Weight Loss?

[windinthemaples]

Daniel and I have been on a calorie-counting joint diet throughout the summer. Since May 29th, Daniel has lost thirty pounds and heading into the hospital, I'd lost nine. Then I went into surgery and my diet flew out the window. I haven't bothered to count calories--peanut butter toast plays a large part in my pain relief. So it was, with great trepidation, that I got on the scale today to see how much of the summer's hard work I'd undone in my recovery. And the results are completely shocking!

I've lost nine pounds since I got home from the hospital ten days ago!

I have no idea what to attribute this to. I am looking slimmer, particularly in my lower abdomen, which begs the question--just how inflamed was my stone-irritated kidney? How much did that stone weigh? Am I losing muscle mass from being in bed? Is healing burning more calories than I thought? Did having that stone in my kidney jack up something in my body's retention of water? Am I in denial about how many calories I've been consuming (or not) while laying in bed?

It is baffling and kinda awesome. If you ignore the bruising and the skin rashes from all the adhesive and the giant effing hole in my back and the other various hospital marks, I look in the mirror and can clearly see my pre-pregnancy self. I'm just a hairs-breadth from my college body! Who knew I was doing so much emotional over-eating all these years? (Okay, yeah, me.)

So there you go. I lost as much weight laying here for ten days than in all the months of obsessive carrot weighing and salad greens measuring. Go figure.

Daniel thinks it is because I'm too polite or reticent to cause trouble to request food, so I just lay here and wait for someone to remember to bring me something. Which, yeah, that sounds like me, but the food that's delivered to my nightstand has felt good and plentiful. So yeah, I've got no clue.

Comments

[radshaun.livejournal.com]

Healing does use a lot of calories and it's likely that you're not eating nearly enough. I still haven't recovered my pre-surgery appetite. I haven't been counting calories, instead trying to just adjust portions and eat sensibly, but I decided to record my calories last week because I'm still losing weight and I don't want to. I thought I was easily eating 2.,000 calories and found out I was eating an average of 1100. I think it's just as easy to undereat as to overeat.

The downside is that probably more of the weight than you want is muscle, as I found out myself. But it's still a great accomplishment :) Congratulations!

[costumenut.livejournal.com]

That's awesome! Congrats! And yay on healing!

[kehleyr.livejournal.com]

Congrats :-)!

[neva-butterfly.livejournal.com]

I hope you continue to heal. I don't doubt that forced starvation would make you lose weight, but the sudden reduction in your abdomen does sound like suddenly a lot of inflammation calmed down. I hope that you can feel the difference too in terms of less pain.

[moonvoice.livejournal.com]

You are awesome sauce! And yeah, inflammation would lead to some swelling and water retention, but I bet some of it is also you not requesting food (!!!), and also just the way the body changes around surgery times; how stress can increase the metabolism and stuff.

I'm still in the 'emotionally over-eating' stage. I am fat. I hate myself and get down on myself about it allllll the time and Helen is just of the 'Pia, one thing at a time please, you have more important things to be dealing with, and not enough coping mechanisms in place to be getting rid of one of your most important ones.' Which is an interesting, novel, compassionate perspective... and totally isn't as much fun as the self-hate. *blush*

I'll get there.

But yay you are totally pretty much THERE!!!! *dances*

[sidheblessed.livejournal.com]

I lost a LOT of weight after my c-section. About 25kgs to be exact. As someone else said, healing burns off a lot of calories. It is very hard work for your body.

I've been reading your recovery posts and have been keeping you in my thoughts.