Hey, Banders!

Now that the Fourth of July has passed, we’re well into summer. Hopefully those of you who are experiencing record-setting heat waves have been able to keep cool. Our thoughts and best wishes go out to our members whose power has gone out or who are affected by the wildfires. While we can’t cool you down, LapBandTalk.com can cheer you up…so here’s the next edition of the newsletter that keeps you in touch with the happenings on the boards. Here’s a taste of the newsletter.

• Addressing a burning question – why can losing weight too fast be unhealthy?

• Member Spotlight: Meet Moonlitedi – recently banded and losing fast!

• Bander Challenge: Summer refreshment!

• Tip to improve your Boarding skills – do you know how to use the chat room?

Do these stories pique your curiosity? Then keep reading – and when you’re done, come on by the boards to lend a hand and get some encouragement in return! Of course, contact us if you have any questions or comments. Take care of yourselves and each other!

Sincerely,

Alex Brecher

Founder

LapBandTalk.com

Burning Question: Why is it Dangerous to Lose Weight Too Fast?

We’ve all heard it about a million times by now – your weight loss goal should be one to two pounds per week. That’s the goal for your Green Zone with the lap-band: losing one to two pounds per week while eating your prescribed diet and feeling good. There’s nothing dangerous or wrong with losing less than a pound a week, but it can be a little discouraging. And losing more than two pounds per week? It feels great because you feel so much better as you lose weight. But, there are some good reasons why the doctor cautions you to stick to about two pounds per week.

First, losing weight too fast can set you up for long-term weight struggles. Of course one of your goals during weight loss is to lose weight – obviously! But another goal is to develop the eating habits that will last you for the rest of your life so that you never gain that weight back. If you’re restricting your food and calories so much to lose weight very fast, you’re probably not eating the same way you will be once you hit your goal weight. Once you hit your goal weight, you’ll need to form a whole new set of eating habits – and that can be tough. It’s much better to take a little longer to get to your goal weight and already have the dietary tools you need to keep the weight off.

Another reason to keep your weight loss to around two pounds per week, unless your doctor suggests otherwise, is for your long-term bone health. So many of us think that this is just an important issue for 90-year-old ladies – but it’s not! Everyone needs to be concerned now about their bones so that you don’t get osteoporosis later. Osteoporosis is a condition with low bone mineral density and weak bones. That means you can break your hip, rib, wrist or back very easily. It takes years to develop and probably won’t show up until you’re older. Rapid weight loss can lead to serious losses of bone mineral density and the risk for developing osteoporosis later. Keeping your weight loss to two pounds per week really supports your bone health. Something else you can do to protect your bones is to take the Calcium and Vitamin D supplements that your dietitian recommends. You need about 1,000 milligrams of calcium per day and 2,000IU of Vitamin D.

So these are just a few reasons for keeping your weight loss moderate. The lap-band surgery is all about a healthy lifestyle – not just losing weight as fast as possible in the beginning. Your health always comes first, and the number on the scale will reflect your commitment to health.

Member Spotlight – Moonlitedi!

This week’s Quest to achieve her goal of 140 pounds. Thanks for being in our spotlight, Moonlitedi!

We feature a different LapBandTalk.com member each week in our banana split and go see a movie in an air-conditioned theater. Now, your answer might be to have a low-calorie snow-cone (shaved ice with sugar-free flavored syrup) and walk around the air-conditioned mall. Let us know how you stay cool in the Bander Challenge Forum. In the Challenge forum, you can always look back at the previous challenges and post your results. It’s never too late to try something new.

Tips for the Board – Using the Chat Room

We’ve got thousands of members at LapBandTalk.com, and many of you count each other as some of your closest friends. You already know about using the forums, and you may already use the private messaging system to get in touch with your buddies. Do you know how you can communicate with them and others even more easily? The Chat Room! It’s a real-time chat room for instant messaging with anyone who’s in there. Once you enter, you can type and send messages instantly and have real conversations with the other members. When you’re logged into your LapBandTalk.com account, all you have to do to enter the Chat Room is to click on “Chat” at the top of the page. Welcome!

That’s all we have to this week’s letter. Don’t forget that you can catch up on the old newsletters in the newsletter forum. Come hang out on the boards and spend part of your summer with us!

Take care of yourself and each other,

Alex

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Another downside of losing weight very quickly is that it's associated with gallbladder disease.

I agree. In 04, I lost 50 pounds in about 6 months, and had to have surgery for this. Not fun and the dr said that is most likely what happened.