ouroborous

Errr... your current BMI is 22.5, and you don't consider yourself in "maintenance" yet? 25 is considered the cutoff for "normal" BMI, and IIRC, under 20 is considered "underweight" for women (I'm going by memory, so I may be off on the underweight bit). It's your business, not mine, but I'm always sort of startled to see people in the normal, healthy weight and BMI range still considering themselves overweight! Many of us had BMI's of 40, 50, or more, so considering 22.5 "overweight" in any meaningful sense is baffling to me. But -- your body, your choices, so I'll shut up at that

Well, you're right -- it's not weighing yourself that's the problem. You could weigh yourself every five minutes and it's not like it would be bad. It's just that most of us obsess over the number on the scale. Towards the end of your weight loss journey (when your BMI starts to get closer to that magical "normal" figure), your week-by-week (and sometimes even month-by-month) weight loss can and will sometimes be eaten up by an hour-by-hour fluctuation due to Water weight, going (or not going) to the bathroom, what you just ate, and so on. As a result, the actual number on the scale becomes almost meaningless from the perspective of tracking your overall fitness. That being said, if you can avoid the trap of obsessing over the actual number, and learn to use some science and math to plot the trend over time (so that you can see the overall downwards trend, despite all the bumps along the way), you can still do just fine weighing yourself weekly. I wouldn't really advise anyone weighing more than weekly since the information becomes pretty useless for us. Most people just don't have the self-discipline to not freak out over a slight blip on the scale, which is why I think weighing yourself monthly is about perfect. That's a long enough time to "average out" some of the bumps in the road, and short enough that you're not letting a bad trend get too out of control.

If you can weigh yourself monthly, you'll be MUCH happier, trust me. In the beginning, when the big changes occur, you'll be even happier because you'll see even more weight dropping. And when you get further along on your weight loss journey, you'll also be happier because you won't drive yourself bonkers over normal little weight fluctuations. That being said, most sleevers are glued to the scale at the beginning, with some even weighing themselves daily, and beating themselves up for "not losing a pound yesterday." That's just crazy, in my opinion.

I used to be the biggest Diet Coke fan in the world, and since my sleeve, I've basically completely stopped -- cold turkey -- drinking it, and switched to coffee for my caffeine. The carbonation, oddly, didn't bother me at all. It's the acidity that was the kicker; that stuff gave me reflux like you wouldn't believe. In the end, it just wasn't worth it -- I drink coffee when I need a caffeine boost, and when I want that "ice cold, refreshing" feeling, I drink plain old water!

Being heavy definitely ages you. If you can get away with looking 19 when you're 32, count yourself lucky! I'm 41 and look-- exactly my age. That being said, I'd like to believe that I look like a fit, muscular 41! There are worse things... When I actually WAS 19, my first hardcore lust-crush was for a 41 year-old woman, so... until you hit about 55 or 60, I think it's more a matter of how you look and how you feel than anything else

Sadly, even post-sleeve, finding the right mix of looks good, in the mood, and available is... challenging. Doesn't stop the hormones from acting up, though!

I am a HUGE fan of stretching, especially as I get older. Yoga is basically just "extended stretching," and I'm finding that it really helps my sore lower back and hips!

Yeah, I'd wager that the majority of your routine goes towards aerobic workout/burning calories. You sound like you're predisposed towards bulk (probably higher testosterone than average for women; it's not a horrible thing, actually!), so you've probably self-tuned your workout away from challenging your muscles to exhaustion/failure, and more towards doing cardio work. As I said, whatever works for your body is a good choice, but if you want to strengthen/bulk up specific muscle groups (which it sounds like you do NOT want to do), the weight/reps balance is less important than challenging the specific muscle to exhaustion.

Yeah, you have to find a workout that works for you; if your entire routine takes too long, you may have to play around with the weight/reps equation. The sports physiologist in the first video mentions a "90 second anaerobic window" that I'm trying to parse; she seems to be saying that you have to work to fatigue or failure within a 90 second window to produce optimal strengthening/bulking results. I don't know anything about that, but that's just my ignorance of deep sports physiology showing!

Genetics and steroids I saw some anecdotal evidence that shows that almost all of the top male bodybuilders have used some form of anabolic "help"... And yeah, how your muscles look and how strong they are is very different; genetics play a big role in whether your muscles look "big" (large in the "belly" of the muscle) or "lean" (long, with a small "belly"... I tend to lean towards "big" in the upper body and "lean" in the lower body, but my high school friend and weightlifting partner was exactly the opposite!)

You have to find the workout that works for you; it's not that your muscles will respond any better to heavy weights, but if you don't like the workout or can't (or won't) stick with it, then even a more scientifically "correct" workout will be a poor choice, because the most important thing is to find a routine that you will stick with. Like with losing weight, consistency is far more important in the long run. Be safe, challenge your muscles, and stick with it.

You're welcome. It's very, very important to counteract folklore with science and knowledge. Here's another clip, from a (HUGE) professional bodybuilder. One of his last sentences is key: your muscles don't know weight, it knows failure. In other words, your muscle just doesn't "care" if you're using a giant stack of weight or not, it just "knows" when it's being worked to exhaustion.

As an adjunct, for men: using too much weight can be counterproductive. Why? Because even though it may look impressive and wow the other guys in the gym (which, realistically, should be the LAST thing we care about, but still...) it leads to more pain and likelihood of injury, which can temporarily or permanently sidetrack our bodybuilding routines. In the shorter term, higher weights can lead to a faster "cardio" failure (where you end the set because you're out of breath and sweaty, instead of because the muscle you're targeting failed). In this scenario, you've done very little to encourage the muscle to grow, you've just huffed and puffed a bit and impressed the other gym bunnies. And higher weights encourage poorer form, as we do things like rock our body to add enough lift to a standing biceps curl -- but this risks our lower back and actually reduces the intensity of the workout on the biceps. I'm really glad to see my suspicions confirmed with studies; it's far more important that you are consistent and safe and use good form, than that you use big weights.

This is just one example, but at about ~1:20 in, you can see the result of numerous studies on numerous patient groups. The results are striking in their similarity: both low-repetition, high intensity (weight) and high-repetition, lower intensity (weight) sets produced equivalent results, when performed to fatigue or failure. Of course, you have to use enough weight to produce SOME kind of challenge, but men, you do not, not, not need to use the biggest stack of weight possible to "get big" and muscular. The big stacks of weight are the result of lots of bulking up, not the cause (confusing these two is like believing that not having dandruff causes people to use anti-dandruff shampoo, instead of the other way around; it's an easy mistake to make if you just connect the dots -- hey, people without dandruff use anti-dandruff shampoo, therefore... -- and scientists/skeptics call this confusing correlation with causation). Similarly, ladies, higher weights will not cause you to bulk up. Most of you ladies (and many of us men) simply lack the testosterone needed to produce significant muscle bulk, so make sure you're using enough weight to be challenging, or all that toning work will be for nothing. Finally, it doesn't really matter how much weight you use (as long as it's enough to be eventually challenging, of course). There's no difference between "toning" exercise and "bulking" exercise -- challenging your muscles through any route will produce the same physiological neuromuscular changes, over the long run. Whether you "tone" (get long, lean muscles) or "bulk" (get large, bulky muscles) is almost entirely due to your physiology and hormones, and NOT due to the type of sets you do. I'd suspected this for a time (some of the biggest, bulkiest bodybuilders at my gym seem to consistently be doing large numbers of lower-weight sets), so it's good to see it confirmed scientifically. I'm sure that some folks will simply dismiss it out of hand, as it goes against the received gospel of bodybuilding. But it's good to know what science says; I'm happy to learn that I don't have to use huge weights that increase my pain and risk of injury, in order to produce the same advantage. The real key -- like with anything -- is consistency, pushing my limits, and arming myself with knowledge of how my body works. Edit: I forgot to mention this, but it's important. This has ONLY to do with muscle fitness and strength. It has NOTHING to do with training for a particular athletic activity. For instance, to be a good basketball player, you need a certain amount of muscular strength, and for that either high weights/low reps, or low weights/high reps will work. But you also need to train the shots, the defense, the strategy, the cardio endurance, and so on. For these things, the equation is completely different. My post is only about bulking/strengthening/toning muscles, where the amount of weight used is irrelevant.

Just another note on this topic: the combination of lunges every morning plus leg-intensive cardio every morning is already making a noticeable difference. I still do leg work at the gym (although I've switched from smith machine squats to the leg press machine). I'm discovering that for me, high rep count is arguably more important than big weights; I just don't get that wobbly-legged burn with low rep, high weights exercises, and I don't bulk up/tone up without the burn. I'm starting to think that a lot of the "accepted gospel" of weightlifting (go heavy or go home, etc.) is just a fairy tale. I think I'll look for some sports medicine research instead of relying upon what "everybody knows" (which is almost always wrong).

Actually I think getting rid of your scale wouldn't be a bad idea. If you're like me, you have other places you can weigh yourself -- at the gym, at your doctor/nutritionist's office, etc. And getting rid of the scale at home will help you kick the habit of obsessing over tiny, normal fluctuations.

Sounds about right -- post surgery until about 8-12 months out, it's VERY common to have a "foggy brain." It has more to do with surgery and general anesthesia than anything else; there are numerous studies documenting it. It would be the same if you had your appendix removed or a tummy tuck -- it ain't ghrelin. No worries even if you WERE disagreeing. I was just trying to make sure nobody saw this thread and panicked. From what I can read of the science, there's simply no cause for concern right now. Yes, if you ask a big enough group of people about a broad enough set of poorly-defined symptoms (and, let's face it, who HASN'T felt "fuzzy brained" sometimes?), you'll get some people saying "yes, by golly, I've had that happen!" The problem is that I've seen on forums like this where that can lead to people getting all worked up over nothing. There are REAL issues with the sleeve, including things like scar-line problems, C. difficile infection, and so on. But as far as I can tell, losing your memory isn't one of those issues -- if it's gonna happen, it's not gonna be the sleeve's fault!

So, my reading of this parallels with yours: the ghrelin-related neuron mediation seems to be specifically in the hypothalamic areas regulating feeding. It's like my pituitary adenoma; it's sensitive to dopamine, but only locally so -- I cannot infer systemic dopamine effects just based upon the one neoplasm. In short: if I'm reading this study correctly, it doesn't indicate generalized memory loss from ghrelin loss. Relax, folks. And one more time with feeling: the negative effects of obesity, including the negative mental effects of obesity, are far more dangerous than anything they've found from the VSG yet. I'm not saying they won't ever find some serious side effect, but this isn't the smoking gun. To all those saying "ever since the surgery, I've felt foggy!!!!" -- beware of self-diagnosis. My guess is that you're far "sharper" than you think you are, and you're just anxious about feeling foggy. And if you really are foggy in any way, there are far, far, far more likely causes -- from sleep deprivation to mild water/nutritional imbalances -- than ghrelin issues. So again, folks: relax.

It must be something in the air (or maybe I just slept well) because I've been "frisky" all day. Even during my fitness walk (which is usually an oasis of peace and tranquility in my otherwise-busy software developer's day) I was scoping out all young moms who were out in the middle of the day. Jeesh...

Then you stop losing weight. You can't lose weight forever; eventually weight loss becomes unhealthy. However, given your current weight, I'd wager it's going to be a while for you before you get there yet. There will be stalls and plateaus, sure. But if you keep coming back to that core of discipline, you'll get there. And the "diet" shouldn't have to be a diet; it's just the way we're all supposed to eat all the time. It's not about denying yourself or berating yourself, it's about sane, sensible eating. Check your portion sizes, eat your Protein first, then your complex carbs (leafy, green vegetables, etc.), then your simple carbs (potatoes, rice), and THEN, if you have room, you can have dessert -- but a SMALL portion. If you're like me, you wanted to skip the meal and go right to dessert! Plus, drink your Water -- make sure you're getting around 60-80 ounces per day in one form or another (a bonus is that you won't feel so hungry). And finally, you have to move -- I understand how limited your mobility is, but the point is to keep pushing yourself, move as much as you can, as safely as you can. If you still feel like you're too heavy to walk, see if you can find something like an aqua aerobics class (great exercise, and very low impact -- good for the joints). Try a yoga class -- pretty good for the joints and good sweating! We all have our own unique problems and limitations, but what you CAN'T do is give up and decide that you're doomed, because that will become self-fulfilling. I assure you that no matter what your age or weight or physical condition, there are people who were older, fatter, and sicker than you who have lost weight and led healthy, happy lives; the key is making the decision to do whatever is necessary to get there. Sorry if I sound like an infomercial, but sometimes I think that's what we all need

There are electroresistive scales (usually at gyms, but you can buy them on Amazon for less than 100 bucks) that do a fair-to-middling job of measuring your body fat percentage. Skin fold calipers are a bit touchy for folks like us with (potentially) lots of loose skin. It can throw off the readings a bit; that being said, ALL measurement techniques have a degree of error. Even the dunk tank can be thrown off by excessive gas (I kid you not!) As to the "obsession" -- well, it's not an obsession. It's more like a combination of health monitoring (just like a diabetic takes their blood sugar reading regularly, I have to make sure my weight is healthy) and a personal challenge (just how strong, fit, athletic can I really BE?) And yes, like Diva says, it's for life; either you commit to that or you're not going to have the best results (you'll still lose weight with the sleeve, but you're just not going to "be the best you can be").

I'd recommend supportive underwear. Gals have to wear supportive bras, it's just nature evening things out a little bit...

Ideally, we should only really weigh ourselves about once a month (not even once a week). But I'll be the first to admit that it's hard to be patient when you're hoping against hope to hit some "magical" number (onederland for a lot of us, although I strongly doubt I'll ever get below 200, and I'm really okay with that...) Best is to just not focus on the numbers on the scale too much, and focus on other measurements like body fat percentage or skeletal muscle percentage or waist diameter, etc. Better yet, focus on all the good stuff -- how much better you feel about your body, how much more energy you have, how much better your clothes fit, etc. The scale will just drive you nuts!

Just a quick tidbit. Last week at weigh-in on Friday morning, I was just a tad over 216, which puts me at right around 15 pounds to goal. This morning I stepped on the scale, and was shocked to see 223.7! I KNOW I've been good, eating carefully, exercising a LOT (tons of cardio plus weight training plus calisthenics at home plus now yoga), so there was no reason for that much of a change. On a whim, I stepped off and back on the scale -- hmm, 221.5. Somehow I'd lost two pounds in 30 seconds. Oh right, where you stand on a scale and what your posture is, etc., drastically affects the weight reading. Weighed a couple more times, same number, around 221. So then I thinks "oh wait, I've had one and a half BIG (22 oz) cups of coffee this morning." I know the old "a pint (16oz)'s a pound" adage, but just to be sure, I go weigh a full cup of coffee, and it's almost three pounds. So, I've drank four pounds of coffee -- check. Then I realize: oh, I usually weigh in boxers or in the buff before my shower, and I'm wearing sweat pants and a t-shirt; surely those can't weigh more than a few ounces? No -- they weighed nearly three pounds. So I chuckle, realize that the scale is just not super accurate, and go about my day. I do my morning calisthenics plus my cardio (30 minutes of intense sweating, probably losing another pint of fluid). I go upstairs to shower, and weigh again in the buff, after going pee, using my regular foot positioning and posture -- 216.7. What does it mean? THE SCALE LIES. It's good to keep an eye on your weight, but you simply CANNOT get too hung up on little blips along the way. You can EASILY swing the number a couple pounds in one way or another just by standing differently. For the reading to have ANY use, you have to make sure that every damn thing is the same -- same amount of Fluid, same clothing, same time of day, same position and posture on the scale, everything. Even then, tiny Water weight gains can add or remove a couple pounds in a day, easy -- and when you're further along the weight loss thing, like me, it's good to lose a pound or two (of fat!) per month, so these "little" scale fluctuations can EASILY swallow up your "real" weight (fat) changes, and you simply can NOT let yourself get too hung up. Better is to measure your body fat percentage, if you have access to a body fat scale (or best yet, a dunk tank) since what you really want is not for your weight to go down, but your FAT to go down. Also, measure your shape changes -- tummy, hips, arms, legs, etc. -- so that you can see where your body shape is changing even when your weight isn't (even though my weight has been stubbornly in the 215-220 range for a while now, I can tell that I'm getting *buff*, so it's still progres). Bottom line, the scale lies. PLEASE don't get too hung up on the exact number. It'll drive you nuts! Just keep doing what you're supposed to do (eat lots of lean Protein, lots of good complex carbs, drink lots of water, get lots of exercise) and... live your life! Edit: I should add that my scale is a good, high quality weight watchers scale; it's about as good and accurate (even for larger weights) as you're going to get in a non swing-arm scale (you know, the kind in the doctor's office). It's not just a case of a crappy scale, it's a case of all scales being imprecise, and other factors making as much of a difference as actual fat weight changes.

Indeed! And even though I've lost a humongous amount of fat, I want to look GOOD, not just like a deflated balloon! Some of that loose skin isn't going to go away without yet ANOTHER visit to the good doctor (sigh... tummy tuck) but with work you can "fill out" most of the other problem areas.