bigtex2014

I had a few consistent themes in mind when I finally started down the path of getting "sleeved": 1) I had pretty much given up dieting because no matter how successful I was with the diet, I always failed and gained all of the weight back. I entered my 30s at approximately 240 lbs in the best shape of my life after losing about 100 lbs. By 31 I was back at 270 and by 33 I was right at 300 lbs. For me, I no longer looked at a traditional diet or behaviour modification as holding any real promise of being successful... 2) My father passed away a few years ago and I really started to think about my own mortality. I have heard that you "never see" 300 lb guys in a nursing home and I realized that the onset of various co-morbid conditions were clearly showing me where I was headed. Moderate sleep apnea, bad cholesterol, borderline high blood pressue, family history of diabetes and heart disease are serious and I realized I didn't want to be the guy that ignored the writing on the wall. 3) As part of early weight control, I developed a love for excercising (i.e. sports, weights cardio etc.) even at heavy weights 300+ lbs. At 40 I realized my body was starting to fall apart under the strain of the excess weight. I am hoping to avoid hip/knee replacement and the things that will definately occur if I continue to try and be active while "heavy". I have wrestled with thought of getting the sleeve for about 18 months and really think it will make the difference that I need to be successful long term!

My VSG is scheduled for 09/15 so I'm still pre-op but I have been fighting a lifelong battle with weight and most of the combat has been diet and excercise so I figured I'd give you my two cents. Calorie restricted diets are tough on muscle and given the variety of factors that go into whether you maintain muscle and/or gain lean mass; it is easy to get really bummed out looking at the scale every day (or multiple) and wondering why weight loss has slowed, stopped or reversed. I have dropped approximately 100 lbs twice in my life and there were definately weird "stalls" during the weight loss... I think it is just your body and metabolism doing things that I your not aware of. You should definately not be a slave to the scale and weigh yourself so much because it sounds like your doing great in terms of fat loss and your body is just doing its thing... Also, I agree with the less carbs more Protein philosophy along with adding weights in your excercise if you can. It seems like weights tell your body to hold on to some of the muscle even though your calories are low... I'm not an expert but I truly believe that weights and cardio are the way to go if you can do it. All said, I'll be post op in less than 10 days so I'll put my own advice to the test ...