Ox bile

[annonymousse]

I'm a 60 yr old woman struggling to lose weight. I've been on a low fat diet for 3 months and not lost an ounce. I had my gall bladder removed a few years ago and recently stumbled on to a thing that says taking ox bile supplements can help with weight loss in my circumstances.

Has anyone had any experience with it? I'm clutching at straws here

From what I've read it doesn't help with losing weight. What it does help with is bile acid malabsorption , either born with or as a result of gallbladder issues. I need to be on a low fat diet years after having my gallbladder removed as I still get the pain etc from higher fat items. This is probably bam but I treat it as IBS

If your gallbladder surgery stopped the pain etc then it sounds like it won't help you in any way.

I think you don't understand what the bile is and what it does.

Bile acts like an emulsifier increasing fat absorption. The bile is produced by the liver and stored in the gallbladder. Bile contains bile salts that emulsify fats in the small intestine. This process breaks large fat globules into smaller droplets, increasing their surface area for enzymes to work on.
The smaller fat droplets hence become more accessible to pancreatic lipase, the enzyme responsible for breaking triglycerides into glycerol and free fatty acids.
These breakdown products are then absorbed by the intestinal cells and reassembled into molecules which enter the lymphatic system and bloodstream.

Now, you had your gallbladder removed and this means your bile is less concentrated. Bile is still produced in the liver but instead of being released when needed, it is released continuously in small amounts directly from the liver into the intestine.

In other words, less bile means less fat absorption. Taking ox bile in your case makes no scientific sense.

It is your diet, what you eat and drink, that is to blame for the lack of weight loss. You are probably eating too many kcal if you are not losing weight. Low fat on its own means nothing if you are eating excess calories.

Thanks for your explanation. The article I read claimed that gall bladder removal can make weight loss difficult. I have dieted successfully in the past and I'm having approximately 1200 cals per day and exercising 4 times a week. Previously on this diet the weight has come off easily. I'm so frustrated and baffled as to why it's not working this time. As I said I'm clutching at straws 😣

How old were you when you dieted before and was it before or after menopause? And what sorts of exercise. I'm 63 and it does get harder as you get older, that's pretty inescapable. One of the factors, I think, is that our muscle mass tends to reduce - I know I need to do something to counteract that myself!

I was younger and true it has been harder since menopause but still successful. The exercise is 2 gym workouts where I usually do 10 miles on the exercise bike and then 20 mins on the rowing machine. I also go circuit training twice a week and walk the dogs daily. I really can't see where I'm going wrong.

Exercise is great for health and has no impact on weight loss.
You might need to change what you eat. 1200 calories of processed foods are very different from 1200 calories of unprocessed foods, even healthy processed foods. As an example , whole almonds and almond meal have the same calories per 100gr but because of the cellular matrix, you don’t absorb 30% of the whole almonds calories but will absorb 100% of the almond meal.
A first step is truly cutting sugar in all forms and shapes, even your homemade jam ( if you make it). When weight loss becomes difficult, cutting sugar helps. Fruit is fine. Then the processed foods even healthy ones. Increase vegetables and pulses.
it is really hard to lose as we get older but not impossible and your body is no longer the one it was 5, 10 or 20 years ago so of course what you did before no longer works.
Would you share a typical day of what you eat?

A typical day would be:-

Breakfast

2 dessert spoons of natural yogurt with a banana and a cup of coffee

Lunch

Salad of cucumber, lettuce and tomato with ham or tuna and a hard boiled egg or soup with a slice of granary bread

Dinner

Pasta, rice or potato with chicken or chilli. I always cook from scratch and add veg where I can. For example chilli has peppers, onion, baked beans (don't like kidney beans) and I grate courgette and carrots into it for extra bulk. On a low maintenance night I might have an omelette with lots of veg chucked in or a baked potato with beans and cheese.

I don't snack at all. The other thing I am conscious of is that I don't drink enough water and I'm addressing that but don't believe that it would make that much difference.

Also only drink alcohol once a week which would typically be 2-3 glasses of wine.

Sorry another ps... I do have an under active thyroid and take 150 mcg levothyroxine but this isn't a new thing and I have lost weight in the past.

The only major life change since last making a concentrated effort to lose weight is that I've retired so no longer have mental stress but more time and energy for exercise and healthy meal preparation.

It's maybe a bit too carby?
Are you using a tracker eg nutracheck that gives a breakdown of carbs, fat etc?

Berries would be better than the banana, for instance, and perhaps try replacing partly or entirely the 'Pasta, rice or potato' with lots of green veg. I've got an under active thyroid too, and am short so I really do have a very low TDEE - if I've not done enough exercise (Apple Watch integrates with the nutracheck app so it's easy to see), then I might have something like 'bolognaise' sauce on a pile of tenderstem brocolli and/or green beans instead of spaghetti.

Thanks for the tips. I will give it a try.

First of all, you need to know exactly how many calories you are eating. They add up very quickly. A slice of bread, some cheese, and you are easily 200-300 calories more. Avoid MFP if cooking from scratch and use something like cronometer.
Use it for three days, as honest as possible.
Baked potatoes with beans and cheese is quite a heavy meal, I would avoid those if you are stuck.
Are there other pulses you like? Chickpeas, red lentils, butter beans? Yes to soups (no butter, no bacon, no flour, no oil) and salads, you can add as many vegetables as you want, be careful with dressing. If you cut your tomatoes first and put them at the bottom of bowl, sprinkle salt and a bit of olive oil on top, they will make juice whilst you wash and cut the other vegetables.
Add variety as well, more fibre. Instead of adding vegetables to dinner , have a dinner made of vegetables.
Get rid of the ham, keep the egg or tuna (in water), but change it every lunch. One day, have two spoonfuls of quinoa, then tuna, then egg, then chickpeas, then prawns, and so on.
Breakfast has little fibre, have some flaxseeds, a tablespoon of rolled oats, and some berries.
I understand you like baked beans, but unless you make them yourself, they are processed with some sweeteners. Add variety. And make your meals less saucy.

Thank you for your knowledge. You've been very helpful.