Hello Peeps,

I am having second thoughts about getting the Gastric Sleeve.

I am wanting to do it myself the "natural" way.

I really do not want major surgery, but I HAVE to lose weight.

So, here is my question, what is more important to losing weight..... Diet or exercise?

What will make the biggest impact?

I know I need to do both, but I am wondering what is more effective.

Restrictive diet with little exercise? Or lots of exercise without very restrictive diet?

What should I be counting? Calories or carbs?

For me short term fix but the carbs were way more crucial my preop diet I lost 14lbs in 1.5 weeks ...if your not sure about surgery wait till you are but I'm so so so happy I didn't let my cold feet get in the way

progress starts in the mind

And I always hit stalls on everything before like my body just adjust... diet and exercise are both hand in hand... but for just weight you could stop doing much weights limit carbs stay under 20 to 30 carbs a day and NO sugar

progress starts in the mind

For me short term fix but the carbs were way more crucial my preop diet I lost 14lbs in 1.5 weeks ...if your not sure about surgery wait till you are but I'm so so so happy I didn't let my cold feet get in the way

progress starts in the mind

Thank you.
I know the surgery will be very beneficial.
My wife is supposed to get it about 4 months before me, so maybe seeing her journey will help me.

1 hour ago, Walter.Sobchak said:

Hello Peeps,

I am having second thoughts about getting the Gastric Sleeve.

I am wanting to do it myself the "natural" way.

I really do not want major surgery, but I HAVE to lose weight.

So, here is my question, what is more important to losing weight..... Diet or exercise?

What will make the biggest impact?

I know I need to do both, but I am wondering what is more effective.

Restrictive diet with little exercise? Or lots of exercise without very restrictive diet?

What should I be counting? Calories or carbs?

Diet is the most important. Exercise is good for fitness, and overall health but not necessary for weight loss. If you want to lose weight fast, a restrictive diet with little exercise besides walking is going to get you the fastest weight loss. If you keep your Protein to 1 gram per 1 pound of lean muscle mass per day, you will lose very little muscle (everyone will lose some muscle dropping weight, you don't need as much muscle to carry the lower weight).

Weighing all your food, all your condiments etc. Anything with calories, weigh it so you eat an accurate amount.

Track all your food. Even on the bad days, especially on the bad days.

Protein, fat, carbs. If you track your food, eat your protein first, and cut out all carbs except trace carbs from dairy, and green veggies, it is almost impossible to consume more than 25 carbs a day.

Edited February 22, 20179 yr by OutsideMatchInside

Last srticle I read claimed diet was responsible for 80% of weight. Exercise was 20%.
Made sense to me

Diet is the most important. Exercise is good for fitness, and overall health but not necessary for weight loss. If you want to lose weight fast, a restrictive diet with little exercise besides walking is going to get you the fastest weight loss. If you keep your Protein to 1 gram per 1 pound of lean muscle mass per day, you will lose very little muscle (everyone will lose some muscle dropping weight, you don't need as much muscle to carry the lower weight).
Weighing all your food, all your condiments etc. Anything with calories, weigh it so you eat an accurate amount.
Track all your food. Even on the bad days, especially on the bad days.
Protein, fat, carbs. If you track your food, eat your protein first, and cut out all carbs except trace carbs from dairy, and green veggies, it is almost impossible to consume more than 25 carbs a day.

Thank you my friend.
The dietician at my doctor's office gave me some similar guidelines, I had forgotten until I read your post.
I feel awful right now.
I have been eating garbage for the last 5 days.

Like everyone has said before me Diet is definitely the most important of the two. As a man in the past I would lift heavy and do moderate cardio and got good results but this time around by getting rid of the Carbs well 20 or less per day I have had Great success. The sodas and grazing convenience store food had me out of control gaining over 100 pounds in a year. Take a look at Ketogenic style eating and you will find with some adjustments to your diet you can shed weight rapidly without losing piles of Muscle.

Diet is key.

I started building a walking regimen before I had my surgery. I decided that this was going to be a battle and if I was going to have to fight with myself mentally post surgery, I did NOT want to wage a battle on two fronts, so I busted my booty. I did 4 5k's last year before June. I walked between 5-7 miles per day. I climbed to the natural cave opening at Carlsbad Caverns ( I do not recommend this). I accomplished so much by pushing myself physically before surgery that I knew I could handle whatever surgery threw at me.

Surgery is a personal decision. Something happened that made you decide it was an option and now you're concerned and think that maybe it's not. That's ok.

The decision is yours, my advice would be to follow the program to the letter and make your decision about whether or not to have your procedure when you're discussing actual dates for the procedure. You can always change your mind, but working for this for even a month and having to start over is one of the most disheartening things ever. Trust and Believe.

Greetings,

Both aspects are important. You can diet all you want, but without exercise, you will not be able to truly lose weight. I have eaten healthy but not exercised (minimum loss). I have exercised and not eaten healthy (minimum loss). Exercise and eating healthy (received a nice amount of loss before it stalled).

Now I am using the sleeve to help. I will be exercising and having the sleeve. I will not depend solely on the sleeve to lose the weight.

This is your decision and I think it is the best way. If you have not actively tried to lose weight the natural way and you are considering the sleeve as an easy way out, it may not work. This is not just a change of anatomy but a change of mind as well.

The question is not about losing weight - it's about keeping the weight off. I think everyone on this site has had plenty of experience in losing weight, but the fact is, most of us cannot keep the weight off permanently. If you try to lose weight through exercise and diet alone (diet is more effective) you have a less than 5% chance (in some studies it is less than 1% chance) of keeping the weight off permanently, whereas permanent weight loss is much higher (at least 85%) after bariatric surgery.

Here are some reasons why bariatric surgery works (in comparison to diet and exercise):

• VSG/GP - removes the part of your stomach which produces the hunger hormone gherlin. Although some form of hunger will come back eventually for most bariatric patients, not having to deal with real hunger issues as you lose weight is very helpful in the first year after surgery.
• Also, removing this part of the stomach seems to have an impact on bile production and other hormones, which almost always positively affects other metabolic conditions like diabetes. Diabetes often goes into remission, and people have a reduction in meds for cholesterol or high blood pressure, etc. These improvements are not necessarily due to the weight loss (as first thought), but due to the surgery itself.
• Your metabolic rate will change as well. Trying to lose weight through diet and exercise alone can actually screw up your metabolism - look at what happened to the "Biggest Loser" contestants that they studied recently - their metabolisms (even for the ones who kept the weight off) were much worse after losing weight than before they started.
• Your body has a "set-point" that it likes to stay at. Basically, it likes where it is and will fight you tooth and nail to stay where it is. So if you start eating less, your metabolism will slow down so you don't lose weight. If you start exercising more, your metabolism will slow down so you don't lose weight. This is built into our bodies to prevent us from starving when times are lean; unfortunately most of us never really have to worry about not having food available to us 24 hours a day, so we are always well-fed.
• Weight loss surgery is not a quick fix. Basically, it takes away all the handicaps your body has set against you for losing weight. So you get about 1-2 years where you can diet and exercise AND lose weight AND keep it off without fighting your body every step of the way. But if you want to be successful, you still have to eat well and exercise. If you go back to your old habits, you will gain back the weight. The surgery acts like a 'reprieve', giving you a real chance to lose and keep the weight off.
• This surgery (especially sleeve) is not any worse than having your appendix or gall bladder removed. All you are doing is decreasing the size of your stomach with additional metabolic effects.

I've learned a lot about this from many different resources, both online and in books. Unfortunately I can't find all of the resources online (I may not have bookmarked them all), but here are a few links:

Why You Shouldn't Exercise to Lose Weight

Why Weight Loss Surgery Works When Diets Don't

Bariatric Surgery Misconceptions

The Mechanism of Weight Loss After Bariatric Surgery

Mechanisms Responsible for Excess Weight Loss After Bariatric Surgery (this link just takes you to the abstract and resources, but the resources are very good, plus you can read the full article if you like)

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Walter - when all is said and done, it's up to you. If you are not ready for the surgery, maybe you should wait. In the end, it should be something you do because you want to do it, and because you know it's the best option for you. If you can't say yes to either of those, then maybe you should talk to your doctor about other options.

Did you have yours yet?
I know you said it was coming up.
Did you get it?

Like everyone has said before me Diet is definitely the most important of the two. As a man in the past I would lift heavy and do moderate cardio and got good results but this time around by getting rid of the Carbs well 20 or less per day I have had Great success. The sodas and grazing convenience store food had me out of control gaining over 100 pounds in a year. Take a look at Ketogenic style eating and you will find with some adjustments to your diet you can shed weight rapidly without losing piles of Muscle.

Did you get sleeved?
Or still doing it the natural way?

I weight tomorrow at work to see how much I lost by carb restriction and then Friday I have my Surgery in Mexico with Dr. Illan. I can loose weight heck I have done it my whole life but I always gain back more than I lost. The plan is to attack it from 3 sides
VSG Surgery
Carb restriction & Exercise
Overeaters Anonymous the last one for accountability and to pay it forward.

I weight tomorrow at work to see how much I lost by carb restriction and then Friday I have my Surgery in Mexico with Dr. Illan. I can loose weight heck I have done it my whole life but I always gain back more than I lost. The plan is to attack it from 3 sides
VSG Surgery
Carb restriction & Exercise
Overeaters Anonymous the last one for accountability and to pay it forward.

Awesome.
You sound a lot like me.
I have been to OA
I love convenience store junk food, especially Quik Trip.

@biginjapan thanks for posting all of that! Too lat to read all the resources, but I'll get to them tomorrow. I love learning about the body responses or lack of regarding diet/weight loss, etc. It is good to be knowledgeable!