Intro, hopeful but need help

Hi all.

I've been "lurking" here for some time and today I thought I would introduce myself. My stats: age-55 (as of 2 days ago!), married, no children, disabled by MS, starting weight 130kg, today 87g. Still need to lose 17kg to reach doc's goal but not sure I will.

To elaborate on that last sentence, my problem is mobility and my general physical condition, which is pretty poor. I've been doing all I can diet-wise but physical exercise is impossible for me. (I'm in a wheelchair). To tell the truth, my surgeon never gave me hopes that I would come this far in the first place (he was hopeful that I'd lose 20 kg tops) but given my extremely poor health 1 year and 3 months ago I decided to go ahead with the VSG anyway.

I see so many of you on this board have lost so much weight and I admit I'm a little jealous. I wish I could lose another 10 kg but no matter how hard I try I've been stuck the past 3 months. I know I'm not eating more, as a matter of fact I've been extra careful but the scale won't budge any more.

Since you guys have so much experience, can you please give my a hint on how to move off this long plateau without exercise or with very little of it? I'm soooo close to my goal I can almost taste it and it's very frustrating to be stuck.

Amalia

Hi Amalia,

I can't presume to know anything about MS.  Are you able to do any type of say chair exercises, leg lifts maybe hold water bottles/cans/weights and do arm lifts or anything like that?

Thank you for your reply, Ms Shell. Yes, I can do very limited chair exercises, did them for physiotherapy, but they are not strenuous enough to help me with losing weight. Same goes for walking. I can walk a little, but again, not enough to help. Fatigue and pain are a big problem for me.

Amalia

What are you eating/drinking on a daily basis? The quality of your food can make a big impact just as the right amount of calories makes a difference.

Welcome!

If you told us what you are eating, calories and carbs, we would have a better idea of how you could change things around that would possibly get your weight loss going again.

I try to keep my food under 1000 calories per day, as per my doc's orders. I usually start and most times end with protein and maybe a few veggies. I do admit to having a few "over" days with carbs doing a number on me in the evenings but I'm trying very hard to clamp down on these.

There are only two things that are within our control when it comes to losing weight, out input, or our calories and out output,or our exercise.  Since you are unable to do the exercise because of the MS, you can only control the input part.  I would want to hear more about the foods you are eating.  How many calories, how much is protein and how mu*****arbs.  It seems to me that this is the only lever you have to pull.  I would recommend to eat 600-800 cals. and under 40 g. of carbs.  I would tell you to drink a lot of water and mostly eat dense protein and green veggies.  I know this doesn't sound like much fun, but it really works for losing weight.  Good luck with whatever program you decided to stay with.

Excellent advice, thanks. Unfortunately, I can't do 800 calories any more. I get hungry. Water is fine and the protein to carbs ratio is OK. I do have some "crazy" moments, but overall I don't do too bad. I'm trying very hard to get rid of the "mad moments" and I hope this forum will help me in this.

Amalia

Hi, you have certainly done well to lose as much weight as you have with your limitations. So be proud of that. Don't know how you can do much more in the way of exercise so I agree its gotta be with less food. I pretty much did zip exercise during my weight loss so it can be done though being able bodied makes me able to just move around more and that matters.

When my weight loss was slow early on, my doc said to increase protein to 80 g a day. So you might try  making one meal a day a 30 g protein drink. Don't understand why but it seems to kickstart weight loss.

Saw someone recently using kettleballs which are round weights with a handle for exercise. If your hands and arms are able it might be an option for you.

Check in again and let us know if any of these hints help.

Diane