I found this site while searching for abdominal bloating after gallbladder removal, and reading all the various comments has been very interesting. I thought I'd share my experience. I'm in my early '60s, and my gallbladder was removed 9 years ago. My weight then was about what it is now--upper 140s on a 5'6 frame. After my gallbladder was removed, I had difficulty eating much fat, but I didn't gain weight. In fact, my weight stayed about the same for quite a few years. Then, several years ago, I decided to cut out almost all fat from my diet because of a heart problem scare. I doubt I had more than 10 grams of fat per day, seriously. Needless to say, this quite drastically changed the way I ate--I'd always been a big dessert/sweets fan, though a vegetarian for most of my life, and that's probably what helped cause my gallbladder problems to begin with. In any case, after I cut the fat out of my diet, I lost a LOT of weight fairly steadily. Soon I was down in the mid-120s. I was happy about the loss but, frankly, a bit concerned. Nothing ended up being wrong with me, though, so I just figured the loss was permanent. One thing I did notice on this ultra-low fat diet was that when I had any amount of fat, I would get cramps. That made me watch everything I ate even more carefully, because it wasn't fun. So, I stayed at that low weight for at least a year, probably closer to two. Then gradually, I started introducing more fat--a cookie here, a candy bar there. Soon my weight began creeping up. What was weird was that the cramping from fats had stopped...and what was even weirder was that my abdominal fat started increasing. This was NOT an area I'd accumulated fat in the past, and this "fat" didn't feel like anything I'd experienced before. As others have described, it looked (and still does) like I was pregnant, and it was hard, like a balloon. Now I'm back in the upper 140s and stuck with this "pregnant" belly. None of my pants fit--even ones that fit when I was at this same weight years ago. It's the distended abdomen. So now I've decided to drastically reduce my fat intake again. My theory is that after my body somehow became able to easily digest the fat without cramping, something was happening somewhere--maybe it was being stored in my abdomen. Anyway, we'll see what happens--I've only been cutting back for the past two days, so it's too early to tell. I did have an ultrasound of my abdomen, but nothing showed up. If cutting back on the fat doesn't cause me to lose weight (and the paunch), I'll probably have a CT scan. The problem is, abdominal bloating can be a sign of even more serious conditions, such as ovarian cancer, so it's important to get things checked out. Also, I read some of the comments about doctors, and I have to say that the two I had were very good--one had even had had his own gallbladder removed years before, and the other had a mother who almost died from gallstones in her late '80s and had to have emergency surgery. I'm sure there are bad doctors out there, but I just wanted to put in a word for the ones who are good. Thanks to everyone for all the comments.
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I found this site while searching for abdominal bloating after gallbladder removal, and reading all the various comments has been very interesting. I thought I'd share my experience. I'm in my early '60s, and my gallbladder was removed 9 years ago. My weight then was about what it is now--upper 140s on a 5'6 frame. After my gallbladder was removed, I had difficulty eating much fat, but I didn't gain weight. In fact, my weight stayed about the same for quite a few years. Then, several years ago, I decided to cut out almost all fat from my diet because of a heart problem scare. I doubt I had more than 10 grams of fat per day, seriously. Needless to say, this quite drastically changed the way I ate--I'd always been a big dessert/sweets fan, though a vegetarian for most of my life, and that's probably what helped cause my gallbladder problems to begin with. In any case, after I cut the fat out of my diet, I lost a LOT of weight fairly steadily. Soon I was down in the mid-120s. I was happy about the loss but, frankly, a bit concerned. Nothing ended up being wrong with me, though, so I just figured the loss was permanent. One thing I did notice on this ultra-low fat diet was that when I had any amount of fat, I would get cramps. That made me watch everything I ate even more carefully, because it wasn't fun. So, I stayed at that low weight for at least a year, probably closer to two. Then gradually, I started introducing more fat--a cookie here, a candy bar there. Soon my weight began creeping up. What was weird was that the cramping from fats had stopped...and what was even weirder was that my abdominal fat started increasing. This was NOT an area I'd accumulated fat in the past, and this "fat" didn't feel like anything I'd experienced before. As others have described, it looked (and still does) like I was pregnant, and it was hard, like a balloon. Now I'm back in the upper 140s and stuck with this "pregnant" belly. None of my pants fit--even ones that fit when I was at this same weight years ago. It's the distended abdomen. So now I've decided to drastically reduce my fat intake again. My theory is that after my body somehow became able to easily digest the fat without cramping, something was happening somewhere--maybe it was being stored in my abdomen. Anyway, we'll see what happens--I've only been cutting back for the past two days, so it's too early to tell. I did have an ultrasound of my abdomen, but nothing showed up. If cutting back on the fat doesn't cause me to lose weight (and the paunch), I'll probably have a CT scan. The problem is, abdominal bloating can be a sign of even more serious conditions, such as ovarian cancer, so it's important to get things checked out. Also, I read some of the comments about doctors, and I have to say that the two I had were very good--one had even had had his own gallbladder removed years before, and the other had a mother who almost died from gallstones in her late '80s and had to have emergency surgery. I'm sure there are bad doctors out there, but I just wanted to put in a word for the ones who are good. Thanks to everyone for all the comments.
May 29, 2016 - 8:26pmThis Comment
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