Safe Diet and Exercise Tips for Ileostomy Patients

Can any of you folks give me ideas of a safe diet to go on with having an ileostomy?  I need to lose about 15 to 20 lbs. I have been cautious about dieting as I was worried I would mess something up. I've had my ileostomy since February 2018. I am able to eat salad and most vegtables now and most other foods. I usually eat a bagle and coffee for breakfast, sometimes a sandwich for lunch but sometimes no lunch.  I do eat dinner most nights but nothing fancy. It is usually soup and salad or spagetti or other pasta. Sometimes I have a small steak and salad. I am not near a gym but if I was I would swim.  I would like to lose around my mid section which is where the weight all seemed to settle. I don't want to hurt my stomach or get a hernia but would like to know if there is any safe exercises that could help me to lose around my belly area. I have issues with my balance after a client beat me in the head so sometimes walking long distances can be a challange but not always.  There are some days I do ok walking for long periods.  The last time I walked for a fair amout of time, I fell and broke my foot. When I was beaten, I received a closed head injury and sometimes my brain doesn't recognize that I am on an uneaven surfaces sometimes.  So I could use a few suggestions if you can share them.  Thanks everyone!

I have that issue as well now. I was very thin with a tight tummy before my surgery, but after having so many surgeries, then the hernia created to hold my ileostomy in place, and then lifting 30 lb water bottles and creating another hernia on the opposite side, then finding out that... wow, I can eat and not live on a toilet... I began enjoying food. Although recently I'm losing the unwanted lbs now, walking 5 miles a day, doing gentle leg lifts, riding my bike, the biggest thing that's helping me is no more carbs (except for my sleeve of salted Ritz crackers) and no more sugar. I know the pasta slides down and out easily, but it's the sauce and cheese that help us grow. I saw my Ostomy surgeon last week and asked him, "What happened to my flat tight tummy? How can we fix this?" He responded, "Outside of cutting you again, which trust me you don't want your 13th abdominal surgery, just suck it up, live with it and be thankful you're alive and thriving." So with that said, the summer is here, I will swim daily to help strengthen my core and be thankful you're alive. When a man recently saw my tummy, as scared and ugly as it has become, he said, "May I touch it? Just more to hold." So be you, enjoy that you're not ill anymore, and like who you are. We all age and are not perfect. I'm sure my answer wasn't what you were hoping for, but there's something true in it. Just be you and like who you are and what you look like. It's the inside to out that should be liked, not stressed about. Stay positive.

Ritz... PS... I eat a 1/2 banana in the AM, at 2 I have a few crackers with a small bowl of lettuce and some protein in it, and I don't typically eat after 6 PM... a normal dinner with chicken or beef or fish with soft cooked fresh veggies and a plain potato or the rest of my crackers. They tell me 6 tiny meals, but I cannot break the habit of a dinner. I lose all I consume within an hour and drink my fluids with added electrolytes always... all day long.

Hi, FreeDancer~

Thank you for asking this question; I've pondered it myself, actually. And, Ritz, thank you for your reply and sharing your experiences on this topic!

One of my first thoughts (after, "I can relate to that extra-weight-around-the-middle issue!") was, "Make an appointment with a dietician." I did that not long after I had my ileostomy as I was hyper-concerned about my dietary options after dealing with Ulcerative Colitis for nine years. I'm uncertain if others with U.C. experienced this, but because of how my colon negatively reacted to many foods, I had conditioned myself about food and was afraid of eating again after my surgeries.

I had lost a lot of weight pre-surgery due to the U.C., but made up for it (and then some!) as I became more comfortable with the idea of eating a greater variety of foods - and greater amounts of them!

There is a lot of science and wisdom about "dieting", and also a lot of hype, misinformation, and fads. And, that's why a dietician and/or nutritionist is probably your best resource, as each individual has different dietary needs, food sensitivities, and/or health concerns which should be taken into account.

Some people can eat more carbs than others with no ill effect, while some bodies process those carbs into unhealthy fat gain. Common wisdom is that breakfast should be eaten each day to fuel the body, and that skipping meals may induce a "starvation mode", where the body retains fat, making it more difficult to burn off, no matter the activity. Amongst all this and more are theories and science-backed dietary strategies involving percentages of protein vs. fat vs. carbohydrate intake.

I often see "less consumption, more activity" as part of the "wisdom" of dieting/weight reduction: if we take in fewer calories, and increase our activity, we can burn off more calories that contribute to unhealthy weight gain, and possibly gain muscle tissue which burns more energy than fat. I'm sorry to hear of the chronic balance issues brought on by your head injury, but glad to know that you are keeping your capabilities in mind. There must be some ways for you to do aerobic exercise and/or strength training while staying safe from injuries. Perhaps a physical therapist would have effective suggestions on activities for you.

Exercising is a topic I've seen brought up on this site, especially that of core strength with considerations to our surgery-created hernias. There are quite a few core strength exercise regimens to be found on the Internet which address our particular concerns, and I think I should be searching for them, myself. ;) Have you considered a recumbent bicycle to safely(?) increase your activity and burn off calories?

I look forward to reading others' replies to your post, FreeDancer. Be well!

Lily17~