itstheamarie

Great idea! I was just reading this today if you'd like to look: http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/womans_lean_sexy_bible.htm
There are lots of forums on MFP including: "eat more to weigh less" and "in place of a road map." Interesting reads and advice from people maintaining at TDEE and mostly strength training.

As far as body composition and appearance, I think weight training offered me the most noticeable changes but it takes time to see the results. As far as feeling great and fit.... Definitely running for me.

Living next to the border, I eat Mexican all the time. Carne Asada is good, Carne al Pastor, Machaca beef, personally my go to Mexican dish at my fav restaurant is I order the taco salad with chicken, they bring it out and the chicken is shredded and moist, I take that off the salad, smash it with guacamole and salsa and it is really yummy. I usually end up leaving the salad and the tortilla bowl. any of the civiche dishes would be fine also. Good luck!

Haha, I know right, I deserve a discount! I just throw the meat on top of the lettuce, top it w the guac and nibble away. I just love the flavor in fajita meat. Maybe it's the Mexican in me? An oz of blackbeans would round it out nicely, but I am paranoid that they're cooked with lard.

Fiddleman, I have no advice for weight training, cross fit, or anything else, but I wonder how many calories you are eating? In addition to carbs to fuel a workout, you also need enough calories. When you mentined you just didn't have the energy, that question came to my mind. Either way, I'm ultra impressed - not only with your workouts, but also with your determnation and goal setting.

Haha, I know right, I deserve a discount! I just throw the meat on top of the lettuce, top it w the guac and nibble away. I just love the flavor in fajita meat. Maybe it's the Mexican in me? An oz of blackbeans would round it out nicely, but I am paranoid that they're cooked with lard.

Heck yeah, salsa and a squeeze of lime. . You won't miss the extras

Or chicken tortilla Soup without the tortillas... but some people add a bunch of random stuff like peas that make it hard for me to calorie count.

Fajitas (request to be cooked without oil) and an oz of guacamole would be my choice :-) Should last a few meals! Skip rice, tortillas, sour cream, cheese, and Beans.< /p>

The exit door.

There are several factors such as age, weight, height, bodyfat % that play into these numbers. Activity is factored in to TDEE. This is the number of calories you should eat to maintain at a particular weight/activity level. Note that eating at huge deficits alter these values over time, but it is a principle that many people use to maintain a "healthy lifestyle" long term. A lot of people have to do a metabolic reset, as Susan mentioned, to restore their bodies back to these values. To us, these numbers are HUGE compared to our initial post op diet, so it is different for everyone. The principle is the opposite of what most people on here do. It means eating more (feed your body) and work out in moderation, focusing on lifting & strength rather than eating little and racking up cardio. http://scoobysworkshop.com/calorie-calculator/What is BMR?
Your basal metabolic rate, or BMR, is the minimum calorific requirement needed to sustain life in
a resting individual. It can be looked at as being the amount of energy (measured in calories)
expended by the body to remain in bed all day!
What is TDEE?
TDEE is the common abbreviation for Total Daily Energy Expenditure which is a metric to
calculate the amount of calories your body needs to function in a day. This is quite similar to
BMR -- in fact, you need your BMR to calculate your TDEE -- but your TDEE accounts for your
average daily activity as well to give a figure truer to your specific situation. Basically, the TDEE
calculation relies on categorizing your daily activity into one of the metrics' predetermined
groupings.

After maintaining and gaining on 1200 a day, I upped my cals to around 1800 and did NOT gain. I felt so much better. My TDEE is around 2000-2400 a day depending on how much exercise I do. At this point I made a cut, and am maintaining and even losing a little... but I had to cut more than my BMR to get this to happen( the loss part) I probably need to do a reset and eat at 2200 for a while to get back on track.

Also, when we count calories in restaurant dishes, remember that they grill/sauté with tons of oil! Don't be afraid to ask for fajitas, eggs, or anything else to be cooked without oil. The calories add up in no time even with small portions.

5#/week is NOT SLOW! Don't let anyone convince you otherwise! We have the opportunity of a lifetime to make changes that will last for a LIFETIME. What a great time to focus on fixing our relationship with food and ensuring that we never go back! I'm sure it took more than 6 weeks to gain it, so I would be more than happy with the loss! I've lost 24 in 11 weeks, so you're blowing me (and most people) out of the Water. Just because those of us who lose at a more moderate pace don't post about it doesn't mean that you're alone! As you can see from my numbers, you are far from slow!

http://www.healthydiningfinder.com/home
Plug in your zip code and it suggests restaurants as well as some healthy options with nutritional facts and how to order.

5#/week is NOT SLOW! Don't let anyone convince you otherwise! We have the opportunity of a lifetime to make changes that will last for a LIFETIME. What a great time to focus on fixing our relationship with food and ensuring that we never go back! I'm sure it took more than 6 weeks to gain it, so I would be more than happy with the loss! I've lost 24 in 11 weeks, so you're blowing me (and most people) out of the Water. Just because those of us who lose at a more moderate pace don't post about it doesn't mean that you're alone! As you can see from my numbers, you are far from slow!

I remember the nurses after surgery complimenting me on my desire to get up and walk constantly. I was confused, because that's what we were told to do! They said that more often than not, bariatric patients wake up expecting to be skinny and have no desire to follow the guidelines. I was shocked to hear that, considering the risk, but some of the posts on here really prove it's true! The good thing is that they are on here trying to learn. The bad thing is that some give BAD advice to each other, and it's hard to tell who you should listen to until you've been around a while.

Since this thread was revived, I’ll offer my two-cents’ worth.
On this forum, we have an overwhelming number of self-assigned experts on weight loss, dieting, nutrition, and vertical sleeve gastrectomies based on a case study of one.
For one year after my surgery, I attended a monthly support group of VSG patients in my doctor’s office. We would just go around the room sharing our experiences mostly. What amazed me was how different everyone’s experience with the surgery and recovery was. One guy reported he could enjoy steak at 4 weeks out and someone else would say that he couldn’t eat steak until 4 months after surgery. Some people can’t tolerate salad, I eat it with every dinner. I don’t think anything is more personal and individualized than weight gain, weight loss, and immediate and long-term responses to this surgery.
I can tell you what worked for me and that’s it. As I see it, I have no right at all to instruct someone else about what they should be doing based on what worked for me or what my doctor advised me to do. Even with something like knee surgery, each recovery plan is very different based on the specific type of injury that was repaired. We all have different histories with weight gain, diets, and weight loss and different issues with food.
I was a skinny kid and then a skinny adult until I had an accident. I didn’t get fat because I ate too much "junk food". I got fat because I ate too much food, period. I used to be a semi-professional athlete before a serious knee injury laid me up. When you are running 5 miles every day, you can come home and put away a 16 ounce steak and a big plate of spaghetti with no problem. I used to eat like there was no tomorrow and I never gained an ounce because I was always active. Problem is I continued to eat like that and even more after my injury because I got seriously depressed. I went from being a skinny guy to becoming a fat man in just two years.
This surgery was perfect for me because it did what I needed it to do. It forced me to reduce my portions of food at each meal. I eat the same way now that I used to before the injury except just in much smaller quantities and I have been 8 pounds under goal for almost 9 months.
Before my knee injury I was a young, healthy athlete and I occasionally ate a Big Mac, a piece of candy and a chunk of cake. Now, almost two years after surgery, I am a middle-aged healthy adult who still occasionally eats (a few bites of) a McDonald's sausage McMuffin with half an order of hash browns, a Baby Ruth candy bar, and a 3 oz portion of full fat ice cream. I am as physically healthy today as I was 5 years ago and I have the doctor's report and blood work to prove that.
Still, I have no more right to warn forum members that they are going to fail because they are not learning how to eat all foods in moderation than someone else warning me that I am going to fail because I still eat chocolate and ice cream. Based on my sustained results, they would be 100% wrong. Even if there was a real doctor or licensed therapist on this forum, he or she would have no right to dispense warnings without at least reviewing that person’s medical file and then meeting with the patient. This is the real reason I am not a regular contributor on this forum. These forums appear not to be moderated and I have no interest in my posts being attacked or insulted by people who don't personally approve of my approach to weight loss and weight loss maintenance. I also don’t need or want lay medical advice. I have real licensed healthcare professionals that I rely on for that.
Is strict calorie monitoring considered dieting? If so, then I will be on diet for the rest of my life. If eating everything I used to eat and want to eat now but in much smaller quantities means I'm not on a diet, then I can honestly write that I have never been on a diet even once during my entire life.
From the first day I could start eating solid foods, I have been tracking all my calories. From one year ago, I started using the BodyMedia Fit Link armband to monitor my daily calorie burn. I didn’t have this surgery to leave anything to chance. I weigh myself every single morning as advised by my doctor and nutritionist and I monitor everything that I consume. I also keep records of my calorie intake and expenditures for each month and use them for review.
What has made keeping the weight off effortless for me is following Dr. Michael Mosley’s Fast Diet. For two days out of the week (Monday and Thursday), I eat a 600 calorie high Protein diet divided into two meals and separated by a 12 hour period (like 250 calories at 7:30 am for Breakfast and then 350 calories at 7:30 pm for dinner). Then for the other five days, I eat 25% over my daily calorie burn to maintain my current weight. My nutritionist told me that a healthy diet is a well-balanced one and that includes carbohydrates, Protein and fat, all three. I follow the percentages recommended by MFP. When I was still trying to lose, I would eat a little less so that I was running a 5200 calorie deficit a week, which comes to a pound and a half weight loss every week. Do a search on “Mosley Fast Diet” for free information about his Fast Diet if you are interested. This program has been very easy for me to follow. Please consult with your doctor before starting any type of fasting diet.
I am not a doctor or a licensed psychotherapist so I can’t advise anyone about what they should be doing. I have seen members threaten other members here with failure, illness, an "unhealthy life", and even death if they didn’t follow the same program they had come up with for themselves. All I can do is write about what has worked very successfully for me. If you can relate to my story and reading about what has worked for me has you thinking or rethinking about what might work for you, wonderful. If not, please ignore what I just wrote and be sure to consult with your own healthcare professionals before trying anything new.

Friend. I'd rather spend 120 calories on a half cup of edamame, than 200 calories on a Protein Bar full of sugar and additives.

I understand your pain! 20 lbs in 8 weeks, but the average is 2.5#/week. You are closer to 4-5#/week, and that's awesome! It's natural to be impatient when we see so many "I lost 100 lbs in 5 months" posts, but hey, what's the rush to a lifestyle change? It's not like we will ever go back to our old ways, so we might as well get used to eating healthy, whether we like it or now :-)

I am not picky about body shape or size-- I don't think a lot of females are to be honest.... my fiance is 6'3'' and 275, and to me he is perfect. I am a sucker for a cute face and a great sense of humor.

I remember the nurses after surgery complimenting me on my desire to get up and walk constantly. I was confused, because that's what we were told to do! They said that more often than not, bariatric patients wake up expecting to be skinny and have no desire to follow the guidelines. I was shocked to hear that, considering the risk, but some of the posts on here really prove it's true! The good thing is that they are on here trying to learn. The bad thing is that some give BAD advice to each other, and it's hard to tell who you should listen to until you've been around a while.

I'm gonna jump in on this one because, in my philosophy, for many of us it's a bigger picture issue.
I had a Vertical Sleeve Gastrectomy. Not a personality change, not a lobotomy.
If my obesity is part of a larger mental health issue, then the Sleeve is just half of the answer. Some folks don't know that they have addiction/personality disorder components as part of their diagnosis. Or have some amount of denial. So, they go into the procedure with only half the solution at hand. They can hear/see the formula and "know" the way the lifestyle works... but if they're not addressing the addiction/personality side of it because they don't realize or don't acknowledge it, then it stands to reason old habits will TRY to be retained.
I will freely admit and discuss that, for me, obesity resulted from a life of addiction/mental health disorder. I was damn lucky that my Sleeve Journey started with years of counseling and culminated in a watershed moment where I knew I had to change and needed help to do it. Not everyone for who the story is similar has that resource or insight. I know that without my small army of professionals, family and friends supporting me, I'd probably be asking the same questions you're frustrated by. I often wonder what the support of those asking these questions is like.
Is it frustrating to see folks posting freely about wanting to "cheat"? Yep. Is it SCARY how soon some folks push the envelope? Totally. Do I wonder what is in their minds? All the time. Do I want to shake them and aks why they bothered? Ohmygosh yes!
But then, I think about my own heart and how many times in my 9 weeks post op I've had a (albeit much quieter) demon on my shoulder telling me how good that toast would taste, how a "little piece" of this or that won't hurt me, just ONE will not make the scale go up. How many times in my 9 weeks post op I've failed to follow the program by not getting enough water/protein/exercise... giving in to the demon in my brain on a few occassions.
I guess my point is, I feel ya AmandaRae. Completely. But as a person who is struggling, I'd just ask for those who want to "tell it like it is" to do so, but add a dash of compassion into it too- the person asking about bread/chinese food/eating "normally" may not have half their own story solved or it may be winning them over for the moment. Shall I prepare for the flames now? Or perhaps I've just killed another thread?