A bit more about me....

[Guest guest]

Well, several of you have asked about my weight loss.... I don't think I've

done anything so really special... the main thing I can see is that I

started a LOT higher than most of you ... at 440 pounds... I was 300 pounds

over my goal weight of 140. that's at just 5'6 - so I'm not very tall,

either (sorry, I'm terrible at metric, can't remember the conversion) ...

Six things my doctor stressed...that I have tried to do as much as

possible....

1. No milk or sugar. Even if it's non-fat milk, something about the

lactose..but.. yogurt and low-fat cheese are okay, it's a strange thing.

2. Only protein as much as possible - protein shakes daily.

3. about 2 liters of water a day (I'm not very good at this one)

4. exercize - this is kinda a key for me to keep my metabolism moving. I

haven't been able to the past month, and my weight loss slowed, I'm on a

plateau this month...but because it was foot surgery, I didn't have much

choice about the exercise. Now I just have to stop being a slug again, and

get going to the gym.

5. stay between 600-1500 calories a day- one of my doctors wants me closer

to 600, the other says as long as I'm under 1500 I'll be losing weight.

6. take vitamin supplements (and ones that are good for hair growth).

Oh, also... bran, and fiber are also really important to get, to help with

weight loss... I was doing much better when I was concentrating on that,

too. That's really about it.. I've been really pretty good about avoiding

milk and sugar.. and I try to take in at least 55 -60 grams protein a day.

I need to walk or bike ride or hike at least 3 times a week for at least 20

minutes at a time. The doc seems to think that sticking to protein is the

thing that helps me lose weight the fastest.. and since he's had about 6000

obesity surgery patients over the past 30 years, I tend to believe him when

he talks about what works.

I don't always stick to just the protein - baked potatoes and popcorn tend

to be a bit of my splurgin point, but since I used to eat fast food all day

long, every day, my diet has vastly improved.... even if I'm not getting

many fruits and veggies in.

sample day for me...

protein shake for breakfast 135 calories - 27 gr prot

yogurt late morning 100 calories - 6 gr prot (have to watch the sugar on

yogurt - no more than 10-12 gr for a 1/2 cup serving)

string cheese early afternoon snack 80 cal - 6 gr prot

1/2 protein bar nibble all afternoon 140 cal - 15 gr prot

small baked potato & small piece of fish for dinner ~300 cal? 14 gr prot

popcorn after dinner snack ~400 cal - hardly any protein...

that's about 1200 or so calories for the day, I don't get a chance to get

tooo terribly hungry, and I have gotten plenty of protein. I'm not super

tight on my band right now, when it was, I couldn't keep anything down, and

that was really depressing... and I actually lost less weight because it

seemed my body was in starve mode. Where I am right now, I'm satisfied.. I

may have to scale back my eating to compesate for lack of exercise, but,

it's going well, all in all.

Sorry to keep going on so much... Tell me if this makes sense to any of you,

or if you've found any other ways to make it work. I've been very very

happy with the AGB, I'm really glad I did it, can't even begin to express

how wonderful it is to have my life back. How many of you had surgery with

Dr. Heller?

Jill

Seattle, Washington

start weight 440 pounds 2/98

current weight 295 pounds 11/98

>You would be one of the few to come on the list with something to teach

>the rest of us; normally, it's the other way round. So, apart from sheer

>determination and bloody-mindedness - how did you get that fantastic

>loss rate? My wife, had a band in July and we feel we've done

>well to take off about 40 pounds apiece in six months!