aroundhky

In the recovery room! No, just kidding!

Haven't tried a jager bomb yet. But the few times I've had a drink, I've noticed that my tolerance is a lot less than before. Not sure if it's because of the weight loss, smaller stomach or both.

Just eat lean meats (proteins) first, then veggies and you should be fine. Once you're allowed to anyway. I'm 6+ months out and can eat a good cup and a half of food and it seems to be inching up every month. I bet I'm eating 2 cups in a few months. : ( But I'm still slowly losing, so it's all good I guess.

Baby steps. Maybe just get out and walk a couple of times a week. Then 3-4 times a week or increase the time and walk longer. It doesn't have to be plain walking in circles on a track. It can be hiking through the woods or at a lake or biking. You have to find something you're at least a little interested in to stick to it. It's always harder for me to get started back if I haven't done anything for a few days. But once I get going, I really look forward to the gym and feel like my day is not complete if I miss a day. I feel so much better when I go and I also sleep better at night. Just try and find the time to move around some and take it all in while you're doing it and enjoy it!

Congrats, wish you the best!!!

Yep, in regards to density....to put it another way....... a cubic inch of muscle DOES weigh more than a cubic inch fat. Volume...

Are you eating any food with a lot of niacin? Sometimes when I eat food that is high in niacin, I get what's called a "niacin flush" and I feel a little warm and sometimes a little red skin. It usually doesn't last long, maybe 15-20 minutes and isn't dangerous. Peanut butter does that to me. Try to remember what type of foods you're eating right before this happens, if it is high in niacin, that could be why. Of course it could be something totally different, surely worth checking into and finding out.

Abs? What are abs? I think like "Inline" stated, there will be skin issues. Also genetics plays a key role as well and how body fat is positioned around your body. I know I would like to get rid of my "man boobs", but I think genetics is working against me there. But they are a lot smaller now. I know when I was in high school, I actually had abs then, and I rarely worked abs directly. Seems body fat percentage (along with genetics) are normally the two biggest factors for showing abs, and with us on this message board, the loose skin is a big factor as well.

Any kind of exercise I'm sure is a good thing. Seems a little complicated to keep up with, so I'm sure writting all of that down and scheduling it helps. Long cardio (45+ mins) CAN deplete muscle some as your body wants to use it up for energy, so you may want to make sure to get some protein in right after the workout. Good luck with the exercise and the surgery!

Thanks you all! "coops".... I appreciate it, I'm still overweight by BMI standards, but less than I used to be. Had my body fat percentage checked the other day and on that chart, my body fat is now in the healthy range for my age.... 18.8%. So I'll go by that standard, but my doctor I'm sure will still use the BMI chart.

I am still a good way off from my overall goal weight of 215, but I am a little over 5 months post op and have met many goals so far. I am off my blood pressure medicine, off my cholesterol meds, free of joint (knee) pain, a little more energy than I had before and my strength is coming back to where it was pre-sleeve. One of my main concerns about the surgery and weight loss was my overall strength. If I had ANY real reservations about having the sleeve, it was due to my concern about a loss of muscle/strength, particularly a loss that I wouldn't be able to get back. I've lifted my whole life and have enjoyed what weightlifting (resistance training) has given back to me. It's great therapy and the testosterone rush it gives us guys for a few hours after lifting makes me feel great! I like being moderately strong (at least for my age/mileage), but I am FAR from being a "powerhouse". Anyway, a good test of overall body strength is the deadlift. It works almost the entire body and is a good way to measure overall strength. Before my surgery I was deadlifting 450ish and I weighed around 300 pounds. Today, I hit one benchmark which is my weight on the scales. Before I got into lifting today, I weighed myself (usually do about once every week or two) and I was 252 (I'm now down 50 pounds from 292 since surgery). I know that's a bit of a slow loss compared to many people with the sleeve, but I'm totally fine with that. That slow loss has helped me maintain muscle, with the exception of the first month and a half after surgery (lost a lot of muscle/weight during that time). So next up today was my lifting session at the gym. I've been flirting with 400 on the deadlift for several weeks now. I took last week off from deadlifting since it can take quite a toll on the body and I think it helped me. I busted through that 400 plateau big time and ended up deadlifting 425 pounds today!!! It felt great and I got it up fairly easily, I think I could've seriously pushed the 450 mark today. Not bad for a guy who is 6'-3" to 6'-4" (harder for tall guys to deadlift). The main thing is, this tells me that my pre-sleeve strength is pretty much back, minus the 50 pounds of fat that I've lost. Thanks to the sleeve, Vitamins, Protein, hard work in the gym and you all on this message board! There's been times when I haven't been happy with getting the sleeve (especially right after surgery). But I am very thankful for it now and wish I had done it 10 years ago (when I weighed 320). I feel great, I'm healthier and I'm strong again! Thanks for the sleeve and thanks for everyone on here who has had so much great insight to share in regards to the sleeve, nutrition, supplements, exercise, etc! You've all been very very helpful and I thank you! Next goal...... 215 on the scales and 450+ on that deadlift!

I wondered that too until I started thinking...... we need 60-70 grams or whatever of protein a day. How do we put these into a pill? Let's say we just had these broken down into 10 pills a day for math's sake. That would be a 6 gram pill and one that I'm guessing none of us would be able to swallow (probably close to the size of a ping pong ball). I'm guessing the average pill is..... say...... 500 mgs, which I think is half of a gram. But perhaps we could all swallow something as big as a 1 gram pill/capsule, etc, which may be pushing it to swallow something that big. But let's assume we can do that and get 30 grams of our daily protein from the food/meat that we eat. That would still leave us with 30 one gram pills to take daily, which is more than most of us would want to take and may even be worse than trying to tolerate the protein shakes. I think the sheer volume of protein needed makes it prohibitive for us to take it in pill form. I went over this a lot in my head, and probably way too much, but I was getting tired of the shakes and was getting desperate as well. But now, I'm able to consume and hold more food, so I'm pretty close to getting all the protein I need from food, except for the days I lift weights, then I have a shake after working out. Maybe one day they will mainline it and we can carry around an I.V. bag with us..... anything to avoid those shakes!

Jimmy....it's not FOR gaining weight, but it does add about 3-5 pounds water weight on me. But since I love lifting, it's worth the added muscle energy and muscle water retention to help my strength gains in the gym. It does not add fat, or muscle for that matter. But it does help your muscle stay hydrated enough and energetic enough (ATP retention) to hit the weights hard and get the maximum from your workouts. I checked with my Dr and he gave me the go ahead as long as I consume even more water while on creatine since your muscles saturate themselves with water while taking creatine and you want to make sure the rest of your body stays hydrated as well. As soon as I stop taking it for 3-4 days, I immediately drop those few pounds of water weight. But I can tell it does help me get the most from my workouts, so I use it for about a month or so at a time.

Hang in there "esheldon"..... you'll be glad you had this done at some point and the regret will be long gone. It does suck early on with the mushy and liquid only stage, no other way to put it. But it's temporary and shall pass. When those cravings hit me early on and I couldn't eat those types of foods, it helped me to distract myself some and go for a walk, play with my kids, do chores, etc. Basically whatever may be fun and/or can help distract you from that food. Pulling for ya man!

Oh I defineately did! Well the first week of it anyway. The 4th day I had to have some solid food, so I remember eating that grilled chicken breast and it was sooo good! Then like 2 days later I remember eating a beef patty with some cheese. After that, for the next week plus I kept to it and had only liquids. But the two times that I did cheat, I made sure to cut out the carbs, which I think is the main objective..... to shrink that liver.

Good idea to not cut out your carbs that week! I'm doing a Warrior Dash in a few weeks and I AM NOT a runner. But I've committed to it and went for about a run the other day and got about a mile in before I stopped. This race is 5k as well (along with obstacles and rope courses). So I am planning on doing about a half mile at a time and walking briefly in between. The intervals that BlackBerryJuice mentioned are also good for preserving muscle. Usually my cardio consists of sprints, high paced walking or 20 minutes on a stationary bike, so this is pretty new to me too. Also, make sure to stay hydrated. Good luck and let us know how it goes!

Congrats and you look fantastic! Way to go "Koriswlj"!!!!

Welcome Raven! Your goals to cure (comorbitites) sound a lot like mine. I had uncontrolled BP, lots of joint pain and high cholesterol. I've made a lot of progress towards aleviating those but not quite there yet. Hang in there! I can't relate to the hair loss thing as I've been bald for 10+ years. Even if you are still on meds, I'm guessing you still probably feel better right? Hopefuilly you'll eventually get rid of those things and be a lot healthier. Just keep those end goals in mind and good luck.

Welcome! Keep those end goals in mind and enjoy the ride!