Paul Clarke

I have been to Cedar Point, Kings island, Knotts Berry Farm and Six Flags Magic mountain since my surgery and suffered no ill effects.

I think only some Crystal Light has caffeine. I just check the box of the lemonade and it is not listed as an ingredient.

Oatmega bars are the best. 200 cals per bar, The mint chocolate are my favorite. This is the cheapest place I have found them. https://www.allstarhealth.com/f/boundless_nutrition-oatmega_grass_fed_whey.htm Personally I dont care fore the Blueberry or Lemon Chia, but the others are awesome. You can find them also at Walgreens and Walmart, but they are cheaper online.

April 2017 vs March 2019

From my experience, and perhaps I have been gifted with good genetics, the outcome of this surgery is up to you. I have seen the 60% figure quoted in many places. That wasn't what I wanted either, and through a lot of hard work (and some minor suffering), I have been able to loose all of my excess body weight. 60% or so is an average. Within that, some people will loose a lot of weight, others will gain weight. Your outcome and your journey are personal to you. My advice. Find a lifestyle that works for you and is sustainable and just do that. If it works, keep doing it until you reach your goal. Change up things when what you are doing isn't working. Cover the basics, consume less calories than you burn. The most important thing is to keep going in the face of inevitable discouragement and set backs. You will make mistakes, but everyday the calorie clock resets and you are given a clean slate. What you did yesterday is less important than what you do today. if you want this result enough and you are prepared to put in the effort (which is considerable), you can do this!

2lb per week is pretty average from what I can tell. I was 310 lb on the day of my surgery on 1st March 2018 (38 weeks ago) and I have lost on average 3.17lb per week. With my best week (surgery week) being (6.4lb) and my worst being (0.3) (about 5 weeks ago). Everyone looses at different rates, I think the important thing is your trend. If you are loosing constantly thats what you really want. Just keep doing what you are doing and you will get to your goal.

I think the potential outcome depends on what you mean by taste. I doubt you would do much harm with half a teaspoon of most things in particular eggs. However if it was more than that, then we are given guidelines by our medical professionals for a reason. Personally I stuck rigidly to mine, even though in my opinion and in looking at what others had been told to do they were over the top. My theory being is that the first 3 months or so post surgery were a gift and I would never be able to loose more weight more quickly in my life, so I wanted to get the very most out of that period, so I was determined to play by the rules to an obsessive extent, However it also wouldn't have hurt much for me to have lightened up also.

I went from a size 60 jeans to my most recent purchase on the weekend of a size 34. Each time I went down 1 or 2 sizes I was convinced that they would not fit, this weekends purchase included. I look at my clothing and wonder how I fit into it. Having said that though it did take a very long time to move down that first size, it was certainly 80 plus lbs before I went to a size 56. The bigger you are, the longer it seems to take to step down size and for people to notice, or at least make a comment. A lot of people have said they were reluctant to mention my weight loss in case I was sick.

I think we all look at people and think they could benefit from our experience. However I think back to before I started this journey and know how I would have responded, which would not have been terribly well, had I been approached. I see it like someone who has given up smoking or found god. Mostly everyone else does not really want to hear about how they could transform their lives for the better. This is a journey you have to be ready to take. I know that this desire to evangelize comes from a good place, but mostly I don't think we have the right to tell someone we don't know how they should live their lives. Having said all of that, if you want to people watch and secretly judge them, I am all for that. I know I do!

Great work! I know it will have been hard, but its sure worth it!

Weighed in this morning at 188.4 which for me is a BMI of 24.9 (healthy range). This is down from a high of 412lb on 4/27/17 and a BMI of 54.4 (super obese range). Thats a loss of 223lb (or 101kg). Of this 102lb was pre op. I know how long this journey is for each and every one of you, I really do. It is so easy to get discouraged and have your mental stability rolled by one bad weigh in. Feeling your progress is never enough, never quick enough, that you are failing etc. There are very few easy days and in this battle against yourself there really is nowhere to hide. However, it can be done, Things I have learned along the way. One weigh in means very little. The trend is the truth. If you are loosing or gaining over time, if you keep records you will see that. The result of one days weigh in good or evil, is accurate only +/- a couple of lb. So don't be too discouraged (or take too much of a victory lap) based on one days results. You are in this race for a lifetime. We all have good and bad days, and everyday the calorie count starts again. Everyday, every moment we make a choice about our future but we cannot change our past. So having a good or bad day means nothing tomorrow, it starts again, learn from it and move on. You are really only going to fail if you stop trying. I am an obsessive data junky. I weigh in every day, which I intend to continue and track everything I eat, my streak in Myfitnespal is now 241 days. It is tempting to under record what you eat, because having a low number of calories in your diary feels better, but you can't lie to yourself. It is easy to cheat, but who but yourself are you cheating? This may seem like a haste land waste of time, but I spend less than 5 minutes per day on this. Of course I have a huge spreadsheet as well on which I spend a considerable amount of time obsessing over, but to me that is fun. It has my daily weigh ins since surgery as well as calories consumed and forecasts my weigh loss half a dozen different ways and tracks my performance against my progress goals. But this helps me, and I enjoy it. I read the labels on the food I eat and make a conscious choice about where I am to my calorie goal and whether what I am about to eat is worth it. This process has been a real eye opener because it is amazing just how many calories all our food contains, It is no wonder to me now why people are overweight as it really seems that every product in the supermarket and on sale elsewhere is designed specifically to be nearly as bad for you as possible, even those things we are sold as being healthy. There is no one way to do all of this. Some people exercise obsessively nearly from day 1 post op. That wasn't my way and I didn't start on the treadmill until I had lost more than 200lb. My learning here is find something that works for you and just do that. For me it was to really only eat one meal per day, plus a small snack (usually a protein bar, Oatmega bars are yum) for breakfast and lunch. Now that wasn't easy and I have been hungry a lot and that wouldn't work for everyone. However, you will find a place where you can sustain the level of effort and see results. Whatever that is for you, do that and remember what that was. If you have a bad day or week, then you will know what to go back to. This wont be easy, but you will get out of this what you put in. Surgery is not a magic bullet, it only gives you superpower of being able to eat less, the rest is up to you. The only remaining question is, "Is this all worth it?". For me the answer is definitely yes. I feel and think I look so much better. I can stand for long periods of time without the pain of my huge belly, pulling out my back. I no longer use my horrible CPAP machine. I have actually started running on my treadmill (only a few minutes at a time, but I am getting there). The downsides, so far as I can see are I am a huge ball of loose skin, and there are parts of me that as quite skinny and boney. My shoulders and arms look a bit skeletal. I have no padding on my tailbone, so I need to sit on a coccyx cushion at my desk or while driving and I am also cold all the time. Hopefully over time I will be able to overcome these, but even still if nothing changed on a net basis, for me, it was totally worth it. My next challenge is to maintain all of this. How do I start to increase my calorie intake to go from loosing to maintaining, is what I need to discover. All I know is I don't want to go back and getting here has been too much work to ever want to go back.

Every day the calorie count restarts. What you did yesterday means less than what you are doing today and tomorrow. So learn from it an move on.

I started at 411lb with a BMI of 54.4 and am now 192lb with a BMI of 25.4 and 3lb away from 100% excess weight loss. My advice is to track your calories, know your BMR. And weight yourself often. Figure out what works for you and keep doing it. Don’t be afraid to be hungry, it’s worth it in the end. Ultimately you will get out what you put in and the end result is largely up to you.

I am 6 months out and I am averaging about 850-900 calories per day. I am sure I could eat more but am choosing not to until I hit my goal. When i am traveling for work I take protein bars with me as meal replacements. They ar easier to manage than shakes and helps with not eating out too much.

I have has several goal weights during this journey. My initial one was 250lb, I set that when I was 412lb at my initial barbaric consultation. That was as much as I thought I could do at that time. Between then and surgery I was able to start loosing significant amounts of weight and I targeted and hit 100lb weight loss by before i went under the knife. So during that period my goal became a weight of 199lb, which I am very pleased to have reached. Now my goal is to be under 189lb, which will make my BMI under 24.9, so I am pretty close, maybe another month or so to go. Realistically at this point there is not much difference between a BMI of 26.2 and 24.9, but damn I want to hit that number so badly. Ultimately I want to balance my weight between 180 and 189lb over time. This means figuring out how to transition to maintenance, which is a bit daunting to me at this point, but I will figure it out. I have learned at each point of the journey, no reason to think I will stop now.