Susanne

You could start with something like this: http://www.6pm.com/n...ing-white-black I have one of those and they are fairly firm around the belly and actually have a fairly nice top bra section. Not enough to hold me in a full run, but for a lot of lesser impact exercise, this is actually enough to hold me in. It is long enough so it doesn't roll up (on me at least). The price is definitely right to just give it a try, worst case scenario you bought a summer top :-) I actually have a similar issue with my thighs. They don't clap but I really wanted something to keep my held together tightly. I found these here to be perfect! http://www.zappos.co...ion-short-black (I fit in an XL) http://www.zappos.co...ion-short-black (these are the plus sizes that are also 1.5 inches longer) They are not too long but they cover what I consider my problem areas (thighs and a$) and they give a really tight hold without being uncomfortable. They do not roll up or pull down. Not any of the other compression shorts I tried (ie. Nike, Under Armour, New Balance) offered even remotely the same stability. I just finished my first 5k, so I think I totally know how you feel :-)

The official pictures are out, this is shortly before the finish line and my husband was hollering my name so I waved at him. I thought it was so cool that they got me right that moment! I think this is fairly close to the finish line too, but I am not sure. It definitely looks like I lost a bit of the "good form" while running with my left arm churning. And last but not least, I am crossing the finish line, hooray - my first 5k! (and 34:37 was gun time, I did 33:18)

Sounds wonderful! I have been thinking about a road bike, and I looked at a map to see if I could ride to work in a reasonable amount of time, but unfortunately, there is no "nice" route and I am not (yet) willing to ride along some busy streets. Isn't exercise awesome if you actually enjoy what you are doing? I also think it helps dealing with weightloss - you may not lose faster, but you are adding milestones to your experience, the first time you ride 10, 20, 50 miles, the first full day trip etc.

Thanks, I was elated all day yesterday and today. I am 127 out of 290 in my age group, so I am above average -- usually I am aiming a bit higher but in this case, it's brilliant considering I am probably still 'above' average in the BMI range. I passed a lot of fit looking men and women. I ran in the earlier men's heat because I wanted to be done and it was the smaller group so I knew when I ran in, my husband had a chance to see me. This was a BIG event, 21,000 runners (6,000 in the 5k, the biggest 25k in the US) and it was one of the most amazing experiences in my life. I "took today off", lounge all day, eat a chocolate muffin and other assorted foods that I usually stay away from - I had worked so hard toward this run and it's nice to have it done now. But tomorrow I'll start it all up again. I am trying to get my husband to commit to the schedule I had in the running group. I will do all the runs with him (and hope I can get him to actually run), but I myself need to run more. I will try and do a 20 minute run myself first and then do the run with him - starting tomorrow. He has such a "can't do" attitude which drives me crazy. He only just crossed into "obese" with a BMI of 30.5 and I feel we need to nib that in the bud before it escalates but at the same time I know if you push someone in this situation, it usually backfires. He was patient with me but maybe too much so and maybe I had needed a better talking to. Ah, crapola... Otherwise, yeah me!

And today was the day! I made it, I ran the whole 5k, no walking and I finished in 33:18! I guess I am now officially a runner since I am featured on Active.com

I'd guess those should you about double the amount you actually burn. I would guess normal walking on a treadmill gets you a maximum of 100 calories in 20 minutes. Really fast walking may get you 200 calories, but for that you'd be huffing and puffing and sweating up a storm. The Gazelle uses a lot of gravity for the exercise, and I would say it burns about the same amount. Most machines overestimate the amount, even more so if you put in your weight and are obese. Somehow, I think those machines consider 250 pounds weight as a very muscular athletic person (think Arnold Schwarzenegger). Heavier people burn a bit more, but your "fat weight" burns pretty much nothing.

BTW, are you logging your food? You sound like you are just eye balling calories and portions, and that can be catastrophic...

Well, I don't think you can eat much more than most. I think everyone here can eat a lot when they start grazing. Would you have been able to eat all that in 1 sitting off 1 plate? Probably not! I can eat 2 eggs if that is all I eat, but if I have a piece of toast and a turkey sausage, then 1 egg is more than enough. I do understand your question though - I feel I can eat more than other people, and a bigger variety of things and yes, it worries me. I can eat bread, rice but Pasta makes me queezy. I can eat a little beef slider with the bun. When I told this at my surgeon's nutritionist's group session, everyone was like "Wow, how can you eat that??? I can't eat that!!!!" making me feel like a glutton. Watermelon is mostly Water, so I don't think it is a surprise you can eat a lot of that. Anyway, sucks that you can eat that much. I see where you are coming from, you were hoping that the smaller stomach will completely control portion size, but for some it doesn't -- that means you have to be careful. I am sometimes jealous of people with more restriction, but at other times I am not. I am losing slower, but I honestly don't care. My husband just asked me -- "Does it really matter if it takes you 6 months or 9 months or 12 months? It took you 20 years to put it on, and as long as you are staying in a long term losing mode, it seems like all is good." He is right...I don't like feeling like my loss is less, but I lose and I am happy -- that's what matters to me.

It's 166 not 100 days since Thanksgiving, and it is not a perfect linear "per day" loss, but let's look at the whole picture: In order to lose 100 pounds, you'd need a deficit3,500 calories per pound lost. 3,500 x 100 pounds = 350,000. That means, over 166 days, you must run up a deficit of about 2100 a day. You started at 375 pounds and a BMI of 50.9, which means you are around 6 foot tall. With those values, your BMR should be 3044 calories. This is resting, so even if you don't exercise, your actual daily burn is probably higher. You said you eat less than 1000 calories a day....and voila, comes out pretty much perfectly. 3044 - 2100 = 944 calories per day!

Well, I got the workouts down, and have been running over 60 miles since March 29th. I was looking into running a 5k, and I found a practice group by a local running shop that I am now running with twice a week and I get together with couple of the gals for a weekend session. I paid $60 for the 8 week course, and that includes a free moisture wicking shirt, a "good form running" analysis of your gait by Good Form Running (this was a proper deal, incl. filming our feet while running etc.), VIP tent for the race day and some other goodies. They have 4 trainers in ever session so no matter how fast you are, there is someone close by. It is the best thing I have ever done for myself (after VSG)! I have gone from barely making it 5 minutes at 4mph on a treadmill to running 25 minutes at 5.2mph. Yeah, anyone can run anywhere but ya don't, LOL. Being with the group and with almost exclusively fitter people makes me work out much harder than I would on a treadmill because I am competitive and makes me actually do it because there is someone waiting for you every Monday and Wednesday. I am still big, there is only one gal as big as I am, the rest is small to medium runner gals but I have not ever found a more supportive community than this. They know it's harder for me, they Celebrate my runs and I am actually getting real good at it -- well, for a bigger girl, but I am always in the first third. No one has ever given me that look - you know what look I am talking about - and I can't wait for my race day to run with thousands of other people and have people by the side of the road cheering and hollering! If you can find something like this in your area, go for it. I am pretty sure you will not be sorry. Check the web site of local running stores or of events for training/practice groups.

That's amazing, I am so happy for you! I am at 6 months and just made it to half way there - you're really killing it! Congrats!

I want to be happy in one year! I feel there are way too many unknown factors for me to fully control my weight loss, so my goal is to be happy with my life with whatever I have lost. I am exactly 6 months out today, and I am also exactly half way there, so I know goal will not be a feasible weight, but goal weight is just a number on a piece of paper right now. I did a test 5k run on Saturday to prepare for my real 5k run in two weeks...I'll do a 4 mile fun run on Thursday...things like that are my goals right now :-)

Sorry, I didn't mean to sound condescending, I have just heard many people say that it is such a bother to use a scale and I think it's no different either way. Actually, you don't need to get your measuring cups dirty, so you are actually saving a clean-up. Your stomach doesn't have a fixed size like that. If they say 4 oz, it is just a VERY rough approximation of the amount you should/can eat. Yes, theoretically for your stomach the proper unit would be volume since the surgery restricted the volume of our stomach and not the max. weight capacity but for most things it is impossible to find out the proper volume. Take bread for example. If you cut of a chunk 4 oz. in volume, after chewing and adding saliva, it is probably less than 2 oz. Same for other things, if you want 4 oz. of strawberries in volume, what do you measure? Whole berries? Halved berries? Quarters? Or mashed up? 1 cup of whole berries probably gives you 1/4 cup after blending them even though you haven't removed a single berry. On the other hand, if your doctor says you can eat about 4 oz. of salmon, chicken or steak he is not talking about volume but weight. I personally have a fairly inexpensive digital scale from Aldi. There are a few things I would consider important: 1) Smooth surface that can be cleaned real easy. Since I throw just about everything on there, it is good to know that I can wipe it off easily. Mine is not glass, but that is what I would be looking for for my next purchase. I recommend just a flat surface, no bowls etc. because that's just extra cleanup or obstacles. 2) Easy tare function (this is often also called the "zero" function). Probably should be function number 1 :-) This is how it works for me. The scale is always on the counter top, so now I want to make yogurt with fruit. Pull the scale out, turn it on, place my bowl on it and press Tare. Now the scale says it's 0. Add my desired amount of yogurt. Press Tare again. Add my desired amount of fruit. Press Tare again. Add my desired amount of Cereal, granola, Fiber, Protein or whatever I want to add. This way I don't have to do math, but can just add the individual amounts without thinking. You can laugh, but I do the same when I make a sandwich. Weigh bread, tare. Weigh mayo, tare. Weigh cheese, tare. Weigh ham -- I am probably overly anal with this, but I have noticed so many times how much I was off when eye balling stuff and also how much I was off when using volume like spoons and cups just because the label seems to be off. 3) Digital display should be easy to see when stuff is on the scale. Mine isn't that good with this, and sometimes if I place a bigger bowl onto the scale, I have to peek underneath to see the display. I think the Oxo scale actually has a display that you can pull out.

IMHO, this is exactly what you should NOT do. The 4 oz container is holding 4 fluid ounces - a unit of volume. The salmon is 4 solid ounces - a unit of weight. It's not the same. Use a scale. If you are really interested in accurate measures of food, t really isn't that hard to use a scale.

You probably don't have to take as many vitamins as I do. I would have to take a double dose of everything (and 4x of the Ds) :-(

Just a caveat, those gummies have too many calories for my liking. If you take all those in the recommended nutritional amount for WLS you'll probably add over 100 calories to your diet. As far as I remember, they are between 15 and 25 calories per serving and I believe they are fairly low in Vitamin values, so you need at least two servings each. I am taking in a total of 900 calories on most days, I really don't want to waste 100+ on vitamin supplements. My liquid multi and calcium add up to 45 calories and from what I remember (I compared them side by side at CostCo) they were more complete. The adult multi gummies have only 50% of most vitamin per serving, is that right? Just sayin' - if you use them as your candy allowance for the day, that's great. But make sure to remember it's about 100 calories for those.There is a reason why they taste like candy...they are candy!

I do that too and I think it is great if you like your Protein because it is an easy way to get an extra 8 oz. of Water in!

Yeah, I saw that controversial too, but like I said, he has been weighed and probed and had probably every part of his body measured - arms, legs, chest and I am sure they did the height too. He has been standing in nothing but Speedos and bare feet in a line of other dudes in Speedos. I think if he was lying, it would have been very easy to conclusively call him out and prove him wrong, just by knowing the height of everyone right and left of him. The fact that there is not more bruhaha of calling him a liar, I am pretty sure it's right. I could also see that the constant abuse of his body probably does a number on his spine, so I don't doubt that he is probably not 6'2" anymore - after all, he is 63 years old, so he is probably shrinking. On the other hand, if he was smaller, it would even more prove my point because his BMI would be even higher :-)

What do you base that on? I got those values from Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arnold_Schwarzenegger I would assume since he competed professionally with his physique, his height and weight should not be a secret. Here is some more: http://www.celebheights.com/s/Arnold-Schwarzenegger-177.html

How much did you adjust it by? You are now 9 pounds away, how much was it before? BMI is very bad for athletic people. Let's take the extreme, Arnold Schwarzenegger. He is about 6'2" tall and weighs 250 pounds - guess what, at his prime Arnold Schwarzenegger was OBESE with a BMI of 32.1 \ö/ This may not be the body type you are aiming for, but it shows that more athletic people who have built up muscle mass are off much worse than slim people without muscles. On a different note, say you adjusted your goal by 10 pounds or so. What relevance did 10 pounds have for you before surgery. Did losing 10 pounds really make a dent? For me, starting at 260 pounds, it didn't make much of a difference. Yeah, I'd hated to gain 10 pounds and would have been happy to lose 10 -- but overall, I don't think anyone would have been able to really see either much. And last but not least, I think once you have made peace with the new weight goal, your mind set may actually power through it. I remember in school, I always waited until the last minute and tried to furiously cram knowledge into my head, I was able to remember it for the exam but forgot all about it soon after. Most things I remember well are the things I just learned by doing, when I didn't have the pressure behind it, when I didn't feel so cornered know it's do or die. So for now, just relax. I would even go further - set your goal weight to what you are at now. Consider your travel done. Now you are there. If this was vacation, then this would be where you enjoy yourself, enjoy the place you are at, try new things -- play around with the new you. Join the roller derby team, find a running group, start playing soccer -- test your new you and be amazed at what you can do with yourself.