So I finally saw my nut today. If I worked really hard and had a bit of luck I could get my surgery before the new year. But after some thought, financially it will be a it better to wait. So we are aiming for the first week of January. So excited to see some progress!

However the Cleveland clinic requires 10% weight loss (roughly 20lbs for me). It's extremely hard for me to lose weight (thus the surgery). With my excess weight my knees and back hurt like hell and with my meds I'm always hungry.

Anyone have any tips to beat hunger and exercises I can do that won't push my back and knees? My nut wasn't much help. ????

Anything but swimming for exercise please. I know it's best but the idea of a bathing suit at a gym pool terrifies me beyond belief.

I would focus on low carb eating to help curb hunger while still losing weight. If you restrict yourself to lean meats and green veggies, most people can eat basically as much as they want and still lose weight. Make sure you prepare the foods in a low-carb, low-calorie way: no slathering them with butter, sauces, highly caloric salad dressings, cheese, etc.

Diet is far more important than exercise when it comes to weight loss. But using an elliptical trainer, riding a bike, or just going walking might be options for you.

@@Adrianabelle - walking

I was required to give up carbonated beverages and caffeine prior to surgery. So at the beginning of the process I went cold turkey on my 6 diet Coke a day habit. On that change alone, I lost 20 pounds. But I suffered a week of withdrawal syndrome due to the caffeine. So it was better to go through that well ahead of time than just before surgery so as not to compound the problems.

I would suggest walking 30 minutes per day for exercise. It will make your recovery process go more smoothly.

Anything but swimming for exercise please. I know it's best but the idea of a bathing suit at a gym pool terrifies me beyond belief.

I swim laps and do Water aerobics at the Y and have been since before my surgery. Believe me when I say that no one is looking at you. Really. If anything, they are glad to see you making the attempt. We have a few morbidly obese people in the water aerobics classes and no one looks or says anything negative.

If that's not enough to convince you, I've seen people wearing shorts and tank tops in the water either over or instead of bathing suits.

@@Adrianabelle There is so much you can do to help yourself get to that goal so you can have your surgery. You can start making those life style changes now and do them slowly to integrate them into your life style before your surgery date.

Many of these changes are going to help you once you have your surgery and in learning them now they will also help you to drop some weight. Carbonation is a big no, no. So if you are drinking and fizzy drink start weaning yourself off of them they are gassy and unattractive after surgery to say the least about them

Start eating a lean high Protein diet and lowering the amount of carbohydrates you consume. Don't cut it all out in one shot do it slowly, by increasing the amount of protein in your meal to the amount of carbs. Start using a tracker like myfitnespal to see how much you actually are consuming and then try to lower those calories as you move forward.

As far as fitness goes, I agree with the posters above about swimming and aquarobics. They work, and they take the stress off the body. If your not quite ready for that though there are many seated exercises you can do at home. Google seated exercises and find some that motivate and work for you. Here is a link from spark people with some video's and it's free.

http://www.sparkpeople.com/resource/fitness_articles.asp?id=1713

Good luck to you!!!

I don't drink pop. I actually despise carbonation lol. So I got that going for me.

Can't you wear a t-shirt in the Water if you feel uncomfortable? I do that even when I'm just over at my friend's house with nobody else watching me.

I think you'll be surprised at the results once you bring carbs (especially bread of any kind) and sugar to an absolute minimum. To me, they have been the Achilles heel of any weight loss attempt. Luckily, my failure to get off of them to any significant extent in the past also prevented me from ever yo-yoing. I am almost four weeks now and I know if I ever somehow went back to them I'd be toast (no pun intended), but I think the sleeve makes that virtually impossible.

I'm going to go against the general opinion here. I had to lose 10% of my weight in the options program for Kaiser. I was conditioned to think low carb, low carb, low carb by all the diets and by my endo. The options program gave me a diet that included 180 carbs per day, including baked potatoes, tortillas, oatmeal, Brown rice - all very filling carbs that satisfied my hunger for long periods. I was restricted to 2 to 3 ounces of protein every meal, and many veggies were free. This was completely against everything I had ever tried. The result? I lost 20% of my weight before surgery, dropped my oral diabetes meds, my A1c went from 8.7 to 6.4, and dropped my bp meds. All of this before surgery. The key was the long lasting carbs, that kept me from snacking, and gave me the energy to exercise. It's so popular to say low carb, but we are individuals, and it doesn't work for all of us.

I'm not completely against the water, but we are also trying to save and with the cold coming id need a gym membership to swim.

I don't recommend cutting out all carbs, because at least for me, that's a recipe for a binge. Instead, look for "good carbs" to satisfy and make you feel full. For instance, when I make sandwiches, I use sprouted bread. It really doesn't taste bad, and it's more nutrient dense than fluffy white bread that gives no nutrition. I use sweet potatoes to make a mash instead of white potatoes and instead of drowning my salad in my favorite dressings, I opt for a nice vinaigrette or sometimes I just go commando(the salad not me exactly) and add no dressings at all! Also, if I'm craving something like chocolate, instead of having candy per se, I'll have some dark chocolate covered almonds. They scratch the itch without falling off the wagon because almonds are good for you and nuts in general are filling. My NUT has me aiming for 20 grams of protein per meal with a starch and a veg and then to aim to eat 30% less. So put less food on the plate and leave something behind and that usually gets it there. I notice I absolutely can't eat a lot with my new constraints of no drink 30 mins before a meal during or 30mins after, and 1 minute between bites with utensils down and mouth empty and 20-30mins per meal. Some nights I'm kinda pissed because I'm still hungry but my time limit is up, but I have to leave it, but it has been working for me. As for exercise, when I first started, I couldn't walk far. I could go pretty much around the grocery store and by the time I was done I was fatigued. So knowing this, I started out walking laps around my kitchen island pushing my desk chair so when I get too tired, I'd sit down and rest til I could get up and go some

more. I watched an inspirational lady on YouTube who had gastric bypass and started out around my weight and she said that if you can only do 2 mins, then 2 mins is all you need to do and to just do what you can. It's true. I've lost 22lbs as of my last NUT appt and I'm up to walking 2 miles a day when my body allows-fighting a Lupus flare up right now so not every day right now, but I do what my body can do and then I quit. Some days I can't walk no further than the end of the block and some days I can walk the full 2 miles. I also have some light hand weights(started at 2lbs now using 5lbs) and just sit in a chair and work your arms. Do bicep curls or cross body punches holding the weights. Anything that gets the heart pumping is good. I started out doing 1 set of 15 of like bicep curls and lifting weights over my head, and then cross body punches and now I can do like 40-50 before I even break a sweat or feel like I've done something. Just challenge yourself to do 1 more than yesterday or 1 step more or 1 lap more or whatever. It adds up!

Saj I absolutely loved your reply! Thank you!

Sajijoma- I'd love to know who you were watching on YouTube! So many choices and it's hard to know who is worth watching! TIA.

Sajijoma- I'd love to know who you were watching on YouTube! So many choices and it's hard to know who is worth watching! TIA.

her YouTube channel is 300lbs down. She is an inspiration and her first video pre surgery helped me explain to my hubby why I need this surgery.

Saj I absolutely loved your reply! Thank you!

you are so welcome!

Congratulations on your decision! I'm also looking to have my surgery in January/ February.

I am trying to be very conscious of my food choices and really start to mentally change how I approach food.

One of the things I have been doing is lots of veggies....my dinner tonight was lots of lettuce with tomato and cucumber and a bit of balsamic vinegar. My protein was 2 boneless skinless chicken tenderloins marinated in a bit of balsamic. The tenderloins are about the size of half a chicken breast. But I love the boneless skinless tenderloins because they cook much faster than a breast.

My dinner plate is half salad and then my two proteins.

I steer clear of creamy dressings and bottled vinaigrette because they have too much sugar.

For me, low to no carb is best and truly I try to get any and all carbs from my fruits and vegetables and not grains.

My nut put me on a plan and I've been losing steadily from it 60-80 grams of protein a day 64 ounces of non caffeinated fluids a day no starches limited whole grains and load up on fruits and vegetables. Oh also no juice Gatorade or Powerade