Venting

Think of your body as being a black silhouette. Then think of how that silhouette is becoming more shapely, straighter in the spine, stronger in the core, and curvier in all the right places. I would give up a few pounds to be able to create all those positive body changes. People will look at you and go Holy Cow-WOW!--they certainly won't think to themselves, my goodness, she must have put a few muscle pounds on when she made her body lean, strong, and gorgeous.

 Ok sweet girl, here's the deal.  You didn't have your Sleeve for the number on the scale, you had it for renewed health and the opportunity to live a long healthy life.  Every time you go to the gym, you're doing a Mitzvah for your body.

Seeing the scale go up is a bear. I can totally relate because 145 is the top of my healthy range so I freak out completely if I see 143+.  Last week I ate well and hiked over 32 miles.  The trails in the Redwoods kick my tushie.  Calories are right at 1200 or less per day.  The scale should go down, but no.  I didn't stop because I know my heart is stronger.  This morning, after almost two months of intense hiking, I finally got back to 141.  It should be easier, at least I wi**** was easier, but no.

You hired a trainer. You decided to listen and comply.  Turning over control is the worst worst worst, but you did it with Dr. C and look where that got you.  Listen to your trainer sweetie.  Your best self advice got you obese.  Dr. C and your trainer will keep you light, strong and healthy.
XoX

Hi Elina

I don't blame you a bit for your angst. We are so attuned to that scale number as our lifeline that we are not going to regain 100 pounds that its hard to accept a change. But it may very well be that you are getting some muscle and have to accept a higher weight. I do think you should up protein so you can build some muscle.

And Mikey is right - get a fat percentage test. Didn't you get one some time ago? I bet it tells you your fat percentage is lower. That might help you accept a different number. Are you measuring yourself to see if bicepts are bigger or whatever? 

Yeah, talk to doctor as he can certainly put your mind at ease. I so admire you for getting into this exercise as I know its not your thing. I keep thinking I gotta get into it. You are such an inspiration. You just need to get comfortable with these changes.   Diane

Thank you everyone.  I just wrote to my trainer, I am going to see her later today anyway, but why wait?  She told me to expect at least a 2-4 pound weight gain from water.  I told her I had now gained 2.5 pounds.  She said, "Perfect".  She thinks it's mostly water and some muscle weight gain as well at this point.  She told me that she can visually see a difference on my body, especially around my arms.   I see it too.  She promised me that the water weight issue is temporary but that it might come up again when we step up the weights even further.  She strongly believes that I will end up being somewhere in the 110-115 pound range when we are done.  She told me that my body is actually surprisingly quick at building muscle and that it is a bit unusual to see this much definition so quickly.  She thinks it has to do with the fact that I have very little fat on me.  I guess we will see what happens.  I am pushing forward for now.

 Awe I can totally relate which exactly why I dont excercise lol I know I should I know I would look and feel better more tone etc etc but I know me and i cant handle the number on the scale. My son is an excercise finatic he just came home from Vermont in which he tok place in the Death Race which consisted of tons of obstacles hiking over 150 mile and staying awake and doing it over a 62 hour period. He is crazy he shows me pictures of people he knows before and after girls standing there in their bikinis at 125 and then again at 135 tone and fit and they actually look better and smaller and thinner at the 135 but I still can not get myself to do it. So I will just stay thin and flabby LOL You will get no argument from me HUgs you are better than me. 

All of our peeps already said it all...I got nuthin except great big cyber {{{Hugs}}} for ya.  Get in your happy place (mine's under Brad Pitt) and keep doing what you feel is right...

Deb

You need to look at these pictures:

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/635137-body-fat-vs-w eight-photo-included

http://primitivestimulus.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/Deb155lbs.jpg

And then look at them again every time you start to freak out about that number on the scale. Because that number isn't tattooed on our forehead. People only see what we look like. And which of these two sets of photos do you want to  look like? I know my answer. 

Thank you Marie.  I logically understand it, but it just kills me to see the numbers go up.  My trainer told me today that she wants me to eat more calories and even more carbs or else she feels uncomfortable having me do more than 30 min. of cardio.  I feel so out of my element and not in control.  I need to get more educated about this process.  I trust Dr. Cirangle, and I feel like I understand my body when it comes to weight loss and weight management, but when you throw in exercise, I feel totally lost and uncertain.  This out of control feeling is what has me worried.  I like having a scientific understanding of what I am doing and why I am doing it, and this just isn't my area.  For now, I will just trust the process and keep doing it.  My trainer told me that two, three months from now, if I still don't like the process and where it's taking me, I can always just stop and go back, but she doubts very much that I will make that choice.  I think what really worries me more than a number on a scale, is that I have fought so hard to get a feeling of control over an area of my life that has always felt out of control, and now it once again feels out of control.  I hope I am communicating this well.  Control is the main issue, not the number on the scale.  Thank you for reading this, I am still a work in progress.  This really feels like a new chapter in this whole journey to me.  On the positive side, she is shocked at how quickly my muscles are developing.  I can see definition in my arms and shoulders and I can hold plank for a full minute without much difficulty.  My cardio is improving too.  I am definitely stronger and healthier for doing this. 

If you want to feel in control, here are some rules:

-If your workouts are scheduled more than 2 hours after your last meal, about 30-60 min before have a small snack that is mostly carbs and about 100-200 calories. This will fuel your exercise so you aren't running on fumes and you'll burn this off during the exercise. Good pre-exercise snacks are a piece of fruit, some milk, a piece of toast with jam or PB. If you want to, you can get into the "engineered food" such as a gel.

-After working out, have a recovery snack of 100-200 calories within 30-60 minutes of exercise. The recovery snack should have at least 1 g of protein for every 3-4 g of carbs/fat. So it doesn't have to be only protein but it should have some. Nuts, chocolate milk, and cheese make good recovery snacks. So does a protein bar. There are a number of recovery drinks you can buy at places like GNC or Sports Basement too.

-The rest of the time, eat like you normally would.

For the kind of working out you do 200-400 extra calories on those days is probably just about right to replace the extra calories you've burned. But, if you want to be sure, get a HR monitor or a BodyBugg/BodyMedia FIT and wear it so you know how many calories you are burning extra. Be sure to subtract off the calories you would have burned just sitting around as those are already accounted for with your normal diet. (Usually you have to subtract off 50-100 calories from what the HR monitor says you burned.)

At first you might want to only replace 50% of the calories burned in exercise until you are sure your tools are calculating your calorie burn accurately.

If you trust your  hunger levels, you can just eat to them as well.

Marie, this is incredibly helpful and I will implement this strategy starting with today's workout.  This is very similar to what my trainer has been telling me, but since I know that you have talked to Dr. Cirangle about all of this and have personal experience with exercise and the sleeve, your advice is golden on this subject.  I deeply appreciate you taking the time to spell all of this out for me, it makes all the difference in the world.  Thank you.