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1st postopp lesson: Don't be a slave to the scale!



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So had been stressing about not losing much weight since the surgery (about 4 pounds post op) but had my 2 weeks post op check up and found out my pulse is normal, BP has dropped 20 point and is almost normal and more so my BMI has dropped 5 points since the preop diet. Holy cow feel so much better right now and am so motivated to continue to stick to the plan regardless of what I see on the scale. Let this be a lesson folks, the scale doesn't fully capture your progress so don't freak out if you don't see the numbers you'd like.

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I am such a slave to the scale. I really just want to get rid of it but I know I wont. I weigh once a day in the mornings. I really should switch it up to once a week and get a little more bang for my buck.

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You're so right. I'm weighing once a day just to track it along with all of my food and it's amazing the differences that can occur just in that time period. I have decided to change my weight in my profile only when I get weighed at the doctor's in a couple of weeks. And I'm fighting myself. There's very little for me to "regulate" right now! I'm on liquids, I'm hitting my Protein and Fluid numbers, and I am not taking in more than about 750 calories on my "biggest" days. There is NOTHING to adjust except my attitude.

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It's hard not to be the scale's slave. I am always hopeful when I get on the scale in the morning. If its not what I wanted, I'm pissed :). Need to put that sucker away :)

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My NUT has always recommended getting on the scale once a week, at the same time, wearing similar or same clothes, etc.

Your body will naturally cycle through Water retention and Water release, as it sees fit. It is out of your control. This makes your weight bounce day to day. This is your body converting fat into glycogen to support your muscles. More on that later.

You may be lucky in 1 st month and every day is a loss, but that is highly unlikely. During the first 2 months, I did tend to look once a day and was dropping like crazy, 5 here, 7 there, 2 here and 3 there. However, stalls happen and it is quite natural to not lose any weight for weeks at a time.

Again, a stall is little more than your body converting stored fat into glycogen. Glycogen requires a lot of water to support it in the muscles. Once your muscles use up the glycogen, so goes the water and so drops the scale weight. It is very much a stair case pattern. You do not have much control over this natural process.

Best advice is to understand this fat to glycogen energy process and know that it is going to play with the downward trend on the scale day to day. It will help keep your mind at ease.

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    • Alisa_S

      On day 4 of the 2 week liquid pre-op diet. Surgery scheduled for June 11th.
      Soooo I am coming to a realization
      of something and I'm not sure what to do about it. For years the only thing I've enjoyed is eating. We rarely do anything or go anywhere and if we do it always includes food. Family comes over? Big family dinner! Go camping? Food! Take a short ride or trip? Food! Holiday? Food! Go out of town for a Dr appointment? Food! When we go to a new town we don't look for any attractions, we look for restaurants we haven't been to. Heck, I look forward to getting off work because that means it's almost supper time. Now that I'm drinking these pre-op shakes for breakfast, lunch, and supper I have nothing to look forward to.  And once I have surgery on June 11th it'll be more of the same shakes. Even after pureed stage, soft food stage, and finally regular food stage, it's going to be a drastic change for the rest of my life. I'm giving up the one thing that really brings me joy. Eating. How do you cope with that? What do you do to fill that void? Wow. Now I'm sad.
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    • Alisa_S

      On day 4 of the 2 week liquid pre-op diet. Surgery scheduled for June 11th.
      Soooo I am coming to a realization
      of something and I'm not sure what to do about it. For years the only thing I've enjoyed is eating. We rarely do anything or go anywhere and if we do it always includes food. Family comes over? Big family dinner! Go camping? Food! Take a short ride or trip? Food! Holiday? Food! Go out of town for a Dr appointment? Food! When we go to a new town we don't look for any attractions, we look for restaurants we haven't been to. Heck, I look forward to getting off work because that means it's almost supper time. Now that I'm drinking these pre-op shakes for breakfast, lunch, and supper I have nothing to look forward to.  And once I have surgery on June 11th it'll be more of the same shakes. Even after pureed stage, soft food stage, and finally regular food stage, it's going to be a drastic change for the rest of my life. I'm giving up the one thing that really brings me joy. Eating. How do you cope with that? What do you do to fill that void? Wow. Now I'm sad.
      · 1 reply
      1. summerseeker

        Life as a big person had limited my life to what I knew I could manage to do each day. That was eat. I hadn't anything else to look forward to. So my eating choices were the best I could dream up. I planned the cooking in managable lots in my head and filled my day with and around it.

        Now I have a whole new big, bigger, biggest, best days ever. I am out there with those skinny people doing stuff i could never have dreamt of. Food is now an after thought. It doesn't consume my day. I still enjoy the good home cooked food but I eat smaller portions. I leave food on my plate when I am full. I can no longer hear my mother's voice saying eat it all up, ther are starving children in Africa who would want that!

        I still cook for family feasts, I love cooking. I still do holidays but I have changed from the All inclusive drinking and eating everything everyday kind to Self catering accommodation. This gives me the choice of cooking or eating out as I choose. I rarely drink anymore as I usually travel alone now and I feel I need to keep aware of my surroundings.

        I don't know at what point my life expanded, was it when I lost 100 pounds? Was it when I left my walking stick at home ? Was it when I said yes to an outing instead of finding an excuse to stay home ? i look back at my last five years and wonder how loosing weight has made such a difference. Be ready to amaze yourself.

        BTW, the liquid diet sucks, one more day and you are over the worst. You can do it.

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