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Hello All,
No general discussion area so I wasn’t sure where to jump in here.
Curious if anyone else has worked through diet recovery post WLS.
43 year young woman here with a lifelong struggle with weight/dieting. Definite endocrine issues here, PCOS diagnosed, hypothyroid/adrenal fatigue symptoms, but no testing. Saw a post here re:Cushing’s and it doesn’t all fit, but my mom went on and on about how I lost the hump of fat on my back post WLS. Very pre-dominant diabetes in my mom’s family and nothing was working…at most I would lose 20-30 pounds and then stall, last success that big was low carb/Atkin’s. So I went for weight loss surgery…VSG (vertical sleeve gastrectomy).
I was a good patient and stuck with the 800 calories/high protein/low carb and regular exercise that was prescribed post op. Well, for a good 6 months until my life got shaken up (job loss/move). Still didn’t do that bad, started at 257, stalled awhile at 165, resorted to IF and made it to 157 for about a minute.
Struggling I found youreatopia and 180degreehealth. A lot of the symptoms I had lined right up (hair falling out, cold (96.3), dry skin, looking older, irregularity, dizziness, near fainting). I was frustrated at not making it to that magic skinny place, but also honestly I ran out of whatever it was that was allowing me to eat so little and avoid so many foods. And when I moved I lost access to my beloved gym…still haven’t found a replacement.
So I started eating more and eating what I wanted. Mostly I wanted a lot of sugar/carbs. A lot of things got better…hair, temperature, those fainting spells. And I gained 20+ pounds in 5-6 months time. I am about 18 months out from surgery and I have been hovering right around 180 for 2 months. I’m only 5’6. I logged my calories a few days and found I’m around 2300 – 2500 a day. In theory according to the TDEE calculator that should put me at about 165, which I would be good with.
Anyone else post WLS? Do I stick where I am and hope for the scales to go down on their own? No malabsorption with my surgery, but with less capacity I do eat more calorie dense foods and eat more often to hit higher calories.
Or maybe it is still an endocrine issue? I haven’t had health insurance in over a year. Anyone know places to get labs done for less? Which ones to get?
Stabilizing only 20 pounds up from your extreme starvation-induced low post weight loss surgery and eating 2500 calories a day is remarkable. I would thank your lucky stars as you are in the extreme minority not to have blown up much more eating much less.
Some of your metabolic feedback doing any better? Hair, skin, nails, body temp, dizziness, etc.
I do feel lucky to be where I am for sure. Don’t know if it was THE factor but I did try to keep my muscle mass with protein and resistance exercise through most of the process.
Also going in I told my surgeon that I didn’t want a very tight sleeve. In the VSG community there is a pretty vocal faction that advocates for a tight sleeve and a lifelong commitment to low cal/low carb eating.
Hair, skin, dizziness and body temp are all better. I do have energy crashes still after some meals…may be starch? I haven’t kept a diary of temps through the day with meals, thinking of starting that. Really I just worked on eating what I wanted to and trying not to feel like a failure for doing so.
I’m struggling some with body image. I was dreaming of size 8, made it to 10, now back into a 12. My husband has been doing IF – 2 down days a week – and is constantly nagging me to do it with him. I’m worried that even if it does work I will bounce back to a higher weight if I ever quit.
OTOH, I really want to reach/maintain a waist of 33″ or less because that is supposed to be a big marker for avoiding diabetes. When I say it is prevalent I mean near 100% in my mom’s family. 4 sisters in her generation, one with MS who has passe away, 3 with Type II diabetes, and 2 of those three with fatty liver disease.
I like my feet. I want to keep them.
Reading here has been very interesting. Pre WLS I was trying to do it all right…skim milk, whole grains, no HFCS/soda, etc. Drinking a ton of water since I was told urine should be clear. Exercise too, though at that high weight it just made me hungrier and I had regular injuries. So frustrating!
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