Weight loss advice needed

I do feel blessed to get return correspondence from all of you , THANK YOU so much... I know a lot a skinny people using CPAP machines, so I know its not just for " plump " people... I bet you I still have sleep issues, I've started sitting in front of the tube yesterday, wearing my mask with the machine set to 7, I'm going to do that for 1/2 hour a nite for a week, next week well go to an hour... Then into the bedroom.. I cut back on my coffee today, I hate feeling tired, hate it........

Painter42 wrote:If someone would please help me , I have a question, I used to weigh 380 lbs, I had a sleep test and had at least 600 plus apneas( I think I'm remembering correctly ) during my short sleep period, since then I've lost 160 lbs, only sleep on my side.. I figured my sleep issues were over 4 yrs ago when I lost the weight... does anyone believe the weight loss did not solve the problems, my butt in dragging most of the time in the morn, I have a new CPAP machine with only 46 hrs on it... I lost the weight so I would not need the machine, Thank you , Mike

Your weight loss may have made a significant difference to the CPAP pressure that will be optimum. I agree with those who have recommended a new sleep study to find out. However, weight is only one of several factors affecting sleep apnea. I weighed 254 lbs four years ago, lost 70 lbs over the following year, and still need the same pressure now that I needed before.

And just to show that it takes all kinds ... my pressure needs went *up* when I lost 60 lbs.

I've lost 60 lbs. and my pressure has been lowered from 9 to 5. 5 is very low but I still find I need to use the machine. My Doc had suggested to try without the machine as he thought the air could be causing my fractured sleep but I found that I still need it. I feel better when i sleep with the machine set from 4-9 pressure than when I don't use the machine at all. Maybe with the last 25 lbs. I have to lose I can completely get off the machine but I doubt it. Its a bummer I know, but a small price to pay to sleep better and feel more rested. Good luck and congrats on the weight loss.

Is interval training effective? I heard it is better than just jogging/running steadily. I would like to lose about 5-10 pounds but I have never tried interval training. How long should I do it for and what should the intervals be?

How to you lose all that weight? Or, any significant amount of weight? Is it a result of the cpap therapy? You people who mention losing large amounts of weight make it sound so easy. Anyone, who can answer my questions is very much appreciated. Thanks.

I lost the weight with Weight Watchers. I actually gained weight when I went on CPAP so go figure. Weight Watchers is a great program and if I can lose weight anyone can. Good luck!!!

PurpleSwan3033 wrote:How to you lose all that weight? Or, any significant amount of weight? Is it a result of the cpap therapy? You people who mention losing large amounts of weight make it sound so easy. Anyone, who can answer my questions is very much appreciated. Thanks.

I had been somewhat overweight most of my life, but I had become increasingly heavier as I became older and less active. Like most people with weight problems, I had tried a variety of diets over the years and had lost some amount of weight with each of them, only to eventually gain it all back and then some. Like many, probably most, overweight people, I had come to think that it simply wasn't possible for me to lose weight and keep it off.

One morning four years ago I got on the scales and decided the situation was ridiculous. I had succeed with most things I had tried in life. Why couldn't I succeed with this one?

Food variety is a primary problem with most diets. How can someone who likes good food restrict themselves to a narrow selection of foods for the rest of their life? Anyone can do that for a while, but how many overweight people are willing to go through the rest of their days that way?

Hunger is another problem with most diets. How many overweight people are willing to spend hours each day being hungry? Anyone can do that for a while to lose a little weight, but who wants to live out the rest of their life being hungry much of the time?

I made a deal with myself to trade quality and frequency for quantity. I decided to eat small quantities of anything I wanted, so long as it was high-quality food, six times a day. If I spend six hours in bed, I am awake eighteen hours a day. To eat six equally spaced meals I have to eat every every 3 hours, because 18/6=3. I am rarely hungry eating small meals that often, and on those rare occasions when I am, I don't have long to wait until it is time to eat again.

No food is totally restricted. I even have small tastes of desert occasionally. However, because of my decision to eat only quality (nutritious) foods; deserts, white bread, white pasta, and other foods with lots of calories and little nutritional value don't qualify. That doesn't mean that I don't eat pasta. I love Italian food, my wife is a gourmet cook, and we just had a wonderful pasta dish that she prepared tonight, but she made it with whole grain pasta, which we both actually prefer. The rest of that meal is in now the fridge along with Greek pastichio she prepared last night and other wonderful meals she prepared over the past few days. That variety of great food will provide many of the meals I will have six times a day over coming days.

I have had three glasses of wine with dinner most nights for the past forty years. I love wine and I wasn't willing to give it up for the rest of my life. Because of that, and because there are arguably some health benefits, I have continued to consume three glass of wine each day since I started losing weight.

Four or five years ago I wouldn't have believed that this or any other weight reduction plan would have worked for me. I almost can't believe it now. Losing weight this way turned out to be extremely easy. Week after week my weight kept coming down and down and down. I thought to myself, it can't be this easy. Why did I wait so long to try this. I had to buy smaller clothes. Then a few weeks later I had to buy smaller close again and that cycle kept repeating. Extra-large casual shirts were tight on me when I started. I never thought I would be able to wear medium-sized shirts, but now some medium-sized shirts are too large.

I didn't have any particular weight target in mind when I started. I just thought so long as my weight kept going down each week I would stay with the plan and see what happened. Friends and family members who hadn't seen me for a while were shocked after a few months. Several said I looked too thin and asked when I was going to stop. A year after I started I had lost 70 lbs and my BMI was normal. I decided to stay with the plan, but to increase the amounts I was eating at each meal slightly to stop the decline. That was three years ago. My weight has remained since within plus or minus five pounds of the weight I was at at that time.