Missed it by that much......

With apologies to Maxwell Smart. Today's my 4 month surgiversary and I'm down 99 lbs from that morning. I was hoping for a hundred. Not that big a deal in the long run. It would've made a nice coincidence to have hit 4 months and a hundred lbs at the same time, but to be quite honest, I didn't have a 4 month goal in mind anyway.  Serious question for some of you old timers: I do have a six month goal in mind, and that is, I'd like to be under 300 at 6 months out. I lost 86 lbs the first three months which comes out to an average loss of about 0.93 lbs per day but during the fourth month I only lost 13 lbs which averages in at about 0.45 lbs per day. If I continue losing at that rate I won't make my 6 month goal. I know that we lose slower as we go along, but I'm wondering if there's something I can do to speed it back up a bit. Let me tell you what I'm doing now and y'all feel free to weigh in (pun intended) on what I need to do different: I try to keep my intake to roughly 1250 per day and try to get at least 90 grams of protein in. Most days I'm pretty satisfied at that level. I haven't been a nazi about it though, and there are days when I'm up in the 1500 to 1600 range. Usually on those days though I walk enough to burn off at least 500 of those calories. So far in March, I've walked 54 miles, but I'm not consistant with it due to time constraints. Some days I walk 5 or 6 and there are 4 days stretches in there where I don't walk at all. I'm thinking about dividing my walking in to two shorter walks rather than going 5 at a whack when time permits. I'm looking to experiment around a little and see if I can accelerate my rate of loss and my question is, should I cut my calories or add more. I don't want to get used to eating 2000 calories per day only to find out that it has slowed my loss even more, and then have to cut way back.  Fire away vets.

First off, congrats on the 99 lbs. lost Fish!  That is awesome!  Ya know, you coulda probably took an extra dump and lost a couple of more pounds to hit that 100+ pounds lost mark!! 

As for the walking, I found that if I walk some  (30 - 60 min) everyday it is more effective than walking further distances 2 or 3 times a week. I think that routine, daily walking keeps the metabolism cranked up to a higher consistent level and does not allow for a metabolic "slump".  Just my $ .02! 

The day's not over yet Jfish. Congrats man, looks like you're on a "mission from God." Boner

Hate to burst your bubble, but the bigger you are in the beginning, the faster you initially lose weight. Then it slows down. It will never progress at the same rate as the fist 3-4 months.  I started out at ndar 350, and lost a few pounds prior to surgery, ending up around 320. Had RNY on May 10, 2006 and was down to 222 in December, 2006.  Then I stopped "doing what I should", and stopped going to support group meetings.  I don't think of these support groups as "unmanly" I think of them as supportive, even though the majority in attendance are women.  Anyway, over the next 2 months, I packed on another 20 pounds, now up to 242.  I started back to support meetings, got back on track with proper eating and exercise, changed my vitamin regimin to a liquid vitamin, and got back to the 222 in 2 months, and then proceeded to loose another 20 pounds in the process. I currently weigh 203. Wt. fluctuates 2-3 pounds each week, averaging 203-204. Your "goal wt" may take longer than you figured.  My goal wt was to lose 100 pounds, down to around 225.  I did this in 7 months, which averaged a little over 14 pounds per month, or a little under 1/2 pound per day.  But the last 20 took far longer. The first 6-8 months is considered the "honeymoon period" where weight loss is the greatest.  So, eating properly, drinking enough water, and getting an exercise program should be fully established in this time frame. Having done this, the wt loss will continue past the honeymoon period, but at a much slower rate.  I walk for my exercise, normally a walk of 1 1/4 miles per day. Some days, when the weather is nice, I'll make this walk 2 or 3 times. I don't go to any gym, just primarily the walking. I don't even count calories. I try very hard to get in 48 oz of water, but this doesn't happen daily.  I try to maintain my protein the best I can, and I normally have a couple of Isopure shakes per week to make sure I help the protein level.  Do the best you can. Don't try to establish unrealistic goals.  You'll lose weight in the long run. Some people can be unrealistic about their goal weight. Then there are those that are anal about everything. I have one woman in my support group who is one like this. She has only a few things she eats, and nothing else.  She is a business woman, who has been an EMT, a cop, is now a certified nutritionist and a certified trainer in CA.  But she only eats fish and chicken/turkey, no beef or pork products, no white foods (bread, rice, pasta, etc.), has a very strict exercise regimine, probably has bigger bicepts than most men, and is built like a brick sh..house. But she is finatical in her regimine, which most of us can't live with every day.  She is at her goal wt, and I think her body fat content is probably around 12 % or so--nothing jiggles on her. She reached her goal wt, but at what price?  Most of us would like to weigh less, but in a manageable way. 

The one thing you need to remember is you need to expend 3000 calories more than you take in to drop 1 lbs.  So that can be through exercise or limiting the amount you eat.  At 6 months my surgeon still limited me to 900 cal/day.  I am still not at 1500 after 14 months. Currently 1250 is a high cal day.  So far I have dropped 224 lbs but the last 10 or so have taken forever. Keep up the goos work.  You have come a long way. Rich

I appreciate you guys taking the time to share your experience and knowledge with me. I guess I rambled enough in my original post that my interests were unclear. I tend to do that. Let's see if I can make a long story short. Specifically I need input on the following: 1) If on a given day I consume 1500 calories and walk off 900 of them for a net caloric intake of 600, am I putting my body in to starvation mode. If so, this could explain my slowdown in the fourth month. I have picked up my walking quite a bit as I've gotten lighter and in better shape. If I am in starvation mode, it would appear to me that I might could jump start my body to lose faster through increasing the caloric intake to the point that after I've walked off 900 of them I still have 1000 or so to live on? 2) Is walking 2 miles twice a day better than 4 miles once a day in terms of maximizing weight loss or does it matter? Something I forgot to address while ago: 3) About 45 -50% of my calories are coming from fat due to meat, cheese and egg consumption. I've read where fat calories are more malabsorbed than carbs or protein. Don't know if there's anything to that. I'm well aware that this is above what's reccomended for a healthy diet, but don't know whether it's hurting my loss in this case or not. I can cut out the cheese and go with extremely lean meats if it will help the weight loss.  Thanks again, JF

First off congrats, sounds like you are doing great. Keep up the good work.  Second I question the calories you are burning. I went and worked out on the treadmill at the fitness center tonight and I walked a mile and ran 5 miles and I burned 748 calories. If I had just walked the entire 6 mles it would have been a lot less.  Walking  2 miles at a brisk pace is probably only going to burn some where around 150 calories, maybe 175.  pan head

I question the calories that I'm burning also. I have no idea if these online calorie calculators are legit or not. But I looked at about 5 different ones, and for a guy weighing in at 343 they all claim I would burn 180+ calories per mile at a 3mph pace. So by my math, five miles equals 900+ calories. Your numbers are significantly lower because you weigh significantly less.

How many carbs are you eating?  They should be very few and complex carbs.  Once I started down that road I was toast...Ha Ha.  Brian

I don't ever really look at it that close. I'm pretty low on carbs. I usually eat either a tortilla, maybe two, or a couple of servings of whole wheat crackers during two different meals each day. I also try to eat a serving or two of green vegatables per day. It helps me drop the duece. I eat almost no fruit, and with one exception, no refined sugar. I use a cup of 1% milk when I make protein shakes, but that's usually three times a week at most. I would guess I'm around 40 - 50 per day. I did the Atkins diet back in '01 or maybe '02. I had to go completely carbless in order to get into keytosis. I don't know if that's an issue here or not. After about six weeks of it, I had to quit. One night when I fed my dog a gorgeous $10 ribeye straight off the grill because I couldn't even get a bite of it down, I knew the gig was up. I need variety in order to make life worth living.