Lockdown lard : I’ve put on weight... - British Heart Fou...

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Lockdown lard

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I’ve put on weight during the lockdown 😩 I was just wondering if anyone has considered a gastric band in there fight with Heart Disease and if so what was your experience?

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36 Replies
Milkfairy profile image
MilkfairyHeart Star

No

in reply toMilkfairy

Oh

Milkfairy profile image
MilkfairyHeart Star in reply to

I haven't put any weight on. It's all the extra gardening and yoga I am doing

😊🧘‍♀️

No, bought some Resistance Bands though, highly recommend them 👍

Linedancer21 profile image
Linedancer21

No ways. I just keep trying to loose.lost 9 lb then lockdown came. I been making shortbread.cakes.rhubarb cobblers.crumbles.just to keep me busy. But seriously we all know what we have to do. But I think some of drugs increase our weight. Good luck if you decide g.band way to go for you...by way I put 9lb plus mo😭😭😭re back on

Violymay profile image
Violymay in reply toLinedancer21

I used to rely on 2 Line dance classes and a weekend Line dance social for exercise and maintaining a reasonable weight. Since lockdown I have had to self-isolate and have gained pounds and feel unfit. So looking forward to getting back to how it used to be!

cowparsley profile image
cowparsley

I do sympathize but I know one woman who had the gastric band and put all the weight back on within the year and my sister-in-law had the gastric bypass and has also put most of the weight back on so the only answer is to radically change your eating habits and exercise.It`s hard especially in lock down,most of us have put on a bit of weight but lockdown won`t be forever so keep trying and the best of luck.x

prlblue profile image
prlblue

No I

Bought a rowing machine for my garage as the gym is as yet still closed. 50mins virtual row around Waterloo lake Roundhay park three times a week. Find something you can use regularly.

Prada47 profile image
Prada47

Hello

I have lost just over 5 kg during the lockdown

How I have taken over the menu planning on what we have for our Main Meal. I weigh or calorie count everything, potatoes are limited to 200g =140 Kcals 1slice of toast with a Poached Egg for Breakfast or 1 toast and a 1/4 can of Baked Beans around 140 Kcals.

Not easy but I knew I was moving into the Obese category, now back into overweight. I don't think I will ever be in the NHS " Healthy Weight "

I have also forgotten what the Biscuit aisle looks like in the Supermarket !!

Beer is limited to 4 bottles/cans of 500ml a week with possibly a Bottle of Red on the weekend.

What helped was I may need an artery opened up ( a long story ) and I don't want the Nurse telling the Radiology staff in the Cath Lab, Male 1.83m 100kg much prefer Male 1.83m 92kg won't need so much Heparin lol

Stay Well Stay Safe and Stay Alert

stillaboveground profile image
stillaboveground in reply toPrada47

I had my gall bladder removed on March 17th just around when the lock down started. I have gained a stone since. I was told that you can gain weight after the operation, so it could be the operation to blame, or lock down or it could simply be what I am stuffing in my face. Take care all.

MichaelJH profile image
MichaelJHHeart Star

No!

To qualify you need to lose weight first to show you are serious. One person I know and seeing they were making progress just carried on diet. It is not an operation without risk. Someone else I know of did get a band. The band failed because of their eating habits and they now have a BMI of well over 50. The anesthesist does not want to do the operation as the risk of death is high as they are heavier than they were before.

I think it is a question of changing eating habits and mindset.

I have lost weight during lockdown probably because I am not going out for coffees or a pint often with food involved.

scotsrish profile image
scotsrish in reply toMichaelJH

Absolutely agree with you. It also depends on who is doing the grocery shopping. If it isn't there you won't eat it. If the ingredients aren't there you can't bake it. Stay as true to the natural foods as you can for health and weight. I too have to watch myself in temptation of sweets, fancy packaging and the new gimmicks. I used to bake everything from breads to doughnuts, puff pastries! I became very sick from wheat and dairy probably because they have been altered and treated so much but staying away from those and using less or no salt changed things for me.

10 coffees a day 😱 think I’d bin the coffee & drink the milk 🤣

Seriously though, massive achievement dropping 20kg and doing it properly means it will stay off easier 👍

Koassilator profile image
Koassilator

Final answer NO. Private Hospital went horribly wrong, near death experience. Hospital stood by their millionaire Surgeon.

NHS had to pick up the pieces. Health gone downhill ever since 2016.

More pain than gain. 🤔

Ps according to NICE guidelines & other specialist it should never have been done. Greed, Money talks.

It’s not so much the coffee, the jury still appears to be out on that one, more the 10 sugars.

I only drink fresh coffee and now down to 3ish a day, used to be 7/8 a day, always took 3 sugars now down to 2ish, I cut back coffee to reduce sugar intake, can’t drink it with less than 2.

On researching,I think I have metabolic syndrome, one of the symptoms being heart disease

Thank you

Prada47 profile image
Prada47

I love your outlook Magnums at £2 for four where ??

Take Care Stay Safe

Prada47 profile image
Prada47

Thanks for the post Boo boo gave a lot of us food for thought !!

Stay Well and Take Care

Fluffybee profile image
Fluffybee

Hi there 👋

I’ve certainly put on weight I don’t fit in my summer shorts I’ve had for years !!!! I know it’s not good for general health let alone your heart, but it’s chocolate just tastes so good, surprisingly my cholesterol is fine now .

benjijen profile image
benjijen

I knew someone who'd had it done and she was told to eat small meals regularly so she would sit at work and every couple of hours, out would come a bag of crisps or biscuits or some other sugary snack! I really don't think that's what they meant!

Pollypuss profile image
Pollypuss

Not so much how much you eat but what you eat. Haven’t put on any weight - although I could easily- fat +sugar are the worst culprits. Also bread . I eat corn cakes and have say one slice of bread per day. But porridge is amazing. I have a bowl with banana and apple with my aspirin at night. Eat your foods as it comes . Steam vegetables,bake potatos. Fried food is a no no. Bake loads of fish and grill. You can have the odd cake. But eat to live not live to eat

popeyeuk profile image
popeyeuk in reply toPollypuss

Great post .. pretty much what I do except I'm fully plant based

barbadosbaybee profile image
barbadosbaybee

I had a full gastric bypass 10 years ago. Lost 9 stone. Never looked back. Its a bigger op, but still keyhole nowadays, and I considered all the ops, I liked this one best.

Whatever you decide to do, good luck Boo-boo. I can’t offer any experience, sorry. A band wouldn’t be for me, I’d be too scared of having yet another surgery, but only you & your doctor can judge. I’d suggest include as much psychological advice as medical when you decide, both are so relevant for how we eat & live.

But I feel you angst. I wouldn’t want to suggest, but 3 things have helped me get started with losing 30lbs.

1) I hired a life coach for 2 sessions, to help me unpick any emotional reasons I eat. (I’m a coach myself, so I know how valuable it is, but also that one can’t always coach oneself). I now see that my rebellious side ruins my health, so gonna keep rebellious for things like clothes, not food !

2) started a calorie counting app to retrain eating habits (ie not diet exactly, more to be aware & make choices)

3) did an estimate (below), not exercising means I can be healthy if I eat a “sandwich” less a day. Aha moment.

I put on several pounds during heart surgery recovery (= not able to do normal exercise, but ate normally !). Then I got out hiking regularly & things gradually improved. But then I got pericarditis. Main healing approach is rest, not raising heart rate over 100 - couldn’t even walk!

So with those two + lockdown anxious /boredom eating, I’m 14 pounds more than last year, which was already probably 14lbs over sensible.

I calculated last week, that stopping hiking 10-15 hours a week, meant I needed to be eating about 3000-5000 (yes, thousand!) calories less a week. That’s at least a big sandwich less a day. I’d taken no account of that, & through comfort eating, had eaten more. No wonder!

I’m now 2 days into calorie logging with the “Lose It!” App. I’m not going to enjoy being disciplined, until it gets going & I see mini successes perhaps. But like the person above, it was good to be reminded- eg what an extra layer of butter means, or how quickly things add up.

Thank you for raising this difficult topic, the fact I’m not alone has helped me, I hope we all help each other.

Fingers crossed for both of us (& everyone else), on a hopefully weight-losing journey. 🤞

Don't do it. I've struggled with a weight problem since I was born. My turning point was when I wanted to box for my school, I went from 15 stone to 11 stone in a year just by exercising and cutting down. Then I went into the forces which helped. I'm now 71 and for the last 20 years have fluctuated between 12 stone and 14 stone, I'm big boned and I feel comfy at 13 stone. I love chocy, cakes and anything that's sickly. What I do now is keep active and just Treat myself at weekends. I know my ex wife has had a band and my youngest daughter ( she's 34 ) is considering it, but I wouldn't recommend it, my other 2 kids exercise and watch what they eat. Just make your portions smaller and keep busy. Good luck.

Ianc2 profile image
Ianc2

Give yourself an MOT in order to establish where you are now. You need to know what your sugar , cholesterol and blood scores are. Keep a food diary for a while and look at what you eat and how much of it. Make sure you record all your treats.

For most women the amount of energy you need is about 1500 calories. If you want to eat more you have to burn more through activity and exercise. One of the difficulties of adding weight is that extra pounds produce a pile driver effect on your knees, which starts to make exercise more difficult, so you move less, get bored and get tempted by nibbles.

It also opens the door to other conditions such as diabetes type 2, a horrible disease that can cause loss of limbs, blindness and other complications. If you visit Diabetes.org you can see lots of graphic pictures and relevant information , The 800 calorie diet (under medical supervision) was originally prepared for diabetes sufferers who had to lose weight or prepare for a slow and painful death

Your challenge now is to draw up a battle plan. What are you going to eat and when,? How much movement/exercise can you / will you take? Can you consider weight watchers to give yourself some back up ? Can you take an axe to your treats? Cravings are very difficult to deal with -one of the diversionary tactics is to have a brightly coloured bead in your purse to remind you: Do I need this cake -300 calories? These biscuits? This chocolate - a bounty bar 300 calories? These sweets? That 500 calorie Hamburger? Bag of crisps -250 calories.

There is an old saying "A moment on the lips - a lifetime on the hips".

You can do it, but you will need all the help you can get and a pretty stiff dose of concentration and determination as you build a new way of living for yourself. Good luck.

HenryTudor profile image
HenryTudor

Nope. I’ve lost 1½ stone since leaving hospital end of February. Massive HA & diabetes diagnosed. Two angioplasties to fit four stents.

The cardiologist told me that in 15 years he’d not seen a single person survive such a massive heart attack!

My BMI was 30, so not really obese but it’s now around 26 and still going down.

I decided if I didn’t lose weight I was going to have an unhealthy, unhappy and shortened life. Better diet, smaller portions, no snacks in the house, no eating between meals and ..... a determination to stay alive AND healthy. Willpower trumps gastric band.

Fenlotted profile image
Fenlotted

Would never consider doing this it’s a lot harder afterwards than anyone thinks I have had a friend go through it. Slimmingworld are currently doing classes via online zoom until they can recommence safely & I think something like that plus exercise is by far the best route to get constant support

Dempo profile image
Dempo

I have put on weight since I started on the Bisprolol. I think it's because it has made me slow down so much, I seem to do everything at a snail's pace, and need to rest if I am on the go for more than 30 minutes, e.g. hoover downstairs, need to sit down for a bit. Change the bed, need to sit down again. I guess I need to take steps now to cut down the amount I am swallowing, clearly I am taking in more calories than I am using up!

popeyeuk profile image
popeyeuk

You know I'm the opposite.. had a double bypass last Nov and lost about 12lb in hospital.. Been fighting to regain weight ever since.. Think it's all the walking and much better low fat diet...

Padalak6 profile image
Padalak6

No. I've also put weight on during lockdown, I am on slimming world but have gone off the rails a bit, now I'm back on it and doing more exercise. I think healthy eating and exercise with willpower is the way to go.

TMeditation profile image
TMeditation

A doctor friend of mine said they are calling the public weight gain the ‘Covid-stone’ 😄 I’m half way there already! Just keep telling myself I will loose it once we all get our lives back. No gastric band for me- heard too many stories of when there were complications 🙈. I think we’ve all probably got enough on our plate (sorry for the pun 🤣) without more ‘interferences’. Enjoy the sunshine instead and try and sweat it off 😎X

People miss a vital point when considering weight loss surgery, just as they quite often do when using shake and bar based diets: nothing will actually change unless you permanently change your thinking and relationship with food. I know quite a few people who did shake diets, dropped loads of weight, and then as soon as they had to reintroduce ‘normal’ food started gaining weight back again. Nothing had changed in their mentality towards - or their understanding of - what they were eating. Just watch shows like my 600lb life; the ones that do the best are the people who acknowledge that they have an unhealthy, and/or emotion driven relationship with food, and learn to challenge the thinking that leads to grabbing an unnecessary snack or otherwise sabotaging themselves. Invariably, they’re also the ones that educate themselves on what they’re actually putting in their mouth in terms of calories, fat, protein and carbs.

I say all this from personal experience: I’m a shorty, only 5ft6 and a bit, and at my biggest I was almost 21 stone. I was a triple x top, a 47 inch trouser waist, and my bmi was officially morbidly obese up in the 40s. I lost 10 stone over about two years, and I’m now a 32inch trouser waist (a good two inches plus of which is to do with all the excess skin I have left as a permanent reminder of the state I got myself in to), a medium top, and my bmi is under 25. I would have met the nhs criteria for surgery, but without dealing with my mindset, a gastric band or bypass would have done nothing in the longer term.

My advice would be to look at what your eating ‘issues’ are. In reality it’s probably a combination, but the things to think about are if it’s portion sizes? Snacking? What you eat? How often you eat? What is it that drives your eating? Is it boredom? Is it emotional? If you really want to lose some weight, then it genuinely is about eating less and moving more, but what you’re eating also plays a big part. Protein will leave you feeling fuller than carbs. Wholegrain carbs will leave you feeling fuller than white bread and pasta. Sugar cravings can be satiated with fruit, although you have to accept that it’s never going to be the same as eating a chocolate biccy or a bag of sweets, although there can still be a place for treats in a successful weight loss diet: I never cut anything out of my diet, and don’t advocate doing so because the minute you say ‘no more chocolate’, all you can think about is chocolate and wanting it more. For me, it’s about moderation and sticking to your daily calorie goals as much as possible. As long as you’re eating less calories than your body needs, you will lose weight. Also, don’t fall into the trap of ‘low fat’ being the best choice: it isn’t always the healthiest option, particularly with things like yogurts, where they tend to add more sugar to compensate. It’s a well established but not commonly known fact that our brains quite routinely misinterpret thirst for hunger: if you’ve eaten a reasonable meal and you’re still feeling hungry, try a full glass of water. Some people actually advocate drinking a glass of water before any meal, but that just makes me feel a bit spewy so I don’t, but I do always check if I’m thirsty if I know I should be relatively full.

Aside from everything else, there are two pieces of advice that I would deem vital. The first is to be honest with yourself about what and how much you eat. Track what you eat on a daily basis, there are plenty of apps out there that are easy to use (I’ve been maintaining for the last 2 years, and I still routinely use an app called My Plate to keep me honest and help me maintaining a healthier relationship with food). There’s no such thing as a calorie that doesn’t count - everything that goes in your mouth adds up, and many people can be blinkered as to what they’re actually eating and drinking each day, so tracking can be a revelation. The second piece seems extremely obvious, but it makes a huge difference and is one of the easiest things anyone can do when trying to lose weight: if you don’t buy it, you can’t eat it. At the very least, buy smaller quantities of ‘problem’ foods e.g. one small bar of chocolate rather than a large bar or multipack. If like me, carbs and cheese are your issue, buy a small loaf of bread, rather than a large one, and swap to smaller blocks (or precut slices) of reduced fat cheese.

Hope that helps.

P.s. Unless you’re already significantly overweight, I’d be inclined to give yourself a break right now. Covid is screwing everyone up, and I’ve already said as long as I don’t go over 12stone I’m ‘happy’ under the circumstances.

in reply to

Excellent advice Charlie

And well done for shedding 10 stone!

Alps

No!!!

Lockdown the Larder instead

Alps

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