If you have been reading these posts for a while you may have seen my earlier post about the program I was using to prevent excessive hair loss. If you missed it, do a site search for "telogen" and it should come right up. Basically it had three parts: Getting in all your protein (60 grams or more) every day, increasing fluid intake to avoid ketosis (ketones are toxins) and adding zinc and selenium supplements. I am now 5 and 1/2 months out and am happy to report that this program has worked well for me! I had no hair loss at all until 4 months, after that I was combing out a bit more hair than usual for about 4 weeks but had no noticeable thinning. Now I am back to combing out the normal, minimal amounts of hair after each shampooing. I plan to continue the program at least through the first year but have stopped crushing the zinc and selenium tablets. I was a test group of one so can't promise that everyone will have such good results but there are good physiological reasons why it should help most if not all. If you have any additional experience using this program please let me know. Carolyn Moore DS 11/03/03 317/226

Hi, I just got off a plateau and i was just wondering how long my fellow november buddies went of their plateau's?? it took almost 2 weeks to start losing again and i thought i was going to go out of my mind!! i had been doing great up to the 100 lbs lost mark then bam nothing but i just stepped on the scale this morning and am finally down 2 more lbs. to a total of 102 lbs lost !! i increased my protein and liquid and i work out 4 times a week at curves , seemed to help. also, my hair loss is slowing down finally, i thought i was going to go bald there for a while. anyhoo, just thought i would throw this one out there, let me know any secrets you might have to have it not last so long next time. Stacy

I had my surgery on 11/14. I have lost 76 pounds. I started out at 325. You eat a lot less than I do. I eat a whole protein bar for breakfast or a scrambled egg. For lunch I sometimes eat a regular crunchy taco from Taco Bell. For dinner, just about anything, just in a small portion. I really don't restrict myself except on the sugar intake. I don't eat anything fried. I only lost 9 pounds over the last month. I don't walk and exercise as much as I was. I blame my slow weight loss on lack of exercise but I am still very happy with myself and my weight loss. Hang in there.... Tracey Willoughby

I heard this in two different places (Vogue & Good Morning America) drinking cold water helps you burn calories because you body has to warm up with your metbolizim. (spelling is awful, sorry) And when you hit a plateaus it is because your body has adjusted to your diet and exercise plan so you need to cut back on food and step up your working out. I am not sure how much of it applies to us with wls and somedays i hardly eat anything and i wonder why i am still carrying this icky skin around. Which is also another thing, since we have all lost this weight we are carrying around pounds of flabby skin. Heidi

Hello ~ I can so relate to all of you! Seems like one passes and another one is here! I am at the 62lb mark and stuck again! I feel so good and I am very happy but want to be in ONE-DER-LAND so bad I can taste it!! I am so close but seems so far away!! I too have been slacking on my water consumption and swore today I was going to pu****well here it is at 9pm and I still need to drink more! Hope everyone has a great Friday and just know...YOU ARE NOT ALONE!!!