ObesityHelp

Thank you I will PM you. She isn't on OH yet. Unfortunately, I heard from Paula and she didn't offer much info and even said that the RNY is better than nothing. I was bummed to hear that from a DS veteran who I respected.

You have given me hope that I want to pass on to her. :) I will PM you my contact info. Would love to hear from you when you can.

Thanks again!

Nina ~~   BMI was 52, now 26.8. From size 26/28 to 8-10 pants and 2xl/24 shirt to xs/sm shirts. SW/CW/surgeanGW/mynew GW 322/159/180/154     I Heart MY DS!!

        

make sure orders are ready to go for the oral pain meds in the room. the oral pain meds were my only relief.  also dont buy much food until after you wont want half the stuff you think you do. your tastes sometimes change..

Nina ~~   BMI was 52, now 26.8. From size 26/28 to 8-10 pants and 2xl/24 shirt to xs/sm shirts. SW/CW/surgeanGW/mynew GW 322/159/180/154     I Heart MY DS!!

        

I dig you. really.

You know I didnt realize that you had your DS 11 years ago. no wonder you were so adamant about the sagging... yeah in 10 years i better have sagging going on. I will be 54. maybe genetics will help, though. 

I didn't answer? oops. I think I am satisfied with my body (because my skin/fat doesn't sag like a sharpai because I thought that, after hearing from every ds-er that no matter how fast or slow or high carb or low carb i went, when i lose almost 160lbs I will have sagging "skin(fat)"

I barely have it. That is why I am satisfied. Because I expected the worst and hoped and got the best (for me). Does that answer it?

fluffy_me:  for heaven sakes follow everything anyone on here, but me, says. I am not saggy enough or far enough out to be qualified to say. What I can say is trust your instincts, enjoy the life transforming gift you ahve been given. Try to learn and to contribute in ways you can to pay it forward.  Try not to beat up newbies when you are and 10 yr post op saggy (maybe had plastics and maybe didn't) DS veteran.

I will take my own advice NY B because for sure.. beyond a shadow of a doubt.. I WILL be old, saggy and a veteran. A happy one. well, if global warming doesn't get me first...

Nina ~~   BMI was 52, now 26.8. From size 26/28 to 8-10 pants and 2xl/24 shirt to xs/sm shirts. SW/CW/surgeanGW/mynew GW 322/159/180/154     I Heart MY DS!!

        

You said it took 2 year in the deleted post. but never mind.

So wait, are you saying you lost in stages and didnt severly restrict your carbs?? and it took 2.5 years to lose. well **** I guess your are right! Carbs have nothing to do with it. It's genetics.

You win. congrats on your loss and your cosmetics! It is not your fault or anyones fault that you had the results you had. I am definately not placing any blame on anyone. I am just saying there are no hard nor fast rules. We may love cookies on the dark side but we are not all cookie cutter DS-er's, as you have helped to point out.

Me?  I'm gonna ride this out... my way. Happy poops, cool genetically happy teenage body again (only this time im going to enjoy it rather than think i am fat like i did when I was ACTUALLY a teenager). But best of all NO cosmetics.

Don't  get me wrong. I would have fought tooth and nail for cosmetics. I thought I would need them because of what I had heard. My goal was not to need them (even though I knew it was a dream) so to me, in MY journey, I am a success. Why is my success story not as valid as the next person's? Why must what I say be discounted and dismissed as hogwash.  WHo made you or anyone the be all know all of the DS?

I  may have said I disagreed on severly restriciting carbs. I personally don't feel it's wrong to experiement.  have all experimented. You know that. But at least I didn't start a mass ass whippin on a vegitarian ds-er.. Now that's cruel. We have it pretty darn good, dontcha think?  We eat meat.  She has a rough road ahead. Although from what I am reading she had it under control and is enjoying her DS ride. It should be a nice learning experience and enjoyable somewhat. Jeesh.. I'm not sayin go out and eat cake and candy to your hearts content and you know it.

There are other ways to get your message across.. beat me up. sure. I am 3 years out (oct 15th) but she is only 3 months out. why be so freaking vigilante? You said yourself. other people did it perfectly and had lots of skin and others did it not perfectly and got lucky with genetics. what is our happy vegi DSer has good genetics? No one can predict anything. just enjoy the ride. Don't go all crazy but enjoy it.

Nina ~~   BMI was 52, now 26.8. From size 26/28 to 8-10 pants and 2xl/24 shirt to xs/sm shirts. SW/CW/surgeanGW/mynew GW 322/159/180/154     I Heart MY DS!!

        

interesting that we both are muscular in nature, around 40ish, took 2 years to get to goal and your fluff gets worse and worse and mine is disappearing..

if its genetics. well ok, but i don't think it is.

One of your esteemed VERY highly esteemed veterans is the one who told me to teach my body how to lose wieght while eating moderate complex carbs instead of teaching it to lose ONLY by severly restricting carbs PERIOD.

Thank God I listened.

Nina ~~   BMI was 52, now 26.8. From size 26/28 to 8-10 pants and 2xl/24 shirt to xs/sm shirts. SW/CW/surgeanGW/mynew GW 322/159/180/154     I Heart MY DS!!

        

I love how you simplify it to "So you think your carb intake has something to do with the condition of my skin."

I will say this one more time then I am done with you.. read my initial reponse..

My experimenting with mostly COMPLEX (and some simple too) and not going ultra low helped me lose in steps vs super fast.  I averaged 50-150 carbs a day when i actually monitored them.   I am saying that learning how to start and stop my loss was inportant for me because I somehow knew that losing too fast wasnt good. I intitially lost 50lbs before "watching" my carbs. By the time I had lost the 50lbs I was motivated and it was easier to "watch my carbs" I didnt feel like this was gonna be the longest diet of my life. If dieting did it for me then I would never have needed the DS.

I stayed at  a new weight at least a month if not two before losing some more. That is what helped me learn about my body and how to make it do exactly what I want. to include looking just as good, if not better than a lot of folks who had the excess :fluff: cut away.

I was 41 when I had the surgery, I moved more but did not go gung ho on the excercise. What do you think is the reason I don't have the fluffy stuff issue going on to the degree most do?

Nina ~~   BMI was 52, now 26.8. From size 26/28 to 8-10 pants and 2xl/24 shirt to xs/sm shirts. SW/CW/surgeanGW/mynew GW 322/159/180/154     I Heart MY DS!!

        

If you had an open incision, vs laproscopic surgery, your surgeon probably used the Hess method. My common channel is 75. 

If skin was simply an issue of being stretched out then we would have hanging skin everywhere, including the backs of our hands. I had the surgery when I was 41 so I didn't have youth on my side.

What I did was get a scale that measured the % of fat and muscle.  As long as my fat % kept going down and my muscle % kept going up (no matter what that scales said) I knew I was on the right track.

My fat % went from over 60% and 322lbs to my current of 34 and my muscle % went from about 25% if I remember correctly to 32% now. I read an excellent article about "sagging skin" it said if women aim to have at leat 40% muscle mass then will have minimal skin issues (which they say isnt sgging skin but sagging fat).

Again, good luck to you.

Nina ~~   BMI was 52, now 26.8. From size 26/28 to 8-10 pants and 2xl/24 shirt to xs/sm shirts. SW/CW/surgeanGW/mynew GW 322/159/180/154     I Heart MY DS!!

        

I will be 3 years out in oct. My restiction is good. I can eat a normal plate of food. I find if i get too hungry though, i cna only eat a bit. If i rush when eating. same thing. love my restriction. I cant see me ever being bale to eat the same as preop. i could eat 2 full plates of food easily.

Nina ~~   BMI was 52, now 26.8. From size 26/28 to 8-10 pants and 2xl/24 shirt to xs/sm shirts. SW/CW/surgeanGW/mynew GW 322/159/180/154     I Heart MY DS!!

        

Julie,

I was fortunate. I am not obsessed with food. But i know many who are who I am sure started the cycle with parents who made them diet.  I was on all the diets. i am an exprt excerciser too. I know ALL about how to eat right and work out but in adulthood I just couldn't do one or both for long. I don't know if I secretly held the fat and ate as I liked in rebellion.

My issue was not eating for many hours (cause I am totally ADD) but when I did finally eat it was alot and usually frozen something, fast food or some huge homemade meal.  I could put away 2 plates of chicken, rice and corn or a whole pizza. I rarely excercised. I wasn't a huge soft drink or candy gal but loved my fast food and junk.

Even when i did super well and ate high protein I still only lost 40lbs. my metaboism was shot.

I remember in high school, being embarrassed to go to the line when they offered seconds. I imagined everyone was staring at me and making fun. When i look back at how I looked in high school i realize i wasted so much energy and self esteem because I believed the image of me my mom had brainwashed me into seeing. I was prob 150-160lbs when I was a freshman in H.S.

My sister was bulimic for a long time (she never would admit it) and my mom always on a diet. My mom eats half of whatever her husband orders when we eat out with him and with me she enjoys her meal. I couldnt live that way. My sister is now bigger than me and our relationship is strained because she is envious and can't wrap her head around the fact that her upbeat, intelligent, outgoing fat sister now can eat rich, flavorful foods and has a bangin bod and J LO ass.  She is very jealous of the attention I get. It's sad.

I remember meeting boys and they would like me then i would bring them home eventually and my sister would steal them. I realize now it wasn't that she was better (although she was thin) but the minute we were around my sister I suddenly had ZERO self esteem.

I am so thankful for my DS. My relationship with food is a love love one. food is no longer my enemy. I am free from the full time job of dieting for the rest of my life.  I will be 44 in Dec. I have a hell of alot of years to enjoy life as it should have been from the start. I am not super workout chick but I enjoy being physical. walking, riding a bike. Feels amazing.

I will be reading the responses and answers on here with great interest. This is the kind of thing we should be talking about. We all have our stories of how we got here.  Thanks Julie!

Nina ~~   BMI was 52, now 26.8. From size 26/28 to 8-10 pants and 2xl/24 shirt to xs/sm shirts. SW/CW/surgeanGW/mynew GW 322/159/180/154     I Heart MY DS!!

        

My mom made me go to the iet Center when I was 10 but I remember being made to diet much earlier. I would sneak food into the bathroom to eat just to feel i had some control.

In retrospect, I wasn't fat. I went through the same little pudgy thing my 10 yr odl son went through. I was perfectly fine and normal and grew up thinking I was fat. By the time I realized what a crock I had been fed I really was FAT with a messed up metbolism.

My mom and sister STILL to this day obsess about their weight and they are my size. I am actually smaller than them both now.. weird.

Nina ~~   BMI was 52, now 26.8. From size 26/28 to 8-10 pants and 2xl/24 shirt to xs/sm shirts. SW/CW/surgeanGW/mynew GW 322/159/180/154     I Heart MY DS!!

        

you sound constipated... but yup you are sensitive to something. could be the gum..

sidebar: To those who tried whey protein shakes and it gave you bad gas. Try only drinking one in the evening. If i drink one in the morning i have the worst gas all day. If i drink it after i get home from work before a proper dinner. I am fine and if i get a bit of gas it must be int he middle of the night. I am almost 3 years out and only get gas when i eat ALOT of flour stuff.  THat hardly ever happens.

I have no clue why drinking it at night is fine for me. I only say this because it really can help get that protein up. I drink Champion cookies and cream flavor. i use 2 scoops and whole milk with jsut a smidge of water. Some people like ti with water. it works with both. not clumpy. yummy.

Conrats on the weightloss!! I am around your weight and just got into my first size 8's (and they weren't super tight, lol. that was a huge wow. I am happy at a 10 though. perfect size for me.

Nina ~~   BMI was 52, now 26.8. From size 26/28 to 8-10 pants and 2xl/24 shirt to xs/sm shirts. SW/CW/surgeanGW/mynew GW 322/159/180/154     I Heart MY DS!!