My weight with my J-Pouch

Weight management is a marathon, not a sprint. Any weight change you see over a few days is water balance, with *no* relationship to obesity.

You have described the long-term problem pretty clearly. Stress eating is tough to deal with. You have to either reduce the stress or reduce the eating in response to stress. Both of these are hard problems, but it’s worth considering which one might be better for you to tackle.

I’ve gotten a fair amount of benefit from scheduled physical activity. In addition to the benefit from the activity itself, it gets me out of the kitchen and away from food.

Ask your doctor about Ozempic. It is a once a week injection and it’s helped me lose 35 pounds plus it slows down your gastric emptying so you feel full and satiated. Insurance doesn’t always cover it so that’s a major issue as it’s expensive but it if does it can help

As far as I have heard from other people, having regular meals, not too much at a time, in a relaxed situation and without hurry is a good means to avoid gaining weight. If you have irregular meals with periods of fasting in between, you tell your body to establish energy reserves.

I am so sorry to hear about this stress cycle that seems impossible to interrupt.  It's so exhausting to feel bad all the time on top of whatever else is going on in life, stress-wise.  I'm going to share some things that help me, and maybe you have already tried them, or if not, maybe one of these things can help.

I'm really enamored with psyllium powder right now.  Plain, organic psyllium powder doesn't have any sugar, which seem to bother a lot of J-pouchers, and is such a gentle emolient and it soothes my digestive system better than plain oatmeal.  If I have a heaping teaspoon with water before a meal, it increases my full feeling and slows down the digestion so that my food isn't rushing through and basically scouring the alimentary canal. That also increases my feeling of physical well-being, which reduces feelings of emotional stress. When I feel pouchitis coming on, I take probiotics in pill form, like VSL (Visbiome-there are links on this site to it, usually) or the highest dose of shelf-stable Jarrow, and that seems to head it off.  I try to eat small amounts of probiotic foods with meals regularly as a preventative measure (my favorites are coconut yogurt, sauerkraut (the fresh kind), and preserved lemons, but anything with live cultures will do) and I stay away from dairy and wheat because they seem irritating to my system.  Meditation and yoga also help manage stress for me, as well as finding a time to sit quietly in the sun and listen to the sounds of the natural world if possible.  It's hard to get started on that active type of stuff while in the midst of a stress response and especially when you're in pain, though breathing exercises by themselves can be amazing in managing stress, and walking is great, even if it is just around the block (especially if you need to stay close to the toilet). Talking to a therapist might help, too.   I tend to blame myself for my health issues and that puts extra stress on me.  It's not productive or healthy, and it's not correct.  These things are not our fault.

I haven't found quick fixes through medications to anything gut-related, myself.  Everything that works seems to be slower on the uptake and pretty natural.  The psyllium is the best thing I have found recently.

Please keep at it.  You will find something that works for you.  You have been handed a difficult situation: your body takes stress and expresses it in ways that cause physical pain, and that physical pain intensely magnifies stress. It's a vicious circle from which it seems at times there is no escape.  I have been there and probably will be there again.  We just have to keep trying, experimenting, finding what works and what doesn't.  The j-pouch doesn't come with a manual and the manual would be different for everyone anyway, but this group can still be a wonderful resource.  I applaud you for reaching out.

Stress can cause the metabolism to do crazy things.  I too suffered from weight gain despite eating practically nothing.  I had an eating disorder many years ago and did not want to go down that path again.  I decided to try keto (or my modified version anyway) as my cousin lost over 150 lbs and no longer has type II diabetes as a result.  I cut out all carbs and sugars including fruit.  I thought I would spend my life in the bathroom.

Great news.... my pouch function did not change.  My joints don't hurt any more.  I  have superb energy and I'm sleeping better.  It takes work and thought when preparing meals but I'm not hungry all the time any more.  I am eating better than I have in years.  I have discovered my pouch does not like spinach in my frittata but other than that I am doing fantastically well.

I wish you great health (PS I lost 10kg easily which is all I needed to lose.  I now have to be careful that I don't get too skinny)

I appreciate all of the insight and suggestions. As a list of things I have tried, it's a long one:

Typical Exercise: I have tried doing workouts that my body didn't like on a daily basis. Pushups left my shoulders in so much pain as well as leaving them crunchy

Keto: Left me in the bathroom all the time because removing carbs turned my poop into water

Metformin: was given to help me lose weight, but it turned out I'm Type 2 Diabetic and my doctor can't seem to keep my prescription consistent.

Grazing: Eating very small amounts of food every hour or so throughout the day did nothing at all

Protein: Eating mainly protein only didn't help me lose weight but sometimes I still do this.

Bread Diet: having mainly naan bread when my stomach couldn't handle anything else worked a little bit, but my weight yo-yo-ed right back up.

Calorie Counting: Roller coaster of my weight going up and down and it doesn't work well with how bad my belly is.

Cut out sweets: I'm not big on these anyway so it's rare that I have cookies or cakes or things. I'm switching to baked crackers and things like that

Meal replacements: I tried replacing meals with Slim Fast, which didn't work, and made my belly feel like it had rocks in it

Dieting: My mother used to put me on these diets where she wouldn't let me have a great many things, and made me eat/drink things that I absolutely hated and I had to gag them down(original V8)

Ever since I realized that I am a stress eater a few months ago, I have not been doing nearly as much of it, and for about a month now I haven't been able to eat very much at all, some days nothing at all. My stomach gives me sharp pains when I eat recently no matter what it is, so I haven't been able to eat very much for weeks and weeks. So those of you telling me to eat less, if I ate less I'd die of starvation because if I eat any less I won't be eating at all ever. My problem is not how much I eat.

Seirla,

That is a long list and you have definitely been through many trials.  I am sorry none of these was helpful enough. You have some good data. 

Have you talked to a doctor and ruled out other things that might be causing your pain?  Have they done a CT scan?  Have they tested the functioning of your endocrine system?  I'm sure there is more they could check out but I'm not a doctor. 

Sara

Sara, I have spoken to my doctor, and they have done full panel bloodwork, checked my thyroid and that's it. I cannot actually have anymore CT Scans due to the fact that I have had over a hundred of them on top of about a thousand x-rays and they are worried now about radiation. They have not tested my endocrine system ever. Should I ask my GI guy about that? Right now, it's eating that hurts. Since my infusion on Tuesday I haven't had any pooping problems. Those resolved within mere hours of my infusion. But my stomach itself.. It doesn't feel like an ulcer, but there is a dull burning pain whenever I eat. I wonder if it's because I haven't been eating at all or if there is something wrong that is CAUSING my not eating at all.