mark!

Call it what ya'll want, when I'm able to "use" more of my penis because I'm less fat, I'm saying my penis is getting bigger.

Any fat burner you buy OTC doesn't do anything for burning fat. It elevates heart rate and body temperature (thermogenics) for the effect. I'd have to question any Dr. who said it was ok to use a stimulant of said nature anytime after WLS since the caloric restrictions would hinder the bodies ability to work with the supplement. (Edit: Any over the counter "fluff" supplement") Being on a very low calorie diet and adding caffeine and whatever else they throw in for good measure may have some pretty severe negative effects on your body. Your body will eventually grow accustomed to the caffeine and such in the pills, so you'll have to up the dosage to keep that effect going, adding more and more, because most people are ignorant to "cycling" supplements.
To be honest, you'd probably be better off just adding in pure caffeine pills you can find at CVS, Wal-Mart or any grocery store in the supplement section. The FDA doesn't regulate fat burners, which frankly I think the FDA isn't all that great, but still...if they won't touch them, that says something. Ephedra was banned, but most fat burners now include Ma Huang, which has nearly an identical chemical make up of Ephedra, and hey, it creates the same problems, cool how they can still supplement things with a different name, but same reactions and such right? If you're just looking for energy, there are things out there I could recommend, caffeine pills being one, Yohimbine HCL being another, DMAA, or some good old fashioned BCAA complexes pre workout, you'll get much more out of a BCAA stack than any fat burner as it'll aid in recovery as well. Creatine can also help in both areas, fueling you for your workout and providing increased blood and Water flow to your muscles to aid in recovery and repairing the torn fibers.

I follow a cyclical Keto diet and have had great luck with it again after surgery. I've used it quite a bit to prepare for powerlifting meets and such and started using it again, have had good luck so far.

I had my surgery Feb of 2013. At first all was going well, I never felt any restriction, I didn't have any complications. My progress went great at first, until I started back on solid foods. I didn't have problems adjusting to a solid food diet afterwards, and little by little I started eating a bit more, and a bit more. I guess I've pretty much just hit a wall as far as the surgery is concerned. I didn't follow through like I should have, so instead of the usual "surgery failed me" posts, this is my "I failed my surgery" plea for any assistance.
I had surgery with Dr. Kim in Colleyville, and after recent contacts from his staff as well as their "awesome" support group leaders, it appears unless I have a revision surgery I'm on my own with getting back on track. I've put on about 30 pounds back, I started at over 400 and I'm sitting around 330 right now, so there was some success, I'd just like to get back on track and get to my overall goal weight of 260.
Anyone been in this position before, and what did you do to start things back up? I'm working out, I hike about 10-15 miles a week, and I mountain bike 20-25 miles a week (just started back up). I carry a pretty good amount of muscle mass from my powerlifting days, but have recently retired from competitive lifting so I'm not lifting as heavy weights, or as often.

Yup. Hormones released during intense exercise have been shown to increase drive and libido in both men and women. There are plenty of studies out there regarding this. It's both psychological and physiological as well, both mind and body.

I've always thought about this in two ways.
1) I can stay morbidly obese. Develop Diabetes, congestive heart failure, kidney trouble, everything else that's run in my family and linked to diabetes, and die a slow, decaying, miserable painful death while living a life of "what might have beens" and false hopes, barely making it, barely surviving and barely able to move when I get older.
2) I can take my 1 in 500 or whatever risk, and get my life to be on track with what I want it to be. After trying every diet known to man, and working my ass off in the gym, I know I have a choice. Live an adventurous fun crazy life, or die slowly.

I've always thought about this in two ways.
1) I can stay morbidly obese. Develop Diabetes, congestive heart failure, kidney trouble, everything else that's run in my family and linked to diabetes, and die a slow, decaying, miserable painful death while living a life of "what might have beens" and false hopes, barely making it, barely surviving and barely able to move when I get older.
2) I can take my 1 in 500 or whatever risk, and get my life to be on track with what I want it to be. After trying every diet known to man, and working my ass off in the gym, I know I have a choice. Live an adventurous fun crazy life, or die slowly.

I've always thought about this in two ways.
1) I can stay morbidly obese. Develop Diabetes, congestive heart failure, kidney trouble, everything else that's run in my family and linked to diabetes, and die a slow, decaying, miserable painful death while living a life of "what might have beens" and false hopes, barely making it, barely surviving and barely able to move when I get older.
2) I can take my 1 in 500 or whatever risk, and get my life to be on track with what I want it to be. After trying every diet known to man, and working my ass off in the gym, I know I have a choice. Live an adventurous fun crazy life, or die slowly.

I've always thought about this in two ways.
1) I can stay morbidly obese. Develop Diabetes, congestive heart failure, kidney trouble, everything else that's run in my family and linked to diabetes, and die a slow, decaying, miserable painful death while living a life of "what might have beens" and false hopes, barely making it, barely surviving and barely able to move when I get older.
2) I can take my 1 in 500 or whatever risk, and get my life to be on track with what I want it to be. After trying every diet known to man, and working my ass off in the gym, I know I have a choice. Live an adventurous fun crazy life, or die slowly.

I've always thought about this in two ways.
1) I can stay morbidly obese. Develop Diabetes, congestive heart failure, kidney trouble, everything else that's run in my family and linked to diabetes, and die a slow, decaying, miserable painful death while living a life of "what might have beens" and false hopes, barely making it, barely surviving and barely able to move when I get older.
2) I can take my 1 in 500 or whatever risk, and get my life to be on track with what I want it to be. After trying every diet known to man, and working my ass off in the gym, I know I have a choice. Live an adventurous fun crazy life, or die slowly.

I've always thought about this in two ways.
1) I can stay morbidly obese. Develop Diabetes, congestive heart failure, kidney trouble, everything else that's run in my family and linked to diabetes, and die a slow, decaying, miserable painful death while living a life of "what might have beens" and false hopes, barely making it, barely surviving and barely able to move when I get older.
2) I can take my 1 in 500 or whatever risk, and get my life to be on track with what I want it to be. After trying every diet known to man, and working my ass off in the gym, I know I have a choice. Live an adventurous fun crazy life, or die slowly.

Friday 6\6. 308. Was a tad lower mid week but had a high carb day refeed yesterday.

I think you should go. Well, I wouldn't, but that's just because it's the KC Royals, ha. Sorry, had to.
This is what you're signing up for. You can't just become a hermit and not go out with your husband. Eating lifestyle has to change, but we still have to maintain a social lifestyle, especially with your husband or significant other. I believe things like that create tension which leads to the divorce rate among married couples after surgery. Life goes on, you gotta go with it.

Born at 12lbs, I was a watermelon. Was always the big kid in school, but was active in just about every sport I could squeeze in to my schedule. Weight didn't really become a "problem" until after college and I stopped playing football. The weight started piling on, muscle mass started going away, and I become less and less active. I weighed in at 340 my senior year as a lineman, but was decently solid. Packed on about 100 pounds after that by not maintaining my workout schedule after school, but maintained my eating schedule quite well.

I think you should go. Well, I wouldn't, but that's just because it's the KC Royals, ha. Sorry, had to.
This is what you're signing up for. You can't just become a hermit and not go out with your husband. Eating lifestyle has to change, but we still have to maintain a social lifestyle, especially with your husband or significant other. I believe things like that create tension which leads to the divorce rate among married couples after surgery. Life goes on, you gotta go with it.

I think you should go. Well, I wouldn't, but that's just because it's the KC Royals, ha. Sorry, had to.
This is what you're signing up for. You can't just become a hermit and not go out with your husband. Eating lifestyle has to change, but we still have to maintain a social lifestyle, especially with your husband or significant other. I believe things like that create tension which leads to the divorce rate among married couples after surgery. Life goes on, you gotta go with it.

When it all comes down to it, it's personal preference. Go to a food nutrition store, I know our local Vitamin Shoppes do sample tastings, and Max Muscle also will make you a serving of Protein right there for you to try. The absolute best advice I give to clients and those looking for a good Protein Powder, don't buy online starting out. Go to Vitamin Shoppe and look at some Whey or whey isolate Protein powders. Here's why I choose VS....buy back program. Buy a 5 pound $50 tub and throw up because it tastes so bad? Take it back. You can literally take a serving in the store after buying it, and return it for a full refund either cash or credit. I've never had any issues with VS when it comes to returning a product I hated. They stand by their customer satisfaction, and they carry the top of the line products.
There are sources of protein that are great, True Nutrition and I'm guess the Jay Robb stuff, you can't find in stores, well I think someone further up mentioned Whole Foods has Jay Robb, but the closest one to me is a good drive away I think. There's gonna be some trial and error.

Holy hell at the price of that Jay Robb Protein, and for something you can get at half the price elsewhere.
Optimum Nutrition has been my go to Protein for years, even before surgery. 74 servings for $50, and a plethora of flavors. You can usually catch it on sale at Vitamin shoppe or bodybuilding.com. They also have a natural blend that cuts out artificial flavoring and such. It's worth a look. ON is also an outside lab tested protein. They don't use labs they contract with to due their profile testing on their product, so there's no bias reporting on the product you're getting.

None. All of those "favorites" got me into this position in the first place. Eeeeeek!

Pam, I'm on the rebound, and you can do this. I was sleeved in Feb of last year, was having great success, but slid back to my old habits. Even after I "thought" I was doing ok, I was eating processed "healthy" food instead of whole, natural food sources. It takes time, it takes effort, and it takes dedication. Find a group, even us here, and let us all encourage and support each other through these tough times and on to more forward success in our lives. It's a growing process, you're not done yet.

Pam, I'm on the rebound, and you can do this. I was sleeved in Feb of last year, was having great success, but slid back to my old habits. Even after I "thought" I was doing ok, I was eating processed "healthy" food instead of whole, natural food sources. It takes time, it takes effort, and it takes dedication. Find a group, even us here, and let us all encourage and support each other through these tough times and on to more forward success in our lives. It's a growing process, you're not done yet.

Same boat, recently I've relapsed back in to my old ways. Luckily we caught it before getting too deep. Go back to the basics and restart the weight loss journey. I've been having luck so far by doing that. It sucks, and it's hard, but we knew going in it'd be hard to do. Just gotta right the ship and get back on track.

I'm in. CW 314 GW 200's

Same boat, recently I've relapsed back in to my old ways. Luckily we caught it before getting too deep. Go back to the basics and restart the weight loss journey. I've been having luck so far by doing that. It sucks, and it's hard, but we knew going in it'd be hard to do. Just gotta right the ship and get back on track.

Before I had surgery, I sat down with my Dr and explained my situation. I was completely worried about muscle loss. To keep my current hobby and to keep from having to pay for supplements and entry fees to meets I had to maintain my numbers on the platform or risk losing sponsors. From the get go we set my Protein numbers above 100g since the 3rd day post op, was restricted from deadlifting or squatting heavy for 8 weeks, was released for upper body training as tolerated 4 weeks post op. The biggest problem I've had is correcting form issues and leverages after losing the weight. So far I've added 120 pounds to my total (bench, dead lift, squat combined) and dropped 3 weight classes in the federation I compete in).
If you bust your ass and keep muscle retention in mind from the beginning it's easier to combat any atrophy you may have. But, it has to be a goal, instead of just weight loss.