Marella

The part about you not losing weight in conjunction with the stricture was probably because you were NOT eating. As a result of you not eating, your body will retain it's fat for as long as it can and any minimal loss you experience will be in the muscle. The not eating part causes your body to go into starvation mode.

Never ever think that not eating means losing weight. Many obese people think that depriving themselves of food is a good plan for weight loss... total baloney! Events like this begin to mess with ones metabolism, plus cause people to get over-hungry, and they over-eat. It's best to keep a schedule of eating. Early post-op, every 3 hours. Later as you go, no more than 5 hours apart -- Eating every 4 hours is best. Your brain senses that you've been fed, even if it's a yogurt, and the ravenous hunger and cravings can be controlled or dispelled. Eating too far apart actually causes erroneous head hunger that's difficult to satiate.

IMPORTANT: Your heart is a muscle and it's important to feed your muscle. That's why protein for us WLS'ers and people who try to lose weight properly is of utmost importance. If you exercise, exercise targets your muscles, your muscles become protein deprived and needs to be fed. Protein intake should be based on a specific formula - but 64 grams/day is very reasonable, but not always the bottom line.

Knowing how much protein is too little or too much is important because excess protein, though it might not be bad for you, is still excess calories and it doesn't just go away. Excess protein gets stored, eventually as fat -- fat because protein is eventually broken down to amino acids. Excess amino acids are converted to fats and sugars and if not used by the body is stored in fat cells.

The protein base formula, 0.8 x weight in kg, is perfect for sedentary to mildly active protein intake for WLS losses -- upping the protein by 10 to 20 grams if you are a daily gym fanatic.

Here's the conversion:
1. Weight in pounds divided by 2.2 = weight in kg
2. Weight in kg x 0.8 gm/kg = protein gm.

An example for me: I'm currently 207.
207 lbs divided by 2.2 = 94.09
94.09 kb x .8 = at the very least 75 grams of protein per day.

(The .8 is upped through 1.6 depending on exercise intensity and training, the max reserved for dedicated athletes and body builders).

NOW, as for your urination infrequency... journal your days, write down everything, document exactly how many times you go, document the ballpark amount (spurt to waterfall)... start with the usual long one in the morning. If you truly ARE drinking 64 oz per day, and you have charted that you actually are going once per day, ask your doctor if this is OK.

I'm glad your stricture was resolved. Though we know that information is key to success, every now and again, we just aren't aware. It's OK - you were treated. However, now you know to ask your doc or TT. It never hurts to ask.

__________________
~ Marella


Day 77: TTwo-terville - 53 lbs down
Day 188: Century Club - 100 lbs down
Day 366: 1 Year - 146 lbs down
Day 396: One-derland - 153 lbs gone forever! (my pic progression)