weight loss question

D

DaytonaLynn

Line Up and Wait
Joined
Aug 29, 2012
Messages
697
Location
Sugar Land Texas
Display Name
Display name:
One who misses Daytona!
I am 59 with a BMI near 30.
I was considering doing the laproscopic lap band. I am doing it so I put myself in a better position to live a very long life, and enjoy my family, motorcycling and of course flying.

so would this be a negative on my flying/medical? Record keeping?
Anyone on here had it done?

Right now Im just in the fact finding phase.

Thank you.
 
You can save a lot of money by eating less.
1. Reduce your meal portions.
2. Eat when hungry and not to just enjoy the flavor.
3. Do not eat pass 7pm. The fat will accumulate instead of consumed.
4. If hungry after 7pm get a tangerine a lemonade or a small box of raisings.
5. Weight in underwear in the morning on a digital scale.
6. Avoid high calories meals or reduce their portion

The above caused me to loose about 1/3 of a pound per day. You do not want to loose weight too fast but slowly to let your body acclimate to the new diet. What the lap band does is nothing more than reduce your intake. Which you can do it without it.

José
 
My wife had the lap band procedure done. She had extreme acid reflux, so she had it deflated. Here are some of her experiences:

Lost 50 lbs.

Was able to delete the band by drinking high calorie coffee drinks. The doctor kept inflating the band more and more. She had trouble eating normally and was so hungry, she'd eat so as to delete the band. I finally got so ****ed, I told the doctor what was going on and asked him to partially deflate the band so that she could hold down normal food.

In the end, it was a waste of time and money. My wife gained back the weight. She realized that she needed to change how she ate. We are working together to get our weight under control. It's far from a quick fix and can be defeated.

My sister had the band and lost weight. She had side effects too and eventually had to had it deflated and I think she had it removed. She was able to control her weight better after the band. She gained some weight back but still kept a significant amount of weight off.
 
I could be lucky are maybe good, I don't know. About 20 years ago I weighed about 250, ( I was on a see food diet). My doctor told me to lose weight to keep my medical, in 6 months I lost 30 pounds. It was one of the hardest things I ever did. I must of learned allot from that, because I have never had a weight problem since. I weigh 214 now at age 59 and have no problems keeping it off.

I never eat past 7PM
I exercise daily (never used to)
I eat 5 times a day only smaller meals and now I can only eat so much and I feel full.
I drink plenty of fluids and that decreases the hunger pains.

Good luck!
 
Had a lady at work that had the procedure done. It made no difference because she loved to eat and quickly adjusted to eating less more frequently.

I lost 52 lbs doing Atkins. Pick your poison and go with that. Like they say it isn't magic. Eat less than your burn.
 
Weight loss is accomplished by creating a caloric deficit. What bariatric surgery does is create a deficit by shrinking the size if your stomach. If you do not have the willpower to do this on your own, then bariatric surgery may be a good choice. But, as others have said, you most certainly can do it without surgery.
 
I've lost 28 pounds in 6 weeks just by minimizing carbs throughout the day and having none with dinner, drinking a 16 oz glass of water each hour of the day I'm awake and giving up fried food. I also discovered about myself that I was "medicating" with food; not just eating when I was hungry but also eating to get the "buzz". That has made a major difference in my ability to minimize food intake.

Find your vice, minimize it and you will see results. Do what you can. The minute you totally give something up, it's all you'll crave. Relieve yourself of things that are easiest to give up and minimize the intake of the stuff you crave the most. Your results, no matter how slight, will spawn more willpower. Good luck!
 
I think it's so easy to switch your caloric intake to a high protein diet and get rid of the carbs. You don't have to go strict Adkins but it will make a huge difference in your weight loss and weight maintenance.

As pointed out even after the surgery you will have to maintain so you might as well make the adjustment now.

And exercise would be a plus, you don't need to kill yourself in the gym but anything you can do, walking, or whatever, will help.
 
Thanks for the input.
I am not sure what I'm going to do, but will end up doing something.

The experiences shared help guide me a bit.
Thanks
 
In addition to the ideas above, what is working for me is tracking quantity of Calories eaten and quantities of calories burned by exercise. Deduct burned from consumed and work to keep the net total close to or slightly below 1500.

It takes 3500 calories burned to consume a pound of fat. If 2000 calories a day was the former target, 500 less calories x 7 days sets you up for a healthy loss of 1 pound a week.

An app for both iphone and droid, and their really well done website, I can recommend is LoseIt! (www.LoseIt.com). App makes it simple to track intake and burn, and keep on track. I'm eating what I want, not starving, but learning to replace the junk with better food choices. And have upped the exercise to 30-45 minutes per day x 6 days a week.

End result is that I am down 2 lbs per month since January and am getting close to rejoining the less than 200# club.

App has a full featured free version and a paid version. Paid unlocks more goal tracking and increased connectivity to electronic health monitors like FitBit and Withings that help improve the calorie tracking algorithm

LoseIt!'s online community is really supportive. Lots of folks helping others understand how to make the most of the program and answer health related questions. You can form buddy lists and participate in challenges around eating healthier and exercising more.

The surgical procedures are enjoying a boom of media attention right now. But IMO, this is our culture continuing to turn to another form of "magic pill, don't want to work for it" method. I know of more than one person whom the invasive procedure backfired and really screwed their health up badly. One was an aspiring commercial pilot who was messed over so bad, she can is unable to hold a medical.

As others said, it can be done without surgery. You just need to make better choices from both a nutrition and exercise angle.
 
The most difficult part of losing weight to me is keeping a food and exercise journal, or a log of what you eat and burn. It's easy to get discouraged when you're not keeping up with your progress and seemingly seeing no results. Dramatic weight loss is not the only evidence of progress.

Livestrong.com is a great website(and smartphone app) to use to not only count calories and keep track of calories burned through activity, but you can keep track of how much protein, fat, sodium and carbs you're eating in a day. You can register for free, fill out your profile by entering your current weight, age and how much you want to lose a week(1 lb a week, 2lbs a week.), and it will give you a calorie count for your weight loss goals. Click on "my plate", enter everything you eat and it will give you great info on your daily nutritional allowances as well. Commit to logging everything for a few days and you get a cool graph at the bottom of the page that shows your progress. Very motivational.
 
Another alternative that shouldn't have any detrimental side effects...

I lost 40 pounds in about 6 months by doing nothing different than cutting out all consumables with added sugar. That means no soda, no sweet tea, no candy bar for lunch, no donut for breakfast, etc. Stuff with natural sugar, such as fruit, I kept eating. This was several years ago, and I'm still avoiding sugar for the most part, and I'm still keeping the weight off.
 
Lynn, there's a thread here on weight loss that you may find helpful. A coworker had the band, and he lost a lot of weight on it, but had to have it removed due to some problems and has gained some (though not all) of the weight back.

For tracking diet and exercise, MyFitnessPal has been getting a lot of positive reviews on the other thread, and there's now a PoA support group on that app.
 
My wife lost 35lbs with a lap band and an additional 55 running starting with the cool runnings couch to 5k program. She went from 100lbs overweight to a multi marathon runner and a certified running coach / "activist". She is a fan.
 
mikeinbama said:
Weight loss is accomplished by creating a caloric deficit. What bariatric surgery does is create a deficit by shrinking the size if your stomach. If you do not have the willpower to do this on your own, then bariatric surgery may be a good choice. But, as others have said, you most certainly can do it without surgery.
Click to expand...

:yeahthat:

My brother went that route. Really damaged his teeth from vomiting for years after the surgery. He initially lost a lot of weight, but has slowly gained 80-90% of it back...and has the bad teeth to boot. I'm not a huge fan of these solutions.

Watch the movie Fathead on Netflix. Some interesting info. In the end weight loss is not magic. It's math. But there are major differences in how our bodies handle different foods. We've been told a lot of bad info by govt "experts" over the past 50 years that has put us in this obesity epidemic.

Lastly, avoid fad diet, although study them and figure out what it was about a particular fad that worked for some people. Then start working the basic math while figuring out how your body reacts to different foods. The key is committing to a lifestyle change, not a short-term diet.
 
DaytonaLynn said:
I am 59 with a BMI near 30.
I was considering doing the laproscopic lap band.
Click to expand...
Seems drastic for 30 or 40 pounds. But, that's my opinion - I've known people who have gone in to a hospital for "routine" surgery and come out in a box, so, I may be biased.

Weight Watchers will work if you actually stick to the plan. It doesn't work if you sit down with a jar of peanut butter and a spoon.
 
Weight Watchers will work if you actually stick to the plan.
Click to expand...

Based on my wife's experience, I think this is the best one out there. All you have to do is keep track of your points, and I think there is an app for that. I think Weight Watchers provides a much better balanced diet than a lot of the others.
 
Loss of 40% of your excess weight is considered a success with a lap band. That means you have to lose another 60% the old fashioned way once you hit the success mark.

Only GOOD thing about a lap band is that it is adjustable if your lifestyle changes.
 
mikeinbama said:
Weight loss is accomplished by creating a caloric deficit.
Click to expand...

I always hear this, but I don't believe it's the whole story. On the last diet I did that worked (low carb), my calorie intake went up, but I still lost 30 lbs and I've kept it off for a few years. I still need to lose more, but I haven't been motivated enough to exercise and avoid the food that I know cause problems.
 
bflynn said:
I always hear this, but I don't believe it's the whole story. On the last diet I did that worked (low carb), my calorie intake went up, but I still lost 30 lbs and I've kept it off for a few years. I still need to lose more, but I haven't been motivated enough to exercise and avoid the food that I know cause problems.
Click to expand...

You're right....not all calories are created equal, a point made in the Fathead movie. Excess sugars get transformed to fat very quickly.
 
I've never struggled with weight, but from my observations it seems the above experiences with the lap band mirror what I've heard. Like our light and sporty friend, I'm also not a big fan of surgery when not absolutely necessary.

Diet and exercise. Even little things like taking the stairs at work and parking at the far end of the parking lot all help. Remove processed foods from your diet.
 
LDJones said:
You're right....not all calories are created equal, a point made in the Fathead movie. Excess sugars get transformed to fat very quickly.
Click to expand...

Alton Brown (pilot, host of "Good Eats") had another way of expressing this. We need to switch away from an "energy dense" set of food choices to those that are nutrient dense.

Found the episode where he explains what he did and ate to change from pumpkin to scarecrow status.

 
I've been playing a mental game with my house move, that may end up being a longer term game...

If there's anything left on the to-do list, you don't get to sit down. Period. You can sit to eat, and sit to work on a computer if you must (they do make stand-up desks for that, but I haven't quite gone there yet... a co-worker has...), but the vast majority of the time the problem is ... once I'd hit the house at night, I'd park my ass in one spot and it wouldn't move until I dragged it to bed.

Don't have that luxury with a house move going on. I'm either doing something off the to-do lists, or I'm loading or unloading the trailer. The way to make that happen is... I don't sit down very often, and if I do, it's a conscious decision to specifically take a defined break...
 
LDJones said:
You're right....not all calories are created equal, a point made in the Fathead movie. Excess sugars get transformed to fat very quickly.
Click to expand...

Guys, Im not here to pick a fight, but you cant trump science. A calorie is a unit of measure. Period. All calories ARE created equal, all foods are not. Saying that calories are different is like saying inches are different. Bryan, you didn't lose weight on a calorie surplus, that defies the laws of physics. It makes no difference what you eat, if you are at a deficit, you lose weight. If your TDEE is 2000 calories per day and you eat 1500 calories of WHATEVER, you lose weight. It can be a balanced diet, and you lose in a healthy way, or it can be big macs and ice cream. You will lose weight, but you wont like the results. I guess as a species, we humans like to make things complicated. Weight lose is simple, burn more calories than you consume.
 
mikeinbama said:
Guys, Im not here to pick a fight, but you cant trump science. A calorie is a unit of measure. Period. All calories ARE created equal, all foods are not. Saying that calories are different is like saying inches are different. Bryan, you didn't lose weight on a calorie surplus, that defies the laws of physics. It makes no difference what you eat, if you are at a deficit, you lose weight. If your TDEE is 2000 calories per day and you eat 1500 calories of WHATEVER, you lose weight. It can be a balanced diet, and you lose in a healthy way, or it can be big macs and ice cream. You will lose weight, but you wont like the results. I guess as a species, we humans like to make things complicated. Weight lose is simple, burn more calories than you consume.
Click to expand...
Worse than that.. If you eat 1500 calories of chocolate cake every day, you will not be able to function.

Damn it. Now I want chocolate cake.
 
Given that some calories make it out the back door unconsumed it would make sense that the source of the calories would likely effect the net efficiency which is not accounted for when unconsumed stuff is burned in a calorimeter.
 
ChrisK said:
Worse than that.. If you eat 1500 calories of chocolate cake every day, you will not be able to function.

Damn it. Now I want chocolate cake.
Click to expand...

Ahhhh... rememberences of a favorite Bill Cosby routine.
 
mikeinbama said:
Guys, Im not here to pick a fight, but you cant trump science. A calorie is a unit of measure. Period. All calories ARE created equal, all foods are not. Saying that calories are different is like saying inches are different. Bryan, you didn't lose weight on a calorie surplus, that defies the laws of physics. It makes no difference what you eat, if you are at a deficit, you lose weight. If your TDEE is 2000 calories per day and you eat 1500 calories of WHATEVER, you lose weight. It can be a balanced diet, and you lose in a healthy way, or it can be big macs and ice cream. You will lose weight, but you wont like the results. I guess as a species, we humans like to make things complicated. Weight lose is simple, burn more calories than you consume..
Click to expand...

Weight loss is simple, true enough, but not easy for reasons that you allude to in your post.

It takes anywhere from a vigorous forty five minutes to a grueling two hours for me to burn one thousand calories in a workout. I can undermine those calories burned and render that two hour workout a complete waste of time within minutes of making a bad choice and eating the wrong thing. The answer is to eat the right thing. If that were easy, we'd all be slim and trim. The problem is, as you said, not all foods are created equal and some things you eat are more prone to cause you to crave the bad choices. When I first started to commit to my health, I would be ravenous after a workout and salad didn't quell what I thought at the time were hunger pangs. I also believed that I had a "sweet tooth" that even a fresh piece of fruit between meals wouldn't satisfy. What I found out later was the "hunger" I felt after working out and the cravings throughout the day were common symptoms of carbohydrate withdrawal. As my dad used to say, "when you know better, you do better". Once I weaned myself off of a heavy carb diet, things were easier. Not easy, but easier.
 
I think being religious about understanding of how you feed your engine determines your success. As Mike and Keith mentions above, all calories are created equal but foods are not. My problem and I suspect for some others is ensuring we stay within the calorie limits we set. Without really tracking it, you would be surprised off far off you can be.

I had a habit before my weight loss to grab a "little" handful of cashews as a snack everyday. When I began my weight loss program I decided to weigh those "little" handfuls and measure the calories. I figured out that I was sneaking in 250 to 300 calories every day and not even thinking about it as something I needed to measure. Heck they were "little" handfuls but were creating a potential pound of weight gain every 2 weeks!

I came to the realization during this process that in order to maintain the 80 pounds I lost, I need to do a weight and balance everyday.
 
I count 14 almonds once a day and record 100 calories. My business partner thinks I am pathetic.
 
ChrisK said:
I count 14 almonds once a day and record 100 calories. My business partner thinks I am pathetic.
Click to expand...

Well, just tell him you will keep current on your CPR training - just for him.
 
Piloto said:
You can save a lot of money by eating less.
1. Reduce your meal portions.
2. Eat when hungry and not to just enjoy the flavor.
3. Do not eat pass 7pm. The fat will accumulate instead of consumed.
4. If hungry after 7pm get a tangerine a lemonade or a small box of raisings.
5. Weight in underwear in the morning on a digital scale.
6. Avoid high calories meals or reduce their portion

The above caused me to loose about 1/3 of a pound per day. You do not want to loose weight too fast but slowly to let your body acclimate to the new diet. What the lap band does is nothing more than reduce your intake. Which you can do it without it.

José
Click to expand...

Excellent advise. Using these methods I have lost 80 pounds over the last 3 years.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top