mark!

I never felt full on liquids, but never felt hungry either. I just started my phase 3, pureed foods, and last night I felt full for the first time with pureed potato soup.

It depends, with me, on what kind of Protein I'm taking at that time. I've gotten some Proteins from a few sponsors that I felt I couldn't get in my normal amount. I don't personally follow the 1/1 ratio of grams of protein/bodyweight. When I was in the 340's and 350's competing, I stuck to about 250g to 325g protein per day, with as much coming from bison, beef or chicken as I could get in. If you're feeling like you're hitting atrophy, you could most your protein numbers around a bit. Usually on lifting days, my protein intake is way higher for obvious reasons. Are you running hard say, a day after lifting? It could be fatigue in the muscle heads causing that feeling, I've noticed I cannot even think about running after squat day or my calves and hamstrings will be screaming 10 minutes in to my cardio. Are you taking any creatine on lifting days or any recovery things? I mix creapure with my protein, and glutamine, it helps with recovery quite a bit. You could always adjust your macro-nutrients around to get 150g protein a see if that helps the feeling and recovery. For each individual it takes some tweaking of the numbers to get the right amount of protein, just depending on how you lift and run, and how your body is.

that's true, I wasn't even thinking about that, I'd be falling all over people.

Haha, it would not be a pretty sight, that's for sure.

It's not complicated. Your body weight, either multiply that by .80 and that's your protein intake. Or, just use the common 1/1, if your bodyweight is 150, 150 grams is your intake. If you want to get more technical, go to the link I gave, and enter your information. Then, use that as your amount of protein intake per day.

Mine just says "as tolerated" but officially, 4 weeks I can start "hard" cardio, running, road bike, etc and 6 weeks full release back to lifting weights and such.

The easiest thing to do is to start with circuit training. If you're at a well stocked gym, they should have an ample amount of machines to use. Some are completely anti machines, some aren't, I'm partial. I use machines for isolation work at times, but never for major muscle groups, but I do believe people starting out can have great success using them to start, it does reduce injury possibility. Start by working muscle groups 4 days or 3 days a week. You can do arms 1 day, legs then next, arms again, and legs the 4th day you work out. Here's an idea I really, really like with new folks. Instead of going for reps and sets first, just go for time. Try this: Upper Body including chest, shoulders, arms. Bench press, incline press, decline press, bicep curls, triceps extensions, etc. Do reps, slow and controlled for 30 seconds the first day, then working up from there adding 5-10 seconds each week. Lower body: Leg extensions, leg curls, leg press, calf raises, etc. Same thing, start with 30 seconds, build from there. And you can do 2 sets of 30 seconds if you want. For cardio, I would keep doing what you're doing, zumba, bike, treadmill, etc. Make sure to give yourself a day of rest at least once a week, especially if you start getting burned out.

No one can say how much per person, some try, but they won't be exact. The general rule, find lean body mass, and then get .8g to 1g per that number. You need to supply the muscle with Protein, the fat really doesn't care if it gets protein or not. Some days you could get more, some days you could get less, but that's the ballpark idea of things. Use this calculator to find a rough estimate of your lean body mass. It's best if you actually can get the number through calipers, if you're using a trainer they should be able to do this, or order skin fold calipers online and follow the instructions to get closer numbers. Some scales can get "decent" ballpark numbers for you. http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/lbm_calculator.htm For protein intake, there are so many schools of thoughts. I've worked with clients and friends who believe .5 is the magic number, and I've worked with some who believe Dr. Lemons theory of protein overload. He would recommend me, weighing 316lbs right now, to get nearly 600g protein a day. That's crazy/

To my knowledge, there has never been a successful study showing any detrimental effects on the kidney. People have tried but failed to link high Protein diets with kidney toxicity or other issues. Most of the time, too much protein (rare) in the diet just leads to a good crap the next day, which is wasted money, but no harm physically. As long as you're getting a good quality protein, most should be absorbed as long as you're working out. If your trainer is saying you're getting too much protein at 100g/day, I'd ask to see another trainer. Ask for his certifications. If he doesn't have any nutritionist training and only entry level physical certs, he's absolutely in no position to comment on your nutrition. There have been studies showing as high as 243% protein consumption with no ill effects. The food and Nutrition Board states there is not evidence of any issues coming from high intakes of protein, not saying someone couldn't have issues, just saying in general studies, it shouldn't be a concern for someone trying to lose weight and gain muscle at this point, especially if only consuming 100g of protein. How long have you been working out like this? I have another long post somewhere regarding Water weight and how water weight is stored and such after workouts. It's important to take days off from time to time to let your body recoup and recover as well. You're likely not over training, but it's just good mentally and physically to take a break every once in a while.

I had piercing pain in that same area about 2 weeks out, it sucked. I called my doctor and they advised it was likely pain from the incision and mesh they used on the larger incision. 2 swallow tests confirmed no leak, other tests revealed no issues at all, it was just weird. I think I may have overdone my activity or something. A few days rest I was good as new. Be careful though, better safe than sorry, get it checked out.

I was told 2 weeks for pools, 6 weeks for full activity in the gym. I'll be back in the gym in a few days, just over 3 weeks post op but only walking/light jogging.

Yup, Eggs, refried beans, yogurt, good stuff.

I took 3 weeks, as stated earlier, go back to work Saturday. I've found that I've been sitting on my ass for 2 weeks, walking, drinking, sipping, walking, reading, watching tv, sitting...sitting...yeah. I've enjoyed the time off, but man could have gone back to work and saved my time.

I haven't played golf since high school, well I probably played a few rounds in college, but just horsing around. I need to get some new clubs fitted and get out there again.

Congrats girl!!! I remember the day I was approved, holy crap a rush of emotions. So happy for you.

Glad you figured a possible issue. I check my blood pressure regularly at the house, and once my bp was around 110/60 on meds, I stopped taking them so it didn't get any lower. Now I only get light headed when not drinking enough, or when getting up too fast and the blood rushes from my head.

Wait...that's a scam? honey...we need to freeze our bank account ASAP. I've had some really long, elaborate, and good email conversations with those folks.

3 Weeks post op, if I drink too quickly, I get an odd pain in my neck, and have to sit a second to let it all go down. But if I take small drinks, I can "chug" sips all day long. My hardest issue right now is just waiting 30 minutes after eating to drink, ha.

I use one now 3 weeks out. I got mine at World Market.

I have a bodymedia link, but don't ever use it hardly. I think I may have actually cancelled my subscription to the service. I never liked it too much.

Oh I know, I posted there a few times, and...gave up quickly. Some of the folks on there are really bad.

Okey dokey, where to start. BMR. Find one, stick to it, and don't change it. Regardless if it's 1200, 1500, doesn't matter. If you were truly 110% actually in "starvation mode" then yes, you will stall as you add calories, and most likely gain a little. It will take time to up-regulate your metabolism again to get the furnace going. Think of your metabolism as a steam engine. How do we get more steam? We add more coal. To make YOUR furnace burn, you have to supply fuel, good whole quality foods. If you were basically on a fasting liquid diet for 6-9 months, you could definitely have messed up your metabolism, slowed it way down, but rest assured, you can get it back to where it needs to be. On a BMR calculator I used, it came out to be 1500 calories. If I were you, in your key position I would start very low, say 600-700 calories a day and gradually add calories about once every 3-4 weeks until you get to your calorie level, 1200 is a safe bet right now, and then eat 1200 calories for at least a month, every day for that month. Let your body adjust. You may gain some weight, but it's for the long haul here. Afterwards, when you start adding in work outs and such, you can adjust calories according to myfitnesspal when you log your workouts and see how many extra calories you have. To start with, I would just do simple cardio, light and easy and go from there depending on how you feel. Make sure you're getting your Vitamins and Proteins in. This is where I would start with someone in your position who came to me. But it's hard to be exact with some things. I hope you can take some information from this and make it useful.

Glutamine is golden. I was only told to stay off of it, and my other supplements for 2 weeks. Today I started my injection supplements again and have been feeling fine taking some pretty heavy stuff, but no problems at all.

Haha, yes, curling in a squat rack. I've asked many a kid to get out of the squat rack because I want to actually squat. Haven't had any issues doing so yet, lol.

I tend to stay off sites with no moderation and kids giving advice who haven't put in the time learning what's best when it comes to overall kinetics. the site itself, as I said, was fine, most people who publish are at least entry level trainers with experience. But the forums is a completely different story. intensemuscle.com and wannabebigforums.com are two sites that have practicing high level trainers, and active pro's in their respective sports. intensemuscle.com caters to bodybuilding and powerlifting moreso and is a no bs site.