weight loss during radiation

leftfootforward
leftfootforward Member Posts: 1,726
edited June 2014 in Radiation Therapy - Before, During, and After

Anyone out there heard they can't lose weight during radiation? I had just had a baby right before my diagnosis, just finished chemo and am recovering from Chemo. I am finally beginning to feel like I can work on losing my baby and chemo weight.  I was wondering if this was a possibility, as I am to begin radiation in July. I wonder if I lose weight if it will effect my markings for the radiation.  Looking for anyone else who has been through this or has an answer for me. I will be seeing the RO next week and will ask him as well. Just looking for some support from people who have been there done that or are currently in the same shoes as me.

thank you 

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Comments

  • ftblmom3
    ftblmom3 Member Posts: 100
    edited June 2011

    I am pretty sure they do not want you to lose more than a couple pounds or it could throw things out of whack from the planning. (they weigh you every week, at least at mine, and i am pretty sure that is why. ) They take into consideration your whole breast area and line everything up from your original planning-so if you were to lose 10 or 15 pounds, that would be from your back, boobs etc and mess things up. LOL thats my understanding anyway in my very un-medical description!! Get through rads, then worry about the baby weight. Good luck in your treatment, sounds like you have a handful there with a new baby and dealing with all of this. Make sure you rest when you can too. alot of people who have done chemo say rads is a breeze. Hope that is the case for you!

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  • anonymice
    anonymice Member Posts: 532
    edited April 2012

    I asked about that this week, as I'm losing weight naturally after finally being off all the steroids and being able to be active all day long now that I have energy back.  The tech told me not to worry about it, every week they recalibrate as people having rads often have weight fluctuations for various reasons.

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  • Lena
    Lena Member Posts: 1,036
    edited July 2011

    Avastin is not a narcotic.

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  • peggy_j
    peggy_j Member Posts: 1,700
    edited July 2011

    yorelh, my RO team said "try not to lose weight" and they weighed me regularly (once a week?). As others have said, the concern is that they might need to recalibrate things. As an aside, about halfway through, the infamous radiation fatigue set in for me. The RO nurse mentioned that our bodies need extra protein to heal the tissue (the healthy breast tissue that's receiving the rad exposure). I'm vegetarian but made the choice to add-in fish. So I guess my decision was to focus on eating healthy foods to help my body heal. (I love the cookbook the Cancer Fighting Kitchen) They also suggested I walk 1/2 hour a day to keep my energy level up. So maybe one option is to focus on trying new healthy recipes and habits. The 6 weeks sounds like forever when you're going through it, but it will be over before you know it. Sounds hard to believe, but it's true. 

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  • bb226
    bb226 Member Posts: 102
    edited July 2011

    Had the same disscuss with my RO. I have lost 25 lbs since mammogram and would like to lose more. She stated I could not lose more than 5 % of my weight from simulation to rads completion because it would disrupt all the rads plans and the simulation would have to be done again. I will keep on eating healthy and exercising-walking and see what happens.

    Good luck.

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