Paul Clarke

I think we all look at people and think they could benefit from our experience. However I think back to before I started this journey and know how I would have responded, which would not have been terribly well, had I been approached. I see it like someone who has given up smoking or found god. Mostly everyone else does not really want to hear about how they could transform their lives for the better. This is a journey you have to be ready to take. I know that this desire to evangelize comes from a good place, but mostly I don't think we have the right to tell someone we don't know how they should live their lives. Having said all of that, if you want to people watch and secretly judge them, I am all for that. I know I do!

Everyone looses at different rates. For me it is around 0.4lb per day (it goes up an down a little). However my rate relates to the balance between my calories in vs calories out. I have calculated my BMR (Basal Metabolic Rate) at around 2200 calories per day. There are plenty of calculators online which will give you this number. I am consuming an average of 865 calories per day. In order to loose or gain 1 lb you need a deficit or surplus of 3500 calories (more or less). Therefore I have a 1335 caloric deficit which calculates out to a loss of 0.38 lb per day (1335/3500) which is +/- 10% generally of my results. That's not to say even with the same logic you will see consistent results, this just works for me and I have seen plenty of cases where these relationships don't seem to work in other people. My suggestion is to closely track your food intake, and keep a diary like myfitnesspal and once you find an approach and meal plan which works, keep doing that. You will loose at your own rate. There is no real magic too it. Generally speaking the less you eat and the more you burn, the more you will loose. At the end of the day all the surgery does for you is give you the superpower of eating less, the rest is up to you.

That's great progress, congratulations. Its a very long road to travel and I know there are ups and downs, but you should feel justifiably proud of your achievement to date and hold that spark to sustain you as you move forward towards your goal.

Having started this journey at 412lb (BMI 54.4) in April last year, and having lost 102lb prior to my surgery on 1st March 2018, and another 83.5lb since then, I am now officially overweight at a BMI of 29.9! I am still a ways from my goal, but today I am feeling very pleased with myself.

I used to have a massive Diet Coke habit, and would drink the equivalent of 8-10+ cans per day. Knowing that the surgery was in my future I decided to quit it 20 months or so before. That was one of the hardest things I ever had to do and I suffered through terrible withdrawal (headaches, muscle aches, sweating etc). Perhaps that was my because of my withdrawal method (started by halving my consumption, then reduced by a can every few days), but I am glad I didn't try to manage that at the same time of recovering from surgery. I don't think I could have managed, the pain and dietary changes all at ones. I am now some 22 months caffeine free and a little over 2 months post op and glad for all the changes I made in my life. I haven't really been tempted to backslide on drinking Diet Coke, because it was just too hard to quit.

https://www.dsfacts.com/weight-loss-stall-or-plateau.php

I just told them I wasn’t eating. They didn’t seem to mind.

Still on liquid diet, 3 1/2 weeks post op, family vacation. Being strong!

Thank you, I was hoping to hit 100 before surgery but looks like I will come up a couple of pounds short. I didn’t want to waste my pre op time, it’s been a long journey to surgery.