WASaBubbleButt

Sorry, I'm not buying it. Half the article admits it is all very controversial and the other half makes claims such as this: It is controversial or proven, one or the other. Before surgery I'd say I probably ate 3000 calories a day. After surgery I consumed 600 calories a day until I was at goal, about 10 months. I did not experience fatigue and a lack of weight loss - quite the opposite. Your article suggests that a decrease in leptin is key, Leptin is going to decrease regardless of "starvation" mode or not, so how can this be blamed? About the only thing that makes sense in what you have presented is that it is all very controversial. Nobody can find absolute solid proof of stavation mode. Your metabolism IS going to slow down with weight loss and with a lot of weight loss (and especially with no muscle training) it's going to decrease even more. It's a simple concept, the bigger the body the more calories it takes to carry that body around. When you lose weight you will lose muscle mass. The key is to lose as little muscle mass as possible. You do this through Protein and weight training. Either way, we do lose some muscle during massive weight loss and that is going to slow down the metabolism and we will have to work harder for weight loss. Every single time a person comes here to post that they aren't losing well someone chimes in and suggests they eat more. Half the time we don't even know what the person's diet is but the suggestion is always the same, increase calories. It gets silly after awhile.

Sorry, that isn't a peer reviewed scientific study. It's an article written by ... who?

The more restriction people have the less they tolerate eating before bedtime. When you have food in your pouch and you lay flat that's a great way to get major reflux. Just be careful as you get more restriction, that might not be a comfortable thing to do later. Most docs suggest not eating anything for about 3 hours before bedtime.

You do have another option, a sleeve. Better weight loss and far fewer complications long term than the band and MUCH safer than bypass with no malabsorption.

What is your typical daily menu currently?

I don't know that I agree with that thinking as much as what we are feeding children today. When I was a kid McDonalds was something we did every few months. Today many people eat it several times a week. Now, if you look at the diets of people 100 years ago... I don't know how they survived to adulthood. It was just as bad but bad in a different way. Bacon and eggs every morning, huge loads of fat and calories for their main meal and craploads of Desserts. But... they needed those calories, they were out there working farms, cutting wood, they were busting their butts. Kids were doing chores, hard work kind of chores. Not taking the garbage out or cleaning their rooms. They were working farms and doing similar work to their parents. Going to school was just one job, their other job started when they got home. Today kids whine if they have to walk to school. They go to school, come home, then watch TV or computer games. They eat crap and if you notice overweight parents tend to have loads of crap foods in the house. If you give a kid a choice between a carrot and a cookie while he's sitting on his butt watching TV he's more likely to choose the cookie just like once you start feeding an infant fruits they prefer the sweet flavor over veggies. I don't know that it is fair to blame full signals in children, I think a better bet is to see what they are eating and how they are moving their bodies. Don't you remember when you were a kid? When I was a kid we were outside playing hard all day long. We were riding bikes, running, chasing one another, playing all kinds of games. We came home for meals and between meals we were burning calories. That's not the case today. Agreed. Bingo... steroids. I don't know many people that can take steroids and not gain weight. That's the drug, not the diet. Those drugs don't just make you gain weight, they shift fat from one part of the body to another. People have to start somewhere. When I tell noobs about my diet they turn up their collective noses and walk away and I would have done the same when I was a noob. When you cut out foods that contain flour and sugar most noobs feel like there is nothing left to eat. It takes time to change a lifetime of habits and cutting out white carbs is a good place to start. I think one reason some do not do well in the beginning is that they really don't know there is life outside of bread, Pasta and Mickey D's. People don't have money in the US, families are struggling, we are losing 100,000 jobs a month right now. People are trying to make a buck stretch. Do you have something similar to dollar stores there? We have stores where nothing in the store is over $1 USD. I go there because there is a s/f drink that I can't find anywhere else. To be honest, I hate those stores. It is loaded with cheap garbage. Canned pasta, chips, sugar drinks, just horrible foods. J, if you saw the Dollar Tree store you'd faint with shock. And it's all for under a USD. Very few healthy choices in there but this is where people are shopping due to financial need. I eat pretty cheap but that's because the foods I like are cheap. Beans, lentils, fresh organic veggies, very little dead critter, my downfall is cheese but I eat such small quantities that I do not care. Show a newbie my diet and they can't believe anyone could maintain that diet. I went from an all fast food diet to I eat similar foods to a rabbit. But that didn't happen overnight, it was a work in progress. Today it's what I prefer and fast food places stink a lot. I can't stand the smell. Totally agree. But, newbies don't typically just change their diets overnight. Cut out white carbs and it cuts out a lot of the other poisons that go with them. Canned pastas, most fast foods, etc. Totally agree again. Processed foods replaced nutrition with chemicals and poisons and THAT is what we feed kids and then we wonder why they are fat. I was just reading a study two days ago that shows that 30% of children are "obese" in some states in the US. When I was a kid the fat kid was really noticable because there was usually just one fat kid per class, if that. Today it's 1/3 of the kids that are at least overweight if not obese. About six months ago there was a lady that contacted me about her daughter. She wanted help with getting insurance to cover banding for her ***9*** year old daughter. This kid was 9 years old and has a BMI of 73. She was already riding a scooter because she couldn't walk anymore due to the size of her thighs. Her feet weren't close enough together to be able to walk. She wanted to band her daughter because she too, was MO and didn't want to change her own eating habits. If she kept her fav foods in the house her daughter would eat them so her thinking was band the kid and the family didn't have to change their own food habits. What kind of sicko crazy thinking is that?

Get a slight unfill. I have to say it... I will say it. You can't pay for weight loss, that isn't how it works. Just a very small amount of research shows quite clearly that the band (or any WLS) is merely a tool for you to do it yourself. It is not a magical cure, you pay money, have surgery, and somehow pounds just fly off. That's not realistic. You have to watch what you are eating and get out there and exercise. Don't like exercise? I do not care, do it anyway. We don't like a lot of things in life but we do them anyway as responsible adults. Don't like to watch what you are putting in your mouth? Tough, do it anyway. You are an adult and you need to act like a responsible adult to lose weight. I think 99.9% of us hate diet and exercise but if you want weight loss, you do it. Period. It is not a matter of being a bad person, it is a matter of being responsible for your own actions and if you want the weight loss badly enough you do what you have to do. If you don't want weight loss just have the band removed and do what you wish. It doesn't happen overnight. You didn't put it on overnight and you aren't going to take it off overnight. It takes a LOT of hard work. Any science to prove that claim? ;o) I see that written a gazillion times on this board and I would love for someone to show some solid, peer reviewed studies proving this claim. If you eat more you have more calories to burn.

It started here: I think it is a fair comment to make that there are good carbs and bad carbs. I made the comment that a modified Atkins diet can be a pretty darn healthy diet. Did anyone claim otherwise? Of course. But don't you notice a lot of newbies asking "at goal vets" how they did it and how the maintain? You see, here is where I'd have to comment. Last article I read about your health system is that due to obesity it is on the verge of bankruptcy. Now I grant you that I haven't kept up with the topic so maybe you guys recovered from it. I do not know. I do know obesity is a HUGE problem in the US. Just yesterday I read more stats showing 1/3 of our population is normal weight, 1/3 is over weight, and 1/3 is obese. Personally I disagree with protein first. I understand the concept but I do not agree with it. I'd rather see people get a lot more veggies in. I think a reasonable approach is veggies first, protein, then carbs and starches. Most of us that needed WLS did so because we don't really know what moderation is. What about people that plan a weekly date and time to eat a load of crap? They "reward" themselves with a special date and time to eat absolute garbage? My thinking is this: ~Especially as noobs we don't really do moderation well and that is pretty much why we needed WLS to begin with. ~With appropriate restriction caloric intake is drastically cut. If they fill up on flour and sugar products there is no way they can get all nutrition in, ~I suspect for most flour and/or sugar is a trigger food. It sure is for me, one bite of anything with flour in it and it's all I think about... wanting MORE! Talk to people, especially vets. They know exactly what their trigger foods are, ~WLS is a learning experiences, after we have surgery we discover just how much we did not know about food, nutrition, food triggers, etc. ~WLS is a lifestyle change. Too many people are still eating crap, just smaller quantities of crap. We most certainly did NOT get fat eating apples, we got fat eating white carbs and trans fats. Introduce me to a MO person that lives on an all apple, no white carb diet. I want to meet them. ;o) Which version of Atkins? No carb or healthy carb?

There is a section here on LBT to write reviews of doctors. I'd really encourage you to do that. Also, OH has a place for patient testimonials, please... get an OH account and write in detail of your experiences. www.obesityhelp.com

A friend of mine revised to bypass from a band. She's still paying off her band as well. :001_tongue:(

Heh.... I did google it and after the 3rd website that I couldn't find it I became annoyed. It is a little high in fat, carbs, and calories for only 16gms of protein. I LOVE whey Gourmet Choco/PB. 120 calories, 22gms protein, 3gms carbs, 2gms fat, 1gm sugar. You can mix it with milk or Water, I prefer it with water otherwise it's just too thick and rich.

Depends on a few factors. The cause of your GERD for one. If it is due to a hiatal hernia that can be fixed when they do your band. If it is not due to a hiatal hernia sometimes it resolves for about a year but then new studies are showing a very high percentage of banded folks a year or two out where the band caused it due to positioning. Most people that have been banded for a year or two that I personally know (20?) have major reflux where they didn't have it before. The boards pretty much support the same, lots of people having their bands removed because of severe reflux. If someone has severe reflux/GERD and they cannot get it under control bypass is the ideal WLS. :biggrin:/

I think a modified Atkins is perfect for weight loss and maintenance. Sure, there are good carbs but there are also verrrry bad carbs. I eat unlimited good carbs and no white carbs. Your body really does not need sugar or flour. As for rice and potatoes the calorie content vs. nutritional value is just not worth it. We didn't get fat eating broccoli, we got fat eating white carbs.

I can't find anything on the manufacturers website about calories and nutrition details. How many carbs, Protein grams, and calories does this product have?

I did not change my font, it's standard VST font. I have a hunch it is your settings vs. my font.

I think I love you. ;o) Someone understands me! I think I am in heaven! Carb withdrawal sucks donkey peeters. No way around it. It just does. OMG WASa that cracks me up ... :lol0: Dang... and I was trying to use "make nice" words. ;o)

WASa, OMG woman, we must be twins! I can not believe the similarities of your weekend with my life and the stupid mistakes that people at my work make which cause me to run around putting out fires all day! Last night after re-reading your post about getting back on track and being straight about the hard road it is to be fat and how we have to change our habits and yes, exercise--I dreamed about running on a treadmill trying to reach a bagel. Woke up at 4am to the dang alarm and went to the gym to do cardio and was so pissed about it(exercise not the bagel dream)! :lol0: I was mad half my day-not at all the stupid mistakes that my workers had made but because I am sick of being Fat and damn mad that I haven't been able to just pay for the surgery and schedule it and that I will have to exercise daily cause diabetes insulin resistence is going to ruin my life if I don't. So I went to the gym, avoided white carbs today, hungry as hell because I crave them so bad, and now will have to do it again tomorrow. Tom, my trainer, had the audacity to call me today and tell me that he enjoyed your post as well and that he wanted to see me tomorrow and that he wanted me to be happy about it rather than pissed. I told him to watch out because he is treading on thin ice around a big mad fat chick dealing with carb withdrawal.:001_tt2: Anyway, thank you, sister! I think I love you. ;o) Someone understands me! I think I am in heaven! Carb withdrawal sucks donkey peeters. No way around it. It just does.

Know What I Mean. ;o)

You just had most of yoru stomach cut out of you. You have swelling, give it time!

I do not think you give yourself enough credit. ;o) Jaffa was doing well before you came. I think you can do the same.

Your attempts at redirection do not work on me. There are MANY threads on this website alone that tell the horrors of Huacuz. Just put his name in the search engine and you'll see. People go to him because he's cheap and quite frankly, he's cheap for a reason. I'm sorry you have horrible scars. As I wrote before, the man does plastic surgery as well. One can only imagine.

You have a lot of swelling. When I was first sleeved I really did regret it because I burped like a man. It was embarrassing. Dr. Aceves said it was swelling and would go away, it did.

I went from a very full C to a B. My plastic surgeon swears he can put 'em back to where they were. ;o) Shoes... nope, still the same.

You were banded, you already learned how to eat and drink after WLS so it was easier for us. True WLS newbies have it harder.

Nope, not normal... not long term anyway. Her stomach is healing, it's swollen, she has to learn to eat and drink all over again. Sliming is from eating/drinking too fast or too much. It's a whole process we have to learn to do and some have it easier than others.