Christmas Weight Gain (Not)

Hello readers!

Have you ever heard that expression about gaining 10 lbs at Christmas? That never happens to me. I eat the turkey and the goodies and the potatoes, etc, etc. But I don't gain the weight. At 257 lbs I'm really stuck! It takes a large change in eating habits to make me gain weight and a monumental change in type and amount of food to facilitate weight loss. The last time I gained 10 lbs was when we went off on vacation and ate a huge breakfast every morning. And as soon as I got back it just dropped off when I got back to eating a smaller breakfast. Odd.

I have noticed though that without gaining any weight I am seeing a definate shift in WHERE the weight is on my body. In reading "Releasing Fat" (see article below) I've found out that pre-diabetic indicators are seen in people with a condition called Metabolic Syndrome. All symptoms match my current condition and WLS is the only known "cure" (even diet and exercise don't make enough of a difference in fat stores to cure the condition). So I'm still on track for surgery. But the book explains that once your 'all-over' fat starts to shift to 'belly fat' you're in real trouble. Evidently fat cells that are 'all-over' can multiply (white fat?) and the belly cells just get fuller and fuller (brown fat?). As they get fuller and fuller the surface area gets larger and larger without seeing an increase in insulin receptors on that surface. So just like a soccer ball in a backyard is easy to find, but a soccer ball in the middle of 4 fields is harder to find, the insulin has a harder time getting into and talking to the receptors on these large fat cells. This makes for poor control over the cells and further increase in fat storage as insulin cannot get the message across to release the fat later. I will have to post more about this later, but at this point let's just leave it with this: What an alarming thing to see happening to oneself!

The more I research about the surgery and obesity and metabolic syndrome the more eager I am to speak to a surgeon about WLS as a permanent foundation for change in my life.