New to the place wanted to say Hi.

Whats sup everyone? My name is Dan, I am a 27 year old dude from morgantown,WV I had my surgery May 8th, 2007 and have lost around 100 lbs so far. Just figured i would introduce myself and say hi.

Hi Dan,  The WV board is not the most active one around. I look in every now and then to see if the lights are still on.  I am about eight months out and my highest weight was 375. At my first consult with my surgeon I was 364, day of surgery 324. This morning 186. I am 49, before surgery I felt twice that old and now about half that.  Sounds like you are kicking ass. Keep up the good work. I hang out in the Men's Forum most of the time, you should come and check it out. Great bunch of guys, nothing is off limits and you will get an answer to your questions. http://www.obesityhelp.com/forums/men/ , I would not be near as succesful as I have been without the locker room, as we call it.  pan head

I noticed its not but it's easy to make it active all we gotta do is start replying to each others post. :) Yeah m y highest weight was 517 and I am now down to around 370 (got weighed since my last post) So things are coming along I had a bit of a rough stretch for a reason unknown to my doctors and me as everything was physically alright so now I am about a week outta of that and feel like its all downhill from here barring no further set backs. I had a weird period where i couldn't hold anything down and was dry heaving all the time. I think it may have been because i wasn't taking my supplements properly. So it goes to show how important those are.

Hi Dan! 

 Great to see you are having such success!  I can't wait for the day I can jump in and start logging my losses!

The weight that you lost before surgery... how did you do that?  I'm sure the Dr is going to want me to lose and you were successful.  Of course... it IS easier for you guys than we gals! 

     I went on a liquid diet for 4 weeks prior to surgery. It is called optifast. It's basically soups and shakes and one snack a day. It was tough having the willpower to stay on it but I somehow managed. except for about a week before surgery. I ate 3 squares of what I wanted. Not fast food but some restuarants i wanted to fully enjoy one last time before the big day and i didn't put too much back on. haha.    I think being active is the main thing. After surgery until i got sick a couple weeks back I was out at the gym and had the drive and a goal that I knew was now attainable due to the surgery. I am going to get started back to my regular gym schedule after the weekend so hopefully i can drop another hundred pounds.

HI Dan! I know what you mean about it not being that hard to get the board moving, but we've honestly tried several times and just can't seem to get our fellow WVians to post!  It is good to see another person who will post though!  I had my surgery on 8/29/06 in Charleston (Dr. Stickler).  I was 410 pounds and am down to 232 now with about 50 more I'd like to lose.  They are clinging tightly!  I am losing an average of 4 to 6 pounds per month though and have lost 7 this last two months running, so hope to see my goal in about 6 months.  As Panhead said, it is good to see more men on the boards too!  You represent a side of things that us girls just can't address.  When another guy comes looking for support, it it so good for them to find other guys out here posting! Ladybug---As for the preop dieting...   I did not have to lose weight prior to surgery, but I was not allowed to gain even one pound between my consult and my surgery.  SO, I went on a diet with the intent of shrinking my liver to make the surgery easier for my surgeon and my recovery easier on me.  I followed a diet that was primarily a goal of 100 grams of protein per day ABSOLUTE MINIMUM and a maximum of 100 grams of carbs per day.  Other than that, anything was a go.  More than 100 grams of protein and less than 100 grams of carbs every day.  I lost 9 pounds the first week and lost a total of 24 in the 6 weeks between my consult and my actual surgery date.  I was thrilled but also knew that the only reason I was able to stick with that was the knowledge that I was working towards my surgery and that I wouldn't be regaining that 24 pounds plus a few more when I gave up on the diet!  I can honestly tell you that this diet opened my eyes a bit to the very low amount of protein I was consuming as a preop and super morbidly obese person.  I probably ate less than 40 grams per day.  I ate lots of rabbit food though and got plenty of nutrients there.  Finding the foods I had to eat in order to stay below 1000 calories/100 carbs and still get in 100 grams of protein was a BIG education on the best sources of protein!  By the time you ate enough lean meat, etc to get in that 100 grams of protein, you were NOT hungry!  And you had to cut the bad stuff in order to stay within the carbs limit too.  It is much easier than you'd think once you have that surgery approval and date in hand!  And, all that protein helped me heal faster after my surgery! Best wishes to all! Lea