Eating, Exercising, Excreting
Our weight problem is never just too much food, too little exercise, or too little or too much glandular excreting. I say that because once we start gaining weight, we snowball, sort of like a tumor, and then everything goes out of whack.
Before I was super morbidly obese but “big boned”, a doctor said to me that fat cells were like tumors and like a tumor, when the tumor cells first begin to grow, it may take years before they get large enough to detect by even x-ray. But, tumor cells grow exponentially, meaning the may start out at 1mm, then they grow to 2mm then 4mm, then 8 mm. So, fat cells are like that. In the beginning, we may gain a couple of pounds a year; then over time, our fat cells begin to grow exponentially so that our two pounds a year become 4, then 8, then 16 and so on.
Also, evolution’s survival of the fittest law applies to our fat cell survival, meaning that the cells are programmed through out DNA to fight to survive. After wls, just like any diet plan, our fat cells begin shrinking and sometimes at an alarming rate. The DNA sends messages first on the cellular level then organ, then systems to stop the loss. That’s where we see weight loss stalls and even regain—our endocrine system says to our body, we got to protect the fat cells—they keep us warm—we need them in case of famine—we need them to make hormones—we need them to feel loved, so the body pulls cleaver stunts like slowing down our metabolism to save energy; increasing our desire for foods so we replenish those fat cells; and etc.
So, when really heavy people say, man I try to lose weight and I do really good for a few months and then something happens and I stop losing, they are telling the truth…our bodies literally sabotages our efforts and it isn’t just a brain thing that comes from years of thinking about weight…it is a physiological as well as psychological event.
For those of us who have had WLS, we have tricked our bodies, but like Susan said, our bodies began to adapt and often within the first year. We adapt by doing one or all of the following:
1) We begin to crave glider foods like chips, potatoes, crackers etc;
2) We begin to crave high fat and high sugar foods and often try to eat them in spite of our getting sick;
3) We begin to become sloths—the low metabolic rate causes us to lose energy, which causes us to move less.
Other more physical adaptations occur such as the following:
1) Our pouches may become more malleable
2) Our small intestines begin to increase the digestive absorption potential so that the molecules become grabbed up quicker than in the beginning of our wls
3) The end of our small intestine begins to try and sometimes successfully so and take over the job of the beginning small intestine.
All of those men and women who think that they have failed at keeping all their weight off didn’t really fail…their bodies adapted.
If this is all true and it is, it seems then that we are bound to be fat; that we are bound to regain a majority of our weight. Not true; there are things that we can do to combat our bodies adaptability.
1) One thing is drink water, drink water, drink water. Just like glider foods that empty out of our pouches quickly and get absorbed quickly, water flushes food through so that the food doesn’t quite get picked up by the intestine.
2) We can increase out activity by moving and here’s the deal…exercise increases our metabolism so if our body slows our metabolism down, exercising will restore the increased metabolic rate that is so conducive for weight loss
3) We fight fire with fire—when our bodies crave food or when we eat to replenish our nutrients from the previous meal, eat meat first, then green vegetables, no white vegetables, not bread, no sugary treats.
We are all intelligent beings, and once we learn and understand a process, then we can apply our knowledge to override the natural process of rebound cellular growth.
And finally, I know a lot of you guys are still drinking the protein shakes but I’d like to point out that after we are far enough away from our WLS date so that our bodies begin absorbing proteins on their own, remember that we were told to drink the protein shakes because we couldn’t really absorb protein and we could barely absorb the protein shake molecules but once we get out a ways from our surgery what happens to our small intestine? That’s right, it becomes effective at absorbing again and if you are eating foods that have protein in them and be honest, you know you are, and then you are drinking these shakes, you are pouring the protein directly in your blood system. If you were exercising like a body builder, your muscles would take that protein and use it but you are not so guess where those protein molecules get stored…in your fat cells.
Hugs,
Trish
Albert Schweitzer
You know I keep track of everything I ear. Well, work has gotten so busy that very often I don't get time to eat. There have been days where I might only get in 400 calories by the time I hit home at 7:30-8:00. So, I've started keeping protein powder at the salon, so I can at least drink some nutrition while filing nails. Not the optimal solution, but it's the only one I have.
Susan
I really think that I am lucky to have had such trouble with the protein powders. I tried every one that is made and I had such issues with milk and milk products that even mixing the powders with coffee, juice, water, or whatever made me deathly ill. But, like you, I have those horrible days when I don't have time to eat, but my fall back on is peanut butter. I have jars of peanut butter every where and I also keep celery pretty close at hand. Lately, though, and this sounds very strange, but I have been craving bell peppers and tonight, I ate it like an apple.
I also crave like crazy pickles.
