.