OT: Weightloss Surgery- contemplating it

[Treesap]

I work with someone who had the lapband, and she has lost maybe 30 pounds. This girl is over 300 still after one year. It didn't help with her "mental" blocks regarding food.

On the other hand, my brother in law has lost 150 pounds with gastric bypass. He said the time he's had to learn to eat proper potions has helped him with the mental issue he had with food. His highest weight was 375.

[dsm]

The matter of weight loss and how to maintain a healthy balance of exercise & food is such a challenge.

I believe age is one factor we have to grapple with in that as we get older it seems most of us tend to exercise less.
I have gone through bouts of jogging & watching what I eat but it may last a few months, a year or a bit longer but
always I hit a point of frustration & would stop & watch the weight start to go back on. With jogging, if I did it
on say a sat morning, for an hour, my feet would hurt all day. With cycling nothing hurts now & I always feel fine
within minutes of completing each journey - amazing to me after the effects of jogging. One other issue for me is
I hit 65 next year and have no intention of retirement.

What is working for me this time round was the wake up call re cholesterol, just how un-fit I was after trying to
play lunch time football (& struggling to move). The unfitness shocked me more than anything. So I bought a
bicycle. Then got ambitious & decided to ride it to work one day - got home that night (13kms each way) & slept
for 2 hours. That was about 4.5 months ago. I then did it 2 days a week, then 3.

Now I ride the bike every day, fitness level has soared (must now be the fittest I have been in about 20 years)
weight is the lowest it has been in 30 years (currently 83KG or 182lbs). Today I rode to work and the temp
was 3.0 degrees C (37.4 F) & dark. I have ridden in heavy rain. These were issues that I thought might force me
to give up but so far I have no problem with the elements, time & temperature. The pleasure of being there in
it at my own pace, is very satisfying & rewarding.

The one thing about this form of exercise is I only watch what I eat for lunch (now have salad sandwiches with no
butter, whereas before I would have a full hot meal i.e. chicken & fries etc: )

Whilst this current program has only been going for 6 months, I am optimistic I can sustain it as I have found
it does get easier unlike my jogging which never did seem easier. Also once committed to I have no option but
to complete it as it is the only way I will get to work or get home. I love the freedom that cycling offers. Am very
lucky that there are excellent cycling paths between home & work & thus avoid another fear of being hit by cars.
Most of the time I have the roads & paths to myself (at 6am to work 4pm heading home). Timewise the journey
by bicycle is only slightly longer than doing it in a car. Perhaps 10 mins longer in the morning & 15 in the evening.

In summary, I am finding the the only weight management program that has worked for me is one where the
exercise is part of what I have to do daily anyway (get to work, get home), and not to be worried too much about
food (other than to be more judicious at lunch time), and to be doing something that I know will keep me healthy
so I can hang around for all the gkids & emerging ggkids.

I wish anyone good luck who faces this health/exercise challenge. If you can fit the exercise into what you have to
do anyway each day, you have a better chance of sustaining it. But as always, for any of us, time will tell.

DSM

[fuzzy96]

many good posts here.
wife had lap band in dec '08 and has dropped 40# . however i am
catching her eat and snack in between now and her excercise routine has all but stopped. so has the weight loss.

i really is all about portion control and excercise. period. that is what the lap band is designed to MAKE you do- eat only so much and eat it slowly.
watch how much not necessarily what you eat. and excercise. like someone posted walking should be sufficient

if you can control how much you eat why bother with surgery? food is addictive and i've seen it first hand . a goood counselor will do mre than a surgery.
the older you are the harder it is to break life long habits.

good luck on your journey

[DreamStalker]

many good posts here.
wife had lap band in dec '08 and has dropped 40# . however i am
catching her eat and snack in between now and her excercise routine has all but stopped. so has the weight loss.

i really is all about portion control and excercise. period. that is what the lap band is designed to MAKE you do- eat only so much and eat it slowly.
watch how much not necessarily what you eat. and excercise. like someone posted walking should be sufficient

if you can control how much you eat why bother with surgery? food is addictive and i've seen it first hand . a goood counselor will do mre than a surgery.
the older you are the harder it is to break life long habits.

good luck on your journey

I agree partly. Yes weightloss is a function of the first law of thermodynamics (energy in and energy out must be a deficit) ... but not all types of calories are equal and it is the carbs that are addictive (especially the sugary and refined/processed ones) and they can wreak havoc on the hormonal and lymphatic systems ... protein and fat on the other hand are not really all that addictive except that we need them to live.

And Doug too is right ... the longer you wait to do something about it, the harder it becomes to actually do something about it. His comments about jogging/running are also right on ... that sort of exercise is for thin young people. The older and/or fatter a person a person gets, the greater the risk of injury from jogging/running high impact type exercise ... keep it low impact (swimming as a previous poster mentioned is ideal). You can improve your luck for success by learning how the human body works ... it is a marvelous piece of equipment.

[fuzzy96]

agreed dream stalker.

perhaps i should have stated differently that all types of food shoud be eaten in MODERATION. we need all types just some more than others and properly balancing them is important.

does that mean i gotta cut down on my fudge brownie ice cream sundaes? (i never eat them in front of the mrs. )

[DreamStalker]

agreed dream stalker.

perhaps i should have stated differently that all types of food shoud be eaten in MODERATION. we need all types just some more than others and properly balancing them is important.

does that mean i gotta cut down on my fudge brownie ice cream sundaes? (i never eat them in front of the mrs. )

Yes. You should cut back ... and while you're at it, your avatar indicates that you should cut back on the smoking and booze too ...

[dsm]

Below is an example of the type of data one can extract from a good heartrate monitor (I have a Polar 725).
This one includes:- cycling speed, altitude, temperature, heartrate, calories consumed. There are several
brands of these monitors - mine is like wrist watch & I attach it to the handlebar of the bike so it can pick
up bike speed data & info from a sensor I wear around my chest.

Anyone here who monitors their nightly cpap data will know how much it helps to track what is happening
& for us needing to address our weight, the effect is likely to be the same. That is, monitor how many
calories you burn & take an honest look at what goes in.

The real benefit of going to this sort of trouble is that you get to take ownership of what you are doing.
Again this is what most of us here do with our cpap.

On a few days I have kept the sensor strapped on and monitored how many calories I burned up when
not cycling. That was a shock too. Mainly because I burned next to none just sitting at my workstation
doing my daily work. e.g. one morning I recorded burning up 650 calories cycling to work, then for the
next 7 hours, only around 200, then 750 to cycle home (work is at altitude of 13 (2.5 ft) Meters whilst
home is at 100M (300 ft) so takes more effort).

It has brought home to me that I need to be doing this exercise almost every day in order to balance
my normal meals as I haven't gone on any diet (other than watching what lunch has in it). The calorie
counting suddenly becomes very clear cut, don't burn them & watch the weight go on, do burn them &
watch the weight either hold firm or come down.

I am planning on doing this monitoring continuously just to force me to keep ownership. I have years
of cpap data & know what a good night & bad night looks like. So now I'll gather calorie data & use it
to remind myself when I need to adjust any lavish lifestyle. Again, as said before, over many years
straight exercise only works in bursts (for me) but running & jogging damages joints & age makes this
all the more obvious (am taking glucosamine & chondroitin to help past damage). Swimming & cycling
don't cause such damage - but, I can't swim to work (plus wouldn't want to if I could) but can cycle &
thus keep telling myself to make it a lifestyle & longevity issue.

DSM

Blue line is speed, top heavy red line altitude, the lower thinner red line is heart rate, the pink line temp.
You can select any portion & amplify it & can place the cursor anywhere & get readings for that point of
the journey (see dotted vertical line). The software is not unlike ResScan in some respects (the ability
to drill in to data at any point). The polar 725 also stores averages a bit like our cpaps do.

[dsm]

Great Grandson #2 trying to emulate Great Granddad



DSM

[ozij]

Looks like GG #2 is having a fine chuckle at that idea!

O.

[Titrator]

I had the Gastric Bypass in October of 2005 and my surgery went well. I have been able to keep off the weight that I initially lost. For me it was the right choice.

Don't let people talk you out of it who have not had this done. It is a very personal choice. Listen to your heart. If you feel you cannot get to better health without this tool, then go for it. Just realize there are major changes that will be made in how you can eat. It was an amazing process for me...

Ted

[Catnap]

I'm neither pro nor con as far as the procedure goes; as long as you research it carefully and make an informed decision, it's totally up to you to decide what's right for you.

For some thought-provoking reading, you might want to check this out:

http://kateharding.net/but-dont-you-rea ... unhealthy/

[kebsa]

i had lap band surgery back in 2001, admittedly it was not exactly my choice, i had a severe chronic pain syndrome and the treatment they proposed to help control it has a side effect of weight gain and i was already severely overweight so i agreed to have the procedure so that i could have my pain control pump implanted. Initially i did very well, it is true that you have to do a lot of Head work- it was only after having the procedure done that i realised just how much food and eating has become a central part of modern social and family life- when you can only eat 3 very small meals per day it can be very awkward in social events- the well meaning individuals who try to tell you that you are not eating enough etc. that was probably one of the hardest adjustments. Now i was completely wheelchair dependant, electric wheelchair, i am an amputee, i have reflex sympathetic dystrophy and i have Multiple sclerosis- increasng physical activity enough to make a significant difference was never an option so the only other option is restrict intake. after 12months i started having issues with food getting stuck, leading to inflammation to the point where even water would not go down, they would take the fluid out fo the band then gradually increase it again when things improved- i was getting very discouraged as i was following the "rules" and still having problems and the surgeon kept on basically telling me off because he figured i must be eating the wwrong foods, eventually they only way i could avoid food getting stuck was to stick to sloppy foods but that defeats the band. it was around this time that my MS was confirmed and eventually it was found that the MS had affected the swallowing process where the esophagus helps contract and push food along- so finally it was accepted it was not me breaking the rules, it was a real issue but the initial suggested solution was remove the band and that scared me- i was scared of gaining more weight- instead i had the fluid removed from the band and then saw a speech path and dietician to help me work out how to alter the usually band ettiquette and to work out what my calorie intake could go down too.

i came off some of my meds that were thought to increase carb cravings, started journalling food, weighing and measuring everything etc- taking shots each month where i could overlay the newest over the oldest so see how much i had gone down by- again, thats part of the head part- you tend not to see that you are losing. i found a great forum http://www.band2gether.net where there were other bandsters, prospective bandsters and the good the bad the ugly of band life and it was great- i added small amounts of incidental activity such as using a hand cycle if was sitting watching tv (one show could only be watched if i used the hand cycle) i would also do things like using small weights every time ads came on TV- the TV was purely a way to break the actvity into lots of small chunks that eventually added up to a reasonalbe amount. in around 12 months i went from 386 pounds to 260 pounds! i had even managed to get a special walker called the TLC (i knelt my amputated leg onto it) and after not being able to walk for over a decade i started walking small amounts- laps of the lounge room to start with- then to the letter box and back, then repeated that- doing laps- it was not practical walking it was purely excercise but it helped- but i had to keep my calorie intake to no more than 800 per day - so the balance was important- no packaged or preprepared food, low GI carbs only, good lean protein which was hard because meat was one food i found hard to swallow- i still can't manange more than a tiny amount of minced chicken and bread is absolutely out as it just stick and then swells, causing dreadful pain

sadly i had a really bad year with my MS and spent nearly 6 months of last year in hospital and was ill for a good deal more, so i was not able to prepare my own meals, i could not walk anymore, the meds i had been able to stop i hd to start again so i have regained some of what i lost- i am currently trying to cut meds again so i can get back on track- it is true that the surgery is not an easy answer- it is a tool, you do need to do the head work as well as the physical stuff and that is where the website/forum came in handy. the swallowing problems have made life difficult but i am definately better off than when i was nearly 400 pounds! i do want to lose more but then you have to face loose skin etc. you would have to be very lucky indeed to go from 300 pounds or so to dropping 100 pounds and not end up getting saggy and baggy and that is tough for some to come to grips with- that part of body image is not an issue for- my body is so scared and altered from surgery, loss of a leg etc that a few flaps of skin are just more idiosyncrases! but it took a while to get to where i could say that and really mean it. It is a tough process and one thing you learn is that it is a lifelong process- you will never be able to let your guard down about weight- but if you check out the band2gether you will find a lot of success stories and a very non judgemental community who will tell you the good stuff and the bad stuff about the surgery. talke to those who have had the surgery- they are the ones who can tell you all the ins and outs - it is too complex a subject to guage from those who know a friend of a friend, or a family member who has had some kind of surgery- the site is not all people who say its great there are a mix of those who have had problems and wonder if they made the right decision and those who think its the greatest thing since sliced bread!- read for yourself and then make up your own mind

[sagesteve]

I don't exercise...it's FOOD! Yes, it's the diet. I was at 275 when I lived in Switzerland ( I walked every single day and in a year gained 20 pounds...it was the diet!). One of MANY new articles on recent exercise to lose weight myths:
http://consumerist.com/consumer/obesity ... 303880.php I'm the perfect example of this...I was an Olympic athlete when I was 17. I weighed 145 pounds ( I was 5'11 and 3/4"). I weighed that up until I was 27 years old. Won't go into all the detail but basically I LOVE food and all that is wonderful. You can research all the weight loss things and you'll get just as many "theories"...I'm a walking example. I was in "perfect" health up until 2 years ago. Then it all hit the fan at once. I'll be 62 in August. Age has a ton to do with it. I was diagnosed with Diabetes type 2, Sleep apnea, deaf as a post, eyesight going etc. I addressed all of these problems and have come out on top. The secret IS to address and SOLVE any problem as soon as possible. Here's my big secret to weight loss and good health:
http://www.luxsauna.com/Benefits/weightloss.php read the entire website and have your eyes opened! I burn 600 calories in a half hour sitting on my butt. I've gone from 265 down to 235 and still dropping. The other secret is to really watch what you eat...another weapon: http://www.weightbydate.com/index.html read over everything and get it...it works! You'll learn what really works FOR YOU. Another secret: http://fatloss4idiots.com/?hop=0fficial02 (calorie shifting!) My point is this. Non of this stuff worked any "magic" per-say...what it DID DO was teach me! I've "learned" how to feel great, sleep great and live diabetes (type 2) free. I just used the tools that are available to me. Just like I did with making money. I "studied" it. I semi retired when I was 32 and completely retired when I was 43. Haven't worked a day since and I have lived in complete happiness and luxury, only because I addressed every "problem" that would eventually come up as you live on this earth. Really read my saying at the bottom, there is more there than meets the eye.