I'd KILL to be able to keep off the weight I lose every summer! I usually lose 15-20lbs as I physically feel and do as well as I am ever going to when it is HOT and HUMID outside. The amount of pain I fee is a good 40% or so lower than it is from mid October through mid April (at the bare minimum...'22 was early June!) with my main issue in the warm weather being I often injure myself (sometimes requiring surgery) as I OVERDO EVRYTHING!
I've been trying to get into the 230-240 range and I've come close 3 or 4x since life as I knew it came to an INSTANT end on Jan 18 2004 although I had sporadic issues on & off since the 1st time I ever was hospitalized due to illness way back in Aug 1990 while in the Army. For me, even though only 5'7", 230 would be perfect. I wrestled 189 in HS but had to run a minimum of 5 miles/night *ALMOST* year round so I could wrestler 189. The only time of year I could afford to gain was early in football season and I'd usually be right around 207-210but much to my coach's dismay I'd be back into the 195 range towards the end of football as wrestling was my main sport. I was 185lbs of solid rock in 10th grade but had planned on trying to get down to 154 as there was an open slot for me IF I could make it. I starved myself half to death and couldn't get below 181. I was running in, sleeping in and wearing trash bags under my clothes to school, drinking nothing BUT water and eating all the salad (no toppings) I could eat with nothing except red wine vinegar for dressing for lunch and dinner. For breakfast I'd eat a big bowl of Wheaties and 1-2 Grapefruit. 4x/week I'd eat skinless chicken, steak etc. for needed proteins. I got laughed at when I 1st joined the Army as I was "supposed to weigh" no more than 157 yet was 204 though I got down to 197 before boot camp. I came out of basic training & AIT weighing 214 though. My Drill Sgt bet me I'd walk out weighing no more than 160 and when I laughed he made me take off my shirt. He said "we have a Charlie rock" but still told me I'd walk out no more than 180......I should have kept my mouth shut but I never can and I replied "only if you cut my legs off". That got me put on the "fat boy diet" until we had our 1st PT test and I was like one of maybe a dozen that passed it. Most of the guys were never in shape to begin with. To me all of Basic & AIT was nothing more than a light wrestling practice in intensity. The day before we graduated I asked my Drills Sgt if he thought I was 180 and he said 175. NO CLUE where he got those numbers but even I was shocked to see the scale set at 214. By the time I got sick I was lifting like a man possessed and was bench pressing in excess of 500lbs, able to squat over 1000. I weighed 232-235 continually for over 2 years. I was also running 12-20 miles/week along with a couple dozen 100-250 yard uphill sprints. I was deformed as my chest was just shy of 60", neck was 22.25" on top of tree trunk legs. Buying clothing required a tailor as NO ONE made anything that fit and didn't make me look like a tent.
My problem is that once the cool-cold weather rolls around I frequently wind up totally incapacitated. At worst I'll be hospitalized completely incapable of standing or walking. At best I'll be able to do a couple of hours of work 2-3x/week. The pain levels I live with range from bad to indescribable despite having been on the strongest pain meds available since 2005-6 including having a morphine pump implant from 2005-'12 that required a mix of Dilaudid and Fentanyl as no amount of morphine on Earth will remotely phase my pain. Turns out I'm genetically "immune" to morphine and missing opiate receptors in my brain on top of being a hyper-metabolizer. Just what I always wanted as despite having NEVER used drugs in my life and having all of the medical records to document WHY I was on super duty pain meds, almost every single trip to an ER resulted in me being treated as a drug seeker! I shattered one Dr's face while hospitalized due to him busting my balls about being in a wet diaper while saying the only reason I was in "HIS" hospital was to suck up all of "HIS" drugs! When he began to repeat that (as I inclined my bed as much as it could go and at my sarcastic request) his thick Indian accent all but disappeared and he put his face 1" from mine so I said "fuck it" and hammered him with everything I had. Being this was within months of me 1st getting sick I was still MASSIVE and I admit, did not look like I couldn't stand or walk due to being almost pure muscle.
I've tried a couple different diets to no avail. I regain what I lost every damn fall-winter-spring. Prednisone really killed me weight wise as I packed on almost 50 full lbs between Jan -April 2004 and was "stuck" on Prednisone until late 2014 as it took forever and a day of painfully slow tapering before my adrenal glands began producing the natural form of corticosteroids again. To add to my "fun" I was diagnosed with significant Thyroid issues at about the same time in late '14.
I know I'm far from "typical" but if anyone has any ideas, I'm open to hearing them.