Hi,  I am 24 days today post op.  I admit I need to lose 20 pounds, but I have been so hungrey lately.  I am anxious to start an exercise and diet regieme.  (I know the exercise has to wait)  I think I am now over eating and I don't know if it is because I am bored or that my body with the healing process is using alot of calories.  Just trying to navigate around in my ever day life I know I am using up alot of energy and perhaps that is the reason why I am so hungrey?  How have others handled this surge in appetite?  I know I should stay to a balanced diet, but when can a person start cutting back their calorie intake so one can start to lose weight.  I realize some of you do not have a weight problem, but I would love to hear from those of you who do.  Thank you for your replies and I hope everyone is recovering well.  Pam   

Dear Pamela,

3 months LBHR post op here- and very pleased to state that I am walking 3 1/2 to 4 miles a day.  I have a broken collarbone (been broken for 6 months) that is really holding me back from getting into the kind of exercise I want (mainly yoga) but I am happy to walk!  But, like you, the anxiety over eating/weight gain is always a mental force to be reckoned with. 

I gained about 15-20 lbs in the year leading up to my hip resurfacing.  I was mad and stressed and anxious and upset and I stuffed food in my face because admittedly, that is how I handle those emotions.  I have a history of eating disorders that goes back decades... years of therapy to learn to cope with it- and to stop hurting and hating my body and to no longer let my judgement of my weight be the measure I use to weigh my self worth.

If I learned anything from this whole hip experience- it is how important it is to love my body- to work with my body not against it.  I have long considered my body to be the enemy- the only time I liked it was when I was on the losing side of the weight game- and then I was constantly on watch to see when my body would betray me and start once again to gain.  Losing the ability to walk- being in such pain- having to get this surgery and recover from it- I finally get it- I need to partner with my body, work with it- not fight against it- if I want to survive.  And that includes being loving to myself if I am not as thin as my brain might want me to be...

You have been thru a huge event with this surgery and all the emotions and pain, etc., leading up to it.  If your body is telling you it is hungry right now, I would feed it-- as healthy as you can. When I got discharged from the hospital I was told "this is not the time to start a diet."  Your body is on overdrive right now healing from a very major surgery- and it needs fuel to do that.

Take this opportunity to send the message to both your body and your brain that you come first- not the scale and not the judgements that dictate what is the "right" body to have. In a few weeks you will be up and running again- literally- and then you can start thinking about smart, fun, healthy exercise that will allow your body to find its natural weight.

I hope you can find the love inside right now to nourish your body with whatever it needs to  heal- be it food, forgiveness or just good old acceptance!  Each day I set out to walk my way to a slimmer me, taking each day as it comes, and loving every inch of my body as I go.  I may never get back to a body I had in the past- and I am finally ok with that.  I am just sad that it took decades of hating myself- of having to go thru the pain of this hip stuff- to finally find the love.  I can't believe it when I say it, and I say it often, this whole experience, the pain- the surgery- may well have been the most instrumental life lesson I have ever had in self love.  xo

Wow!!!  What an awesome, awesome post.   I have read your post several times and you are so right.  Thank you, thank you, thank you. You have made my day and I really do appreciate your insight.   I also want to be able to be able to yoga too.  Take care, pam

Yoga rocks- get started as soon as you can- be it a class a video or a book... it will give you a healthy body mind and soul!  xo lyn

Hi Pam,

I recommend waiting until 1 year post-op to start dieting.  You need to concentrate on rehabbing your hip and you don't need the additional stress of dieting (both physical and mental).  After one year, you don't think about your new hip if everything is working well and you can start dieting.  I am about 13 months post-op and about 20 pounds overweight.  I was overweight before surgery and have maintained the same weight, even though I gained muscle in my previously atrophied left leg after hip surgery.  I am now watching my diet and exercising regularly.  If I can lose 10 to 20 pounds, I may eliminate a daily blood pressure pill.

Oh yeah, get that blood pressure down.  I am lucky that I don't have that problem, but still I realize that losing 20 pounds will help my new hip.  Your right though, I have enough to think about right now, mainly, my new hip.  I'll take the adivse.  I worry about it once I can safely get into a new exercise regieme.  Thanks for the input.  Pam 

Great post Ladler!