NEED OF ENCOURAGEMENT!!!

Good Afternoon To All: I had RNY on 9/29/03 and have lost 153 lbs. I started at 409 lbs and now weigh 256 lbs. I feel GREAT!!! I have no more diabetes medication, no more blood pressure medication and I no longer have cellulitis in my legs. I have energy that gets me through a full time job, a part time job, taking care of my house and husband, visiting with grandchildren and taking care of my elderly parents. Weight management doctor and surgeon would like to have me lose another 35 lbs. I keep my weight between 253 and 256 for the past 5 months and I'm becoming discouraged. My doctors all have said that with my being tall with large bones that I don't fall on the weight charts, which is why another 35 lbs would be just fine. I have gone from a 30/32 to an 18/20 and love it. Here is a sample of my daily food intake: 1 medium apple 1 medium banana 1 medium peach 1 protein bar (90 cal) from Optisource 4 Optisource Vitamins 1/3 cup chicken salad 1/3 cup tuna salad 3 cucumber slices (long way) 1/4 tomato sliced 1/2 cup lettuce 4 tbsp. FF Ranch Dressing Shredded cheddar cheese (on top of lettuce) 1/2 cup sugar free pudding 1/2 baked pork chop 1/2 cup lettuce 1/2 cup cottage cheese 4 tbsp. FF Italian Dressing 1 protein bar (90 cal) from Optisource 4 large caffeine free Dunkin Donuts Ice Coffees 1 bag microwave popcorn Since surgery, I have had a protein snack in am, pm and in evening. This seems to be hard to break. I never eat sweets and I don't have bread. I am looking into doing more exercise on my treadmill. Given that I was never very athletic for my entire life, this takes time to get going into a routine that I can maintain. Am I eating too much. What do you suggest I do to rectify my eating situation. I really feel super and would certainly love to lose those 35 lbs. I LOOK FORWARD TO YOUR EXPERT ADVISE. THANK YOU IN ADVANCE. Kathy from Massachusetts 8/11/05 1255

Hi Kathy, I don't have any expert advise, but I can tell you we are in the same boat! No Sweetie, you are not the only one! There are many of us, self included! I had my surgery 4/8/03. I lost 100 pounds in the first 6 months and then wham! It STOPPED! I started at 325.5 so that brought me to 225.5. Although I was thankful for the 100, I had so much more to loose. After about three months it started to slowly come off again. I lost down to 161. (only saw that for a day!) Had a few health problems and gained back up to 180. Now, getting that off is even harder! (I have lost 6 of it) We can do it though. Change your routine up. Eat a little more protein and add more water. Maybe less frui****ch those carbs! Our bodies just don't metabolize those stinkin' things! I have 24 pounds to loose to be at my goal and 14 to be at my doctors goal. Will I ever get there???? I don't know, but I am not giving up easy! Skinny Wishes~ Becky

Becky: Thanks for responding. I appreciate it. Could you tell me a sample of your daily food intake. I just need to see someone else list what they have on any given day in the hopes that I'm not eating too much. I will watch the fruit intake given its natural sugar content. I think of fruit as low calorie, but I forget about the sugar content. I look forward to hearing from you. Again, have a great day. Kathy from Massachusetts 8/11/05 1400

Hi Kathy, Yesterday for breakfast I had piece of Nature's Own Healthline wheat toast (7grams of carbs and 6 grams of protein) with peanut butter and a banana. Lunch- 2 tacos, dinner -3 chicken fingers and a salad that consisted of lettuce, carrots, cabbage, cucumbers, bacon bits, cheese and thousand island dressing. After my workout I had a Profect protein drink and a hunk of cheddar cheese. Lots of water and about 4 cups of coffee. Oh, I almost forgot, I had a biscotti yesterday, 7 grams of carb. Some days I can eat more other days I don't eat near that much. So far today I have had 1 slice of the bread and a scrambled egg, 1 cup of spaghetti sauce (lots of beef, no noodles) water and coffee. The snacking hurts me so I try to only eat three meals a day. My hubby is a snacker in the evening so I do tend to have something lite in the evening. He is trying to loose a few pounds too so we work out together at night and then I also work out first thing in the morning. Hope this helps. Becky

Hi there Kathy, Telling your food intake doesn't really tell the whole story. What matters is how your body processes the calories you take in. My best suggestion is to look into having Metabolic Rate testing. I've got a guy here who tests high performance athletes and he's cheap (40 bucks) for a quick 20 minute test first thing in the morning. He measures your Basal Metabolic Rate - which tells you how many calories your body burns when you're lying around breathing. So that's the foundation. In order to healthfully lose fat you have to eat at least that many calories every day. Then you take into account your Active Metabolic Rate - that's the amount of calories you burn when you do get out of bed and are up and around. I do a desk job and only walk about 30 minutes total every day. So I am "Somewhat active". Then on top of those calories are your Activities - any exercises (running, walking, swimming, dancing, powershopping, etc) that you do during a day. So - it's just like a car - you have to have enough gas to at least go (eat the BMR worth every day) but you can't have more in the tank then you burn off (the active rate + activities). For me, I have a high metabolism - on my running days - I can't barely eat enough to keep the car going. On my regular days, I have to be conscientious to eat enough to keep maintaining my muscle mass. Sick but true - sometimes people have to eat more to lose weight, and some have to eat less. Better to find out what you're body is asking for before comparing to others. Just my 2 cents. BEST WISHES!!!!! And Congrats on such AMAZING success so far, ~Lara