sunflower*

Hiiiiiiiiiiiiii! Congratulations on your HEALTHY and BEAUTIFUL life change!!! From my personal experience just want to tell you, that people, who make that kind of comments, simply find YOU as a TREAT to THEM and the way to feel better about themselves is to put you down. SO, by posting that kind of comments to you, is just admitting that you WON and YOU ARE BETTER THEN THEM. I think today for you is the day to Celebrate YOUR SUCCESS and block them out of your life. DON'T LET THEM EVER RULE YOUR LIFE! EVER AGAIN! Good luck! Be strong and happy!

The way my surgeon explained it is that if protein is low, our body thinks there is a famine and food is scarce and will do everything it can to conserve/store energy. If it is getting enough protein it thinks everything is great and our metabolism keeps humming. Also, protein is used for a lot of things, including repair. As we lose weight our body had a lot of rearranging, restructuring, repairing to do. My analogy (you can't blame my surgeon for this one). Think of it this way: If you have a regular house, you may need to do occasional maintenance, but if you are renovating your house, you need more labor, supplies, and energy. The protein is the supplies, the metabolism is the labor, and the fat is energy. If you don't have enough supplies (nails, bricks, etc.), then everybody gets to take the day off until more supplies are delivered (so your metabolism slows and you aren't using the energy). If you are waiting for supplies (protein) and not using the energy, then any new energy that arrives (carbs/fats) is stored. We are efficient at storing energy but our bodies do not store protein. If we don't have enough supplies but the roof springs a leak, we may have to take supples from elsewhere (protein in our muscles, like the heart) to do an emergency repair. That is why chronically low protein can cause heart and other serious problems: our organs (heart, lungs, skin, etc.) are made of protein. If we don't have enough protein we can damage our muscles and organs. If we have just enough for that but not enough to keep up with the repairs needed as we lose weight then our weight loss slows down or stops. Also, if we aren't getting enough protein and our body consumes muscle then it slows our metabolism even more. We may see a change on the scale but it won't be fat loss, it will be muscle. We need muscle to burn fat (back to my analogy, muscle is the labor force). So, instead of a work crew of contractors, we may have a skeleton crew that can do even fewer repairs. The bottom line: don't skimp on protein. You don't get bonus points for starving your body of protein. You don't get bonus points for severely restricting protein. Sent from my SM-G900V using the BariatricPal App

Thank you! Yes, I agree with you about the mind set. Without that everything will go back to the old bad habits. Good luck to you on your long happy life journey ! Sent from my SM-G900V using the BariatricPal App

Hi Junebug1971 and CONGRATULATIONS on your huge success! You look AWESOME! [emoji106] [emoji7] I am considering the surgery, so I have been reading a lot of posts here and you are one of the many people on this app, who said, that the surgery was the best decision you have ever made. I understand the weight loss as the result at the end, but what else has changed after the surgery, that you think is a good thing ( i.e. less appetite, change of the food preference or easier than before loozing the weight) ? Thank you! [emoji4]