Malnutrition

Hi all! I posted about 2 months ago asking if anyone has had cholesterol numbers increase post surgery. My cholesterol went from approx. 148 to 306 which has my group of doctors worried. In addition, I have high markers for inflammation (particularly HS-CRP is extremely elevated). Well, I have a new wrinkle. They've now decided that I'm suffering from malnutrition even though I get in more than 80g of protein a day (usually around 100g a day). I've been ordered to increase my calories from 850-900 a day to 1200 net a day and to scale back on my exercise. I have 100% faith in my medical team and while I don't like the increase in calories (I was about 5 lbs away from my goal when they told me to change my eating plan) I'm following their orders to the best of my ability. I guess my question is, has anyone else had trouble with malnutrition even though they meet all their daily nutritional macros? I'm just looking for people to commiserate with. It is really disheartening because I was doing so well and feeling great. But when your Dr. walks in the room and says "we're slowly killing you and it has to stop," I sit up and listen.

I'm 17 months post of today and I had VSG. I've lost about 130lbs (I'm not exactly sure because when I wa**** with the malnutrition diagnosis I was also ordered to stay off the scale to deal with the mental aspect of the problem. So, my scale has been confiscated and I haven't weighed in in about 3 weeks.).

Thanks for anyone who is compelled to respond.

Those issues are beyond my pay grade. I think your team has probably experienced this before and letting the professional direct you is a good plan. Just go with it and try not to get discouraged. Good luck.

Malnutrition involves more than your protein counts.

Are you taking vitamins?

Yes, religiously. I never miss a dose.

Okay then, the next step is to learn exactly what you are deficient in and address those items seperately. You will likely have to tweek your supplementation to suit what your body particularly needs, and that starts with a HUGE blood panel. They should be taking at least 14 vials of blood when they do these tests, so insist on that as your next step. You'll find it very difficult to complete your nourishment with food and no exercise.

What do your labs look like? What other nutrients are low? Why decrease exercise? That makes no sense to me.

I hope they have given you specifics. Vague information like you posted will not help you get healthier.

They are very specific. I have the printout at home and am posting from work so I don't have the exact numbers with me but generally, the Lipid panel is a mess. Other vitamins, except for D (which is at toxic level high) are on target. The exercise has to do with calorie consumption. I exercise extensively. Prior to the change in my plan, I ran 3-4 days a week (I run half-marathons), took kickboxing classes 3x a week and did weightlifting 2-3x a week. I wear a heart rate monitor so have a good idea of the calories I burn. The current theory is my caloric consumption was too low to support my activity level. So, I was instructed to increase calories and decrease activity to see if it makes a difference in my cholesterol, pre-albumin and CRP levels. I re-test at the end of the month.

I should have waited until I was at home to post so I had my specific numbers but I was really interested to see if anyone else had gone through anything similar. My medical team (including my primary care doctor, surgeon and dietician) is all over the problem and I trust that they'll fix it. I was just curious.

Hope things are going better... Don't get the connection between not weighing yourself and malnutrition. What mental aspect is there to the problem?

They're concerned that I won't follow instructions and increase calories while decreasing exercise. They know I'm going to gain weight and they don't want it to freak me out. I've now added a therapist to my medical team to help get me over this hurdle.