I'm in serious learning mode here. I've been struggling a bit and want to learn everything I can about exactly how the metabolism works and how different actions, macronutrients, hormones, etc. affect it. For the layman, I have pretty much only found diet books, which is not at all what I'm looking for. I thought about purchasing a textbook, but am not real excited about spending several hundred dollars on a (current, up-to-date) book that may or may not be what I'm really looking for. Then, of course, there's the option to read some random crap on the internet (because they wouldn't let them put it on the internet if it wasn't true!!!).

I just came out of several weeks of forced semi-starvation between early surgery recovery and then fighting nausea (8 weeks of sub-500 cal/day. For my body, that is a real problem and was causing some really worrisome side effects). A couple weeks ago, we got it figured out and I have been able to eat in my calorie range as prescribed by my nutritionist. Now, I'm left with the aftereffects of weight gain and significant weakness/fatigue, which has felt glacially slow to improve. I immediately gained 10 pounds in about 10 days following beginning to eat "normally" (keeping in mind that "normally" is still 700-1000 cal deficit compared to what I was burning immediately prior to my semi-starvation period). My macronutrient ratios are pretty reasonable. Nothing is out of whack as far as what general guidelines would be. (For example: today I have 30% carb, 29% fat, and 41% Protein, with 78g of protein so far and I will probably have a piece of lowfat cheese or something before I go to bed) I am not eating low-carb, as I am not confident that reducing carbs any further wouldn't have an adverse affect on my already very low energy level. I wasn't too worried at first, but then I lost 3 pounds over the weekend, gained 2 pounds on Monday, gained another 1/2 pound yesterday. The last thing I read (and who knows if it's credible...) is that this can go on for about 3 weeks, but I'm real close to that 3 week mark and feel like I'm all over the place. I want to read something credible and detailed so that I can work out what's going on, how best to address it, and what I can expect going forward. I haven't managed to come up with the correct search terms to find what I'm looking for without going with some diet book (and we all know how accurate all those things are...) or going full-on $300-something textbook for medical students. I will be discussing this with my surgeon during my next followup in a couple weeks, and am thinking I'll probably make an appointment with my nutritionist as well, but either way, I still want to learn. (and let's face it... I'm a bit of a do-it-yourselfer...)

Thanks for any info that can point me in the right direction!

Ha! That did sound weird... I am part of a group of women that train and do triathlons together. It was the husband of a teammate. :-)

For the record... I only have 1 of my very own!