[joker_girl]

So, I had my knee replaced (it was in bad shape) and then I started bleeding internally and they had to go back in and drain it, I lost a good amount of blood.

It has been a couple weeks, and still I seem like I am retaining water, my rings are tight, and I have some swelling in my leg, not bad, like it was, though. They said once I am up and moving around more it will go away. And I am starting to get around better, I am consistent with PT and my exercises, I now can use a cane rather than a walker, and hope to be back to work in another six weeks or so.

The first few days home I had no appetite and didn't eat, living pretty much on milk. Then, suddenly, I became quite hungry, and my appetite became pretty large for me, anyways. Probably consuming 2500-3000 calories per day, My husband was happy to oblige, preparing any food I wanted, and felt it meant I was healing. I mean, I ate everything....grapes, salad, root beer floats, chicken, hamburgers, whatever.

I am getting fat because I don't do much other than my exercises and PT and decided I need to reduce my food and shrink my stomach. I've cut my calories back a lot. Losing weight will help my knee.

Today I have eaten a granola bar but nothing else, around ten am, and it is now after 7 pm, I am very hungry. I have been all day of course but it comes and goes as hunger normally does for me, and I generally just ignore it and try to not think about it. I used to sometimes go days without eating. Or I would only eat a certain number of calories.

I do not get how I can be gaining weight at all. It should not be possible.

I'm tired of being hungry all the time but I just keep getting fatter.

[eskielover]

I know after I had knee reconstruction (not replacement) before arthroscopic surgery was used, the PT I went through even while I was still on crutches & not able to walk.....took more calories & was harder on me than any normal work out possible....so maybe your PT is using up most of the calories which might be why your body is wanting the food?.....just a thought

[joker_girl]

Thanks. Maybe it is more of a workout than I realize, I know I am definitely sweating when it is done, and I do the exercises on my own a couple of times a day even on my off days.

I am going to try to not get too crazy, because I can tell if I eat too much, the next day I am hungrier. But I am going to try to eat at least when I am noticeably hungry.

I've had a history since high school of periods of not eating. I think I've trashed my metabolism to the point I can get by on relatively small amounts of food without becoming thin. In high school, I got kind of chunky for a while, and then lost probably thirty to forty pounds over a period of several months of extreme dieting. I would invent weird diets like "the lettuce diet" or "the candy bar diet" (you eat one candy bar each day, but no other food).

For some reason I took pride in being able to eat less than anyone else, and disguised my weight loss by wearing a lot of clothes. I remember I had some weight loss goal I wanted to meet but had been unable when I was about sixteen, and got pneumonia and was hospitalized. I remember when I got out of the hospital I was actually below my goal weight, and I was so happy. How weird is that.

I have had eating "issues" from way back, but I don't think I ever stepped over into a real "disorder", because at some point, I started eating again and gained weight. But I danced around the edges of it.

I am curvy and even overweight right now, but I go back and forth. During periods of depression it gets bad. I will start off missing a meal now and then, and then missing all the meals, and eventually it will be kind of a game, to see how long I can go without. It is a battle of my mind and will against my hunger. I cannot explain it. It is weird. I don't understand it. When I was young, I hated to get boobs and hips, I don't know why.

I went through a period of using drugs to lose weight. I got very thin but also quite crazy. My teeth and bones I believe suffered from this, though not as bad as some people have.

I believe I have some really weird food attitudes and eating habits, and sometimes I cannot tell when I am needing to eat. I have tried to kind of judge on a scale of 1-10 how hungry I feel, but it is like I am not aware of subtle feelings of being a little hungry. I am either fine and not interested in eating, or starving, like my stomach is eating itself. Sometimes I don't know it until I realize it is growling really bad. I am never, ever full. I don't like to feel full. It feels yucky. I am either okay, or starving, but never full. I do not understand these people who say they are never hungry, and eat all day. I am hungry every day, most of the time, unless I am sick. I usually start to get hungry late in the morning or early in the afternoon, and eat in the late afternoon and early evening. I often wake up from being hungry, but if I sleep on my stomach it is not as much.

Something is wrong that makes me not eat when I feel hunger, but I do not understand people who say they never get hungry. I get hungry every single day. I experience it and am well aware of it. It feels like heartburn, and like a gnawing, empty ache, it comes and goes, but the sight and smell of food brings it back, and if it has been a day or more since I've eaten, sometimes it is like knives stabbing me...so hard to say, "no thanks, I already ate" when I'm actually drooling...

So why do I still do this stupid crap from time to time. I know it doesn't make sense, so how can it hurt and feel so good at the same time?

[H3rmit]

> I know it doesn't make sense, so how can it hurt and feel so good at the same time?

Sometimes habits give us a high just like a drug that feels good but is bad in the long run.

I'm skeptical about starving oneself. The body needs nutrients, especially when rebuilding.

I think it's easy to gain weight when the body is stressed or when there is no intensity to boost the metabolism.

When I'm overly hungry, I like to drink water and eat good nutrients. When food is judged by a standard of nutrients preferred over simple fuel (calories) then I find my body simply works better in many ways. I stress "simple," because the criterion of "Is this nutritious rather than fuel-rich" is a simple one.