Melanie,

Bless your heart, I dress comfortably too, but surely do understand wanting to look nice for people you don't often see. I would have been mortified. I hope you remembered that your friends came to see you because of you, not what you look like. This is easy to say, but I don't think it would be easy for me to feel. Seems we are quite similar in that...lol.

"I dont lose weight very fast on induction so what would happen if I started eating more?"

Believe it or not, eating too little can cause a weight loss stall. Your body can, and will go into starvation mode if it feels you are not going to eat enough. I have GAINED weight on a 500 cal diet!!! In fact, I think I gained most of my current extra weight on what would be considered by most to be a LOW CAL diet [800-1200 cal] I have lost every pound that I have [not that it's a huge amount] by increasing my food intake! My sister lost 135 pounds simply by starting to eat 3 meals a day [rather than the one meal she was used to] and INCREASING her cal count by 200%. It took her 1 & 1/2 years to do it. And since she is a parapalegic [has been since 16] I can safely say that it had VERY little to do with exersize.

Most Doctors scoff at this fact, despite the documented proof. I don't understand why they would, they freely acknowledge that if you don't drink enough water your body will store all it can, but fat...there is just no explaining how they think sometimes.

If either of you have a question about this please send me a private message and I'll be happy to provide more details.

Thank God your mother had to change Doctors. Imagine a Doctor this day and age not insisting that your mother have a mamogram before she was 40, much less 63. I agree with you that you can't fool around with these things and have my own cancer history to remind me to take care of myself.

FYI my Doctor told me flat out that my fat had very likely contributed to my cancer, it seems that fat acts as a producer of extra estrogin, and too much estrogin can cause "female" cancers.

So you see, we need to be even more careful than most.

Sorry to end on such a bummer, but remember, we are doing something about it. This is the best thing we can do, not only for ourselves but our loved ones as well.

Later,
Renee'