Help Please - Not for Me - but for my mom - need advice

[PowerPrincess]

Hey Ladies,

Ok here's the story. My mom, who was at one point extremely obese (300lbs) had the gastric bypass surgery maybe 2-3 years ago. So she looks about 110lbs...and that was wonderful, and she was eating but not exercising. Now over the past couple of months she's gaining weight fast, she's already put on 25lbs. She doesn't eat terribly, she's actually eating better than she ever has, but she does eat that low carb food (which i don't agree with)...but nonetheless, i've gotten her to start working out with me 3-4x a week, we do strength-training and cardio (at least 30 minutes a day)...and she's trying...she never exerised a day in her life prior to me getting her in the gym about 2 weeks ago. BUT SHE doesn't loose weight, she's actually gaining weight, she's frusturated, i don't know what to do, i feel bad for her situation...do you have any suggestions on what i can instruct her to do to loose weight, and why do you think suddenly she's gaining weight uncontrollably...and i see what she eats - salads, nuts, chicken, red meat, little if any bread, low carb products. One thing i suggested was she needs to drink more water and reduce her coffee intake. What do you think? I really want her to stay motivated and be healthy...please help me so i can help her....by the way....she's not gonna come on the board, she's not into that...so let's get past that comment.

Thanks ladies.

 

[jenscats5]

Has she seen her Bariatric Dr. about this yet?? Due to her surgery, she might want to be checked out.

However, it must be said that Gastric-Bypass surgery does not always equal permanent weight loss. The stomach, albeit smaller, can stretch out again. She needs to drop the processed junk food & eat cleanly -- proteins, veggies, healthy carbs, etc. Print out the stickies listed at the top of this forum.

Drinking more water will help -- coffee is OK (2-3 cups) daily -- but watch what she puts in it -- that's where the coffee goes haywire.

 

[courtneybcca]

what jens said and also I know she has to be VERY careful with the amount of food she eats too right? defiantly have her go to the doctor.. also because she has NEVER work-out before she is probably gaining muscle...

 

[Sassy69]

Does she log her food? Get her to do the fitday.com thing so she knows exactly what she's eating. If you want we can probably do a review of her meals & make some comments to maybe clean it out. And definitely talk to her doc. Don't they also have a nutritionist that works w/ bariatric patients?? Clear any changes to her diet w/ these people.

As far as gaining weight - has she had a bodyfat test done? Get that as well and track it. Weight is the worst thing to base your "progress" on because you don't know what it is made up of - it aint' all fat. And also how long has she been training w/ you? i.e. did this weight gain just start? It might be due to the sudden change in her activity level and eating. Any sudden change usually results in a bit of weight gain while the body tries to adjust. You usually hear about that when people first start training and they say they've been training like crazy for 2 weeks but gaining weight instead of losing. Sometimes the body just needs to figure out what's goign on and it stacks up it's reserve energy until it figures it out. (This is the very non-scientific observation that I am making here - almost purely anecdotal, but it seems to happen ... then 3 weeks or so later the results start coming.)

But with the additional caveat of checking w/ the bariatric people, I would suggest following basically the same approach to this question as we list in the "Are you new to the EF ladies' board" sticky.