Still losing weight...Why?

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MrXeno
MrXeno Posts: 9 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
The past few weeks I have gone into maintenance mode. I slowly upped my calories from 1400 to about 1600-1700. The reason was that I did not want to lose more weight (obviously) but also because I would have surgery on the 25th of september and would need my body to be as strong as possible. After surgery I would not be able to exercise (I did cardio about 5 times a week as well as some moderate strength training) for six weeks, so decided that eating at maintenance would do.

Now, almost two weeks after surgery, I'm down 1.5 kilos. This has put me into the underweight category. Naturally, this was not planned and unexpected. I figured that maybe my scale was acting up and even replaced the batteries, but no such luck. I seem to have lost 1.5 kilos in two weeks. How is this even possible? I eat on average 1600 to 1700 calories a day, and I'm sedentary. For a 153cm male (I think that's 5 feet..inches...bananas in American units?) that seems more than enough. Before my surgery I did a lot of sports and ate less and I would not even come close to losing that much weight.

What could possibly cause this weight loss? I don't feel sick or anything. The surgery was not anything stomach or bowel related. I do have to add that I had an infection 3-4 days after surgery that gave me a fever. It did not cause me to eat less (my appetite can not be killed). The infection is under control with antibiotics now. And no, the antibiotics have not given me the runs, so that can't be it either and I'm drinking a lot of water.

I'm a bit puzzled by this and maybe these boards are not the place to ask and I should see my doctor, but maybe someone here has experienced the same? Perhaps infections zap your body's energy?

Replies

  • KarenJanine
    KarenJanine Posts: 3,497 Member
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    You're eating at a calorie deficit.
  • StaciMarie1974
    StaciMarie1974 Posts: 4,138 Member
    edited October 2014
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    I believe the body burns energy to heal/recover from an injury or surgery. Its been a while, but I was in the hospital for 3 weeks after a car accident once upon a time. Broke both my legs. The last 2 weeks included a couple hours a day of physical therapy, but limited physical activity. I lost almost 30 pounds while I was in the hospital. I could not possibly have burnt 5000 calories a day, let alone had a 5000/day deficit!
  • RSEC75
    RSEC75 Posts: 45 Member
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    I've read in the past that metabolism can sometimes speed up after surgery. Don't know if this is right or not, but I would guess the healing process requires some more calories.
  • MrXeno
    MrXeno Posts: 9 Member
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    Thank you all for replying. Much appreciated :)
    Perhaps it is true that healing speeds up metabolism. Having a fever does the same, as the body temperature has to be kept up, I would assume. The fasting before surgery wasn't too bad as the surgery was in the morning and I just had to skip breakfast, which wasn't an issue. I also went straight to a huge hospital dinner after surgery, no liquids. My appetite wasn't influenced by the surgery at all.
    My current weight is about 42.5 kg. 1600 to 1700 calories should be plenty because I'm very inactive as I heal. My weight has been going down for 5 days now. I'm definitely upping my calories to try and put a stop to it.
  • wkwebby
    wkwebby Posts: 807 Member
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    Your muscles don't need to retain as much water either from working out.
  • Christine_72
    Christine_72 Posts: 16,049 Member
    edited October 2014
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    42.5 kgs that's anorexic!!
  • karenj_m
    karenj_m Posts: 215
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    he's only 5 foot, so 95-127 pounds is his range. To maintain you're looking at around 1550, to gain around 1800+ calories per day. You'll have to try upping another 50-100 to see if it will stabilize then. Those numbers aren't in stone, everyone's body is different.

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