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Fat turns testosterone into estrogen. Estrogen is not good for men. Low testosterone is not good for men. Before weight loss surgery, my total testosterone was just over 300 ng/dl. Per this page, you can see that this is WAYYY too low for a guy my age (40-ish at the time, 40 now). Now that I've lost 80 pounds, without doing ANYTHING else, without getting shots or the patch or anything, my last testosterone measurement was 550 ng/dl. This is still slightly below median, but I'm still fat! And even so, I've nearly DOUBLED my testosterone levels, simply by losing weight. No herbs, no pills, no "Extenze," nothing, just fat loss. And yes, morning wood and libido have come back with a vengeance -- there's a direct correlation, because the morning tends to be when our testosterone levels peak, which is also related to getting a good night's sleep, which is ALSO connected to, you guessed it, obesity. So YES, losing weight will bring back the "little guy" in the morning, and I could even see it causing wet dreams if it made your T spike high enough. Enjoy it! It probably won't stay spiked forever (our bodies tend to downregulate unusually high T levels back to "normal" eventually), but it should be fun times (for you AND your wife) while it lasts

Congratulations! It goes so fast! Enjoy your sleeve!

For me, it was the only POSSIBLE way out. But not EASY... It takes a fair amount of work. It's just that for me, without the sleeve, serious weight loss was pretty much impossible.

Yeah, major surgery and eating 600-1000 calories per day... the easy way out! *wink*

Thanks for all the kind words! And y'all definitely get it; even if you're not going to act on it, it's nice to get "looked at!"

So, just a couple of short NSV's from Saturday night! I was out for dinner with some friends, and I was walking through our local Red Robin (note: the Ensenada chicken Platter is fairly sleeve-friendly; high Protein, not ENORMOUS portion sizes), and a couple of nice things happened in quick succession. First, I had my hands in my jeans pockets. Now, non-obese people probably wouldn't understand, but you guys might: my jeans fit me well these days (not giant and baggy, and not skin tight) and I noticed that having my hands in my jeans pockets felt... comfortable! I didn't feel like my hands were going to be severed at the wrists. I didn't feel like I had to bow my arms out over a huge gut. I didn't feel like my jeans were going to fall off and I had to "hold them up" with my hands. Everything just fit... right... and my hands felt comfortable! That was nice! Second, I noticed a couple of the waitresses there "checking me out." This was a nice ego boost since I'm 40 and I'd wager that the average age of the wait staff was 21-25. Now I"m no Brad Pitt and I never will be, but it's nice to feel at least "average" in appearance again, isn't it? Even if you don't intend to DO anything about it, it's nice to get "checked out" by the opposite sex once in a while! Just a couple of NSV's there that I figured I'd share!

The first few days after surgery, I felt a little weak, but that was from the surgery, not the diet. Remember that if you're obese (like you should be if you're getting this surgery!) you have a LOT of fat reserves. You could probably live without a bite of food for over a month (although after a week or so you'd feel horrible). After the recovery from the surgery -- about two days, for me -- I felt more energetic than ever, and it just keeps improving!

Well, this is sort of anticlimactic after other posts on the same subject, but I just got back from the sleep doc this morning to get my results from my last sleep study, and it's official: I'm cured. When I had my first study, in 2001, at 310 lbs, I was having 61 events per hour. Now, at 248-ish lbs, I was having <1 event per hour -- even on my back (which is where apnea is typically worst). He said that they consider the cutoff for apnea to be 5 events per hour, so I don't even fall into the "mild" category -- I'm cured! Now I will say this, I've tried sleeping without my CPAP and it's HARD. I've really gotten into the habit, and it feels... odd... to be without it. But my doc said that's normal; he said it may take me a month or so before sleeping without the horrible machine feels "normal" again. So I just have to soldier through it and break the habit of sleeping with hoses and straps and masks attached to my head! So, it's official -- I'm cured, thanks to the sleeve! (Plus my blood pressure was phenomenal agagin, 110/70, 65 resting pulse... all good things!)

The puking is usually due to an autologous HGH dump, and it's rare for folks past 40 or so to be able to generate that much HGH. I miss my old college days of "pump Iron till you puke" (then replaced by "drink beer till you puke" -- yes, I was not a delicate flower back in those days ) Now I have to go look up P90x!

Congratulations! I just got back from the sleep doctor an hour ago with the same news: my apnea is cured! Isn't it great?

Well, after ten years with that damnable device cutting into my head, dripping humidifier Water down my nose while I sleep, giving me sinus infections and blowing so much air into my belly that I wake up with an earth-shattering fart each morning (sorry for TMI, but it's true and you CPAP'ers know what I'm talking about), I may finally be free of the contraption! For you non-CPAP'ers wondering what the big deal is, imagine that you can't just "go to sleep" -- instead you have to set up this big, uncomfortable contraption that also tethers you to a wall socket. You get used to it after a while, but it's always in the back of your head that you can never "just sleep" -- you have to have electricity, you have to have your equipment, and you're always fighting with some hose or strap or something that chafes or tangles you up or leaks. I just got back from a sleep study; my sleep doc ordered a "split night" study where the first half of the night would be without a mask, and the second half with the mask to get my new pressure -- if I needed it. Well, I slept the whole night through without my mask, and although I don't have the official results yet, the sleep tech said that it looked like I was sleeping well without the mask. Even on my back (which is the most challenging sleep position for apnea sufferers). I was definitely dreaming at several points during the night. So I'm pretty sure that this means I'm done with it. HUZZAH! That ALONE justifies the VSG surgery. When I go to Hawaii next month, I won't have to lug the CPAP with me, through the TSA checkpoints, find outlets in the hotel room... etc. etc. etc. And I still have 20 or so pounds to lose, so it's only going to improve if I'm "borderline." I'm so excited! I didn't think it would be possible for me to ever get off the CPAP, and yet here I am!

As I answered in the other post on the same topic, it's extremely unlikely that your hunger is due to Splenda. Hunger is an EXTREMELY complicated phenomenon and is very normal -- the body needs hunger to survive, so there are multiple, redundant pathways to signal hunger to the brain. It's VERY unlikely that Splenda alone is some kind of magical hunger-signaling compound. Drink Water when you're hungry. Even better, EAT -- but eat something healthy and filling, like lean Protein or raw vegetables (whatever works with your sleeve). Hunger is not the enemy.

Sigh... the standard "stay away from it... IT'S CHEMICALS!" scare tactics they used to use against Nutrasweet. I swear someone somewhere is getting paid to distribute these hit pieces. On-topic: it's likely that your hunger has nothing to do with Splenda; the lab studies on sweeteners and hunger actually showed a correlation between sweet TASTES and hunger; so ANY sweetener, including Stevia or cane sugar, would have this effect. Far more likely is that your hunger uptick is a normal metabolic effect. Rather than trying to force yourself to never be hungry, how about eating filling, healthy things? Hunger is NORMAL.

This is an odd NSV, but I was putting on my jeans this morning, and I was checking that my belt was looped through all of the belt loops correctly. I didn't realize it until after the fact, but today was the first time I didn't have to lift up a layer of flab to accomplish this! I was able to just look down at my belt, you know, all normal-like! That was a bit of a "holy cow!" moment. It's a really pleasant feeling to not have to be constantly lifting up layers of flab to see stuff "south of the equator."

Anyone got any suggestions for me on veggies that are sleeve-friendly? Here's the sitch; post-sleeve, I have a really hard time with all of the "good for me" veggies that I used to enjoy (broccoli, cauliflower, asparagus, raw carrots). All of these tend to be very fibrous and plug me up quickly. Other veggie choices are either just basically blobs of carbs (I'm looking at you, potatoes) or squash -- which makes me yak. So post-sleeve, I really haven't eaten much veggies at all. How can I increase my veggie intake to remain healthy? What veggies/way of preparing them are you guys finding work with your sleeves? Any thoughts?

That is a great story, thanks for posting it! I think a lot of us here have the same fear of regaining the weight because we've all been through this roller-coaster. I did a LOT of research before letting them cut me open, and that was something really important to me -- I want this to be a "for life" fix for my weight problems, not a "for a year or so" fix. Even knowing that all the research points to this being durable weight loss, it's still nice to hear success stories like your coworker's!

Congratulations! Doesn't it feel great?

I had been hovering right around 250 for some time (since early December). 250 is an important "milestone" weight for me for a couple of reasons; first, I simply never thought I could get my weight down to 250 and keep it there (let alone lose MORE). Second, for adults the weight limit on a lot of things is 250 pounds; for instance, I had to buy an ultra-heavy duty office chair for my computer because at 330 lbs I literally destroyed Office Depot-type cheapo chairs too fast, so it made sense to invest in a heavy duty, high quality chair. But my weight "stuck" around 250 and wouldn't budge... at one point during the holidays it bounced back as high as 254. My gf tried to convince me that it was Water weight, but my glass half empty mind just "knew" that 250 was as low as I go and now I was going to start climbing again. Well, without any real change of diet or exercise habits, I've started losing again, and am now down to around 246. Hopefully this trend will continue to my Hawaii vacation at the end of February; I don't want to look COMPLETELY disgusting in swim trunks! Does anyone else have the same experience where your body seems to hold on to weight for a couple weeks, and then with no real change in diet or exercise habits, abruptly start losing again? I can't figure it out; in this case I know that it was literally NOTHING I changed in my diet and exercise habits (still moderate but not perfect with my diet, still utterly bad about exercise), so it must have been some internal, metabolic thing!

Drinking too much/too fast can lead to some wicked bad reflux. As long as that's not a problem and your doc doesn't have a concern with it (and of course, you're not in pain/vomiting), I wouldn't worry too much about going a little over.

My vote is hypotension. Before the sleeve, my blood pressure was borderline high -- 138/95. Now that I've dropped >80 lbs, my blood pressure is almost low: 105/70. This is very good in most ways, but it means that standing up fast or getting dehydrated or other things that can drop your BP futher can make me very dizzy and wobbly for a few moments until my blood pressure stabilizes. I don't know if this is the same thing that's happening to you, but if it's primarily positional -- IE, it mostly happens when you stand up fast -- then it's likely not a huge concern. Of course, as always -- talk to your doc

(A little late, but) congratulations! I'll almost certainly never be under 200 unless I'm terminally ill, but I know how important these milestone weights are! For me, I still haven't really grasped the fact that I'm under 300 lbs (significantly under!) It's a nice feeling, eh?

Hah! Thanks for the compliment. I bought a piece of home gym equipment to that end, also. I'm never gonna be Brad Pitt, but hopefully I can avoid being Homer Simpson...

Holy crud, hot mama! Those almost look like they're a different person -- in a good way! It always amazes me how losing significant weight can also make a person look younger; it shows up in your pictures too. Great job!

New study in the Annals of Internal Medicine (with a very large cohort ~120k participants). Note that it looks like the higher mortality was due to higher animal Protein intake, which is associated with various risk factors. However, it does seem to indicate caution when recommending very low-carb diets as a panacea for health and weight loss. It seems like the best diet recommendations to date ('diet' in its original meaning of 'what you eat,' as opposed to 'how to lose weight quickly') don't restrict carbohydrates, but rather recommend against refined carbohydrates, as well as too much animal protein. Vegetable protein (Beans, beans, the magical fruit...) seems to be fairly safe. Edit: link to study abstract here.

Yes, CPAP is unpleasant! It's just that we CPAP'ers sort of get used to it after a while -- after all, what's the point of complaining about something that (you're told) you're going to have to live with for the rest of your life? It's just when the prospect of not having to deal with it is waved around that you start to realize what a PITA it really is!