MacMadame

Well, I never stalled... there are more of us, but mostly we don't say anything when people who do stall talk about stalls as if they are inevitable. It feels too much like rubbing it in. I see a number of causes: 1) People declare they are stalled anytime they weigh and scale isn't less than the last time. But not losing every day or every couple of days is not a stall. A stall is not losing for at least 2 weeks, maybe 3-4. So, stalling happens less often than people talking about stalling happens. :001_tongue: 2) scales give your absolute weight and not just how may pounds of fat you've lost. So they will also include any BMs you haven't got rid of, Water weight you are retaining for a number of reasons, undigested food, etc. From what I've seen, a primary cause of stalls for people who really are in a calorie deficit is retaining water. This is particularly true in the early days when people have trouble getting in all their water. The less you drink, the more you retain water. If you eat a lot of prepared foods, you get a lot of sodium and retain water. If it's that time of the month, you retain water. If you start exercising, your muscles break down and release water, but then your body puts the glycogen back into them and that requires water. So starting an exercise program can cause you to retain water too. (But, over time, you usually get to steady state and this becomes less of an issue.) The best way to deal with this is to drink a LOT of Fluid and watch your salt intake. It will help even out what you see on the scale. So you won't see 0 one week and 7 the next, but 2-4 both weeks. For some people, that's less frustrating. 3) Some people don't track what they are eating (or don't track accurately) and/or how much they are exercising and so they are eating way more than they think they are and/or moving their bodies way less. This tends to be the cause of stalls later out when people can eat a lot more and are mentally out of the honeymoon period. If this is you, then you aren't stalled so much as you've really stopped losing weight because your calorie deficit has disappeared and you need to make some changes to get your weight loss started again. Adding in more exercise and tracking your food help a lot. 4) Not having enough energy can cause your body to conserve energy and often times this is subconscious so you don't even realize it. Maybe you are sleeping a little more, sitting down more, walking less. Your body will also slow down your heart rate and other bodily functions in a bid to conserve energy. You can combat this by eating a lot of Protein and by exercising, but not everyone does that, especially in the early days when we're still recovering from surgery and may have exercise restrictions and/or are using all our energy for healing. Sometimes adding in more protein helps with this as it provides a steady stream of energy rather than the quick spike that carbs provide. So can adding in more exercise as it helps the metabolism and it helps increase the calorie deficit. I think a large part of why I didn't have a stall is that I did track everything religiously. Then, when my weight loss slowed down, I could look for causes. Inevitably, I'd notice I was slacking off on my exercise and I'd pick it back up and the weight loss would pick back up too. But sometimes the problem was my water or protein consumption. Or too much sodium. Whatever it was, I'd fix it before I got to the stall stage. I still lost in a stair step pattern -- large losses one week, small the next -- Now that I'm maintaining, I can see that I definitely retain water when I ovulate and when I get my period. If I hadn't been so strict with my calories and my protein & water consumption, I bet I would have had a lot more weeks with zero loss. And that would have driven me crazy!! :thumbdown: Tracking everything and being pro-active worked better for my personality.:thumbup1:

I like Spanx because they are comfortable and also you can keep wearing them even when technically they are a size or two too large and they still do a reasonable job of keeping everything in and not jiggling.

I had trouble knowing when I was full early out too. But as my stomach healed, it got easier. Now I mostly just know and the only issue is whether I'm going to listen or not. I'm thinking this started to get a lot better around the 12 week mark. Weeks 7 through 12 were what I refer to as my "pissy period" and constantly taking "one bite too many" and not being able to eat what I considered "reasonable" quantities were a large part of it.

I didn't have drainage tubes either. I did have glue put over my staple line. I also had something called "buttress" used. It's this gauze-like material that is put into the stapler and then the staples go through it.

My problem with Nair is that it doesn't get all the hair off unless I leave it on forever and then it burns. Though maybe it's better now.

The Food and Feelings Book by Karen Koenig.

I thought about it but decided it wasn't something I wanted to do. I do get my eyebrows waxed and sometimes my lips and chin. I have been thinking about laser hair removal but I'm a big chicken. Anyone have any experience with it?

I can do frozen yogurt but ice cream bothers me sometimes. I can do cheese and regular yogurt though.

My surgeon says we can drink right up until we eat. I did a little reading on it and haven't found anything to contradict him. But we are also told to wait 45 min. after because the stomach doesn't empty very much in the first 20-30 minutes. I find that if i don't wait at least 30 min. but preferably 45 - 60, that I do get hungry again sooner. That wasn't true in the beginning when I wasn't very hungry at all, but it became true the farther out I got.

You aren't going to need to take something to control your hunger. The sleeve does that for you. Your ghrelin will be close to zero and every time you eat, your vagus nerve will send a signal to your brain saying you are full. So you'll have two methods of hunger control going for you.

I became lactose intolerant after surgery. It's fairly common and not just with the sleeve.

I have had hunger off and on since the beginning. But it's not like it was before. Pre-op, I'd have this voice SCREAMING in my head to eat and I'd spend a lot of energy fighting it... YOU'RE HUNGRY. I can't be hungry, I just ate. BUT YOU ARE. I'm sure I'm not really. YOU ARE AND YOU'LL DIE IF YOU DON'T EAT SOMETHING RIGHT NOW!! My hunger that I have now is nothing like that. It's just a realization that my body needs fuel. In the early days, it was a weak and empty feeling. These days it's more like regular hunger but it's easy to ignore, if it's not convenient to eat.

When I was self-employeed, I had to pay $400 a month for my health insurance. I was able to get both kids for around that and dh was covered at work. So we were paying about $800 a month for health insurance and crappy insurance at that. I couldn't qualify for the BCBS policy that my kids were under either because of my weight. I had to be on dh's group plan and $400 was the company's cost for a spouse. It was a very tough time and I'm glad now that I have group plan coverage that my company mostly pays for. I don't know how people who don't get insurance on the job can do it.

Also, make sure it won't be a problem if you lose weight during the 6 months and drop below a 40 BMI. Usually it isn't, but a few insurance companies will then tell you that you aren't qualified any more!

Yes, Dr. C mentioned that once too. I think this is part of why they don't *require* weight loss prior to surgery. They recommend it and it really is better for you if you can lose, say, 10 lb. They also have patients that they *strongly* recommend lose as much as 25 lb. But, if the patient tries and doesn't lose all they recommend, they do the surgery anyway. They said that their experience has shown them that, after a certain amount of time has passed, if the weight isn't lost, it's not going to be lost and insisting the patient lose it is just saying "we'll never give you surgery." I've read lots of news stories about people who are SMO trying to get surgery and being told to lose 70 to 100 lb. and dying before they can do so. It makes me mad!

I think illegal immigrants should be allowed to buy health coverage because it costs us less in the long run if they pay into the system and don't just take out. I'm practical like that. I also think our system is very obviously broken and therefore I'm willing to try something different.

We just talked about this at my support meeting tonight! This newsletter has an article about it: http://hosted.verticalresponse.com/170003/876c7b0b84/141361/3cf3c3cf63/

I don't have personal experience with it, but my understanding is that they put in the stent and then take it out when you are healed. Once you are healed, you are healed... it can take a while though.

Protein, protein, protein! :drool5:

I think the problem is that she came in complaining of "not feeling right" and she was dehydrated and had symptoms of that so they didn't look further. When I didn't feel right, I demanded they check for a blood clot even though I had vague symptoms. (I was passing a kidney stone.) But I went to an ER at a hospital that had a bariatric department.

Suzy - it really depends on your insurance and lots of doctors have no idea what the requirements are so you can't trust their judgment.

Yes, it was upseting for those of us who knew her. The symptoms are pain at the site of the clot and it often feels hot (if it's in a leg). When I had mine, it was in my lung and I felt like someone was scraping it with sandpaper when I moved.

Not for more than 5 years though. (Show hasn't been on that long.) Studies show the chances of keeping off a large weight loss like that are somewhere in the 1-5% range. But shows like this makes it seems like it is attainable for anyone if they are dedicated enough. We know it's not about dedication or willpower or learning stuff from personal experience. If it was, most of us wouldn't be here!

The Couch to 5K program! Couch to 5k - C25K Running Program

I was never athletic as a kid either, but now I am a triathlete with less than 17% body fat.