ouroborous

Congratulations to you, too. And yes, it IS a great feeling. I know that substantively, there's nothing really different between 95 lbs and 100 lbs, but sometimes that extra digit makes all the psychological difference in the world!

I should add that my next goal is 226.8. Since I'm averaging about a pound a week at this point, that means that right around early-mid May (almost exactly a year out from surgery), I should achieve the goal of moving from morbidly obese, to obese, to just "overweight" -- according to the BMI charts. Of course, with a BMI of 29.9, that's pushing it, but it still qualifies! Since I'm extremely heavily built (no really, that's not just a euphemism like "big boned" -- genetically, I'm built somewhat like a tank), I doubt that a "normal" BMI weight of 185 lbs is EVER going to happen (I would seriously have to look and be anorexic), but I'll be content with just being "a little overweight." That's good company! Now I just need to get back into my exercise routine and start packing on some muscle for summer!

Well, I've been saying I've lost "about" 100 lbs for a while now, because at ~95 lbs, that's true. But today, I tipped the scale at 229.8, which means that I've lost just OVER 100 lbs since my surgery last May. Huzzah! Plus, it's nice to be in another weight bracket -- the 220's -- again. And I'm really enjoying clothes that fit (and some attention from the ladies!) All good things. It's going to be a FUN summer!

And then some...

If you have a good PS, the scars are not as devastating as y'all are making out. But still, it's a very personal decision. I'm still on the fence about it; I'm only about 9 mos. out now, so I have a ways to go before I have to make up my mind!

Just a quicky here; while I was in Hawaii, I discovered that I can now comfortably wear a 38 inch waist jeans, shorts, and slacks. The last time I could fit into pants with smaller than a 40 inch waist, I was 18 years old. I'm well on track to "bottoming out" at around a 36 inch waist by my birthday in June, and given how solidly built my legs and butt are (TMI?) that's going to be just about cloth on muscle and bone, very little fat. So that's a tremendously great feeling; to be fitting into clothes that I haven't fit into since I was a teenager! And only 9 months out! Huzzah!

I can't speak for anyone else, but for this guy, well... I have been overweight or obese my entire life. The last time I wore jeans with a waistband smaller than a 40 was *before* high school. Now, during my Hawaii trip, I discovered that I can fairly comfortably wear a size 38 waist slacks, and I'm pretty much on track to get down to a size 36 by my next birthday. The last time I wore that, I was *16 frigging years old*. So, maybe some of it is marketing changes, but men's waistbands are measured in inches, not "small" or "extra large" -- so there's not a lot of wiggle room there! In many ways, the sleeve has made me the slimmest I've pretty much EVER been since I was a child. I wouldn't be surprised to find it had done the same for you, too!

Fat turns testosterone into estrogen. Estrogen is not good for men. Low testosterone is not good for men. Before weight loss surgery, my total testosterone was just over 300 ng/dl. Per this page, you can see that this is WAYYY too low for a guy my age (40-ish at the time, 40 now). Now that I've lost 80 pounds, without doing ANYTHING else, without getting shots or the patch or anything, my last testosterone measurement was 550 ng/dl. This is still slightly below median, but I'm still fat! And even so, I've nearly DOUBLED my testosterone levels, simply by losing weight. No herbs, no pills, no "Extenze," nothing, just fat loss. And yes, morning wood and libido have come back with a vengeance -- there's a direct correlation, because the morning tends to be when our testosterone levels peak, which is also related to getting a good night's sleep, which is ALSO connected to, you guessed it, obesity. So YES, losing weight will bring back the "little guy" in the morning, and I could even see it causing wet dreams if it made your T spike high enough. Enjoy it! It probably won't stay spiked forever (our bodies tend to downregulate unusually high T levels back to "normal" eventually), but it should be fun times (for you AND your wife) while it lasts

Congratulations! It goes so fast! Enjoy your sleeve!

For me, it was the only POSSIBLE way out. But not EASY... It takes a fair amount of work. It's just that for me, without the sleeve, serious weight loss was pretty much impossible.

Yeah, major surgery and eating 600-1000 calories per day... the easy way out! *wink*

Just a small scale victory, but somehow, while on vacation in Hawaii, I lost almost 7 lbs! Plus, I finally broke the 240 lb barrier, weighing in at 239.7 lbs! I felt like I ate a lot of junk food, but the truth is I wasn't eating much at all (too busy having fun to eat!) and most of it was Protein. That plus snorkeling and having fun in the sun all day means weight loss galore. So, thank you, sleeve, for making my vacation a weight loss success along with a vacation success! Now if I could just kick this stupid cold I picked up on the plane ride back (*grumble grumble kids who don't cover their mouths when they cough grumble*)

Thanks for all the kind words! And y'all definitely get it; even if you're not going to act on it, it's nice to get "looked at!"

So, just a couple of short NSV's from Saturday night! I was out for dinner with some friends, and I was walking through our local Red Robin (note: the Ensenada chicken Platter is fairly sleeve-friendly; high Protein, not ENORMOUS portion sizes), and a couple of nice things happened in quick succession. First, I had my hands in my jeans pockets. Now, non-obese people probably wouldn't understand, but you guys might: my jeans fit me well these days (not giant and baggy, and not skin tight) and I noticed that having my hands in my jeans pockets felt... comfortable! I didn't feel like my hands were going to be severed at the wrists. I didn't feel like I had to bow my arms out over a huge gut. I didn't feel like my jeans were going to fall off and I had to "hold them up" with my hands. Everything just fit... right... and my hands felt comfortable! That was nice! Second, I noticed a couple of the waitresses there "checking me out." This was a nice ego boost since I'm 40 and I'd wager that the average age of the wait staff was 21-25. Now I"m no Brad Pitt and I never will be, but it's nice to feel at least "average" in appearance again, isn't it? Even if you don't intend to DO anything about it, it's nice to get "checked out" by the opposite sex once in a while! Just a couple of NSV's there that I figured I'd share!

The first few days after surgery, I felt a little weak, but that was from the surgery, not the diet. Remember that if you're obese (like you should be if you're getting this surgery!) you have a LOT of fat reserves. You could probably live without a bite of food for over a month (although after a week or so you'd feel horrible). After the recovery from the surgery -- about two days, for me -- I felt more energetic than ever, and it just keeps improving!

The puking is usually due to an autologous HGH dump, and it's rare for folks past 40 or so to be able to generate that much HGH. I miss my old college days of "pump Iron till you puke" (then replaced by "drink beer till you puke" -- yes, I was not a delicate flower back in those days ) Now I have to go look up P90x!

Well, this is sort of anticlimactic after other posts on the same subject, but I just got back from the sleep doc this morning to get my results from my last sleep study, and it's official: I'm cured. When I had my first study, in 2001, at 310 lbs, I was having 61 events per hour. Now, at 248-ish lbs, I was having <1 event per hour -- even on my back (which is where apnea is typically worst). He said that they consider the cutoff for apnea to be 5 events per hour, so I don't even fall into the "mild" category -- I'm cured! Now I will say this, I've tried sleeping without my CPAP and it's HARD. I've really gotten into the habit, and it feels... odd... to be without it. But my doc said that's normal; he said it may take me a month or so before sleeping without the horrible machine feels "normal" again. So I just have to soldier through it and break the habit of sleeping with hoses and straps and masks attached to my head! So, it's official -- I'm cured, thanks to the sleeve! (Plus my blood pressure was phenomenal agagin, 110/70, 65 resting pulse... all good things!)

Congratulations! I just got back from the sleep doctor an hour ago with the same news: my apnea is cured! Isn't it great?

As I answered in the other post on the same topic, it's extremely unlikely that your hunger is due to Splenda. Hunger is an EXTREMELY complicated phenomenon and is very normal -- the body needs hunger to survive, so there are multiple, redundant pathways to signal hunger to the brain. It's VERY unlikely that Splenda alone is some kind of magical hunger-signaling compound. Drink Water when you're hungry. Even better, EAT -- but eat something healthy and filling, like lean Protein or raw vegetables (whatever works with your sleeve). Hunger is not the enemy.

Sigh... the standard "stay away from it... IT'S CHEMICALS!" scare tactics they used to use against Nutrasweet. I swear someone somewhere is getting paid to distribute these hit pieces. On-topic: it's likely that your hunger has nothing to do with Splenda; the lab studies on sweeteners and hunger actually showed a correlation between sweet TASTES and hunger; so ANY sweetener, including Stevia or cane sugar, would have this effect. Far more likely is that your hunger uptick is a normal metabolic effect. Rather than trying to force yourself to never be hungry, how about eating filling, healthy things? Hunger is NORMAL.

Anyone got any suggestions for me on veggies that are sleeve-friendly? Here's the sitch; post-sleeve, I have a really hard time with all of the "good for me" veggies that I used to enjoy (broccoli, cauliflower, asparagus, raw carrots). All of these tend to be very fibrous and plug me up quickly. Other veggie choices are either just basically blobs of carbs (I'm looking at you, potatoes) or squash -- which makes me yak. So post-sleeve, I really haven't eaten much veggies at all. How can I increase my veggie intake to remain healthy? What veggies/way of preparing them are you guys finding work with your sleeves? Any thoughts?

That is a great story, thanks for posting it! I think a lot of us here have the same fear of regaining the weight because we've all been through this roller-coaster. I did a LOT of research before letting them cut me open, and that was something really important to me -- I want this to be a "for life" fix for my weight problems, not a "for a year or so" fix. Even knowing that all the research points to this being durable weight loss, it's still nice to hear success stories like your coworker's!

Congratulations! Doesn't it feel great?

This is an odd NSV, but I was putting on my jeans this morning, and I was checking that my belt was looped through all of the belt loops correctly. I didn't realize it until after the fact, but today was the first time I didn't have to lift up a layer of flab to accomplish this! I was able to just look down at my belt, you know, all normal-like! That was a bit of a "holy cow!" moment. It's a really pleasant feeling to not have to be constantly lifting up layers of flab to see stuff "south of the equator."

Drinking too much/too fast can lead to some wicked bad reflux. As long as that's not a problem and your doc doesn't have a concern with it (and of course, you're not in pain/vomiting), I wouldn't worry too much about going a little over.