u/ajmattison

Remember that trend on Instagram a bit back where people gave ChatGPT their photo to put them at the Met Gala? I did it with my pup 🤭 this is Rocket (Rocky)

Sorry this might be long but I am wondering if I am missing something.

I am 28F and have been in a building phase/slight surplus for pretty much the last 2 years. My expenditure was ramping up for most of that time as expected up until around February this year when it suddenly took a nosedive. I am an aspiring bodybuilder/serious hobby builder so I track meticulously using a food scale and I track my steps. The only thing I can think of that changed was that in February I was diagnosed with severe osteoarthritis in my hips (I have been suffering with terrible hip pain for the last year but haven't changed my routine at all, I refuse to let this take me out) and found out I need my hips replaced. My step count and training is still the same, maybe leg days are a bit less intense, but I found myself starting to gain at a much faster rate. Additionally my appetite started to plummet, so I decreased my intake by 120 calories (30g of carbs) around mid February. I continued to gain at a pretty rapid rate and my appetite was still shot so at the end of March I decreased by another 160 calories (40g of carbs). I was still gaining faster than I liked so in mid April and I was waking up not wanting to eat at all so I said F it we are going into a deficit for 4 weeks for an appetite reset. I pulled 625 calories (25g of fat and 100 carbs) and added 1 hr/week of cardio and I did lose at about 0.7 lbs/week but my expenditure continued to drop (besides the initial uptick artifact due to immediate drop in water weight)

Well that 4 weeks is up and I am trying to find my new estimated maintenance. I just brought calories back up so maybe time will have to tell whether my expenditure will come back up too...

But to get to the point, what could possibly cause such a drastic drop in expenditure? I even had my TSH (can't get T3/T4 in Canada 💀 even my mum with Hashimoto's can't get it) and thyroid antibodies checked and my TSH remains the same as it was in October and my thyroid antibodies are well below the cut off for Hashimoto's. The only thing I can think of is the stress of the diagnosis and maybe the reduction in leg day training intensity? I have attached my MF graphs for reference.