Background

I'm a 27 year old male I'm 5'11, 195 - 200 lbs. Though my BMI is high, I'm a little larger (more dense) than the average 5'11 guy. I don't smoke (anything), or do drugs, and keep my alcohol consumption to around 3 drinks a week, usually wine with dinner. I'm not on any prescription drugs, though I am an asymptomatic generalized epileptic. My job is sedentary (office work) but I am very active. I spend about 6 -7 hours a week doing some sort of exercise. This averages out to include 2 days (hours) of aerobic activity, usually running, biking, rowing, swimming, or a combination of one or more, 2 days of anaerobic upper-body weight training, and 2 days of yoga, 1 Moksha (Bikrim), and 1 Ashtanga. Generally I will swap out one day of exercise a week for either a new exercise (Capoeira, or stair running) or an endurance day such as a 1-10-20 triathlon, to help me round out my overall physical health. I'm a very, very salty sweater. I don't get sick very often. I'm a not-strict vegetarian. I eat meat once or twice monthly. I eat very balance diet as a lifestyle. I sleep very well, usually 7 - 9 hours nightly (too much?) Overall I think I'm physically very fit. Additionally, I'm relatively emotionally and mentally stable. I have a very good work-life balance. I work 4 days a week in an office and have 3 to myself. I own a company that has a very bright future and a stable home life. I feel I have good self-actualization skills. I think, overall, I'm happy and stable. I think spiritually I need work, but that something I know I will get to. My mother is a lifelong depressive (or so doctors have told her), my father has Type II and colitis, possibly self-induced.

Symptoms

Firstly, I don't have the body of a guys who's as active as I am. I feel my muscle tone is not what it should be and no matter how much or little I workout my weight remains at between 195 - 200 lbs. The fluctuation I suspect is more water than anything. I've been carrying a spare tire for years now. It refuses to leave no matter what I eat or don't eat, or how much I output. Right now I calculate I'm working off 3500 - 5000 calories a week and seeing no change in my overall physical appearance (at this pace for 9 months now) or my overall physical ability. Despite my training routine, it feels as though I have to claw tooth and nail for every second from start to finish that I workout. This is in great contrast to years ago where my overall ability increased in tandem with my regiment.

Secondly, my overall health seems to be on the decline. Though I feel it most predominantly during physical exertion, I'm starting to notice the same claw tooth and nail problem affecting my day to day routines. Lethargy, really, is what the problem is. Getting out of bed, or off the couch to do anything is increasingly becoming a problem. Additionally, I've noticed what seems to be unquenchable thirst to point of a need to urinate every 10 minutes. I have a very small appetite, especially for an active, larger dude - I regularly eat less than my 125lb girlfriend. Lately I've almost had to set an alarm to remind myself to eat. This is very much in contrast to times in my life where I was strict into weight-training and my body felt like a furnace. Now I feel like a furnace on the Titanic.

Thirdly, I seem to notice increasing mood swings and irritability. Very much out of character for me. I'm at a time in life where the stress load is low. This in contrast to the "worst times of my life" when I smiles and said B.S. like life's too effin short. Overall, I'm a pretty laid back dude. Now it takes effort to remain balanced, noting internally when I've go "no reason" to be irritable and unreasonable.

What I will note as strange about the symptoms is that they're almost cyclical. One week I feel really, really healthy, one week I feel like I've got Spanish Influenza. This is predominantly how I can gauge that something is not right. Lately there's more bad days than good. Though at one time I felt that most athletes always felt the pain, I'm starting to think it's my sheer stubbornness that allows me to run with broken glass as innards from start to finish 6 days a week. Something is not right.

Conclusion

I have a couple theories:

Diabetes, of course. The symptoms line up. Hereditary predisposition, thirst, urination, and fatigue. However, I think I should be losing weight quickly not gaining it, right? Also, I've been tested for diabetes no less than 6 times in my life (though not for probably 5 years now) due to my epilepsy and fathers health.

Electrolytes Imbalance. As mentioned, I'm a salty sweater. What this means is that at the end of a 12km run there's dune-buggies doing laps around the salt dunes on my head. Hats and bandannas are crusted white, grains will dust my steering wheel. If I try to run 2 days later, cramping in my abdominals and intercostals is so bad I won't make 2km. This, I suspect is from a sodium deficiency cause by previous output. It seems that I don't absorb sodium (or whatever missing mineral I'm missing) very quickly as I usually use electrolyte gels and cubes on the longer (2 - 3 hour) workouts with no benefit.

Diet. I don't eat enough, I've been told by a friend and naturopath. In fact there's a history of this. When I was 23 I biked 3 hours daily between work and home, 5 times a week. At the time I was experiencing similar fatigue, but only during the biking. My nutritionist at the time took me off of a vegetarian diet as I wasn't getting enough calories which she estimated to be 3500 - 4500 a day. I have no appetite regularly. It's a mental process to remember to eat. Though I feel I am fulfilling both my quantity and quality requirements daily, I may not be. I've started a food journal to help with understanding this better.

Hypothyroidism. All the symptoms are right here. Fatigue, weakness (not making progress), weight gain or inability to lose weight, intolerance to the cold despite being Canadian, muscle cramps and aches (which I associate with fatigue naturally), and irritability. The things that don't match up are skin and hair problems, constipation, and depression which I don't feel I have.

Outcome.

I will be going to a doctor, of course, and soon. The more resources I have, the more educated I am about the possibilities of my physical state, the more opportunity I will have to fix them.

Thanks for reading the long (blah, blah, blah) insight into my health concerns and thanks for any information.

Holla!