mark!

You look amazing. I started at 394 for pre op, now I'm 294, 14 pounds from first major goal.

I'm under the impression at some point in time someone told you carbs are satan and cause suicide inducing nightmares? They lied to you, and probably stole your bike while you contemplated what life would be like without Pasta. http://ajcn.nutrition.org/content/79/5/899S.full http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/carbohydrates/my01458 http://greatist.com/health/fitness-reborn-real-truth-about-carbs Research the Glycemic Index, it breaks down carbs Barney style (yes the purple dinosaur that loves everyone). It's easy, it works. http://www.glycemicindex.com/ http://nutritiondata.self.com/topics/glycemic-index Your body is a chemistry set, carbs create insulin responses within your body and helps facilitate weight movement. I could go on and bore you, just check the links.

You also have to keep in mind that a lot of people find these forums BECAUSE of a complication. The members here represent a VERY small fraction of a percent of those who undergo this procedure and DON'T post on here and who have absolutely zero complications in their life changing journey. I would still say, the members here who have had major complications that required immediate medical care versus those who have had a relatively smooth transition is at least 1:10.

There's a whole different school of thought on a "calorie is a calorie". Those who can somehow justify eating "X" amount of calories and only look at calories, not any other nutrients. I choose to not be on that side and pay attention to Protein, carbs, fats, etc to make sure I'm fueling my body the best I can vs the other stuff. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-lustig-md/sugar-toxic_b_2759564.html http://home.trainingpeaks.com/articles/nutrition/a-calorie-is-not-a-calorie.aspx

My calories vary between my workouts. I have high carb days, low carb days, high calorie days, low calories days, to better suit my workouts. Pushing yourself to exhaustion and getting headaches is only hurting your body, you can't perform without fueling. On days where I'm in the gym for 1.5/2 hours, I'll eat anywhere from 1600-2000 calories that day. My normal gym days I'm hitting 1200-1400 calories. Best thing it to check with your nutritionist if you've got one, if not, you gotta start doing the mathematical work on your own. Start with a base amount of calories, if you're busting your ass in the gym, burning 1000 calories, you obviously gotta up the calories. Putting your body in THAT much of a negative will eventually down regulate your metabolism, no it doesn't happen over night and your body won't shut down and go in to the infamously overused over hyped starvation mode. Supplementation before, and after workouts. You can down a Protein drink before the workout, and have another afterwards, there's 50g protein (for a quality protein blend) and roughly 300-400 calories if not more. The more you work out, the more your calories need to be increased to offset fatigue and wasted workouts. You want to keep the muscle you've got and avoid muscle atrophy, if you're not feeding them properly, you're wasting your time working out, the weight lost will be muscle loss which in the end, no one wants. Are you tracking with a calorie website or journal? I like my fitnesspal because it allows me to see my "loose" deficit after I add how long I do a certain exercise each day, I say loose because it's not scientifically proven because every body is different, to get more accurate numbers you'll need to get some sort of calorie tracker, fit bit or body media type deal.

No drains here. Catheters were used on an as needed basis, I didn't need one.

If I remember right, I was taking 1/2 CC every week, my dosage was 1 CC every 2 weeks. Now I'm taking 1 CC every week, which from what I've researched, appears to be the normal dosage for T replacement therapy unless the person has other factors.

You can lose weight while not working out, diet is the most important factor, but look at folks who've lost a ton of weight by restricting calories and not working out much, and then look at folks who worked out and get their diet on track. The difference will make you want to work out. Everyone is different and everyone has different goals, mine wasn't only weight loss, it was also not looking like I sewed on 50 pounds of extra skin from a cadaver.

I'll be the 5th. Nights during the week, Wednesday/Thursday/Friday nights work best for me.

Old question but I'll answer just in case. Changes don't usually pop up until 2-3 weeks after starting injections. With the gel, some say they feel it first week, it's placebo, it's impossible to get in to your blood stream and actually make hormonal changes that fast unless you're taking other things that are less FDA/gubment friendly. Goals are typically determined as just getting in to whatever healthy range your Doc has established. THIS IS IMPORTANT, or was to me. Many doctors look at a chart, and say that's healthy. They don't take age, weight, lifestyle goals or anything like that in to consideration. Most "Mens Clinics" who specialize in T will take those things in to consideration. With the gel I went from 249 up to 400, and then dropped back down a month after to 323. I told my doc I wasn't happy, he basically said tough ****, you're normal. I switched doctors and new doc (PCP) started me on injections right away. I started and my levels went up to 819 and have stayed in that area on recent blood tests. I have another blood panel Friday for both my surgeon and T levels for my PCP. Blood tests started every month, and now have gone to every 3 months with my PCP. With injections, you'll notice some slight downs if you're injecting every 2 weeks. I switched by myself, splitting my dosage in to weekly injections. Afterwards I ran it by my PCP, knowing there wasn't any harm in doing so, she agreed with my methodology. We eventually upped my dosage, that with weekly injections has helped keep me stable with no ups and downs. Not a woman, but it's popular with doctors who put their worth in non-tested methods. Not saying it doesn't work, but there is very limited case data and real world studies on this. I think it's odd taking a full hormone, and then adding a hormone blocker to block out 75% of that hormone to only get the 25% that's needed to raise libido.

I'm hesitant to post pics, but after seeing them myself, I actually see a little difference in my body, which is exciting and motivational. I've still got a good ways to go, but this is around my half way mark I suppose. When I started in October I was nearly 400, weighing in at 394. So, I finally took some pictures recently. I was 298 in the second pic, and 394 in the first. I've been able to keep most of my strength, my bench is down to 340 from 375, deadlift is 765 from 810, and squat suffered the most, last max effort was 510, down from 585. My mile time has gone from 16 minutes to 11:40. Been having fun on this journey, not taking it way too seriously and just living and loving this new life. It's been amazing so far, I can't wait to to see the end result.

You can always impolitely inform them that what they're doing is against the law, and you'll be contacting the medical commissioners office reference their inability to pull their heads out of their asses. FWIW, I had all of my records mailed to me by numerous doctors, I didn't trust the nurses aids to be able to comprehend what I needed or what my surgeon needed, plus I don't like the "end of the day" attitude most doctors have, I wanted my stuff faxed over ASAP to not slow anything down. Be steadfast with them, and stay on them about it. Regardless of their personal opinion, it's their job to send the records when properly requested, and it's against the law to not send them when requested properly. If they keep jacking around, I'd have a very stern talk with someone higher up there and lay things out plain and simple. Either they get their act together or the next person they'll be speaking to is a rep from the medical board (make sure to at least look up the name of a rep in your area for authenticity play).

It's got absolutely nothing to do with telling a kid not to use a word, it has everything to do with them learning how to use, or not use those words, which leads to manners and how they're raised. Dealing with juveniles in law enforcement, 90% of the kids we deal with come from crappy homes. They have bad attitudes, their parents have bad attitudes. I suspect the kids calling others fat come from homes where their parents are disrespectful and lack manners that benefit society by any means. It's ok to think that you can teach your kids that we're all different, come in all shapes and sizes and all that, but the bottom line is, most kids, especially in public schools, don't have the cognitive thought process developed yet to understand that, which is why they need to start at the root issue of...kids don't need to be little **** heads to other people, because it's just not right.

That's horrible to go through something like that, that really sucks. It's sad that parents these days don't teach their children more manners, but a lot of it also comes from media and the fact that they're just kids. If you watch any children shows these days, the word fat is put in there quite a bit, even if it's not used in a derogatory setting at the time. It still sucks non the less, just imagine what the poor larger kids at schools have to deal with. I was lucky growing up, a few kids messed with me in elementary school, I ended that real quick by standing up for myself, but now days it's harder for a kid to do that because everyone is so touchy feely against self defense and such.

I'd personally ask that this thread gets deleted ASAP if I were you. If things take a turn for the worst, even private messages can be subpoenaed off the server and read in court and turned so far against you it will make it very hard in your corner, especially if kids are involved. Get REAL help, from a certified licensed person that's qualified and experienced in your area of need. 2 weeks isn't going to change anything. Get help, follow through with the help, and actually fix problems instead of having a little pow wow on the couch talking about your feelings for 30 minutes and then assuming all is well.

Anyone who's had surgery there, do you know if they have private rooms or are the double occupancy rooms? Trying to figure out before I get there for insurance reasons. They won't cover a private room if double rooms are available.

Getting HGH or Test, or any other hormone that could be determined to be an anabolic hormone online instead of going through a face to face clinic is illegal, the DEA won't be your friend if you're getting those products shipped to your house, and they're legit products, which in most cases they're not legit, they're placebo products made to make you feel good for a little while until your body stops producing the hormone at a decent level. If you go through an online clinic, you'll have to have a face to face consultation with a medical doctor before they can legally write your prescription. Go to an experienced endocrinologist and get checked. There are plenty of mens clinics around the US now it's not hard to find one, and it's a lot safer to make sure you're not doing anything that's going to screw up your hormones even more than they are.

Letting stupid people get away with being stupid, welcome to the downfall of society.

Yup. Hormones released during intense exercise have been shown to increase drive and libido in both men and women. There are plenty of studies out there regarding this. It's both psychological and physiological as well, both mind and body.

With my bone density and muscle mass, my doctor told me if I got under 240 I'd look freakish at 6'1. I'm already boney at 305. If I lay wrong my hip bones kill me, and if I'm laying on something hard my ribcage hurts. I can count my ribs and collarbones are crazy out there. I take pride in knowing I'm never gonna be the skinny guy though. In my line of work, the imposing figure helps keep people from thinking they can try something on me. I am hoping though that being "skinnier" is gonna help persuade those who like to run from the law to not do so as much, haha.

Nope, not at all. Just saying I feel people who preach about not smoking non stop are the same likes that we've dealt with that simply tell us "food is bad for you!" No ****? Really? Fix your own life and your own self before preaching to me about my imperfections. Smoking is bad, yup, sure is. Smoking increases so many health factors, but people still do it. People who smoke, they smoke. If they want to stop, they'll seek means to stop. I've had people get in my face about smoking pipes and cigars. I seriously smoke once a month, IF THAT. However, that same person I know has an addiction to many things that are far worse to their health and wellness than me enjoying a pipe or cigar once a month in my back yard. Kill the high horse, get off of it.

No, it really isn't. There are a select few of people here that are supportive, everyone else lives on a high horse because of lack of moderation and barriers set forth by the staff to tell people to sit down and shut up if they're just going to preach on about how perfect they are and what everyone else needs to do. If you're seriously in need of support, I would find a support group close by, or find several select members here whom you can relate to and seek support from them.

What? Please provide factual research to support anything you've just said. I didn't get sleeved to diet the rest of my life. I eat good food, and I eat what I want. I just went on a 3 day backpacking trip, and consumed 3 Hershey bars for energy on the trail. I ate several highly processed foods on that trip to get quick, high calorie counts during that trip. Came back down 4 pounds. My piss was straw colored so don't say I was dehydrated. Smoking. Several doctors have different points of view on this subject and it's highly debatable. My Dr. told me not to smoke 6 weeks after surgery. Afterwards I was cleared to enjoy a nice cigar or pipe afterwards from time to time. Now I don't smoke all the time, maybe once or twice a month, but there are plenty of people here who do smoke often and haven't had any issues regarding the sleeve. Overall health and lung function is a different story, but you didn't mention anything about that. It seems like maybe you have no business telling others what to do. What is it about weight loss surgery that gives others the right to barge in and start spreading false statements about things they obviously don't quite understand themselves.

I just got over a kidney stone last week, and the Dr. asked how much weight I'd lost. I told him, and he stated he's had a few people come through after massive weight loss in a short period of time that have had an issue with kidney stones. Said it was likely a calcium kidney stone, the body having issues with managing the levels of calcium and vitamin D. I looked up most of what he said, and there was research supporting his claim. I used to think all kidney stones dealt with lack of water, but there are many other factors that come in to play.

Give it time. It took me about 3 weeks with the gel, and then it wore off because it's a temporary solution to a life long problem, and I was given a vial of Test. cyp and the doors of heaven were opened! If you guys aren't getting pinned for T, and using the gel, I'd recommend talking to your doctor about injections instead. It's a more stable delivery platform and it's easier to manage doses to make sure you're not on a roller coaster ride of T. Plus, why get on T therapy if you're gonna have to worry about your wife getting a mustache because you got sweaty bumping uglies and it reactivated the gel.