A new redesign of ObesityHelp is coming soon!

We've posted information about the upcoming launch on our OH Blog along with screen shots of some of the areas and preview it for yourself on our beta site.  (WARNING:  If you input any information into the beta site, it will NOT be transferred to the launched production site.)

Stay tuned for the exciting launch!!

  

One of our favorite features at ObesityHelp Events is the Fashion Show.  Sure, there are beautiful clothes but the very best part is having our members wear those beautiful clothes and share their WOW moment on the runway.  It is amazing to see our members celebrate and share their journey at the Fashion Show. 

We invite you to join us at the 2013 ObesityHelp National Conference on October 4th and 5th, in Anaheim, California.  It isn't too late for you to join us in the Fashion Show if you register now.  It will be a memory you will cherish forever!!

A picture is worth a million words!  Check out these photos of our members at our ObesityHelp National Conference as they strut their stuff and celebrate their new healthy lifestyle! 

 

World-renown Dr. Arya Sharma is the keynote speaker at our 2013 ObesityHelp National Conference on October 4-5, 2013.  Below is a post from Dr. Sharma. 

Just a couple of our own takeaways from the post below:
1.  Don't graze!!
2.  ObesityHelp provides us, as OH members, the ".....support patients towards a long-term goal of healthy and appropriate dietary choices with active monitoring (journaling) - via OH's Health Tracker. 
3.  Stay on track!  If you find yourself off track, jump right back on!

Thanks to ObesityHelp for our OH community and to Dr. Sharma for sharing his expertise online and at our Conference.

 

Post-Surgery Weight Regain: Nutritional Factors

Posted: 12 Sep 2013 06:00 AM PDT

One of the key reasons why bariatric surgery is so much more effective for treating severe obesity than non-surgical approaches, is because of its profound effect on food intake.

Thus, bariatric surgery significantly affects hunger and satiety and may even have important effects on “wanting” and “liking” of high-caloric foods.

However, this effect on ingestive behaviour is neither “guaranteed” not are these effects consistent between individuals.

As I tell my patients, “The surgeons operate on your gut, not your brain”.

Thus, it can only be expected that a certain proportion of patients will struggle to control their food intake despite surgery, thereby either losing less weight than expected or putting the weight back on.

In an article, published in Obesity Surgery, we systematically reviewed the published evidence on the role of dietary factors in this issue.

As may be expected, patients reporting “loss of control” of eating behaviour post-surgery lost less weight or had a higher risk of gaining back any weight they may have initially lost. Thus, individuals with self-reported “high-adherence” scores tended to lose and sustain greater weight loss than those who did not.

Given that bariatric surgery may limit the amount of food that can be eaten at a single meal, some patients resorted to grazing behaviours (defined as consumption of smaller amounts of foods over extended periods of time) leading to subsequent weight regain. In addition, it was reported that poor diet quality, characterized by an excessive intake of calories, snacks and sweets, as well as oils and fatty foods, was statistically higher in patients experiencing weight regain.

Interestingly, even short-term dietary “indiscretion” (or falling off) can result in very rapid weight regain. This is not surprising as, in this regard there is little difference between someone who has lost weight through surgery or simply through diet and exercise. Irrespective of how the weight is lost, the body appears to retain its ability to rapidly regain lost weight if allowed to do so.

Thus, as we discuss in our article,

“The existing literature strongly suggests that nutritional and lifestyle compliance is crucial to weight management post- bariatric surgery.”

“Comprehensive weight management programs must therefore provide improved patient education and promote adherence to post-bariatric surgery diets in order to ensure success. These programs must take action to support patients towards a long-term goal of healthy and appropriate dietary choices with active monitoring (journaling) and reinforcement (review of food records) strategies provided by a multidisciplinary health care team.”

As I have discussed previously, although bariatric surgery increases the chances of success, it is no magic bullet or easy way out – all patients have to work hard at learning to use their surgery as a tool to help them better control their food intake and will likely do better, the more they understand and comply with the post-surgical nutrition recommendations.

On the other hand, there may be very good reasons why certain individuals, despite best efforts, struggle to meet these recommendations.

I will discuss how neurohormanal and metabolic factors can make dietary compliance difficult in my next post.

@DrSharma
Edmonton, Alberta

Karmali S, Brar B, Shi X, Sharma AM, de Gara C, & Birch DW (2013). Weight Recidivism Post-Bariatric Surgery: A Systematic Review. Obesity surgery PMID: 23996349

Are you able to buy clothes at a regular store instead of a plus size store? 

Whether you're already shopping at a regular clothing store or not quite there yet, join other OH members as they celebrate achieving this goal or obtain support to reach this goal yourself! 

GO FOR THE GOAL!


 

Hello,

Here are some additional surgeons that do the VSG in MX.  We suggest you research all surgeons by viewing their profile and reading the members reviews.  

Miguel Zapata

Ready 4A Change

Monterrey 
Phone: 1-800-270-7120

 

 

Fernando Garcia

Ready 4A Change

Tijuana 
Phone: 1-800-270-7120

 

 

Alberto Aceves

Mexicali Bariatric Center

Mexicali 
Phone: 888-344-3916

 

Armando Joya

DrJoya.com

Jalisco 
Phone: 866-509-0571

Regards,

Member Services

 

 

 

 

 

 

Even though ObesityHelp members are around the world, at times like these with Superstorm Sandy, we are united and here for each other.

For our ObesityHelp members, families and friends that are in the disaster areas, our thoughts are with you.  We’ve listed some helpful links below to provide information so we can support you. 

If you live in an area not impacted by Sandy but still want to help, there’s information for you too.  Make sure you are prepared for a natural disaster by checking out the information in the links below. 

If you’d like the latest info from the Federal Emergency Management Association on Superstorm Sandy, clickHERE.

FOR DISASTER ASSISTANCE: 

If you need to find an emergency shelter near you, text:
SHELTER and YOUR ZIP CODE  to 43362

If you want to apply for assistance from your computer, click HERE.

If you want to apply for assistance from your mobile device, click HERE.

If you want to apply for assistance, call (800) 621-3362


DISASTER SURVIVOR RESOURCES:

General information from FEMA, click HERE.

Here’s how you and your loved ones can prepare for natural disasters, click HERE.

During times of disasters, the American Red Cross is always among the first at the scene.  The American Red Cross exists to provide compassionate care to those in need.

TO HELP THE AMERICAN RED CROSS:

Click HERE to donate funds for survivors of Superstorm Sandy.

Donations help the Red Cross provide shelter, food, emotional support and other assistance to those affected by disasters throughout the country including Superstorm Sandy. To donate, people can visit www.redcross.org, call 1-800-RED-CROSS, or text the word REDCROSS to 90999 to make a $10 donation.

You can contact the “Join The Movement” of the American Red Cross to donate funds, donate blood, and read about other ways to help by clicking HERE.

With our support,
ObesityHelp Management and Staff

Meet Our Speakers: Colleen M. Cook

 

Hope & Help for the Pain of Regain

Join 17 year WLS veteran Colleen M. Cook for both a shot in the arm and a kick in the seat as she shares lessons from long-term losers and imparts insight, inspiration, and hope for WLS patients struggling with extended plateaus or weight regain. Her thoughts, stories, and personal experiences will inspire and motivate you to reach and maintain your optimum weight loss.

Also, don't miss her Keynote on Friday: Nothing Succeeds Like Success

We hope to see you in Atlanta, GA October 5^th and 6^th! Click here to book your ticket today!

Fast Facts About Colleen

-Colleen is the author of The Success Habits of Weight Loss Surgery Patients.
- She is the president or Bariatric Support Centers International, a company that specializes in providing education and support services for weight loss surgery patients and the professionals who serve them.
- Colleen currently serves on the National Advisory board for the Walk From Obesity.
-Known as Ms. Enthusiasm, Colleen helps men and women from all walks of life recognize their extraordinary potential and then inspires then to aspire.

Today we released a couple of major updates to Health Tracker just in time for the holidays (as we continue on the path to Health Tracker world domination :). These updates include, 1) Profile display of Health Tracker - If you choose to, you are now able to display/share your Health Tracker within your personal profile. This can be kept completely private, it can be shared with only your friends or with the entire ObesityHelp community. 2) My Workouts - You are now able to build and store custom workouts that can be used over and over again. My Workouts will allow you to log multiple exercise/activity items at one time so you don't have to search for individual exercises each time you want to log your activity or exercise session.

Profile Display of Health Tracker .

The profile display of Health Tracker includes Body, Food Log, Exercise Log and the Macronutrient Report. As mentioned above, this can be kept entirely private or you can choose to share your Health Tracker information with friends, family, your bariatric surgeon or other clinicians.

In order to see the profile view of Health Tracker, when viewing your profile or another member's profile, look for the Health Tracker link to the right of the avatar. If there is no Health Tracker link, the profile view of Health Tracker has been set to private.

 

The privacy settings for Health Tracker can be found in the "Settings" section of My OH. To access your Health Tracker setting click My OH at the top of any page on ObesityHelp, select "Settings" on the left, click the Health Tracker tab and choose the "Sharing" option. Or, just click here to access your Health Tracker Sharing options :)

Workouts

My Workouts makes it quick and easy to log routine exercise and activity. For those who perform similar exercises on a regular basis, with My Workouts you can create a workout consisting of a series of exercises you often perform and instead logging each exercise indivivudally, My Workouts allows to log a single item (a workout) that contains all of the exericses you have performed. Build it once and log it any number of times.

Under My Workouts you will see a list of workouts that you have created and saved. You can log workouts directly from My Workouts by selecting "I did this", choose the day and click "Save"

You can also search for workouts you have created directly from your Exercise Log.

Create your first workout now!

One other addition

For your convenience, in this release we have also made some changes to the account deactivation process. In case you ever have the need to deactivate your ObesityHelp account, you can access this function by clicking My OH at the top of any page on ObesityHelp, select "Settings" on the left, and under the "General" tab select "Manage". Instructions for deactivating your account can be found there.

Have a great Thanksgiving and look for more updates soon!

If you have any questions, comments or concerns about this release, please post them in this thread on the Main Message Board.

The last several months have been fairly busy ones here at OH and we are really excited
about this upcoming release. First, long overdue is the public release of OH Groups. You
will now be able to start and  manage your own public groups. Second, is a major update
to Health Tracker....Activity! We are planning to release these new features on Wednesday evening, October 7, 2009.

OH Groups

Getting to OH Groups is easy. Just click on the Groups tab at the top of any page on ObesityHelp. OH Groups allows you to start and manage your own groups, you can find groups that suit your interests and find support groups in your area.

If you are looking for an OH Group that focuses on a specific topic, you can browse groups by category.

 

Activity

To get to your Activity Tracker, click “My OH" at the top of any page on ObesityHelp, select “Health Tracker" on the left and then click the “Activity" tab.

Understanding your total daily caloric expenditure requires more than just knowing how many calories you burned on the treadmill. In your Health Tracker settings area you are now able to estimate the caloric expenditure of your resting metabolic rate (RMR) and lifestyle. These estimates are integrated and displayed with the caloric expenditure of the activities you have logged.

Your exercise log allows you to search for and add strength training exercises, cardiovascular exercises and general activities to your daily log. Caloric expenditure is auto calculated for a number of activities already included in our database of exercises. Pie charts display details about caloric expenditure and time for each type of activity.

Sets can be added and subtracted from strength training exercises. Reps and weight used can be entered for each set.

A number of details can be tracked for cardiovascular exercises and general activities. Some of these variables include, time, distance, calories burned, average heart rate, average power, altitude gained and average grade.

If you can’t find the exercise or activity you have participated in, you can also add your own custom exercises.

Other updates include the ability to create list of your favorite exercises, reports have been updated to include a number of activity items, the nutrition search has been enhanced and we have managed to slip in a sweet macronutrient report under the “Reports" tab. If you have any questions, comments or concerns about the features in this release, please submit those here. If your are new to ObesityHelp or have not used ObesityHelp's Health Tracker before, you can learn about the first release here and the second release here. Need help using Health Tracker? Click here for help. Enjoy!

Do you have questions about surgery in Mexico? Questions about surgery in general are welcomed as well for Dr. Aceves, both about LapBand and the RNY Come chat with Dr. Aceves tomorrow night! ObesityHelp will be hosting a one-hour question and answer chat session, Thursday June 16th 2005 at 6pm PST/ 9pm EST Our special guest will be Dr. Alberto Aceves. To learn more about Dr. Aceves and the procedures he performs, please visit his profile at ObesityHelp.com http://www.obesityhelp.com/morbidobesity/bariatric+surgeon+profile+Alberto+Aceves+lpc.html?L=chat or visit his website at http://www.mexicolapband.com The chat room will be open 1 hour prior to the beginning of the chat. At that time, the moderator will start taking questions in preparation for when the surgeon arrives. At the top of this page, you will see the announcement that the chat is in progress. Click on that banner and it will route you to the surgeon chat room. Once you log in, you can type out your questions in the free form area provided and hit enter. Your question will have been submitted to the Moderator and will be answered by Dr. Aceves in the order in which it was received. If you have any questions or would like additional information, please contact [email protected]