Arms and legs both get quiet skinny with cushings from what I
understand. There is a lot of muscle wasting that causes this. It is the
 middle that gets big from the belly fat gained.  (at least that is
what I've learned from my research).

Emily

Yes, Loretta, the conventional description is that central obesity with
skinny arms and legs is a Cushingoid appearance.  There is no such thing
as a single test that can rule it out, since hormone secretion in
Cushing's is so sporadic.

You sound very adrenally suppressed to me from your descriptions often;
statins, bp meds, insulin and insulin sensitizers can all lead to
adrenal suppression.

Susan

I am not Susan or Jim, but it is a symptom.  I have really skinny legs too.
Even at my heaviest, my legs were relatively thin, but now they are like
sticks.  My chiropractor said he marveled that they could even be carrying
me around.

I have skinny limbs too, and a red face, but not a moon face.   I have only
seen a handful of women in my life with as thin of limbs as mine, but with
upper body obesity.  Those of us who become obese in my family have long
thin limbs before we become obese.  I say that we are the ones who don't
grow muscle well.  This sublinical hypercortisolism does always interest me
because I fit the profile somewhat, but it sounds like it is really tough to
get diagnosed with overt cushings, so it would probably be darn near
impossible to get diagnosed with subclinical hypercortisolism.

The L-tryptophan that I wrote about in another thread was also said to
decrease stress induced cortisol levels in animals.  But as I said in the
other thread there is some controversy about the safety of L-tryptophan
since it had been banned years ago when bad batches of it were sent to the
US from Japan and made quite a few people sick, and even killed some.

I have one thing that I can't help but wonder if it is associated with
hypercortisolism.  When my thyroid function is low, I tend to have an easier
time losing weight than when it is adjusted to normal.  That seems so
backwards, but I did read that hypothyroidism reduces cortisol levels, so I
can't help but wonder if it is related to that.

KC

Loretta, I want to revisit this to mention the obvious in your case:
statins are associated with muscle loss, too, and I think you take one.

My mother's muscles started to just dissolve from statin use (that she
never even needed) and Bill Wagner, who recently began posting here,
lost much of his leg muscle.

Susan