MacMadame

I only use bars that have the same or less carbs than Protein. These sorts of bars are few and far between! But they exist. Pure protein is one and the other I like is the Supreme protein brand.

Ooh. I love charts and graphs.

I was 37 BMI when I got my sleeve. Isn't funny that world tells us we are fat cows until we want WLS and then they tell us we're "not heavy enough"?

I asked my surgeon about this. He said don't eat until you get that horrible pain in your chest that feels like an elephant is stepping on you.

There are no stats in peer reviewed journals for over 3 years but there are stats. There are 5 year stats that are in the process of being published. I have a bunch of links about the VSG here: MacMadame's Profile Oh and just to set the record straight... I'm not a revision. The sleeve is my first (and hopefully last) WLS.

I also have been on WW and JC many times and they were very clear that I was eating about 1200 calories a day. It was on all the materials they gave me. They also told me to expect to lose 1-2 lb. a week. Which fits the math for that level of calories.

I eat about every 3-4 hours. So that works out to about 3 "meals" and 2 Snacks. However, when I am working out, that all goes out the window. What I've worked out for myself is to eat like an endurance athlete right before, during & after working out and like a bariatric person the rest of the time. So I may have my afternoon snack then go to the track to run and drink a sports drink the entire time and have a Protein Bar afterwards. Then I go home and have dinner. So is that 1 snack and 1 meal or 3 snacks and 1 meal? I count it as 1 snack and 1 meal and the sports drink and Protein bar, I count as "fuel" for the workout. After all, one my days off, I don't consume them because I'm not working out. Of course, this is all still in flux because I'm only now starting to go into maintenance mode. But I am working out so much now that I have to do something or I'll become skin and bones! I workout 2x a day for 5 days a week and burn 500-1000 calories with each workout. If I counted that in my regular diet, I'd start eating all sorts of junk to get my calorie count up and I'd have to eat constantly. I like the idea of having separate workout "fuel" that is only associated with workouts. I think that will give me good habits that will work even if I go through a period where I can't work out as much.

Okay, back from the gym. I did a 1:05 spin class geared to road cyclists. Then I sat in the jacuzzi and finished my Protein drink. Then I swam some laps for 20 min. (I'm guessing it was about half a mile). Then I ran for 35 min. The first part of that was recalibrating my Nike+ and warming-up and the last part was a cool-down. In between I ran 2 miles at "tempo" pace. Which was 5.5 for the first 1.5 miles and 5.9 for the last .5. I've NEVER run that fast before so I was very happy.

I calibrated my Nike+ again with my new shoes today. It's supposed to be more accurate. I guess we'll see.

I don't believe this. liquid goes right through the band. What gets people in trouble is cheating on the liquid diet by eating solid food. This does lead to throwing up sometimes, but a lot of times nothing happens outwardly, but inwardly the stomach doesn't heal around the band properly and down the road you get slippage or other problems.

I think you are expending effort to hold yourself up and balance the bike. I don't know how much, but more than sitting.

18 mi. bike ride with hill repeats. Then I joined a gym so tomorrow I'm going to do a spin class and swim laps in the pool.

I just got new running shoes and they are Nike so I can put my sensor in my sole! I'm psyched.

The surgeons' office doesn't do a payment plan, per se. They hook you up with a medical loan company. At least most of the time it works like that. They want their money up front. The hospital and anesthesiologist, too. Alternately, you can also borrow from your 401k via a loan or use your savings or credit cards. Some people refinance their homes. Of course, with the economy the way it is, less people can do that these days. Another way is through a HSA, if your company offers such a think. I paid for part of my surgery that way. I said I was going to put in 5000 that year in Aug (the max allowed) and then in Sept, I got a check for the whole $5000 even though I hadn't put that much in yet. It's like an interest free loan. Though, if I left the company, I'd have to pay the remainder back on my last day.

I was pretty sure Tara wouldn't win. The way they determine the winner is screwing IMO and favors those who start heavier. Let's put it this way, if I had 100 lb. to lose and you had 150, then I could lose all 100 lb. and you could lose less than that and you'd still beat me.

But you said it was ALL technique and size doesn't matter. If someone is lurking who is contemplating a surgeon uses a 48 f, I don't want them thinking "oh, it doesn't matter, as long as he has good technique." It most certainly does matter once you get past a certain size.

But most surgeons find the their sleeve patients lose as much as their RnY patients. RnY isn't a sleeve plus malabsorption -- it's a very different surgery in many ways so you are comparing apples and oranges. My surgeon has done 1600 of them over an 8 year period. He has plenty of numbers -- at least enough to satisfy me. :wink2: Yep. Sometimes I say "I regret I didn't do this 20 years ago" but the reality is that bariatric surgery was nowhere near where it is now back then and the cost-benefit analysis would have not made sense to me back then.

Most bike frames have a weight rating. It's pretty high. They aren't soda cans. :thumbup: I think most of them can hold at least 300 lb.

What does being well-liked have to do with being a good lapband patient? :thumbup: I completely disagree with this. We all know that diets don't work. They don't work because they don't provide hunger control so eventually you can't stick to them any more. I'm really dismayed that people who have had WLS and are failed dieters would pass judgement on another person's inability to keep off the pounds after a diet. We have ALL been through the same thing... when you are losing, you are motivated. But when you get to goal or plateau, the motivation to constantly deprive yourself lessens and your ability to force yourself not to eat when you are very hunger also lessens. And the weight starts coming back on... We don't know what Kirstie's motivation was. Yes, she was paid, but that doesn't mean she wasn't motivated by other considerations such as health and wanting her life back.

I'm taking about 32 vs. 48, not 32 vs 34. There is plenty of clinical data that you need to remove enough stomach to have success. One study found you have to remove at least 500cc. No matter what your technique, you can't do that with a 48 f or larger because, no matter how tight you butt up against the boughie, you can't get past a certain point. To us lay people, a ml seems small, but at our support group meeting this week my surgeon told us "10 ml is huge" when it comes to weigh loss and regain. The 5 year data from LapSF shows a 20% difference in weight loss between when they used a 48 f and a 32 f. That's a BIG difference. Sure, someone can use a 32 f and make huge sleeves by not pushing up against the boughie tight enough. That's why you have to also look at the surgeon's track record. But you can't use a 48 f and make a tiny sleeve no matter how good your technique is.

How much Protein did your doctor tell you to get in each day? From what I've read, women on a very low calorie diet should get 70-90 g of protein a day in order to avoid as much loss of muscle mass as possible. If you do intense exercise, you need more. As for how to consume it, it's up to you. That concentrated stuff tends to taste awful so I wouldn't buy a lot of it until you are sure you can stomach it. You can take the approach of downing it all at once like medicine or you can put it in things to try to disguise it.

In the early days, the size of your stomach is determined by how swollen it is. That's individual.

That's a fantastic time. I can't run a 5k that fast!

Actually, it says I weigh 55 lb. more than I do. :thumbup:

16 miles your first time? That's amazing! I had a bike fit and now my hoo-ha goes numb. I have to go back. They told me to get a smaller seat, but I didn't want to change it out 4 days before a race. Apparently, my butt is smaller than I thought. Isn't that cool? You just need a frame that fits your height. The weight is really irrelevant to a good fit.