Anyone Else Obese?

retired2015

I have continued to try and lose weight since June (diagnosis in March and double mastectomy in April). So far I have lost 35 pounds but it takes weeks to lose a pound. I attend a senior center exercise class up to 3 times a week. Walk on the treadmill (which remarkably does not hurt my hips like walking on the track did) and recumbent bike 30 minutes at a time a few times a week. I work with a trainer once a week for a half hour and use machines a few times a week. I think there has been some improvement but it is really slow for me. I have little flexibility especially in my hips, but am persevering. I am hoping my PS will understand and agree to give me smaller implants than my current size would suggest. My argument is that I want implants that will fit the body I hope to have, not the one I currently have. I do not want to be big at all (former 44DD). I am getting ready for my implant exchange surgery 12/1/15 and wonder from those who have already had it done, what this surgical experience is like. I am assuming a short recovery time?? Also wonder what other women's PS have advised re. wearing bras after exchange surgery.

Janett2014

retired2015,

Check out the topic Exchange City in the forum Breast Reconstruction. I can tell you my experience though. The exchange surgery was much easier than BMX. That's true for most people, but not all of course. Mine was day surgery and included origami method nipples. There were no drains (yay!), and my PS said I could shower the day after. After that I could wear any kind of bra I like or a cami or no bra. That advice varies GREATLY among plastic surgeons though! As far as recovery time goes, I would say one to two weeks.

I'm pleased with my results; it has been a year and four months since my exchange. I too went smaller: DD or DDD to a C cup. I like the Genie bra. I tried it pre-BC when I was big and didn't like it at all. I like it (very comfy) with my smaller and firmer implants.

Btw, I also retired in 2015 and love it!

ChiSandy

I’m a bit different from the vast majority of my sisters here, in that I had a lumpectomy and not a mastectomy. I have no family history and tested negative for the full panel of known mutations. My tumor was nonaggressive and small and my breasts are HUGE relative to my body size. (Not bragging or complaining, just sayin’). I’m 5’3” and at my heaviest was 235. I was seriously underweight before puberty and pretty normal thereafter--but even 40 years ago there was societal pressure to be thin--not just non-obese but downright thin. Tried liquid protein, Weight Watchers (several times), Jenny Craig, Stillman, Atkins--everything but HCG and surgery. (I HATE surgery and its complications--another reason I opted for an lx and not an mx). The thinnest I’ve been as an adult was 116 a year after having my only son, thanks to post-partum depression with anorexia (not nervosa--I wanted and tried to eat but my body rebelled at both ends). Eventually as I recovered from depression I rediscovered food and wine and over the years (with occasional diet-program successes) my weight crept inexorably higher--I realize now that if at any time I had accepted my body and vowed to maintain rather than lose weight, I never would have wrecked my metabolism and would be closer to normal weight today. (As to those breasts, I was a 38H before diagnosis, 38I before rads and 38J now, thanks to radiation enlarging my breast seroma. I can go down to a DDD or maybe DD only if I buy so large a band that it rides up and I get no support. And never mind trying to find soft and comfortable bras with any modicum of support in my cup size--it’s either underwires or stiff “granny-bras” that bind just as much).

Weight and injuries contributed to osteoarthritis of my knees. At my first knee replacement I was 220. Six months later, I had a syncope scare (turned out to be intermittent mitral valve prolapse) and my FP told me I was “de-conditioned.” He advised me to limit carbs--“avoid everything white except dairy, chicken breast and cauliflower.” It worked. By the time I had my second knee replacement a year after the first, I was down to 200. Eventually, I made it to 178, and was fitting into L or 14/16 instead of 2X-3X. But I got weary of having to work hard on diet & exercise without losing any more weight--and then came trips to Paris and Spain (and the restaurant food that goes with that). I tried going back on the wagon, but by this past Aug. I was back to 185....and then came the abnormal screening mammo, followed by the diagnostic mammo & ultrasound. Between that and the biopsy came a business trip to New Orleans, with concerts to play en route home the next week. It’s illegal to diet in New Orleans (that’s why Jenny Craig moved to Australia), and I was determined to enjoy all the food and wine I could prudently (i.e., portion-controlled) eat since my future was uncertain. I knew in my gut from that first abnormal mammo that I had breast cancer. So after my diagnosis I began to let myself have dessert every day, and maybe even a slice or two of regular (not low-carb) bread. Before my lx, my surgeon warned me not to have more than 3 drinks/wk, so my wine-conisseurship hobby has taken a major hit. And now, I’m supposed to forego red meat and charcuterie too? How the heck am I supposed to follow a low-carb diet when the foods that made it palatable and do-able are now verboten? So I gave up and began to relax my my restrictions even further: a daily slice of pie, a nightly scoop of gelato, even cereal or a croissant for breakfast. (Yes--that counts as binge-eating for me: my metabolism is so screwed-up I can’t even binge decently; if I even wanted half a pint of ice cream I’d hurl. When I go out for steak, I get 3-4 meals out of one ribeye, hold the potatoes).

What kept me on the straight & narrow during the fall into Dec. since 2002 was being in the Chicago Bar Assn’s Christmas show. The rehearsals and all that stairclimbing during the weeklong run was really good exercise. But because I thought I would feel like crap this fall due to radiation (and, before I got my Oncotype results, possible chemo), I opted out of the show because it wasn’t fair to take a role and not be able to give it my all. Had I known at dx what I know now, I would have stayed in the show....and not had the time to sit and type online for hours!

So here I am, seesawing between 192-194 (the RO warned me not to lose or gain) and coming to the end of 3 weeks of radiation. Comfort eating is taking its toll--I am once again over the obesity line. I can go back to low-carb if I can eat red meat, since Thanksgiving & Christmas desserts and starches are not tempting to me. But there’s that Mediterranean cruise coming up: how do you take a luxury cruise, and visit Italy for that matter, and not eat pasta or bread? And teetotal at most of my shipboard dinners, no less. What’s scaring me is that Jan. 1 I start my AI therapy---which is guaranteed to shut down whatever remains of my metabolism. My artificial knees are okay and won’t hurt--there’s no joint tissue to inflame. But I hate almost all exercise except walking (and it will be on arthritic ankles) and X-C skiing (foreclosed to me because I have been warned to avoid falling). Can’t bike, never could--my balance sucks and nobody’s been able to teach me. (We were too poor when I was a kid to even afford a bike, so I never learned). Injuries caused the arthritis that made weightbearing exercise downright uncomfortable (and often painful).

I am terrified that AIs will not only cause osteoporosis (I am officially osteopenic but have too many comorbidities to make bisphosphonates or biologics viable choices) but make me balloon up further, especially if a palatable low-carb diet is forbidden to me. (If I have to exist on green leafies, chicken breast and fish, go ahead and shoot me NOW). I have very little time to ratchet my weight back down to where it will settle out to where I am now.

Anyone here manage to avoid getting fatter on AIs without depriving and exhausting themselves?

flaviarose

To answer your question, ChiSandy, no. I lost about 40 lb. during chemo but have slowly gained 30 lbs back on arimidex. The weird thing is that I now have a roll of fat where I never had it before - I always had big boobs, big butt, hips and thighs, but not a large belly. The lower abdomen, yes, but now I have developed a "muffin top" or spare tire above my waist in my upper abdomen that I never had before :-(

Sam2U

Quote:

"Anyone here manage to avoid getting fatter on AIs without depriving and exhausting themselves?"

I am now on exemestane and have managed to lose about 10 lbs. I watch what I eat and exercise daily. Nothing strenuous but enough to break a sweat. I have an exercise bike that has become a friend. I added weight lifting/weight bearing exercises-started slow and found it really isn't that bad.

Oh and I eat pasta, bread, bacon and red meat, just not every meal.

Poppins1

Holy Mackerel, sister! I am 48 and having the same problems. I am a two-time survivor, at age 37 and at age 41. I was physically active and in shape when I was diagnosed and now I am post-menopausal(thanks, chemo!) and cannot do HRT because my first cancer was estrogen-positive. I think that would help me and also help my physical relationship with my husband, but no doctor will prescribe that. I am so frustrated with weight-loss and feel pretty crappy most of the time, so I totally can understand what you are going through. How are your hot flashes and other symptoms? I've been going through menopause for ten years now because of the second cancer. It feels really hopeless that I will ever feel good again.

Poppins1

Me too. All of my weight gain seems to have come in my mid section and rear end. No matter what I do to exercise, I don't ever lose any weight, only inches. I know the weight is what is keeping me from feeling better, because I need to get some of it off my frame and joints. But, it won't come off. It's like I have no metabolism at all. I have taken metformin for insulin resistance since 2002, and that helped me lose 35 pounds back then with exercise. Now, though, without the proper estrogen and progesterone levels, it's almost impossible. How about you?

renzkay55

Hi, I am rather new at this but could not resist. I too have been experiencing a weight gain after cancer treatment and it makes me bad because no one tells you or the other things your at risk of getting because of it.

I was diagnosed with hormone positive breast cancer in 2010, and went thru a double mastectomy. I was put on Tamoxifen for the first few years because I was not in menopause but it put me in a chemical menopause. I initially lost and maintained my weight because with the Tamoxifen I initially tasted a chemical taste and food did not taste the same. My bones ached but I was still able to exercise (ride bike, walk, etc.); however, after my doctor determined I was in menopause he started me on Arimidex, and that is when I experienced weight changes, depression, joint aches and pains, etc. However, the most disturbing was the weight changes. Has anyone else experienced this after being on these types of cancer medications?

I was looking at the other subjects being discussed in different forums, and was not sure where this discussion should fit in. I also saw a new study being conducted under the Forum: Day-to-Day Matters, Clinical Trials, Research Studies, etc. about a Phenomenological Investigation of Post-Breast Cancer Weight Management, and was thinking about joining the study but did not want to do it alone. Is there anyone out there willing to join me?

Kat

cliff

I would really like to exercise to loose weight. about 4 years ago, I found out I had congestive heart failure, which over a period of years sapped my stamina, from walking miles with my son, hunting and fishing, to barely able to walk in to work from the parkng lot. I was getting over that, when this breast cancer thing hit. now my feet swell up and hurt so bad I can only lie with my feet up and try to get the swelling down. I still try to walk as much as I can, but it never seems to be enough.