Most of us are "UP"

What a bummer that there are so many posts with our weight going UP, for no apparent reason. I'm up five pounds total now... it sucks!! Water weight, swelling, whatever it is - I WANT IT GONE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I've upped my water intake to try and flush some of it out, but it doesn't seem to be working. I did start walking/jogging too, so perhaps its from that. I thought I would be doing a great thing by not eatting McDonalds, but then I read the back of my crakers and peanutbutter and there's just as much fat and calories in that as there is my cheeseburger - and the cheeseburger had 3 x the protein. UGH!!!! I sure wish I had a bariatric friendly NUT to go to. I'm not sure what to do now. laurie

Yeah, the "up" thing is pretty worrisome, isn't it? I'm still hoping mine is mostly water weight. I'm down about 1.5 pounds today, back in my "comfort zone", but still... I've been walking/jogging for the past week, and last night I went out dancing, so I'm really upping my exercise. I'm also REALLY watching my food intake. Been eating a lot of tuna on lettuce and sticking to protein bars and shakes...

Its weird but everyone says when your "up" to up the water, protein, exercise, yada, yada, yada. I notice when I exercise I gain. This week ofcourse I know it was b/c Terry was at home 24/7 and it was due to my overeating and the junk(sugar). Luckily I am down to 147.7 this morning(from 152.7 two days ago), but havent done any exercise jus****er and cutting back in calories. I too wish I had a nut to go to about a good eating plan. Im too scared to go low carb(adding X amts of protein). I try to stick with at least 60 grams of protein but if I dont have enough fiber I get constipated and I dont know which is worse? Without carbs no fiber. My cereal alone has about 38g of carbs but 10 glorious grams of fiber and its what I depend on to keep the plumbing lines open. I cannot do oatmeal which I have tried more than one time with different add ins. Its just plain YUCK to me. It also seems like when I cut my calories down to 1200 or less I dont lose anything either, especially on a day where I have a BM and drink lots of water. Wierd! I try to stay around 1600 and I lose nicely, about 2000 and I maintain so I guess these are my numbers. Well Im ramblin now... Candy

Candy - several months ago, I added benefiber to my regular vitamin regimen because of the problems I was having with constipation - I take 2 in the morning and 2 at night and haven't had a problem since. Just a thought!

Happy its just not me! I've made some significant changes this week...I gave protein shakes a rest, and tried to maintain a very high protein diet, no liquids other than water...still i'm scared to get on the scale, but I feel good, so we'll see. Let me know what works for you guys

Candy - It's good that you've found your "range" of calories. When you cut your calories too low (for you 1200) your body goes into starvation mode and holds on to everything that you do take in. - Hence, no weight loss and sometimes gain. I find it hard to go low carb as well. I'm getting about 80 - 100 g of carbs a day, but I do make them good carbs. (oatmeal, for fiber; whole grains, veggies) I do know that my body needs 90 grams of protein, so I still supplement with protein drinks, I probably will for life!!! I never thought as a preop that this would be such a challenge in our postop lives!! Laurie

The up thing is nothing new for me. I'm up and down the scale like a rollercoaster. Always have been even when the rest of y'all were losing regularly - not me. My body has several pound swings at a time. I try not to worry about trying to figure out what caused it - I just go with the flow unless it is a huge jump. A few pounds - no worry. If it becomes an upward trend (like my infamous 7 lb gain from the Power Crunch bars), then I start looking at things. I still eat very low carb. I'm still wondering about the wheat carb versus other carb things so I bought some rye crackers that are wheat-free and I'll see if my body tolerates them well or not. So much of this for me is sort of trial and error. LOL. Trial and gain? Kathy

This is exactly why I only weigh at the docs office (which has been quite a bit lately, really). I don't have a scale in my home because I was driving myself crazy with the numbers, too. I gauge my "weight" by how my clothes feel. If I wear a pair of jeans one day and a week later they seem a bit looser, I know I've lost a little. If they're a little more snug, then I've gained a little. But, I gain a little weight when I ovulate (I'm a little bloated and crampy) and a week before and the first 3-4 days of my cycle. SO, really 2-1/2 weeks out of 4 I'm up a little and the other 1-1/2 weeks I'm down. So, I only gauge by my clothes. Like I said, I drove myself nuts with the numbers. They're not a true indicator of what my body is doing anyway. Like someone said, when you gain muscle you will gain weight (because one small amount of muscle weighs more than a large amount of fat) but you are actually losing size. No one can believe that I weigh about 183-5 (depending on the last 2 times I was at the doc) because I just don't look like it and I'm wearing a size 12. Someone else standing next to me that weighs the same looks much larger than me. The number is just a number - what matters is how you feel and your clothes. Eat healthy, get your exercise and let the numbers take care of themselves. Michelle

Hi Laurie, I went 6to my surgeon the other day because I was concerned about a few things. One of them is that I am always hungry. IT SUCKS!!! Apossible explanation for this, he says, is that after WLS the body resets itself to a wiehgt that it feels happy at. However, many people just by virtue of difficulty eating in the beginning get to a falsely low point and your body actually wants to be heavier. So I am 144 now...great I am very pleased to be ehre. He said he wouldn't be surprised if I gained 10-15 or even 20 mor lbs because my body would feel better at that weight....OH THE HORROR!!!! I would feel like afailure if I gained again especially since everybody knows I had surg...yikes I hope that is not true...but I have lost 5 lbs since my wedding (May 20) and have had the increased appetite for a while so I hope it is just because my body needs more calories...I hope he is wrong!!