No gallbladder = harder time losing weight?

acruelscholar
acruelscholar Posts: 17
edited February 4 in Health and Weight Loss
I'm about a year out of surgery to remove my gallbladder after getting stones that lead to pancreatitus. Since that time, I've struggled to lose even the most minimal amount of weight. Less than a lb a week. I've been exercising 4 times a week (stationary bike and walking) and eating a high fibre diet (gb removal cocked up my digestion in the WORST way.) with lots of fresh veggies and fruit, using the road map (which I may be doing wrong) and overall just trying hard to curb a lifetime of bad habits and emotional eating.

Vital stats are:

Age: 32
Sex: Female
Height: 5ft 7in
Weight: 19st 9.4lbs (275.4 lbs)
Current cals: 1690 per day

I can't seem to find a definitive answer online so I thought I'd ask for anecdotal evidencefrom you guys. Has anyone else experienced difficulties losing weight post-gb surgery? If so, what did you do to overcome it? Am I just stuck with it and should I just resign myself to losing insanely slowly?

Any advice gratefully received.
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Replies

  • FixIngMe13
    FixIngMe13 Posts: 405 Member
    No I'm sorry... but you just made me put off surgery for MY gallbladder! Seriously... I'm totally not doing it until I lose this weight first. You're not the first person that has said it is more difficult to lose weight after this surgery.

    I wish you the best... I hope someone has some advice on this.
  • lafoto13
    lafoto13 Posts: 23 Member
    Is that true? I'd never heard of it before but I had gall lbladder surgery almost 4 yrs ago... Wonder if this has made weight loss harder/slower. Hmmm...
  • Spreyton22K
    Spreyton22K Posts: 323 Member
    I had my gall bladder removed many years ago.....not long after my older sister had the same op. Both her and my mother talked about no gall bladder equals no losing weight ever.

    It did take me a long time to recover from the op. it really wrecked my already sensitive tummy, but once I got onto changing my habits I really don't think it made any difference what so ever. My sister however used it a huge excuse to not alter her huge calorie intake and got even more obese.

    The one thing I did notice was that high fat foods caused me to feel nauseous and caused a similar experience that gastric band patients call 'dumping syndrome'.

    Wish you all the best.
  • acruelscholar
    acruelscholar Posts: 17
    No I'm sorry... but you just made me put off surgery for MY gallbladder! Seriously... I'm totally not doing it until I lose this weight first. You're not the first person that has said it is more difficult to lose weight after this surgery.

    I wish you the best... I hope someone has some advice on this.

    Thanks!

    A tiny but of advice though: if it's stones and not something else entirely, can I suggest you don't put off the surgery any longer than you have to? My stones nearly killed me. I got pancreatitus from a blocked bile duct and the infection was so bad, my pancreas literally started eating itself. Besides that, biliary colic (the insane cramps you get after eating when you have stones) is the WORST pain I've ever had. I have a high pain tolerance usually but in the end even I was reduced to a sobbing mess when even the huge dose of morphine wouldn't touch it.

    If you're not suffering with the colic and your stones are small and manageable, then yeah, absolutely delay as long as possible, but if you have the colic at all then imo, it's just not worth the risk of potentially getting sick like I did. Despite the fact that I have troubl losing weight, the removal was the best thing I ever did. I swear I didn't know how sick I felt.

    Best wishes for you too, love!
  • x311Tifa
    x311Tifa Posts: 357 Member
    I am a yo-yo-er so I can't give a definitive answer about it staying off, but as I currently stand, I'm more muscular (and a bit fatter due to the happy times of turning 21) than before my surgery. I'm back at doing hard workouts and living normally with everything. It's slowly coming off, but that's how I'm built anyway. I've never lost weight quickly.

    As post-op for gallbladder (6 months in 2 days), I'm able to lose, albeit slowly. Just keep at it. By the way, how long have you been going at this?
  • DrewMontoya
    DrewMontoya Posts: 77 Member
    Before my gallbladder removal and bowel resection in 06, many, many foods made me physically ill. After I recovered from surgery, I found that I could eat anything without pain. And boy, did I ever.

    So in that regard, yes, it made things *way* more difficult for me since overeating became much easier.
  • bridgie101
    bridgie101 Posts: 817 Member
    You can go into depression after major surgery, a real clinical depression. Do you feel depressed at all?

    I ask because I was depressed after my caesarian and did not know it. And I was eating food without acknowledging it to myself. Just a thought.
  • x311Tifa
    x311Tifa Posts: 357 Member
    No I'm sorry... but you just made me put off surgery for MY gallbladder! Seriously... I'm totally not doing it until I lose this weight first. You're not the first person that has said it is more difficult to lose weight after this surgery.

    I wish you the best... I hope someone has some advice on this.

    Thanks!

    A tiny but of advice though: if it's stones and not something else entirely, can I suggest you don't put off the surgery any longer than you have to? My stones nearly killed me. I got pancreatitus from a blocked bile duct and the infection was so bad, my pancreas literally started eating itself. Besides that, biliary colic (the insane cramps you get after eating when you have stones) is the WORST pain I've ever had. I have a high pain tolerance usually but in the end even I was reduced to a sobbing mess when even the huge dose of morphine wouldn't touch it.

    If you're not suffering with the colic and your stones are small and manageable, then yeah, absolutely delay as long as possible, but if you have the colic at all then imo, it's just not worth the risk of potentially getting sick like I did. Despite the fact that I have troubl losing weight, the removal was the best thing I ever did. I swear I didn't know how sick I felt.

    Best wishes for you too, love!

    I SO understand! No one believed me for NINE years that something was wrong. Ever so often I'd have a flare up and be stuck in bed and hurling all day. No one took the time to think it was medical; they all thought it was in my head. I've never felt pain like that before (short of waking up from surgery and having the nurse be a total b*tch to me). Luckily, the ER I went to thought to actually do an ultrasound and 12 days later, I was in surgery. Gall stones are the absolute worst. My surgery said my gallbladder was like a sandbag, there were hundreds of them. He also said I was internally hemorrhaging. FANTASTIC, right?

    GET IT OUT OF YOU IF YOU CAN! ASAP!
  • acruelscholar
    acruelscholar Posts: 17
    I am a yo-yo-er so I can't give a definitive answer about it staying off, but as I currently stand, I'm more muscular (and a bit fatter due to the happy times of turning 21) than before my surgery. I'm back at doing hard workouts and living normally with everything. It's slowly coming off, but that's how I'm built anyway. I've never lost weight quickly.

    As post-op for gallbladder (6 months in 2 days), I'm able to lose, albeit slowly. Just keep at it. By the way, how long have you been going at this?

    How long? In total about 22 years. (Dad put me on my first diet at 10...Yeah...I know.) But this time around I've been serious about it for about it since March so whats that, nearly 7 months? I'm a losing an average of half a pound a week. it's just so painfully slow. It's kind of heartbreaking when I'm so heavy and I'm really trying so hard.

    But we persevere! :)
  • acruelscholar
    acruelscholar Posts: 17
    You can go into depression after major surgery, a real clinical depression. Do you feel depressed at all?

    I ask because I was depressed after my caesarian and did not know it. And I was eating food without acknowledging it to myself. Just a thought.

    Not especially. I'm more frustrated than anything. Putting in effort and not getting anything out of it. It's just annoying.
  • acruelscholar
    acruelscholar Posts: 17
    Before my gallbladder removal and bowel resection in 06, many, many foods made me physically ill. After I recovered from surgery, I found that I could eat anything without pain. And boy, did I ever.

    So in that regard, yes, it made things *way* more difficult for me since overeating became much easier.

    LOL - YES. I've had to be SO strict with myself after I realised I could eat things again without insane pain levels. I went off the rails for about 3 months just from the novelty of it.
  • LumpySpacePrincess1
    LumpySpacePrincess1 Posts: 388 Member
    1/2 lbs is not bad at all. Your body is just losing the weight gradually because that's what a body does when you're not starving or stuffing it.
    What's your calorie deficit? Both from food and exercise.
    At that chick who wants to put off surgery....please don't be insane. While anything that could potentially slow down weight loss sucks, do you know what sucks more? Serious internal damage.
    Get the surgery.
  • Spreyton22K
    Spreyton22K Posts: 323 Member
    Dear Scholar,

    Your question got me to looking up info on the 'interweb'......as per usual scientifically there seems to be no evidence to say that no gall bladder equals no or slowed down weightloss. That said, apparently I don't exist either with having continued problems with upset tummy and how needing to watch my intake of fat.

    I had mine removed about 20 years ago.......and my changes have really only been in the last few years.

    Sometimes I think that medicine has a certain expectation/outcome.....almost a 'one size fits all' mentality which can be really hard to explain and cope with when your experience doesn't fit the norm.

    I really feel your frustration and concern.....could there be another problem occurring that may be hindering your progress. For me I tried and tried to shift the weight but till I discovered I was gluten sensitive it was a terrible slow uphill battle.
  • Mario_Az
    Mario_Az Posts: 1,331 Member
    having your gallbladder removed will not hinder your weight loss, what will is being in a calorie surplus i have had mine removed for over 5 years and have had no issues losing weight. the reality is that you have to work very intense in they gym and be in a calorie deficit and i promise you will see results, remember it takes blood sweat and years this is a marathon not a sprint just keep at it and when you feel like giving up keep going to many people quit to soon and that is the time when the results are just about to show.


    good luck

    ps you have to make this a way of life and not a diet

    TRAIN INSANE or Remain the Same
  • acruelscholar
    acruelscholar Posts: 17
    Dear Scholar,

    Your question got me to looking up info on the 'interweb'......as per usual scientifically there seems to be no evidence to say that no gall bladder equals no or slowed down weightloss. That said, apparently I don't exist either with having continued problems with upset tummy and how needing to watch my intake of fat.

    I had mine removed about 20 years ago.......and my changes have really only been in the last few years.

    Sometimes I think that medicine has a certain expectation/outcome.....almost a 'one size fits all' mentality which can be really hard to explain and cope with when your experience doesn't fit the norm.

    I really feel your frustration and concern.....could there be another problem occurring that may be hindering your progress. For me I tried and tried to shift the weight but till I discovered I was gluten sensitive it was a terrible slow uphill battle.

    I am having the same issues as you. I've always been gluten sensitive and theres a history of IBS and all sorts of tummy trouble in the family, so genetically speaking I'm always fighting an uphill battle. It's just that since the surgery I've struggled so much more.

    And I think you're right about medicine. There are so many norms that we're supposed to fit but it's like if you fall outside those norms, you baffle them. Makes it hard to have a lot of faith in their solutions sometimes.
  • acruelscholar
    acruelscholar Posts: 17
    having your gallbladder removed will not hinder your weight loss, what will is being in a calorie surplus i have had mine removed for over 5 years and have had no issues losing weight. the reality is that you have to work very intense in they gym and be in a calorie deficit and i promise you will see results, remember it takes blood sweat and years this is a marathon not a sprint just keep at it and when you feel like giving up keep going to many people quit to soon and that is the time when the results are just about to show.


    good luck

    ps you have to make this a way of life and not a diet

    TRAIN INSANE or Remain the Same

    I do agree with you that healthy eating and exercise is a way of life and not a diet. It's taken me a VERY long time to get my head around these things and address some of the issues I have with food and eating. I'm getting there but I have to ask: "Train insane"? I have two disintegrating hips but I try very hard to do as much as I can, exercise wise. I get up at 5.30 to get my exercise in (30-40 mins on the bike or the same length of time walking, some yoga for flexibility and light weights (after 20 years of abusing my body I'm having to build up slowly.)) and on top of that I work 12-14 hour days. "Training insanely" is not a possibility for me. The gym, for myriad reasons, is not a possibility for some people so your advice to work very intense at the gym doesn't always apply.

    There are no one-size-fits-all solutions and there ARE other ways of losing weight without becoming a permanent resident of a gym. I'm glad your way works for you, but it won't for me, unless you're hiding new hips for me somewhere? :P
  • MickeyBoo
    MickeyBoo Posts: 196 Member
    No weight loss problems here, I had mine out, the stones had blocked my liver so that started shutting down too, I was in hospital for three weeks and came home with an external drain for a month, it was not pleasant, but a very uncommon result to experience, for most people it's straightforward keyhole surgery.

    I was sill able to lose 50kg (110pd) and if anything it helped my clean up my diet because the worse I ate the worse the stones got too so I was already starting to change my dietary habits.
  • pittsblue99
    pittsblue99 Posts: 277 Member
    I had mine out in November of last year and I have had such a hard time with weight loss since then. My diet was not awful to begin with before I had it out and it is not that much different now but it just seems that no matter what I do, I cannot seem to drop any weight.
  • acruelscholar
    acruelscholar Posts: 17
    1/2 lbs is not bad at all. Your body is just losing the weight gradually because that's what a body does when you're not starving or stuffing it.
    What's your calorie deficit? Both from food and exercise.

    Honestly if I was 12 stone and just trying to get a couple of stone off, I would agree that 1/2 lbs are great. But at my weight I feel like it should be coming off a little more quickly.

    My combined deficit using the roadmap spreadsheet is:

    TDEE: 2507
    TDEG: 1756 (Revised today for new weight)
    Deficit: 752 per day based on 30% deficit

    According to the spreadsheet I should be losing 1.5lbs a week based on those numbers. I'm just not.
  • acruelscholar
    acruelscholar Posts: 17
    I had mine out in November of last year and I have had such a hard time with weight loss since then. My diet was not awful to begin with before I had it out and it is not that much different now but it just seems that no matter what I do, I cannot seem to drop any weight.

    Yes exactly! I actually have a MUCH better diet these days than I did before/directly after the surgery and it's still so painfully slow going. It's frustrating as hell, to be honest.
  • acruelscholar
    acruelscholar Posts: 17
    No weight loss problems here, I had mine out, the stones had blocked my liver so that started shutting down too, I was in hospital for three weeks and came home with an external drain for a month, it was not pleasant, but a very uncommon result to experience, for most people it's straightforward keyhole surgery.

    I was sill able to lose 50kg (110pd) and if anything it helped my clean up my diet because the worse I ate the worse the stones got too so I was already starting to change my dietary habits.

    I had pancreatitus from mine so I can totally relate to that.

    I have changed my diet too. it's SO much better than it was and I am really trying to be educated about what i'm putting in my body but I still can't seem to shift the weight at a decent rate. I'm grateful to be losing anything at all but honestly it's just super frustrating.
  • jimshine
    jimshine Posts: 199 Member
    Had mine out about 13 years ago. My side effect was bad acid reflux. For years it was triggered by unpredictable foods. But as time went on it happened almost everyday. By February this year I would go through a bottle of pills every two weeks or so. Once I started this diet 6 months ago, I had not one instance of acid reflux.
  • helenjon752
    helenjon752 Posts: 55 Member
    To the poster who needs an operation.
    Please dont delay your gall baldder surgery . My doctor at the time did not believe me when I described my symptoms and dreadful pain because I did not " fit the profile " for gall bladder trouble.
    I could hardly eat at all and weighed about 95 lbs at the time of my surgery. I could have died if I had not insisted on a scan.
    Because my gall bladder was in such a terrible state I could not have key hole surgery and had to have an incision from sternum to belly button with rib retraction.
    Now more than 20 years later I still have rib pain from time to time.
    You may be able to eat more fatty foods after the surgery but I dont think the removal of the gall bladder will in itself cause you to gain weight or make losing it harder IMO
  • Bluizflame
    Bluizflame Posts: 151 Member
    My fiance got his gallbladder removed about 2 years ago. He lost ALL the weight he needed to and them some WAY b4 I did, i'm only 3/4 of the way there :-/ I think it all comes down to how bad do you want it!
  • FixIngMe13
    FixIngMe13 Posts: 405 Member
    To the poster who needs an operation.
    Please dont delay your gall baldder surgery . My doctor at the time did not believe me when I described my symptoms and dreadful pain because I did not " fit the profile " for gall bladder trouble.
    I could hardly eat at all and weighed about 95 lbs at the time of my surgery. I could have died if I had not insisted on a scan.
    Because my gall bladder was in such a terrible state I could not have key hole surgery and had to have an incision from sternum to belly button with rib retraction.
    Now more than 20 years later I still have rib pain from time to time.
    You may be able to eat more fatty foods after the surgery but I dont think the removal of the gall bladder will in itself cause you to gain weight or make losing it harder IMO

    I know I'm gonna have to just suck it up and get it out. I'm on prilosec 40mg a day and I still get nauseated and horrible pain. Plus I've been taking zofran for nausea when it gets really intense. I'm not really eating much anymore, because everything upsets it. I'm just gonna call and get it done. :/ I'm just afraid It will hinder my weight loss, and that has been so important.
  • ironmaidenchick
    ironmaidenchick Posts: 213 Member
    It's been the opposite for me, the weight is just falling off, but I think it is different for everyone, I have had to change my diet drastically, I had mine removed 4 months ago and have had on going issues ever since, im not complaining about the weight loss but would rather do it in a healthier way, if you have any questions feel free to pm me
  • tmaree2
    tmaree2 Posts: 38 Member
    Had mine out about 13 years ago. My side effect was bad acid reflux. For years it was triggered by unpredictable foods. But as time went on it happened almost everyday. By February this year I would go through a bottle of pills every two weeks or so. Once I started this diet 6 months ago, I had not one instance of acid reflux.


    I had mine out almost 30 years ago at the age of 16. I don't remember having any trouble staying thin in my younger years. only really got fat about 10 years ago. I too suffered bad reflux for many years now but I have had very minimal since I changed my diet and lost this 20kg in 5 months.

    I think you just have to keep altering and experimenting with your calorie daily goal to find what works for you...a table or formula is not always right, only your body knows how it wants to work as their is so many variables as to how you store your cals and how you burn them.
  • ScarletShopaholic
    ScarletShopaholic Posts: 169 Member
    It sounds very much like everybody is different and your body will behave how it wants to behave no matter what you do. Some people lose faster than others even if they eat the same food and do the same exercise. As long as you are doing the right things it can only be a good thing, the weight will move, just unfortunately quite slowly. Good luck :smile:
  • Chadomaniac
    Chadomaniac Posts: 1,785 Member
    My Mother got her gall bladder removed

    she weighs around 110 pounds

    Nice try
  • wsocie
    wsocie Posts: 1 Member
    I had my gallbladder out in 2006. In 2012 I started my weight loss journey. I lost 60 lbs in 10 months. It did not affect my weight loss whatsoever! I stuck to 1200 calories a day and exercised almost everyday. I was informed that your gallbladder actually helps to break down fats in your system. So it should actually have a reverse affect. You cant break down the fat so it just runs right through you without being absorbed. I have definitely had issues since having mine removed. Mostly with the things "running right through me" part of what I said, but not with the weight loss!
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