ryan_86

45 minutes of upper body weight lifting and the 45 minutes of HIIT with the butterfly stroke in the pool mixed in with free and breaststroke. Rarely do it but love the feeling of total exhaustion until just lifting my arms to shower is hard.

I kept moving my goal. The habits you develop are supposed to last forever, right? So I'm sticking to the same diet and when I stop losing weight, I stop losing weight. I thought 210, then 200, then 180. Now I'm at 162 and wondering if 150 is possible. If there's an ounce of extra body fat on me, I'm assuming I can take it off.

Tell them something so gross they won't ask questions. Or just don't tell them at all. Not their business, and they'll probably just draw their own conclusions anyway.

Juice=sugar, and worse, the spike and drop in blood sugar will make you hungry, and the juice won't fill you up. Eat real food.

Yes, eating helps control hunger. Thank you for your contribution.

At first I didn't want anyone to say anything, then I was flattered when they did, then I was disappointed when they stopped. Now the most frequent comments are not so fun. "Are you sure you're eating enough/getting enough nutrition? I think you need to eat more. You're getting so skinny. You're chest is losing weight but your belly is not. I don't want you to be anorexic." All meant well, but sheesh!

There are several hormones responsible for triggering hunger. Some people are no long hungry after surgery, some for just a while and some forever. Most people fall into the first category. My hunger came back around 5 months, and my surgeon was hardly surprised.

There's no true substitute for free weights and compound lifts: bench press, squat, military press, dead lift. Mix in some smaller muscle groups. Train 2 muscle groups every other day. Every time you lift, try to do the same number of sets and reps with a little more weight than the last time you did that exercise. I recommend 4 sets of 10 reps with as much weight as you can lift and complete the set. You will see gains within the first two weeks.

I've been feeling run down for a month. I'm down 125 pounds from when this all began and 6 months post-op. I go to the gym 4 times a week, starting a month ago. My workouts are tough but not strenuous. I'm tired all the time, have very little energy, a nearly constant head and neck ache, and mentally a little foggy. I kept having night sweats a couple times a week until recently and haven't been sleeping well for a while, falling asleep but not staying asleep. Vitamin levels are fine as of two weeks ago; D could be better but I'm taking several supplements for it. Had some viruses in January (respiratory) and February (rotavirus) but nothing since. The occasional dizziness or nausea. Getting in 100-120g Protein every day and 1100-1300 calories. Anyone else go through something like this at this point in your journey? I have an annual physical next month. Seeing my nutritionist next week. I'm hoping this is just a phase.

To answer your question, I'm not aware of any similar lifting program. This is the best free resource I know of: http://www.aworkoutroutine.com The book "Bigger Leaner Stronger" is geared toward beginners. It's more about bodybuilding but the principles are the same.

I'm afraid every day that going to do the same, and I've found myself falling into some routines. I'm trying to hit the reset button. I've gone back to protein shakes over bars, pay a lot more attention to keeping my carb count low, upped my total protein to at least 100g a day. I made a list of things that, sleeve or no sleeve, I've proven to myself I cannot resist and hence do not bring into my home. I made another list of things that I do not eat anywhere. I made rules for when I workout, how many times a day I eat, and a hard number of max calories per day. And I told my surgeon that I felt I was slipping into old habits. She looked so upset you'd have thought I told her I punched her puppy. She sent me back to the nutritionist. What I've learned is that it really is all us. The sleeve can keep you from gorging all at once, but it can't keep you from gorging over a few hours. I had to make new rules for how I live and eat in addition to following the ones my medical team gave me. Now it's on me to follow them. See your doctor, your nutritionist, a therapist. Think hard about your problems (I know you've probably already done this) and make the necessary rules, and follow them. I think you can do it, and I'm rooting for you.

I have to respectfully disagree. Yes on the protein, but do not try to replace calories you burn through exercise. For two reasons: 1) The objective is to create a larger calorie deficit (what you eat minus what you burn). It's not going to help you lose weight if you eat more after exercising. 2) Everyone and everything - casual exercises, gym rats, trainers, websites, workout machines, app, everything dramatically overestimates calories burned. You will think you burned four hundred, you'll eat four hundred, but you'll really only have burned two hundred. What's more, it takes seconds to eat too many calories and hours to burn them off. You'll never win that math. The only exception, and this is a conversation for a health care provider, is if you feel faint during or after a workout. That could be a sign that you're getting enough nutrition relative to what you're asking your body to do. But even there I've found that people overestimate the impact of a restricted diet on a moderate or even vigorous workout and vice versa. It's one thing if you're training for an athletic competition, but if we're just talking about forty five minutes at the gym, probably not. But if that does happen, talk to your doctor about it.

Not to be too forward, but what have your bathroom habits been lately? Constipation is a common side effect of WLS.

Made more than my share of bad choices this month, but the surgery is a step on the journey. I used to say I'm a work in progress, and I still am. I think it's more important to worry about what you'll do tomorrow. I decided to see my nutritionist again. Figured this all started with her, and checking in now and again can only help to make those course corrections.

I think my loved ones treaded lightly. There were questions about me being sure, questions about whether I had really tried (which I found insulting - they knew I'd been fat since kindergarten), questions about whether I was prepared for the long term life style change. Once those question were answered, they were universally supportive. I only found out after - from my surgeon, as well as others - how scared they were. They told others because they were scared and needed someone to talk to about it - uncles and family friends and aunts knew, and I only found out they knew after the fact - and all of them have been supportive too. I'm glad they knew. My closest friends knew. My boss knew and some other colleagues figured it out. I learned that all the people I thought cared about me really do care about me. But if I hadn't been so lucky and they hadn't accepted it, I'd have done it anyway. My body, my health, my life. Their approval didn't matter. Still doesn't matter. That said, I don't tell anyone who I don't think needs to know. It just isn't necessary. In fact, a colleague told me last week that the photo of me on the company website, taken 1 year and 123 pounds ago, looks so different. Did the IT people squish the photo? I told her I got stung by a bee on my way into the office that morning. But that was just to amuse myself. I will add, as someone whose employer would probably fire him for voicing this opinion, that social media is a social disaster. It serves to make everyone insecure, it empowers petty and vindictive individuals, it cuts us off from real contact, and it turns us alternately into voyeurs and exhibitionists. My advice is to walk away from social media. If you want to talk about this journey or brag about your success, do it here or do it directly to the people you care about and who care about and support you. Everyone else is a bystander, their praise will not help you, and their scorn - much more common than praise - will and apparently has hurt you. Ask yourself: what do I really need social media for? Am I a better person for being on it? Am I happier for being on it?

I just switched to Fair Life. My suspicion is that the body can't absorb all the protein that I consume when mixing protein powder with the milk, but it can't hurt either.

I used to worry about eating too much before surgery. Now I worry about eating too much after surgery, and I worry that I'll stop worrying! Worry is a form of vigilance, and it gets old, but I think it's for the best. If I'm ever fortunate enough to not need to stress about it, great. Until then, stressing about it means I still care and will be more disciplined.

Caffeine stimulates hunger.

Exercise has a lot of benefits other than weight loss. It improves heart health, lung function, blood sugar, bone density, joint strength, and lowers the risk of depression, stroke, and many types of cancer. It also helps to tone the body so that, having lost weight, you're not flabby and weak. You didn't not lose weight because you were exercising. You won't lose weight because you are exercising. But there's a lot of other benefits, and I can all but guarantee that if you don't exercise, you will not maintain weight loss down the road.

I feel the same way. For some reason, some days I indulge myself more than I should, and there's no restriction at all. Back to fundamentals!

I'm buying my first home. I have a realtor. Been pre-approved for the mortgage. When looking at a house, what can I, as a layman, look at to understand whether the house has good bones (electric, heating, cooling, plumbing, structure)? Any and all information helpful. Thanks!

People who feel the need to act as the forum militia must be so much fun in real life. "The topic of the evening is 'what would Himmler do.' Deviations will be severely punished!" Seriously, I asked other humans for help. If it threw too much chaos into your life, you didn't have to read it. Hence "off topic." Hope you have a great Friday and an awesome weekend.

I was 29 and felt like a ticking time bomb. With everything wrong with me, 40 didn't seem guaranteed.

Tuna and chicken salad taste the same at any consistency. That's what got me through the purée stage.

My understanding is that the inspection is after I make an offer. How do I evaluate whether to make an offer without someone's expert advice first?