Er…heartbeat…:o
I saw a story about a woman who had had some kind of bariatric surgery (don’t remember which kind.)
It hadn’t kept her from gaining the weight back.
That floored me. I thought surgery was a sure-fire way of being able to lose weight AND KEEP IT OFF. Apparently not.
Something to keep in mind…
The National Weight Loss Registry reports that success and maintenance of weight loss that is most succesful is a low fat, lower calorie diet with exercise.
Most other methods, including Atkins, Low/No Carb, bypass, meds and others do not have the numbers of long term successes as do the 'low fat/lower cal/ exercise/lifestyle-change crowd does.
In sum, eating right(low fat, controlled cals), exercise and a general lifestyle change is the overwhelming theme in on-going success/maintenance, not just weightloss totals, from fads, surgery, meds, crashes.
http://www.lifespan.org/Services/BMed/Wt_loss/NWCR/Research/default.htm
drop–you’re one of my favorite posters and I don’t care what you look like, but you should do this to get healthy.
I’m trying to think of some incentives for you. Hmmm, maybe after you lose 20 lbs. we pledge to participate in a thread on the topic of your choice? After 30 we write you poems? After 40 we stalk you and post “dropzone is de man” after each of your posts?
Yeah, my daughter suggested Atkins but I said it was a bllsht fad diet and the only way to eat properly is to eat, well, properly: a balanced diet. Which is what I mostly eat. I just have to eat less of it or even the same amount but get off my fat ass now and then. If my doctor thinks the Wellbutrin is to help me lose weight that’s fine, it keeps him from talking about surgery. And if it actually helps that’s better. I, on the other hand, think of it as augmenting my Prozac, which I process and eliminate very quickly but which does have some minor side effects in the doses I’m already taking it (60mg/day). And wellbutrin works differently; it’s a dopamine-reuptake blocker, not a seratonin-reuptake blocker, though being dopier may not do me much good. 
Aw, yer sweet! But my ego is already inflated enough that I:
- Don’t care what I look like, either
- Already know that I am The Man
Wife suggested I go back to WeightWatchers but I told her that I sit in the meeting thinking more about how I paid good money for recipes I won’t cook and a dopey pep talk than I do about what the mod is saying. The only reason I went back then was to have an independent party weigh me and her sister’s husband in our little competition. I’m real good at competitive dieting, but that is not a POSITIVE means to the end.
“How about TOPS, then?”
“Hmmmm, it meets a mile and a half away–three miles makes for a nice evening stroll. I’ll consider it as long as they are not a bunch of scab pickers.”
Good LORD. Say the hell away from WW meetings. The ones that I have been to are full of whiners. I like the program, though.
TOPS is a pretty good organization, if my family’s experience is any indication. I don’t think it’s nearly so expensive as WW, at any rate. Grandma’s been a member as long as I can remember, and although it took her a long, long time to reach her goal, she made a lot of friends who helped her get there. And she did get there. In fact, she was the KY state queen in '96 or so, and has kept it off ever since.
For the first time in my life I actually tried to lose weight a couple of months ago. We’re talking 10 - 15 pounds range, so nothing too drastic.
I got the weight off easily, and was shocked. All I did was cut every portion I had in half. I ate my portion, waited 30 minutes, if I was hungry, I had a little more.
The success of this surprised me. At the risk of sounding really trite and stupid, because I’m sure you’ve tried loads of things to lose weight…but have you tried cutting your portion size?
I think that’s great and I wish you all the best. I just wanted to make sure you knew that within the bariatric surgery realm there were many different options. I can’t tell you how many people I’ve run across who didn’t even realize that there was anything besides gastric bypass. I just want to make sure that anyone who does consider it does their research and makes an informed decision based on which surgery suits them best, rather than just going with what their doctor (most doctors, even surgeons, don’t really know much about all the different surgeries, or have bad info. You’d be amazed.) recommends.
The rate of regain among gastric bypass patients is unnervingly high. Some of the other surgeries have a much lower rate [such as the DS that I had done] because of the malabsorptive element.
I’d also recommend to anyone trying to lose weight, maintain weight, or just wanting to keep track of their health that you join )(free) FitDay.com --look into it, it’s an invaluable tool.
I’ve lost 40 lbs since June on Atkins. It is a balanced diet, despite the media saying and promoting it as an all meat and eggs diet. I eat more vegetables now than i have ever eaten in my life, and have actually started to enjoy them. Atkins isn’t a diet, it’s a way of eating for the rest of my life. It doesn’t really feel like I’m dieting, I simply cut out sugar, processed flour and started eating fresh meat, veggies and some dairy.
No chips, no donuts, no pizza, no cake, no fast food. Truthfully, I can’t think of a more balanced way of eating than Atkins.
Boscipo: Yeah, but I’d find a way to turn it into the Salami Diet.
Opal and others: I appreciate your input about my surgical options. Heck, before yesterday I only knew about stomach stapling.
ouisey: Most of my problem is lack of exercise and a surplus of junk. If I fix that the weight tends to drop off me.
Another part of my problem is that my subconscious associates dieting with deprivation and deprivation with punishment. And, conversely, food with reward. I have to find another way to reward it.
Actually, there was just a study that says Atkins works, at least in the short-term…don’t know how good it is, but it’s worth mentioning. It was a small study, of course, but it’s interesting reading.
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20031013/ap_on_he_me/low_carb_mystery_1
I found a couple of links with surgery comparison thingies, just for the sake of providing some information:
http://www.gr-ds.com/forpatients/Comparison_Html.html
http://www.thinnertimes.com/WLS_comparison-table.htm
I want to add that a few of the side effects that people freak out about the most are “foul smelling gas and BMs” and hair loss [only during the first year, it grows back]. I’ve experienced neither of these.
I know a lot of people who have lost weight with the Atkins diet… but I think it would be difficult for a vegetarian like me ;D
Something I want to mention to those of you who are trying to lose weight… To a certain extent, eating more = losing more. By this I don’t mean stuff yourself! What I mean is that if you are on a restrictive diet and find your weightloss slowing or stalled, EAT MORE. Your body will say “oh, hey! We’re getting more food! We don’t have to keep socking this away, saving it for winter!” and will release more of the calories rather than storing them. There is actually something referred to as the Krispy Kreme Rule among the people on my DS mailing list… if someone is on a plateau, they spend a couple of days eating Krispy Kreme donuts and POOF their weight loss starts back up.
Years and years ago, someone I know had a book called something like “How to Eat Like a Thin Person” - that may not be the exact title, but it’s likely close. Anyhow, Opal’s point above about eating more reminded me of something in the book about yo-yo dieting. It said that frequent dieters find it progressively harder to lose weight each time they diet because their bodies are acclimated to a feast-or-famine system. The body “remembers” that food might be scarce soon, so it actually starts retaining fat in case of famine (a/k/a diet.)
I don’t remember a whole lot else about the book, but I do remember that the friend shared it with me because I’ve always been fairly slender and she wanted to know if it was an accurate representation of a “naturally” thin person’s eating habits. I remember thinking it was pretty close.
Oh, I’ve bumped up against that wall. The key is to stay hungry. As soon as you notice how well the diet is going and how you don’t even notice being hungry anymore it’s a sign your body has acclimated.
Not and endorsement, but…
I have to chime back in about Atkins. Atkins’ plan eventually turns into decent eating habits: wheat breads over whites, good carbs over bad carbs (veggies and fruit over simple sugary foods), etc.
Induction, where you drop almost 90% of carbs from your life is supposed to be two weeks. People try to do induction for life. Bad idea.
Also, somewhere along the line there became a ‘street’ version of Atrkins that we all know about: People are just convinced carbs are bad. They brag about their bacon and egg breakfast. They love pork rinds and chicken wings. Bad idea.
Atkins has some value, and if you read up on the South Beach Diet, it does a better job of emphasizing that cutting out BAD carbs for life doesn’t mean pigging out on bacon, snausages and pig snouts, or gorging oneself on chicken wings and ribs.
As for long term success AFTER weight loss, most successful people echo a similar experience: Everyday, many times a day, they think about nutrition, stay up to date on what they’ve eaten and continue to think about it and stay on top of it. It’s a change of life.
It’s the constant thinking about food that turned me off to WeightWatchers, or “Dieting for Obsessives and Accountants.”
I didn’t know all that about Atkins, being familiar with the nuts on Intro for Life. Maybe I’ll look into it.