Paranoia???

Hi everyone!

I am 2 1/2 months out and lately I am having a hard time getting all the recommended protein, mostly because I haven't been hungry and forget to eat and the protein shakes are not agreeing with me right now.

This week I noticed on my calfs (which have always been very muscular-not fat) that there is a lot of slack on the skin if I shake it with my hand. Could this mean that I am loosing muscle mass? Or am I just being paranoid?  Does anyone know (roughly) how long before permanent damage is done to our muscle mass if we don't eat enough protein?

Thanks,
Rose

I too can't tolerate the protein shakes and couldn't from the beginning. My doctor said it was ok to skip the protien shakes and I was on a liquid diet for stage 2. I also am having trouble eating, pretty much everything and I am not getting my 60 grams of protein, but not because I forget. My stomache just doesn't want to tolerate anything. Try Lactaid for your protein shakes instead of milk if that's what you use. It's not uncommon to become sensitive to lactose. You could just be losing a lot of weight right now and that's why your calfs look slacking. I thought my legs looked pretty tight also but not now! I do beleive it is normal to lose muscle mass because of the fast weight loss which is why you need to stay active. Someone on here can tell you for sure but that's what I was told.

Thanks everyone for the responses.  Last week I set the alarm on my cell phone to go off every 3 hours so I could eat something; it worked well. Today I made some protein pancakes, egg salad, tuna salad and greek yogurt parfaits that I will be eating at work this week.  The protein count today was good; hopefully I will keep it up!

Thanks for your help!
Rose

 Hey...
Keep some protien snack bars in your bag to get in a quick 13-20gms....another suggestion is at the end of the day figure out your protien and if you do not get enough have a shake at the end of the day....or another high protien snack....
Talk about muscle loss....I think first off it may have to do with the decrease in activity after surgery...I also think it is inevitable and some muscle mass is lost in the rapid weight loss...Keeping active is most important...and add some weight training....
julie