Just curious but

Im only considering this because it truly seems nothing else works.

I eat right. Im truly anal about my foods. We eat organic, local fruits and veggies. I eat alternative forms of protein AND include small amounts of animal proteins in my diet.
I don't eat fast food
I don't eat fatty foods
I do eat sweet foods, but I don't eat the conventional sweets - snickers, m&m's ...etc
I eat fruit leathers, grapes by the pounds, sweet breads ( that I make at home ) honey oat cereals ( organic sweetened with real honey and cane syrup)
I deliberately pursued a career that MAKES me work out every day . ( house cleaning)
I know how many vitamins I get in a day.
I also know how many nutrients I get every day.
I am one of the rare few people who can accurately recite everything I ate in a 24 hour period.

My problem is that I have to eat large amounts to feel comfortable and feel full.
Even with 2 glasses of water before and one glass during my meal.
I believe my stomach is just ... SOO large..
Remember, I used to weigh over 300 lbs.

Just a diet change alone *( dropping all the sugars, fats, and processed foods) I was able to lose 85lbs with no exercise.
Now I am adding exercise. But, i can not feel satisfied on regular portions. And it is a constant battle.
I don't like the idea of having my stomach resized, but Im the fattest person on a bike in this area so something has to give..

I go to mini marathons and participate as a walking contestant.
I hike around the green belt. I take stairs, walks and swim twice a week.

im freaking busy!
and Im still big.

Shewolf--

Bariatric surgery might be your only solution--or it might not.

You're certainly eating healthy foods. You had the will power (won't power) for an 85 pound loss).

How tall are you?

What is your Body Mass Index? ( http://www.nhlbisupport.com/bmi/ )

Are you willing to change your eating habits to shrink your stomach without surgery?




I'm guessing that by adding 24 ounces of water to every meal that you're keeping your stomach stretched so that it is impossible for you to feel full with "normal" amounts of food.

Remember, I'm not a doctor--I'm just looking at your situation with my particular background of general information.

After the post-op nausea and surgical discomfort, bariatic patients often report feeling terribly, terribly hungry (and some of them manage to stretch their tummies right back to the "Go" position.

Can you fast for three days as a start on shrinking your stomach? Allow yourself water--but only 8 ounces at a time. Force yourself to wait at least 20-30 minutes between glasses of water.

Then break your fast with cup-sized portions. Wait at least 20 minutes between helpings to allow the messages to travel from your gut back to your brain.

You've grasped both theory and practice of portion control on the plate. Now you have to accustom your physical being to the concepts of portion control in the gut.

Buy a box of oyster crackers. If you're really starving, a dry oyster cracker will simply melt in your mouth. If you only think you're hungry, you'll have a mouthful of yucky starch.

Have you checked out the A2K Virtual Diet thread in Sports & Fitness? You'd be most welcome there.


Hold your dominion.

I've a totally anecdotal comment that kind of fits what Noddy is saying re stomach size --

I noticed over the years that whenever I've had a pig out type of day, I'm really hungry a lot the next day, and maybe the one after that. But... if I keep a steady sensible portion routine, I don't get wildly hungry, or as hungry as on those post-pig out days.

Fairly recently, I've been eating less. Less bread, wayyyy less sweets (I seem to have lost my sweet tooth, or most of it, and what part of that sweet tooth that's left is very easily satisfied). Plus, living alone and not going off to work, I tend to eat one serious meal mid day, and only minimeals morning and evening, all of that adding up to less of a volume of food than I chugged down even a few years ago when I worked a lot of hours and needed the emotional reward of stuffing my face. So..... my stomach has probably shrunk; it seems happy enough with the amount of food it's getting.

So, Noddy's comment about the water volume/other food volume makes sense to me.

If you lose the weight gradually, I would guess your skin won't do the amount of flapping around that is such a delight for us oldies, since it still has a lot of elasticity at your age. Not that I'm sure of that, would have to read more about it.

For one of my just-in-case medical scans this summer I had to guzzle two 16 ounce bottles of "contrast" twenty minutes apart. I co-operate with doctors. I co-operate with medical procedures. All the same this was a lot of not-terribly-pleasant liquid.

I remarked to the technician that since I was only 5'2" and 116 pounds that it seemed a bit unreasonable to force down as much fluid as would be assigned to a 6'2", 200 pound man.

She explained that the bigger and fatter the patient, the clearer and more delineated the pictures of the abdominal organs were.

In the obese both stomach and intestines are distended, offering more room for nourishment.

Shewolf--

You've had a complicated life and I wouldn't be surprised if occasionally you don't use food for comfort. Even healthy food can pack on pounds if you eat too much healthy food.

shewolf - when was the last time you had your blood tested - sugars, thyroid, cortisol ... all that good stuff?

Watch out for the fruits and fruit leathers. My neighbour was diagnosed with diabetes not too long ago and sent to a one-week in-hospital nutrition/lifestyle intervention. He's down from about 5 pieces of fruit a day to 1 or 2 pieces of fruit a week. No processed fruit (leathers, juice, anything like that) at all. No veggie juices either. And the weight has been dropping off.

oh - tofu - do you eat a lot of tofu (i.e. more than 1x or 2x a week)? it can upset the endocrinal applecart for some women.

One of the first things I am going to do when I get insurance is ( in the next month ) get myself a good all around check up. I guess you could call it a physical.
Blood tests, urine tests.. everything under the sun.

I have not had a good check up in years ( since before Bean was born ) and it is over due.

One of the things that has been really pushing my decision for quick weight loss is that I have been having alot of heart issues.
I have been in the hospital several times with a really fast, really hard heart beat.
It could be many things, but without a cardiologist , I have no real answers. What little help I get from the ER, is only a band-aid.
That is the first order of business and I think it is weight/hormone related .

I agree 100% Noddy, with the idea that I eat for emotional satisfaction as well.
I have noticed that my boredom cravings have gone down now that I have really started physical exercise, and have kept a schedule. The endorphin high seems to be a great solution for that.
But, if I were to try to be realistic and put it in a graph, I would say that 40% of my weight is emotional eating, and 60% too large of portions.
Combine the two and you live in my skin.

Im just starting to feel at the end of my rope with this body.
It started when I was in my early twenties and finally off all of the street drugs. My body was ragged, and my kidneys and liver were giving me problems. I gained weight quickly, almost to the point of danger as I never had a real , regular diet in almost 7 years before that.
I lost most of that weight, but never the health issues.

now that my kidneys and liver are where they should be, the weight ca,e back again. And the diet change dropped 85 lbs, but I still have a bit to go. Who ever said that drugs messed with your entire life, may not have known exactly how right they were.

but, I am getting off topic.

I will begin lowering my fruit intake.
I think that may be a comfort food for me as I do love sweet stuff, but I am diligent in staying away from refined sugars and high fructose corn syrup and other horrid sweeteners. But that doesn't mean I need to litter my body with high calorie, high glycemic index foods either.

Fasting for three days might be hard as my diet effects the heart flutters that I get and may not be a good idea for me yet. But that is a great idea and it sounds like it is almost what they have the people do after they get stomach surgery anyway..

I mean, you are only allowed 'liquids' the first day anyway. Then a bit more solid liquid, like jello and pudding, then soft foods.
Sounds like the same pattern to me.

and yes, Tofu is one of my alternative sources of protien, but at max it is twice a week.
There IS something ( i forget the words for it ) that react like estrogen in a womans body that can cause a hormone imbalance if taken in too high doses.

I see my MIL suffer from it on a regular basis.
She is a vegan, but not a very good one. Tofu is in amost everything she eats and her body and emotions are on a constant roller coaster from it.

brendalee(occasional poster, regular reader)'s daughter was recently in hospital with heart flutters. She got a similar diagnosis to farmerman. Lots of what I think of as 'good' foods were taken out of her diet. The oddest - to me - were leafy greens. No lettuce, no cabbage - anything like that's off (and quinoa as well, as it's in the same family as the cruciferous vegetables).

Take a look at farmerman's thread. You might recognize some other similarities re symptoms.

~~~

a little FYI - this is the medical site we use most often for research at work

http://medlineplus.gov/

one page in from their front page on a 'bariatric' search

http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/weightlosssurgery.html

~~~

clinical trials looking for patients

http://clinicaltrials.gov/search/open/condition=%22Bariatric+Surgery%22

I never knew anyone who has gone through it that would do it again.

Of course there are worst case scenerios, a friend of mine in Boston had complications during the initial surgery and went into a coma which they did not recover from.

take a hard look at the statistics.

I've been fat, I've been thin. Alive is best.

Shewolf--

http://www.able2know.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=5813

Shewolf--

How does the situations seem today?

I have started Kayaking.

I love it. I have finally found something that gives me a mental break, a physical boost, and medium resistance work out.

its expencive though. 10 an hour.

Most used Kayaks can be purchased for 300-500.00 so i am thinking this will be my tax return present to myself.

I do this twice a week.

I have replaced one "withching hour" ( snack time ) with a liquid baby greens mixture that is awesome.

In 5 months, if things have not changed, and I have stayed on track, I am still wanting to get the surgery done.
I hurt so bad it isnt funny.


but ,this is kind of a sensative subject for me so I apologize for the touch and go posts.

Shewolf--

I think you're on the right track with replacing "bad" habits with low-calorie, active habits.

Have you talked to the kayak people about swapping cleaning chores for kayak time?

Of course you're a little skittish about discussing your weight. I'm the same way. I can "pretend" I'm at my ideal weight and fitness levels--and then I catch a humiliating glimpse of myself in a mirror. Airport mirrors are particularly cruel.

Once again, consider joining the A2K diet thread. Having a sympathetic peer group is a big help.