Same old problem--cannot eat, no appetite
I posted a few months ago. I am getting way too comfortable with just Carbmaster yogurt (60 calories for 6 oz.) with 1/2 cup of berries, 1/2 cup slivered almonds twice a day--maybe a pack of Austen peanut butter crackers mid-day and that's it. All I can feel like eating--usually under 400 calories a day. Most of the time I don't even want that--just make myself eat it.
I take over-the-counter Centrum vitamins and D-3 5000 mg daily. I sometimes can make myself drink Pure Protein 30g chocolate drink--but it gives me gas, nausea, and belching every time I drink it.
I buy Lean Cuisine, other frozen meals but it's hard for me to eat them. I force them in and then chew 4-6 Tums or Rolaids to get past the upset stomach I always get.
I have posted this over and over. I guess everyone is tired of hearing it. Someone suggested a Dr. Garth Davis--I reached out to him but since I cannot come in (he is in Texas), he had no advice to offer. My children are afraid I am doing irreparable damage to my organs. Maybe I am, I don't really know. My primary care doctor is stumped. We have done endoscopy--no ulcers, acid reflux, blockages--although my pouch has gotten smaller than it was originally.
I guess I just keep posting on here hoping someone else has had this exact problem and can offer me some insight. I have no bariatric support because my surgery was done overseas. None of the Las Vegas doctors have support groups unless you are their patient originally. Nutritionists say eat small amounts every couple of hours. But I don't want even a small amount---I have no desire for food at all. I use medical marijuana--gummy bears--to try and fit in a normal meal. It helps but it still takes me over 2 hours using that to eat a Lean Cuisine meal and follow it up with a piece of fruit--that's all even with MJ.
I am not losing weight. I have stayed the same 113 pounds for years but I think my metabolism has slowed way down because I am tired most of the time. I have even thought that maybe the fear of getting sick makes me hesitant to try eating--or maybe that is a catch-22 where the fear causes the nausea when I do try. But since I am sane enough to know this, how could it be true?
Any help, support or advice would be welcome. I am supposed to go on a cruise to see my grand-daughter get married in May and just the thought of the meals makes me sick and I don't want my son to worry when he should be celebrating his daughter and her new husband.
Forgive me for being blunt but something else is going on here. If you are truly only eating approximately 400 calories per day and have been doing so since your surgery ten years ago I'm not quite sure how you are still alive.
Your post strains any type of credibility. Without TPN/feed tube you would be dead by now.
Do you want to tell us what's really going on?
That is what is going on. Why would I lie? On an exceptionally good day, I might get in 800 calories but as I said that is an exceptionally good day. I do have thyroid issues for which I take medication. The doctor was surprised that the medication did not increase my appetite or desire to eat. Basically my metabolism is extremely slow. According to my doctor, my body has adapted to the low amount of food I take in. He pointed out that concentration camp victims continued to live on what amounted to 100 calories a day during the Holocaust. It is possible to be walking around, living, breathing and functioning with low amounts of food. I do try to add calories: if I eat an apple, I add peanut butter--it makes me sick but I do it anyway. I add the fruit and almonds to my yogurt because Carbmaster yogurt is only 60 calories per 6 oz. I am so sensitive to sugar that normal yogurt makes me ill or causes dumping because they are high in sugar. I can't add fat because that makes me dump.
It is my fear that there might be damage to my organs that prompted my posts. I keep hoping someone will tell me something that the doctors can't. I have been to therapy for grief and depression after losing my husband. I have been to a nutritionist that gave me a meal plan but I could not get in the amounts of food she wanted me to eat. My pouch is smaller than when I first had surgery according to the endoscopy I had last spring. It won't hold much. If I try to force more in, I get sick. If I try to eat more often, I get sick. Thank you for your less-than-helpful response.
Sorry you find me un-helpful. I'm also sorry your information does not add up. At 400 or 600 or now it's maybe 800 calories per day you are correct in your fear that your organs are failing. They most certainly are. That's one of the components of death by starvation.
You should probably be aware that "starvation mode" doesn't exist. Your body will get better at utilizing calories, but when you are truly eating so far below what is essential for life you will die. When people starve to death they don't pass away because they feel too hungry. They pass away because they are not getting enough nutrients for their body to function. The results are organ failure, heart attacks,etc. So many people know more about "starvation mode" that I'm hoping they will come over here and elaborate further.
FWIW I don't think you are lying. What I do think is that you are not supplying the whole truth. Just as an example you started your thread saying you can eat only four hundred calories a day and you've lived on that amount for the last ten years. You then conceded maybe there were days when you've eaten six hundred. The most recent post divulges calorie consumption at EIGHT hundred per day at times. As you add more detail about your situation your earlier statements proved to have been misleading. At least now we know how you are still alive. Eight hundred calories a day isn't a very big amount but it's certainly enough to sustain life.
You've gotten several viable suggestions and points of thought. And you've batted each one away, dismissing the suggestions others took the time to give you. Ideas and philosophies that have worked long term for those trying to help you. Ideas and philosophies that are grounded in documented facts.
I hope you find whatever answer it is you are looking for. I just have no idea what it is.
I did not dismiss their ideas. I have just tried most of them without positive results--like the counseling, the nutritionist, the labs, etc. I do not have access to a bariatric support group locally because I did not have my surgery locally.
To be 66 years old, alone, a widow and with no physical "need" to eat or drink (my body does not give me gnawing hunger pains or thirst), my issues may be unique to me. However others have posted on here that they deal with similar cir****tances so I know that I am not alone in this.
If and when I find something that works, I will be sure to let you all know. Right now I am just grateful that I live in a state with legal marijuana even though I can only afford to use it twice a week. Good luck on your journey as well.
By the way, the nutritionist I saw said that approximately 10% of RNY gastric bypass patients will develop such severe sensitivities to sugar and fats that is drastically limits what they can actually ingest and process. Just so you know I am not the only one out here with this problem.
I have to agree with the previous poster. There is something more going on. You could not possibly still be alive on 400 calories a day. Your body would go into starvation mode. You would be on a feeding tube and seriously ill. Especially long term. Your body would start shutting down. Especially when you aren't drinking enough water/liquid to keep your body fluids up. There is no good doctor out there that would sit by and watch you do this.
Recalculating my fluid intake, I admit I can get in about 50 ounces a day with two bottles of Diet Tea and my very large mugs of coffee in the morning. Bu****er really does make me quite ill.
Perhaps my body is in starvation mode---I have virtually no thyroid action despite being on medication for it. My chronic fatigue is a testimony that I suffer from having such limited intake. My very good doctor has theorized that my body has become extremely efficient on going as much as it can on less. We talked about anorexia but I WANT to eat. I don't have anxiety about putting food into my mouth--I just know what will turn on the nausea and what won't. Raw veggies (low calorie I know) are easy but it might be just one tomato or 4 baby carrots that I can get down. Any type of dressing (fats) makes me ill and I dump. Gravy (fats) makes me dump. Butter makes me dump. Anything with more than 16 g (1 tsp) of sugar per serving makes me nauseous. I can eat 5 Hershey kisses without getting sick but I know those are empty calories with no nutrient value. Believe me it is very embarrassing to go out to dinner with friends, get 6 bites of food in and then have to stop because I feel like I might throw up. Some TV dinners with gravy or sauce do cause me to start heaving. I bring the food home in a doggie-bag but then end up throwing it all away because I have no desire to eat the leftovers. This costs me a lot of money so I try not to go out very often.
I have lost only 4 pounds in the last 2 years on my limited amounts of food. Granted I live a very sedentary lifestyle. The most energetic thing I have done in the last 5 years was kayaking slowly down a very calm, placid river with a friend. The longest walk I take is through the grocery store and I have difficulty pushing the cart if I buy too much. I know I have lost muscle. I used to be able to lift 40 pounds of cat litter and carry it into the house. Now I have to drag anything over 10 pounds.
A nutritionist I saw said that approximately 10% of RNY patients will have such extreme sensitivity to sugar and fats that it makes it almost impossible for them to eat. I guess I am one of the unlucky few.
FaygoFitQueen · 2 replies · 53 views
FaygoFitQueen · 2 replies · 53 views