Where the loss stops....

I thought I would share this with you guys in case some of you were like me and wondering how your body knows when to stop losing. I saw my surgeon yesterday and he told me this: Okay we all know from years of weight loss that if your caloric intake is less than the energy expended that you will lose weight. That is why we are all losing right now, because we cannot possibly take in what is required to run our bodies from day to day. Well over time the pouch does expand some to acommodate more food. As it does this the weight loss will slow and eventually come to a stop. What we have to be careful of is not to stress the pouch and make it stretch more than it would naturally because it means we will either stop prematurely or will have some weight regain. He said that especially things like breads that expand in your stomach or carbonated beverages that cause air to expand the pouch should be avoided, and of course not to overeat. For me it isn't hard to know when I am full because I had that leak for so long and was afraid of keeping it from healing by eating too much.... so I always underate. I think that just being "full" is uncomfortable to me.

That all sounds reasonable to me.

How did you know you had a leak?????

Yes, it sounds good to me....I always wondered how that happened, and figured that if my intake increased, I would stop losing. Also, how did you know that you had a leak? Hettie

Whil;e in surgery my esophagus spasmed and caused the NG tube to create a leak in the pouch. My doctor fixed the leak but placed a drain near the spot where the leak had occured just so he could watch it and make sure that he had gotten it all. Apparently after they closed me up and before the NG tube was out my esophagus spasmed again and caused another rupture (or that's the best theory we can come up with). We knew something wasn't right because I was having too much drainage through the tube. I kept the drain for 6 weeks. It sucked (haha literally) and I hated it but I would do it ALL over again for the life I have now.

There is also a theory out there that's called "set point". It's a weight (number) that your body "remembers" you being at and that it was ok with. So if you were 140 all through high school and college and then put on the weight that once you start losing you will stall out or sometimes stop at your set point. Your body actually fights you a bit. Something like this has happened to me. I got stuck at a certain weight for awhile that I was all through high school. Again all theoretical but it's an interesting idea. I have heard both sides of the carbonated beverage thing. there are studies that say it does expand your pouch and studies that say it doesn't so for me it is something i avoid cause it just doesn't feel "good" in my pouch. Thanks~ Kristin