[Concerning] ferritin 9. i was eating 1,100 calories and calling it discipline.
Reference range on my lab is 15–200 ng/mL. Mine came back 9. Haemoglobin was still just inside range, which is why nobody had caught it. Marker Month 0 Month 8 Range Ferritin (ng/mL) 48 9 15–200 Haemoglobin (g/dL) 13.8 12.1 12.0–15.5 MCV (fL) 90 81 80–100 Every one of those month-8 values except ferritin is…
The MCV dropping from 90 to 81 while staying "in range" is the textbook picture and it is exactly why single results are less useful than trends. A first-time ferritin of 9 gets treated. A ferritin of 9 with a documented 48 eight months earlier gets taken seriously.
Which is the whole argument for baseline labs. You cannot go back and collect them, and without them everything is a snapshot.
the baseline was almost an afterthought and it is the only reason the picture is legible.
get baseline labs before you start. i will keep saying it in every thread until it stops being necessary, which will be never.
1,100 kcal is not a win and the community reward structure makes it feel like one. faster loss gets more upvotes than sustainable loss.
and iron specifically is hard to hit on a small appetite because the best sources are dense and unappealing when you are full after four bites.
supplementing now, under supervision, and eating deliberately rather than by appetite. it feels like a chore and that is apparently the correct amount of effort.