Banned member

There's a lot of conflicting information out there. I just don't want people to think its not ok to drink Water. It is much better than drinking artificially sweetned drinks. Too many chemicals. Sun tea with fresh lemons or sliced oranges is also really good.

It is a valid option. I find all of the fear mongering on here interesting as this is the same attitude that typical thin people give to people with any WLS. Don't we know better than to say "my way is the only way" by now?

Yup and that's the exact reason why I don't drink them. My headaches felt more like Migraines though and I also get them from coffee. I can have a cup of coffee on rare occasions but if I drink it too often I start to get headaches. I drink plain Water now and I don't eat foods that are labeled "low fat or sugar free" because they make me feel ill and crave more food.< /p>

Since the kids are out of school for summer and I don't want to pay $4 per hour per kid ($36 per day/4 times a week) in daycare, I've been using my home gym in my garage. I have a treadmill and weights. I like to keep my workout routine short and sweet. I run for 20 mins every morning, 7 days a week. Every other day I lift weights but it's not the super heavy weights. Lifting heavy seems to stall my weight loss and I figured once I get to goal I can worry about building muscle. My morning run has my heart rate up to 160 bpm. I mentally can't handle more than 20 mins on the treadmill because I become extremely bored and it feels like a chore. I do not plan to lengthen the time but I will eventually add on more speed to the 20 mins of cardio. Once the kids are back in school, I will start spin class again but gotta save money this summer.

Sorry Laura! My typical man brain was only paying attention to the post right in front of me rather then the history of the entire thread. congratulations on your super duper fantastical mega loss of XX ( fill in the blank) for this week. It goes to show 5:2 is actually pretty good for you and I appreciate BTBs description above.
Me - I prefer to eat the way as I am eating. 200-300 below TDEE (about 2000 calories, exact is 2054), never hungry, eating every 1-2 hours small, balanced paleo meals, losing body fat (eg leaning out while building lean muscle). You see I am on a popular plan also called paleo eating and fitness. I am Really good at the nutrition (eat like a caveman) and am in process of ramping up fitness . scale has gone down about 10 lb from a month ago, and have never felt better after following my "transformation" program over in vets forum. 2 months to go. Anyways, just a little program a few of us are on for 12 weeks.
Back to 5:2 diet.
I talked to my wife about this diet, as I have never heard of it before the thread. She surprised me in saying that people have been mega successful on this way of eating and it works for a lot of people. I have been successful on popular diets before being sleeved. Lets see: WW - 95 lb, Atkins - 100 lb. in both cases they were in the last 10 years and I also gained everything back plus more afterwards.
Weight regain was due to losing steam at 6 months because no lifestyle changes occurred for me during first 6 months to go from weight loss to weight maintain. There were no long term strategies i could live with or the suggested long term plan just did not click for me. However, if there is truly a long term strategy to eat well as BTB suggests (6:1), then you have found a really good forever plan. With WW and Atkins, I was very successful, but did long find either sustainable and "failed" at both.
I am curious how long one stays on this 5:2 plan and what happens long term once you go "off" the plan. Is fasting consistently every week good and healthy for you long term? I think so if you agree with BTB description of calorie in and out of weeks and months (I agree). Based on the popularity of this plan and empirical evidence to back up long term success of 5:2, this is good news for a lot of you. Keep posting your successes here! Cheers.

Well :D
Is all I have too say! I'm feeling good I'm getting ready for a party and the scale is minus another
1.5 pounds??
Mua ha ha ha ha ha!! Variety is the spice of life.
Oh and to everyone do not underestimate the power of Water also
Disclaimer;
this is not for the newly sleeved except the Water part SIP SIP SIP

For me, I couldn't agree more. That is part of what got me in trouble in the second place. The first part was getting to the point where the dieting became necessary. I am done with "diets." Period. One of the things that my surgeon and NUT stress and why I thought I was a good fit with this thinking is that life is not a diet, it's a way of eating. Getting to goal in 4-6 months is NOT the goal. What happens then? I have to "transition" to the new normal. It may take longer to get to goal, or whatever my body deems goal, but I will have had 9 months, a year or whatever it is of lifestyle change under my belt, not having to start over the the dreaded transition.
I don't track my food and won't unless I see bad habits sneaking in. If that happens, (I'm only 3 months out so I realize the hardest part is yet to come but so far, so good) I will track faster than you can say myfitnesspal! I don't limit my carbs. My carbs are naturally low only because of the normal eating practices of the sleeved person, Protein first, veggies/fruits second and starches and carbs last.
I have not yet consumed any breads, chips, crackers, refined sugars or rice. They are out of my system and I am going to see if I can go to the end of the year before trying them. Those are the things that are a slippery slope for me. I don't crave them any longer so it's not really giving anything up. It no longer bothers me to go to a Mexican restaurant and not have chips. I won't say I'll never have them again, all I can say for now, is I'm more than happy not to have them.
I enjoy wine on the weekends, only red though and only wine I enjoy and not nearly as much as pre surgery. I am not feeling like this is a diet, I feel like this is a plan I can be on board with. Down the road, my goal is to eat well 85% of the time, eat fine, 10% and eat goooood! 5%.
I just know for me, I had to change, my mind had to change and I could no longer continue to lose 30 pounds every year, just to gain it back. Dieting just has to be a thing of the past for me. I know this doesn't work for everyone and my motto is: Do what works best for you! We may all be on the same journey with the same goals but everyone's path is different.
Here's to us all reaching our goals, whatever path we may take!

I am trying to get into a regular routine with exercising. You burn so many calories this way that you really don't have to be concerned about caloric intake (given that we are eating so few to begin with). If I were to focus on "restriction" or fasting as it's called here, I would just rebel and overeat. That mentality is toxic to me and part of what got me to my highest weight, so I'm done with. Probably the number one thing I'm focusing on is my thoughts/attitude/mood because that is how my poor eating habits will start.

I'm done with diets. I swore off diets.. out of my life for good and I'm officially a member of dieters anonymous. My body has suffered enough abuse over the years. It's eat healthy w/excercise all the way or it just wasn't meant to be.
Lol.. Ok, sorry, carrying on ( I just hate the word diet)

I think I've unconsciously been doing the TDEE eating, even though I never calculated it or did it deliberately. Having read a bit more about it by now, it totally makes intuitive sense to me. Either way, quite low cal eating is never going to be my path to success, so I'll take whatever works, and I kind of trust myself (when I'm not blinded by hunger lol) over most formulas or plans.

I think super low calorie (e.g. 600-900) works well for first 6 months. The stomach is still healing. If you start out eating low cal at month 1 then eating low cal just becomes something your body gets used to. However, your BMR goes underwater, so to speak, with too few calories and you do want to work on a plan to increase calories gradually when the stomach is done healing (eg 6 months).
I can see how 5:2 would be harder to eat low calorie without being very hungry because the body does not know if to be used to a normal day ( for discussion, let us just say it is 1200-2000 calories depending on person) and fast day (under 500 calories). This fast oscillation between calorie days is going to force the body to rev up metabolism (yay!) because it never gets used to one way of eating. However, it leaves you seriously hungry on fasting days (darn it all!) The same principle sort of applies to carb loading on a low carb diet where you could eat whatever you want 1 day a week. It will essentially reset what your body is used to, but you have to be disciplined to only do it for 1 day or the extra calories will get you in the end.
I think BTB said it quite nicely a while back in that both type of calorie oscillations (5:2 and low carb, low calorie) are still just keeping the total calories down over the long run. It might also explain why an individual would need to look at long term trends while following 5:2 instead of analyzing results daily.
As for me, I got quite used to eating low carb, low calorie until month 6 ( no planned cheat days during this time). After month 6, I gradually increased my daily calories until around TDEE - 300 after reading the success of Susan ( our moderator). Her post on eating TDEE and the increased state of well being (mood, hunger, etc) inspired me way back when. From then on, I spent a few months ramping up the calories until where I am at today, post op 1 year. It is very very very important that you graduate your calorie increase over a relative long time period up towards TDEE. If you do it too fast, your low BMR will store the extra calories and you will gain. This clearly is not desirable.
My calorie trends look a little like this:
Month 1-3: 300-600 calories
Month 4-6: 600-900 calories
Month 7: 1100-1200 calories
Month 8-10: 1400-1600 calories
Month 11-12: 1600-1900 calories.
My body is perfectly happy eating in the last bracket and rewards me with a high metabolism and leaning out process. I need this amount of calories to fuel my fitness plan day after day, week after week. In reality, I should be eating about 1000 more calories a day, but the sleeve can only handle so much eating on my high Protein, low carb, Paleo variation diet. I eat every 2 hours or so a mix of healthy Paleo meals and shakes. It may seem like a lot of work, but it really isn't after you get used to the natural flow of it.

I have found eating every 2 hours works really well and keeps a good stable level of energy all day long. Hunger is an artifact of the past.
Do not really understand the tracking movement, but everyone seems to be doing it. I understand it keeps people accountable who need it, but doesn't it get tiring to track the numbers every day? I have never really tracked and just stick to some general guidelines: eat as much Protein as possible and balance Protein with some good carbs and fats during each meal. Eat every 2 hours about 30-40 G protein. Drink as much as possible without eating and drinking at the same time. Easier? I think so, but feel like such an outsider with everyone using MFP every day.

That "stalking" thing would kinda irritate me! Lol

The only way I can really enjoy plain Water now is if it's ice cold. I keep a pitcher in the fridge and I add ice to it, too. Otherwise I have to use the fruit infuser pitcher or get out some True Lemon or other flavoring.
~Cheri

good for you to say something. this ****** is probably used to people just letting him get away with that crap...NEGATIVE REINFORCEMENT! I have a list of gym annoyances. I applaud you for being diplomatic...I don't know if I would have done the same.

Thought Id post a Picture of the difference...the left is Day b4 surgery (10/8/2012) at 267lbs and the right picture is from today(7/3/2013) at 189lbs ive lost a total of 111lbs though starting at 300lbs..lost 33lbs pre op!

I hear ya "Minky" on people leaving barbells and machines loaded with plates! Drives me mad thinking of how some people think the world revolves around them. Someone left the machines empty for them to use, but they can't do the same and put their weights back up for the next person. Like their momma is around there to clean up after their lazy slob-like selves! On the sizing up thing.....I guess when someone advances at me with some aggressive tone....I have no choice. It's a crazy guy self defense thing I suppose.

I've only run into this situation once and it was so dang annoying! The guy was switching back and forth from the ab machine to another machine and just taking his time. My last machine of the day was the ab machine and he kept his towel on that machine so that no one else would use it. I asked him politely if he was almost done and he said yes but it still took what felt like 10 more mins before I could use it.
My absolutely biggest pet peeve is when people leave the 100 pound weights on the leg press machine. I can't lift a 100 pound weight (usually it's 4-100 pound weights total) and I always have to walk all the way to the front and ask for assistance from the people at the front desk. Also the squat machine is always set at the highest setting. I'm only 5'3 and I'm pretty sure the last person that used it was over 6ft tall. I hate appearing like some weak helpless woman in the weight room but I'm not about to throw my back out by lifting those huge 100 pound weights. *Sorry my comment has turned into my own little rant lol*
OP I think you did the right thing by using those weights. I loved how you were sizing him up, that's such a guy thing lol. My husband would of done the same thing as you but I probably wouldn't stand a chance against a roid rager and I highly doubt we'd be using the same weights lol

I'm black and I haven't lost any hair and I was sleeved 9 months ago. I made sure to get in my Protein and Vitamins. I'm not sure if that helped but it didn't hurt. My hair is still thick and long. I've dyed and relaxed my hair several times since surgery and haven't noticed a change and haven't seen any breakage or excessive shedding.

I'm black and I haven't lost any hair and I was sleeved 9 months ago. I made sure to get in my Protein and Vitamins. I'm not sure if that helped but it didn't hurt. My hair is still thick and long. I've dyed and relaxed my hair several times since surgery and haven't noticed a change and haven't seen any breakage or excessive shedding.

There is also the theory that as fat cells empty they fill with Water causing short term weight gain or lack of loss. The fat cells then over time release the water and weight loss is the result.

For menstual cramps I drink red raspberry leaf tea and I only need one cup and the cramps are gone for the remainder of my period. I noticed more craving before my period and around ovulation. I do eat more sweets around that time but as soon as my period starts my cravings and hunger go away. It evens out in the end.