Susanne

Peanut Butter is always a thing to add calories, maybe add a banana to your Protein shake. If you have soup, you can probably add some cheese or Greek yogurt, or some hummus And yes, follow your instinct, try to avoid diet food - eat real cheese instead of low-fat rubber. Much tastier and better for you in moderation, but moderation seems to be fairly easy for you since you are trying to "un-moderate" Your exercise calories seem very high too, 15-20 minutes of cardio are only 225-275 calories if you go for VERY high intensity. I am running at 4.5 mph and burn 200 in 20 minutes. I find that elliptical is often very exaggerated in calorie burn. 800 to 900 calories per hour is a hell of a cardio workout!

MFP is "My Fitness Pal" - sorry, I assumed it was a known site here. They are a calorie and fitness tracking site, and their list has those shrimps: costco - Shrimp W/Cilantro-Lime Serving Size 4 oz. Calories 194 Sodium 253 mg Total Fat 8 g Potassium 279 mg Saturated 1 g Total Carbs 0 g Polyunsaturated 1 g Dietary Fiber 2 g Monounsaturated 5 g Sugars 0 g Trans 0 g Protein 26 g Cholesterol 221 mg

There - dragon, I agree. It's the easier way -- AND WHY NOT? I don't know why everyone wants it to be "just as hard" when it isn't. I failed the other way because it was MUCH harder than I could do or handle. So what? I have other talents I am bilingual, I just got a BS in Computer Information Systems (with HIGHEST honors I might add) in a foreign language while working full time, I have a successful marriage to my husband for 12 years now, I have a nice home, I have friends and family who love me and who I love, I am smart, I relocated to a new country for my man and successfully found my way here, I found an awesome job (first try). So self-control when it comes to food is not my forte, whatever -- skinny bitch, if you can put the other shit I have down to your name, you can come back :-)

Why not go with what it says on My Fitness Pal? Or is 194 richer than you bargained for?

There is no problem for me to eat steak post-surgery. Actually, it has become my new all time favorite (mine is the little plate):

Don't ask - I have yet to find someone who can explain to me how I can weigh more in the morning than at the night before - I don't "sleep-eat". MORE. Or I weight a lot less at 6pm than I did at 8am and I have been eating and drinking (in moderation, but still). But let me ask you this - isn't a human body pretty much the most incredible "machine" in the world? I am not talking about some religious or spiritual thing here, but really from a technology point of view. Brains, motor skills, physical strength, love - is there anything in the world that can do all those things? OK, a computer may be smarter, a car may be faster, steel may be stronger -- but what can do all this in one machine? And what can do all those things and hasn't been invented by a human? I am not trying to scare you, but it will most probably get worse and even less understandable. You are only a few weeks out, and if you start over-analyzing your body's behavior, you'll kill yourself. Just go with the flow, take it day by day and if you are stalled or your weight fluctuates more than you understand -- just be sure that as long as you stay within the calories you are prescribed and do good on your Protein and Water, you'll lose weight. Don't try to find a reason because in most cases, there simply is none. Your body is a mystery, but in the end and looking at it over a larger time span, it is calories in vs. calories out and you'll be fine!

3 weeks out, no one has much energy. You are eating way too little calories to be a powerhouse, but give it some time. Once you get to more and substantial foods, you'll be fine. How many calories do you eat? Remember, aside from a little bit of stomach, your body is still the same but instead of feeding it 2000 calories, you probably are giving it less than 500 calories. You are still recovering from surgery.

They once told me that there is a number on the sticker, and you can call costco and ask for the nutritional stats on the product using that code. And if you find out, please post a reply because I have been eyeing them for a while now and am just too lazy to do it, LOL On MFP, it says 194 calories for 4 oz.

I am with Dawn, I am not saying good bye to anything and if you budget for it, you can have whatever you want... That is one of the reasons why I am getting this surgery to start with, to help me wiht the "moderation" part

AFAIK, slider foods are anything that slides by and does not really give you any benefit from the smaller stomach.

I think the whole "low fat" and "fat free" is just so wrong in your concoction! I wish people would try regular cheeses again - I'd rather take 1 oz. of full fat cheese over 2 oz. of low fat cheese any time. The satisfaction you get from normal food is 10x what you get from all the no fat stuff, which needs a ton of chemicals, stabilizers and other artificial stuff that simply doesn't belong in cheese. It so much doesn't belong in cheese that they are often not even allowed to call it cheese anymore - how screwed up is that? Instead fat free cream cheese and fat free shredded cheese use half the amount of the normal stuff. It is a little less in volume, but 10x the flavor, 10x the satisfaction and keeps you full a lot longer! Good God, the fat free shredded cheese doesn't even melt, LOL

I liked it a lot pre-surgery, but right now this type of bread is so dense that it causes my little stomach to ache :-( I really like the Pepperidge Farm Whole Grain Jewish Rye

Good job, looking great!

It will be much less of a problem, but I don't think anyone can promise you it won't be a problem at all. In general, I am sure you will be less hungry overall. For me, I do get munchies every now and then but it doesn't "hurt" the diet as bad because it is much easier to be good the rest of the time. Your weight loss may not be as grand as with some, but if you can handle "Slow and steady wins the race", you'll be good afterward with a little cheating. I do make sure I am cheating "controlled", so if I want some potato chips, I'll have potato chips, but I take a little bowl and weigh out 1 oz for 150 calories. I am pretty sure I could still eat a good chunk of the bag, because this is nothing that really taxes your sleeve. Again, I usually have no problem to stay within my 900 calories - and believe me, that would have been extremely hard before.

I do too - I am not letting it go all flat, I just pour it from very high into a glass so it fizzes up a lot. Use a big glass though, to avoid spilling, but once I do this, it is flat enough for me to drink without issues. I drink a lot out of my Blender Bottle these days. It looks weird, but it is big so I can pour a whole can into it and if it isn't flat enough I out the tab on and give it a little swirl.

Oh, and don't get me started on tshirts - why are all tshirts these days paper thin? I have a batch of tshirts that are at least 6 years old. They have lost their shape a little bit and are a little discolored, but those are nice solid cotton tshirts. With my belly roles - even though they are shrinking now - I hate those thin shirts because they are almost see through but even at Lane Bryant, they have gone to the sheer superthin cotton. Though I do have to admit, I just bought a couple of white supima tshirts there that are really nice. And for those who still have to shop at Lane Bryant, they have a weird dale, from 3/1 to 3/6, everything in store is 40% off (some restrictions apply): http://www.lanebryant.com/

I am so jealous of guys that way. My husband is 6'3" and wears a size 40 waist in jeans. I can pretty much bring him a pair of pants in a 40/32 and they'll fit. Some may be a little loser, some a little snugger, but they'll fit. Now, for me, I had a collection of size 16 (actually even a weird Calvin Klein 14W) up to a size 20...and they all fit. They too were sometimes loser, sometimes snugger, but seriously, that's a range of 4 sizes. 40 inches are 40 inches, a 14, 16, 18 or 22 means absolutely NOTHING.

LOL - I was just about to reply that that's why I removed my post. What stands is though: the less you have to lose, the slower you lose. My Dad always said: If you shake a tree with a lot of apples, a lot will fall out. If you shake a tree with a few apples, you'll get much less. While some say they lost 20 pounds in this amount of time, you probably already know that you are a slow loser, so I'd take 30% off to be prepared. And if it is more - all the better, happy happy joy joy! Good luck

Removed my post...

I had the first at 3 weeks. That one helped me deal with the small stalls, ie. lasting 1 week or less. I had another stall at 3 months which lasted over 3 weeks. I was not prepared for that. Now I told you, now you are prepared :-) Unless you switch to a seriously unreasonable diet, you'll break your stall - try not to drive yourself crazy

And you are saying that it is not easier than without surgery? It certainly is easier for me than ANY other attempt at weight loss I have done in the past 20 years, that's for sure. I am surprised people are claiming it is not. If you don't think so, I think it was a crazy decision to spend all the money and have major surgery without the advantage of much easier weight loss

Awesome, we have a treadmill and a bike and I love working out with my husband! I don't know the equipment you are talking about, I have tried a few "gimmicky" tools like the health rider or so, but I think in the end, it's the basic stuff like walking and riding the bike that we last! But like you said, start small and if you see you'll use it, you can "upgrade"

Would you feel guilty if you had found an easy way to make more money if it doesn't hurt others? Would you feel guilty if you found a faster way to work that only takes half the time? Would you feel guilty if you found the thing you have been looking for for many years at half off? No? Then why feel guilty now? It is not the EASY way but lets all admit it, it is an EASIER way, but there is no shame in this especially if you have tried every other way. A definition of insanity is to try the same thing over and over and expect a different outcome - well, you have tried something else now, and you got the different outcome you were hoping for, weight loss. Be happy, be proud and forget about those who think this is cheating.

I am no exercise specialist, but I think upping your exercise to at least 40 minutes is a good idea. I am not sure how intense your workout is, but make sure you actually break out a GOOD sweat. I don't think 15 minutes or below is workout - I was told to start with 15 minutes the weeks after surgery but soon try to work out to 30-40 minutes for 6 days a week. If you use a calculator online and calculate the burnt calories, please note that in most cases those are made for people in a more normal weight range for a much much lower bodyfat %. From what I read, they basically extrapolate fat and muscle according to weight which grossly overestimates your burnt calorie amount. So, if you are trying to eat back burnt calories, you can be seriously in trouble and eat way too much. Also, make sure you eat enough fat. I know, we have all been fat-phobic but you need fat to keep your body burning

You may look older but I am sure your better figure, increased energy, better posture etc. will counter act that...at least that's what I am hoping for. The other thing to consider is that often between the before and after, there are a couple of years so yeah, they look older because they ARE older :-)