Losing Weight in Recovery

you burn calories like anblast furnace after rads
when itndecreases, you will know. my caloric requirements dropped back down from 3500 cal/day to just over 2000 cal/day about six weeks after rads ended. I think Greg 53 said he dropped back down about 4 months after rads. No worries.

Pat

phrannie51 said:

So radiation actually makes your body start
buring more calories? (a LOT more than normal)....Why is that? I'm just interested as to why rads on my neck and pharnyx would turn me into a calorie furnace.

Oh Tom, I am JEALOUS!! I actually dreamed about Mexican food the other night. There is no meal in world than I like more, or find more satisfying. I guess this is payback for all the mexican food I ate before treatments, huh? LOLOLOLOL

p

Body Repair...
I'm not sure, but I would presume it's because the body is doing everything it can to repair itself from all of the damage the radiation has caused.

JG

noelles_jim said:

The body goes into Overdrive
after rads. My weight was pretty constant during treatment but about two or three weeks out the pounds started dropping fast. I ate constantly just trying to keep my weight up. Being 6' @ 165 normal weight i didn't have a lot to play with from the start. I bottomed out at 119. Fortunately the wife is a great cook so putting it back was not too much of a problem. As for the ice cream, my bedtime snack was and is to this day 2 each, chocolate brownies (2" x 3"), 4 large scoops of Bryers chocolate ice cream covered with 1/4 cup of heated chocolate Herserys syrup. Got used to it and can't sleep without it.

So eat my friend and good luck. All of you are in my thoughts and prayers.

Wow....
I had no idea how many cals you burned after rads!!! I will say I lost 70lbs pound from November 21 (when treatments first began) till about 3 weeks ago when I finally stopped dropping weight. 70Lbs!!! Can you imagine!!! Silver lining is I feel much better now with all that extra weight off. I had plenty of extra to lose.

Best,


Tim

meaganb said:

I really haven't lost much.
I really haven't lost much. Maybe 10 lbs total and I'm on my final week of Rads. Not that I'm treating this as a diet, but I'm usually only getting in 1800-2000 calories a day. I don't have a feeding tube and that's about all I can manage. I wouldn't mind losing a little more honestly. Anybody else out there that didn't lose much during treatment?

I only lost about 10 pounds
I only lost about 10 pounds during my first radiation/chemo stint, and lost another 10-15 pounds during the second (when the side-effects were worse, but the treatment was shorter). I've lost about 70 pounds in a year, but I had three surgeries during that time (and I was also overweight).

I've continued to lose weight in the last couple of months and have discussed it with my doctors. My weight loss seems to be attributed to the fact that I just eat a lot less than I did a year ago. Eating is more complicated and less fun. But it also means that snacking I used to do between meals and fried food (and sandwiches) are almost completely gone from my diet. That, ultimately, is a good thing. I have to focus on having more fruits and vegetables (I don't even want to look at a smoothie or soup and salads are impossible to eat), but I'm eating much healthier than I did a year ago.

The benefit has been a drop in blood pressure and lowering of cholesterol (which means no more meds) and I think I am even snoring less because of having less weight. I've also had to buy a largely-new wardrobe for work.