HUNGER PANGS AND WEIGHT GAIN

I am 2 1/2 months post-op. I have been getting hunger pains for a about a month now, and i know I am eating more food per portion than I should. I also have been weighing myself every day, and the weight seems to creep up every time I don't go to the gym. My schedule is 5 day a week with 25-30 minutes on the treadmill, burning between 120-150 calories each time. I have been eating high fat protein foods, cheeses, dressings, that kind of stuff, and consuming my fruits which are higher in sugar, but for the most part, I am still eating the recommended amounts. Any advice would be appreciated, Fighting the battle of the bulge,  al

You should be having pain from putting too much in your pouch and maybe some foaming and spitting-up if you are eating too much at one time.   You are doing yourself a disservice and defeating the purpose of having had the surgery.  Just slow down some and eat in smaller quantities, stop when your pouch gives you any sign or sympton of  discomfort.  Get your 64 oz of water in; that helps to keep me satisfied and keeps the kidneys and other body systems flushed of the toxins and stored stuff your body needs to pass on to accomplish the weight loss. Focus on protein and waterat this point.  Your body cannot convert protein to stored energy (fat) so it forces the body to burn what is stored if it needs more than you are taking in and you should not be able to take in enough at this point of your recovery; hence weight loss.  Taking in high fat and carbs is slowing down the process and if your body doesn't get the protein it needs,...it digests the muscle tissue.  The more muscle tissue you have, the more calories your body burns, the less muslce tissue, the fewerr it nurns doing the same things.  So protein fuels the muscles, preserves the muscles and forces the body to go to current storage.  You are giving it the option of maintaing current storage, using what your are giving it and dissolving your muscle mass in the process. You are shooting yourself in the foot.  Don't do that.  You've made a potentially life changing decision to have this surgery.  Why cheat yourself out of the recovery you could have for the momentary pleasure of a food that is what got youinto trouble in the first place? I don't mean to sound harsh,...we all have our weaknesses and stray from time to time but need to get back tio doing wahtis right if we want to be successful.  And that is what we do for each other out hear on teh Men's Board. Buck up, get on track and lets hear some FARTS of success.  I know you can do it.  I f I can, anyone can.  Look yourself ain the mirror and get honest with yourself.  Its the only way!

the nutritionist was the one *****commended that i start eating more balanced meal whi*****luded fruits, vegetables, and acrbs in certain forms, like crackers, etc, the water is slowly increasing but i find it hard to put much in my more than the 48 oz i have been drinking... should be stick with onlt the lean proteins nad leave the higher fat ones alone, and what about cheese? al

I think it that is reasonable - lean proteins, yes...Cheese is still a great source of protein. Personally, I don't care for most of the fat-free offerings, so I compromise with cheese made from 2% milk, taste great - less fatening..

Congratulations on your weight loss up to this point..and my advice is to just stop weighing yourself everyday.  As a newer post op, the scale can play mind games with you....did I lose today?  I'm a HUGE failure because it went up 1/2 a pound.....OH NO I didn't go to the gym today and it registered a 1 lb gain....etc etc...(FYI EVERY new post op goes through that, regardless of the surgery type).  I was fortunate in a way, I could not weigh myself because I didn't have a scale that went up high enough.   With that said, you really need to spend this time learning to eat with your surgergical tool.   From what I've gleaned from these forums, most successful RNYers eat a low fat and lower carb diet on a regular basis (at least during their losing phase) in order to maximize their losing potential.  High fat dressings and meats aren't necessarily the best choice for a new post op RNYer.   A lot of the people I've talked to (post RNY and Lap band) have said that they prefer the light versions of cheeses and dressings instead of the no fat (depending on the amount of fat) because the light versions taste pretty good, whereas the  no fat versions taste like monkey butt.    I'd highly recommend using fitday.com for a few months, just so you can meassure what your eating in terms of caloric intake.  It is said that most people underestimate the amount of calories they eat per day by about 1/4, using fit day for a month or 2 will give you a good estimate of what you are eating, and it will set your mind to calculate it even when you are not using it.  Congratulations on your weight loss again.  Scott

Not so big Al: I just took the time to read your profile and your well-kept blogs and discovered we have A LOT in common. We both had RNY three days apart, both topped out at just under 300, both are orignally from Queens, NY, both have little ones at the house, and we have both been facing some of the same struggles. So I think I know you feel. I looked at your weight chart tickerfactory.com too. It looks to me like you are being too hard on yourself. Maybe you need to give yourself more credit, take stock of all the accomplishments you have achieved so far. Man, you have lost over 50 lbs.! That is huge in itself! I''d bet you are feeling so much better too, your labs sound great... I have been told that once we get passed the first month of rapid weight loss to expect to loose about 10 lbs. a month. Based on the fact that those averages are based on a population of post-ops that are about 80% women who tend to carry less muscle then men and therefore have a lower basal metabolic rate I think that number should probably be slightly higher for most men. You seem to be right on track with your pace of weight loss. That said, we all want to race to the finish, after all, that is where our ulitimate prize awaits right? So here is what I think. You mentioned you are eating too much per portion in the first paragraph, and then you mentioned you are eating some of the "wrong foods" in the right proportions later. Which is it? only you can answer that...About three weeks ago I was stalling and decided to start measuring all my food out again like I did when I first came off of the liquid diet. I had a hard time with clean-plate syndrome and realized that pre-op - even talked about it with our program psychiatrist. Analyzing and identifying your challenges helps in creating a successful plan - not just beforehand but into the implementation and maintenance phase -  sometimes you need to take a step back before you can take a step forward. What has worked for me may not work for you, but for me pre-portioning my meals allows me to clean my plate and still feel good about the fact that I didn't overdo it. And it doesn't mean you have to deprive yourself either. I  made a deal with myself if I make the effort to pre-portion, eat it all and  five minutes AFTER finishing I still feel hungry, then I can go take a few more bites. On the topic of hunger pangs, I started getting them again too. Normal people feel hungry sometimes, and so do some WLS post-ops...so it is OK. I take comfort in the knowledge that the old Mike would have sabototaged himself by feeding that hunger with a Big Mac, large frys, large sweet tea, and a chicken sandwich or double cheeseburger for good measure - and now when I am hungry I can just look at my watch and say well it's time to go eat, and then pretty much no matter what I won't be able to eat more then 1-2 cups of food and I will feel STUFFED and sastisfied. I have some thoughts on exercise too. First of all, My wife and I both workout and sometimes the scheduling thing can get complicated...What works for us is that we sought out a gym that offers free babysitting while we are working out. Not only does it make it much more conveniant, but my kids love it (they get mad whenever we're in the car and go off course of the route of the gym). You might want to consider it, besides working out together with your wife has a lot of benefits in itself. Maybe you guys can find a gym that offers that type of service, maybe the one you use aleady does? I have also seen increases in the consistency of my weight loss since adding weight-training every other day. My strength was very low at first but has been steadily increasing. Besides the advantages of an increased baseline metabolic rate provided by the muscle I have been slowly adding I think that the recovery process itself that the muscles undergo after each workout  uses extra energy furthering my weight loss even more. My routine is that I walk 3 or so miles on the treadmill one night and then the next day workout my lower body, next day walk, next day upper body and repeat. Part of what makes it work to is that I don't make it overly rigid. While I try really hard to complete each workout and go as many days per week as possible, if I feel to tired I don't force myself to do it. It is important to listen to your body! Over-training will only lead to diminished returns and increased frustration, so why set yourself up for failure like that? Lastly, if you haven't already, ask Dex "The Professor" to email you the research and handouts he authored for his OH seminar last year. I read them completely last night and the information in them is AWESOME. I credit a lot of the information I based this advice I just gave you on what I learned from them... So hang in there, pat yourself on the back for the job well done so far, and re-focus! Oh, yeah and post some darn pictures so we can see how great your doing will yah?

Hey Yo Mikey, my man (Queenstyle salute) ...and on top of it all, WTH is going on with the Mets?! thanks for replying and reading my profile, needs a bit of work, and I will work on getting some pics there as well... Keeping it real, ya know, al

I don't know what is up with Mets' but it is a long season, and I think I heard Pedro will be ready soon....I actually became a much bigger Diamondbacks fan during my 11 years in Phoenix and I am not too happy about their showing in the Bronx this week. Something about Yankee stadium I guess (remember teh 2001 WLS games there, DBACKS in Seven though!!!)

(Yankee Fan here) Wasnt that the series where Jeter and someone else I forgot hit 2 game back to back (tames that is) walk off 9th inning home runs to win both games? I can imagine that hurt.

Yeah off of the young Korean subamarine closer Byung -Hyung Kim, two nights in a row, he looked like he was going to cry...there is definitely something to that "mystique and aura" thing at Yankee Stadium...but the whole thing didn't sting as bad after Louis Gonzales deposited Mariano's Rivera's fastball into shallow left-center to win it all in the bottom of the ninth in Game 7...I've got a bottle opener that plays the Diamondbacks radio announcer's call of that play every time I crack open a bottle, gives me goosebumps everytime...man schilling and Unit made a great 1-2 punch back then...