I'm just learning from my mistakes without the proper education and support back then.  I've learned how to make it a lifestyle change now.  And I honestly love this new lifestyle!!!  I remember a couple years ago when I started to get back on track how I greived and moaned when I admitted that I will have to exercise the rest of my life.  I hated it back then, and would do anything to avoid sweating, now....I LOVE IT!!! Maybe it's a transfer addiction!  LMAO!!

Seriously though, if you look at the thin HEALTHY people, they do exercise all the time.  That's part of the lifestyle. 

Sounds like you have the right plan, keep it at the forefront and never forget, cause no matter what surgery it can come back if we're not careful.  Your 5lb fluctuation is a great allowance, keep it real and honest! 

All I can say is when we make it a lifestyle change, it's not that hard to stick to.  I honestly didn't know we could regain. Thought it was as simple as once we lose the weight, with our small pouch, we would never gain again (but the dr's never told us otherwise and most believe it back in 1990's)!  OH BOY!!  ~live n learn!!

That's part of starting the support group, to make sure newbies know the difference.

My goals are lower, but that's because I'm weight lifting and working towards a lower body fat %.  I know I will be happy with 175, I was there 3 yrs ago, but want to get into a lower BMI for less fat at my age.  I have lifestyle goals, and lean muscle mass is what I need to acheive this.  

Plus, remember I already had a tummy tuck, so I will already have that extra skin out of the way.  I'm working on toning as I go.  I do a lot of weight training and therefore I lose more in inches rather than pounds, I am getting a lot of muscle definition now.  I should be around 45-55 lbs lost at my size comparison.  (Down 6 inches in waistline & hips since August.).  I think the best way for me to tell my goal is by size, not pounds, and I will be EXTREMELY HAPPY AT A SIZE 7-8 AGAIN!!!!!!!.

Guess you could say I'm already in Maintenance mode.  LMAO

Does Dr. Ellesmere do the Roux-en-Y Gastric Bypass surgery or only the VSG?

Thanks girls & guys - that was great!  See y'all at the next one!  :))

What a great offer Angie!  Thanks, but I already have a membership there.  Hopefully someone else will find this as useful. 

Hi everyone!

Some of you have requested for me to post how I cycle my calories to bust a plateau.  I am posting a link that explains what happens to our body and what we can do to change things up.
www.criticalbench.com/weight-loss-plateau.htm

Of course some of you are on special diet plans, but you get the idea of what your nutritional values should be.  I follow a similar routine and it helps break away from stalls.  Keep the body guessing and add variety to our diets & fitness programs!!!

What to do:

First you need to know your BMR (Basic Metabolic Rate) the number of calories you'd burn if you stayed in bed all day.   health.discovery.com/centers/heart/basal/basal.html

     "If you've noticed that every year, it becomes harder to eat whatever you want and stay slim, you've also learned that your BMR decreases as you age. Likewise, depriving yourself of food in hopes of losing weight also decreases your BMR, a foil to your intentions. However, a regular routine of cardiovascular exercise can increase your BMR, improving your health and fitness when your body's ability to burn energy gradually slows down."

Now that you know your BMR (mine is 1600), you will most likely see that us WLS patients are much lower than this caloric intake.  I'm around 800/day.  So I do this for 2 or 3 days, then I raise my caloric intake to roughly 1000/day.  This helps to raise my metabolism and stop my body from going into another starvation mode (a natural preserve state). 

I also play with my fitness routines.  I try to work at burning 250 calories/day (5 days/week Mon-Fri), but some days I add an extra 10 minutes, or my cardio aerobic level and get my heart rate up from 140bpm to 150bpm.  I also lift weights 3 days/week (Mon-Wed-Fri), and will sometimes boost my reps from 10 to 15, at sets of two or increase my weights for strength at lower reps.

My workouts change to keep my body guessing.  Some days I do 20-20-20 (20mins of each: bike, treadmill, elliptical), other days I do 10-15-10-15-10 in any order of (bike, treadmill, elliptical, rowing, stairs).  When I hit a plateu, I change it up more and will choose the highest calorie burner -elliptical and go for 40minutes, then finish with the bike for 10-20minutes.  I try to aim at 60minutes total for workouts.  30 minutes is fine for those who are new starting out at the gym.

I also have my own home equipment (Gym weight system, treadmill, recumbant bike, 21 speed bicycle, mini-trampoline, jump rope, stability ball, flex bands, ankle & wrist weights, free weights for biceps, yoga mat)--You name it, I got it!!!  So I can do a lot of this at home.  I am now waiting for Christmas day to start using the fitness game "Your Shape Fitness Evolved" on our Xbox 360 Kinect, plus some other Kinect games to keep moving, have fun and stay fit!  It gets you using your whole body to move, not just standing on a board like the Nintendo Wii Fit.  

How we lose weight:

If my BMR is 1600 calories, I need to have a deficit to lose weight (burn fat).  

Drop my calories to 1000/day:     -600 cals x 7 days/wk = 4200
Burn cardio exercise 5 days/wk   -250 cals x 5 days/wk = 1250

Total week deficit:  -5450 cals less/wk

It takes 3500 calories (energy) to burn 1 pound of fat
so this equation works out to:             l.5 lbs lost/wk
(divide your deficit by 3500)

When I cycle calories: If I raise the calories, I burn more by exercising to keep it balanced.  So be aware of the days you want to cycyle and make sure you can put a little more effort into your workouts on those specific days. 

Be extremely careful when upping your caloric intake, it doesn't take much to raise by 200 and make sure it's healthy & useful calories, not a bag of cheesies!!!!!

Any questions, let me know.  Hope this helps bust those dreaded plateaus!!!!!!!!

By doing this (and it's my 2nd time around losing weight after surgery), I've lost 37lbs since the middle of August and 7 lbs in the last 7 weeks.
....I'm losing at 1lb - 1.5lb/wk average.