MacMadame

I had my gallbladder out too. It's the same as it always was after surgery. So no worries there. I went back to work at my desk job at 1.5 weeks and wish I'd taken 2 weeks. But I had a slow start. Lots of people go back in less than a week. OTOH, why do it if you can avoid it? I think staying home until you are off liquids makes your life a lot easier.

It also varies by how much weight you have to lose. Here are some guidelines... they are all a bit different so the idea is to measure yourself against a bunch and see if you are doing okay by most of them even if not by all of them. Early out .5 to 1 lb. a day, then settling into 2-3 lb. a week, then slowing down to 1-2 lb. a week. 10-20 lb. a month (but heavyweights can lose more and lightweights often lose less after the first big chunk comes off) Lose 50% of your excess weight by 3 months and 80% by 6 months. That ones a bit aggressive and I don't think it works for the SMO as well as for the MO. Use this planner to plot your weight loss against someone's estimate: ObesityHelp - Post-Op Weight Loss Planner The other thing to keep in mind is that most people don't lose in a steady manner. It's more like a stair step. For example, one month I was losing like this 4-2-4-2. So my average was 3 lb. a week, just like the predictors said. But the 2 lb. weeks were annoying. Plus, then I shifted to only losing 1 lb. on the slow weeks. Ugh. But I got there just fine and all my worrying was for nothing!

Some cheese tastes salty to me too.

I think it's the lack of ghrelin. Hormones are SO powerful. I knew that intellectually but, of course, I was sure that they didn't rule ME. Ha! In my case, it's not produce so much. I've always liked it. But I also ate a lot of junk and much of it disgusts me now. So it's changed my thinking about food a little, just not dramatically. The big difference for me is movement. I have to be moving. I get antsy if I sit too long. I used to ALWAYS sit. I never stood if I could sit and, if I had to stand, I'd lean on something. It's like my brain was telling me to take it easy and conserve energy. Now it tells me to MOVE IT! I think, though, that you also have to be open to it. I decided to see where the surgery took me even before I had it. I see people still trapped in their old ways of thinking and it makes me sad because I feel like they've missed this great opportunity. But everyone is different, of course. I doubt they are sad if they lose their weight. :lol0:

The other day I ate 2000 calories! Luckily I burned about 1200 doing exercise. But it was scary. I'm weaning off my PPI and I have acid and it feels like hunger. I know it's not and I can ignore it. But eating something soothes my throat. So I have a little something. And then a little more. It's crazy! I'm supposed to give myself a month for everything to settle down so I'll just have to deal for a month, I guess.

My doc said I could go as low as 110 or 105. I thought he was INSANE! But I'm at 115 now and 110 isn't looking so bad. I think some docs want you to go a bit low so that you have some wiggle room for bounce back. But if you don't do it, 10 years from now, you'll be in your 50s and still not have a degree. My mom got her degree in her 40s and now she's a VP of IT at George Mason University. Go talk to her and tell her I sent you! :thumbdown: Seriously, it would be better to have known what you wanted when you were in your 20s, but you've got years and years of working life ahead of you so it's too soon to give up! As for your mom, this is what I think is going on.... she wants great things for you so when you first bring up the ideas, she's excited. But then she goes home and starts being a worry wart. Because she doesn't want bad things to happen to you. She should really keep her thoughts to herself and be self-aware enough to realize it's her own hang-ups speaking, but just because it's negative, doesn't mean it's not coming from a caring place. I'd just tell her flat out to keep her negative thoughts to herself as they don't help. Sometimes you have to set boundaries with your parents.

Speaking as a moderator, I have read every post in this thread and I don't think anyone is picking on you or making fun of you. A few are making fun of your arguments. Which is allowed. We attack the idea, not the person. If someone actually attacks you, then we'll do something, but not liking MJ and not understanding why people are saddened by his death and finding your arguments defending him to be illogical is not a personal attack.

Yep. You go through clothes much faster as you go down too. Oh, and I hear you on the lack of sleep. Elisabeth. I've been getting up at 5 am and going to bed at midnight!

I think the hypertext is part of some sort of ad system and Alex gets money if people click on the links. Those servers do need to fed. :lol0:

Congrats! Um, doesn't NSV meant Non-scale Victory?

I love Mythbusters! I don't weigh any time after I get up because I figure any number after that is basically random as there are too many variables effecting it. I lost 3 lb. or so from yesterday to today, btw. Of course, there is no way I really did. I figure I was losing all along in the past 3 week but the weight training was masking it with Water weight gains.

AM: Work out with my trainer. I was SORE after. PM: Swim workout. I think I did 2100 yards! (But I haven't double-checked my math.) I did 4x100 with a band around my legs too. Last time, my legs ended up at a 90 degree angle! This time... more like 30 degrees. I can tell my core is stronger and that made the difference.

Yeah, but there is a big difference between saying "most people are doing it wrong and it won't help" to saying "it doesn't work!". The later is more dramatic and that's why the story was focused that way. But it's not true. Exactly. Most people respond to exercise by eating more, and don't even realize it. That's why it's important to track your food when you are trying to lose.

He charges as much as a DS! I'm sorry, but that's crazy. He seems to push it on people who come to him for a sleeve -- which means mostly virgin WSL people. Some surgeons are all about cutting and I think he's one of them. Cut first, think later. :001_tt2: That doesn't mean he's not skilled at cutting. But I want a surgeon who also thinks. :thumbup:

I don't know if normal people consider leeks exotic but when I found a recipe for a meal with them, I had no idea what they looked like. Luckily they were on the shelf that's labeled.

Mine started falling out at 1.5 weeks. It still falls out a bit now, but it's really slowed down. I don't even count how many fall out now because it's not enough to be worth the bother.

I didn't read anything in the article I didn't already know. I never thought exercising would make me burn fat for a long time afterwards. It does for a short time afterwards because your heart rate is elevated. Plus there are lots of studies that show that people who exercised don't necessarily lose weight. As the article mentions, you have to exercise *a lot* to burn off 400 calories, but you can put that in your mouth in no time. I think a lot of people use exercise as an excuse to overeat, in fact. OTOH, between the extra muscle I have and the amount I exercise, I figure I can eat somewhere around 300 calories more a day than I could if I wasn't exercising. For someone who is doing more moderate exercise, maybe they only get a 100 calorie a day margin. But 100 calories a day extra is better than zero calories a day extra, right?

But it might have had that much sodium! :laugh:

Oh and if some random lady you don't know asks you to "watch her pretzel" give her a look like she asked you to watch her bomb and DON'T DO IT! :laugh: Seriously, who would do something like that? That's not normal IMO.

I think sleeves are better if you want to get pregnant. Here's why: You only need about 200 extra calories a day during pregnancy. You can get those in with any of the WLS, no problem. Just drink an extra Protein shake in there somewhere or have an extra snack. However, once pregnancy is over, you want to be able cut those extra calories out and go right back to your old diet. This is easier with a sleeve because it's always there. With the band, they often take out a bit of fill during pregnancy and then, once you deliver, you often find you don't have enough restriction. (I have seen this happen on LapbandTalk many times.) So now you have to go back to the whole fill/unfill routine until you get your sweet spot back. Unfortunately, some people never get it back. That's not a risk I'd want to take! Also, the waiting thing is true for all the WLS types. The doctors want you to lose all your weight and then wait a bit after that to be "metabolically stable." You'll probably lose your weight faster with the sleeve so, in the long run, there should be less waiting to get pregnant. So those are my reasons... but it's definitely not black & white.

She's trying to decide between the two.

There are tons and tons of reasons not to get a band, but I don't think thi sis one of them because, as far as I can tell, you aren't going to suddenly start getting stomach aches from the band. The more likely problems are slippage and erosion. Erosion is largely symptomless, yet very serious. Slippage usually causes reflux and sometimes a sore throat. Other things to worry about: port flipping, tubing or band springing a leak, esophageal spasms, and not being able to get proper restriction.

I found it too chatty with little info. Plus they were chatting about stuff that meant nothing to me. Nothing against them -- they seem very nice -- it just didn't feel like a "home" for me.

Guys, don't sell yourself short with your goal weight. It's possible to lose much more weight with WLS than with a traditional diet because of the hunger control. When I had my first post-op visit with my surgeon, he had 115-130 down in my chart. He asked me what I thought about it. I *thought* "130, okay that's a little lower than my goal of 133, but close enough, but 115? Are you out of your freaking mind." What I *said* was, "um, okay." And guess what? I weighed 116 today! So he was right. I'm 5'1" and I have a small frame so that weight is perfectly fine for me. I am a bit bony on top right now, but I still have fat on the bottom (I'm still one size bigger down there than on top). I definitely don't look unhealthy or "skin and bones" at that weight. I was 110 in HS but I was also shorter. About 4'11". But I think I could actually be 110 again and be perfectly fine. I'm not sure I'm willing to put in the work, but that's different from thinking I don't look good at that weight. :thumbup:

AM: BRIC workout (Spin, run, Abs) PM: "Track" workout but in a park. It was basically a tempo run.