A morbidly obese woman in Ohio couldn’t lose weight despite dieting and exercising, leading to the surprising diagnosis that she was curbing her fat loss.
Jess Cisco, who weighed 245 pounds at her peak, spent 12 months swapping burgers and pizza for chicken, cottage cheese and nights out at the gym – but couldn’t shed a single pound.
Convinced something was wrong, she was referred for hospital tests which showed the 32-year-old had multiple cysts – pus-filled sacs – on her ovaries.
The cysts can cause weight gain by releasing extra estrogen, the female sex hormone that stimulates appetite and encourages the accumulation of more fat cells.
But despite her condition, Ms Cisco has lost more than 100 pounds following gastric bypass surgery.
Jesse Cisco, 32, a mental health nurse in Columbus, Ohio, struggled to lose weight for an entire year even though she changed her diet and started exercising. (Left: At 245 pounds). But after doctors found ovarian cysts, which can impede weight loss by disrupting hormones, she had a gastric bypass and is now down to 144.6 pounds
Ms Cisco said she has now gone from a size 20 to a size four, more than a year after gastric bypass surgery
Ms Cisco said she used to frequently binge eat and then feel hungry — 5,000 calories one day and less than 1,000 the next.
Her obesity had reached a point where she suffered from fatty liver disease, sleep apnea, and pain in her foot that made it difficult to move.
But when a doctor told her she was now so big that she would have trouble conceiving, Ms. Cisco decided she wanted to change course.
“Almost everyone in my family is morbidly obese and chronically ill, and I quickly fell into the same category,” she said.
“As I continued to gain weight, my blood counts dropped to critical levels for my cholesterol and liver levels, my blood pressure was consistently dangerously high, and I had acid reflux so bad I woke up in pain every night.
“My weight has caused me to become socially isolated, even from loved ones. I hated going out in public because I didn’t want anyone to see me like that.’
She started a new healthy lifestyle, choosing nutritious meals, going to the gym and undergoing therapy.
But after a full year, the scales hadn’t moved a single pound.
“By the end of 2020 I was at rock bottom because I’d spent the whole year trying to get everything right but nothing was working,” she said.
“I haven’t lost a single pound this year.
“I felt so down and I was about to just give up. I was ready to just accept that I was meant to be fat and sick.’
At the time, doctors asked her for an ultrasound to check her intrauterine device (IUD). They may have worried that it was causing her pain, making it harder to stick to her diet plan.
But then they diagnosed her with ovarian cysts. There were three on her left ovary and two on her right, the largest measuring about 0.8 inches in diameter.
These can make it difficult to lose weight, they warned, because they can release extra female sex hormones linked to weight gain.
However, the doctors decided not to remove the cysts because of their small size. They will follow her through yearly appointments to check for cancer.
After being diagnosed, Ms. Cisco underwent gastric bypass surgery to help her lose weight.
Mrs Cisco is pictured above when she was at her greatest with her husband. She said her weight hasn’t affected her marriage
The turning point that inspired her to lose weight came when an obstetrician told her she couldn’t get pregnant
Ms. Cisco said her weight also poses a number of problems for her. She had fatty liver, sleep apnea, and foot pain that made it difficult for her to move
Ms. Cisco’s weight loss is pictured above. She Says Gastric Bypass Surgery ‘Saved My Life’
This works by shrinking the stomach and reducing the amount of food that passes through the intestines, which helps reduce appetite and the number of calories extracted from the food someone eats.
In addition to reducing her food intake, Ms. Cisco made a number of dietary changes to promote her weight loss. This included eating bacon-wrapped chicken, cottage cheese and berries, and granola. She says she’s also now “obsessed” with popcorn as a snack.
She said: “After the surgery I felt tired and in some pain, but I mostly felt relieved and excited when I woke up. I knew my life would change.
“Honestly, what I’m most proud of is healing my relationship with food. It’s been a long road and a lot of effort, trial and error, but food no longer has power over me.”
She added, “My husband and I have plans to do a straight through hike through the Appalachian Trial within the next two years – now that I can hike pain free it’s finally a viable option.”
Ms Cisco said she is now down to 144.6 pounds and reduced her waist size from 20 to 4.
The Appalachian Trail is approximately 2,000 miles long and runs through 14 US states, from Maine down to Georgia. Completion can take up to seven months.
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