Finally got ahead of this water retention... 126.6 ! I'm thinking I may start tracking the % water number on my scale, but that means weighing in again at night, and I'd have to adjust to ignoring my weight at night... This las****er retention challenge really started to mess with my head. I KNEW my food was great, but that weight wouldn't budge.  Every time we "stay the course" and push through it, the more of a habit that response becomes.

I'm envious of you Memorial weekend summer vacation educators! I'll be in Santa Monica Wednesday through Monday, then come back to three and a half more weeks with kids and teachers (I work all summer.).

Sadie says thanks for all of the nose kisses. She's getting her strength back.

Let's stay the course today, and focus on choices that move us toward the results we want tomorrow. Happy almost TGIF !

125.2 - down a smidge. Food not so great yesterday and no exercise, had to interview someone for a new staff position over lunch so didn't get in my treadmill time. Will do something today for sure.

It is supposed to get to 81 tomorrow then back to the 60's for a week or so. Too bad I work, would be nice to spend the day outside. I work the weekend too - boo!

Got all my plastic surgery quotes in - should be about $40,000 for breast lift with augmentation, arm lift and lower body lift with inner thighs. I think I will do the breasts/arms this Fall and perhaps the rest the following year. I will have to build my PTO back up to be able to take off the time for recovery which will be significant after the LBL (probably 6 weeks!).

Tried a Victory protein bar this morning instead of Quest. I had Oatmeal Raisin Cookie and it was pretty good, though a little high in total Carbs - I don't do the net carbs thing but 17 G of the 28 G of carbs were fiber, still had 7 G of sugar and 21 G of protein.

Diane - happy to hear that Sadie is getting her strength back.

Paula

124.0 today

Love that Sadie, such a good girl! 

Diane O, glad your water is flowing the other direction.  You didn't ask for a vote, but I vote no to tracking your % water number on the scale. The technology for that isn't very good and the number highly unreliable.  I know you already know that and are likely thinking that you can at least see relative trends.  I still vote no :) Why base your mood on crap technology? At least the scale weight is an absolute weight.  You KNOW when you have been generally on-plan.  You likely can see/feel the fluid retention.  Continue your work on developing a response to stupid water weight that is more zen....it will pass.  I'm probably better at denial than you are, but in this case it serves me well.  When the scale markedly pops up in just a day or two, I know the majority is water.  Annoying, yes!  I tell myself that I'll have it off in a couple of weeks knowing tha*****pically only lasts days.  I work on "decongestion" and I do watch my diet more closely.  

Devon and Paula, I'll get you more specific cholesterol numbers over the weekend.  I am too busy lecturing Diane O to do it now.  I will say that I also believe in better living thru chemistry.  I have no issue with safety/effectiveness of cholesterol meds.  My reluctance to take them was more an overall denial (again, denial, heavy sigh) that I could have a brand new, long lasting cholesterol issue, especially in such spectacular fashion.

Devon, how is that nephew of yours, I think his name is Grant?

Yours in skinny,  Shel

morning

not the best of food days.  Calories 1267.  Steps 14, 156.

a friend was fired yesterday.  Not quite sure just why.  Upsetting as jobs are few here.  It would have been for just cause, because of possible laws suits.  

But eating two large oatmeal cookies did not help them or reverse the situation.

and so Thursday will be a new day!!!

Hi all.  I'm going to check in because this is the first milestone in my goal.  Tonight I leave for Vegas.  Today is day 16 of trying to get "with it'.  Part of the reason I wanted to be so strict was so that I could come back from Vegas without so much damage done.  Now I'm torn between not wanting to undo the work I've done, and wanting to have a good time.  I know that pretty much anything over what I've been doing is going to lead me to gain some weight.  Maybe I ought not weigh for a few days after my return.  I do plan to walk a great deal.  And I'm going to push water.  And lead with protein.  Although I know there will be plenty of alcoholic beverages and some treats.  But if I can hold out today, and maybe only brunch Sunday, then we're really only talking about 2 days worth of damage.

Started out at 163.8.  Today:  157.4.  Loss:  6.4.  Full disclosure:  my weight was artificially high to begin with because as a woman, ahem, I always gain then lose about 3lbs. at "that time."  Even adjusted for that, I lost about 3 1/2 lbs. in 16 days.  Not bad.  My average daily calories have been 1063, and I've been working out.

It does feel like it's been a lot of work.  I have not been eating out--with the exception of fast food that I can easily track the calories of (like a salad or grilled chicken sandwich).  And I've pretty much eliminated snacks.  And I've been eating just eggs for breakfast--no bread.  But it has been doable.  And now my husband wants to join me.  So after we get back, it's onward to the next goal:  my 6 year surgiversary is May 26th.  We'll leave for Key West on the 28th.  So by then I would LOVE to be 149, my lowest ever post-WLS weight.  But I'll take 152 which is the low weight I maintained.

You are doing awesome BB - have fun in Vegas!

Snazzy numbers! Your work has really paid off.  Glad your husband is going to join you--- makes life much easier.

 I saw your obesity justice blog (it was listed on the front page last night, I think)  I loved the term "obesity justice."  I, too, have been enjoying the public acknowledgement of what I have suspected/known to be true for a long time. 

Have a terrific trip!   

Also since I posted a blog post about a couple of the articles that have been discussed this week, I'll go ahead and post it here.  It's up for comments any way.  I feel like what these articles conclude is pretty much what I was trying to say all along.  It's harder for us (or at least me).  Irrelevant.  But for me it feels important to acknowledge that fact.  And far from an excuse, I think it has helped me to move on and diet again.  So here it is, lengthy so feel free to skip.  But I did try to summarize these articles to the best of my understanding if you haven't had a chance to read them.  I hope we will stop seeing weight as somewhat of a "scarlet letter."

My hope

May 04, 2016

This has been an exciting week in the world of obesity justice.  First, on Friday there was an article debunking the myth that calories burned during exercise should be given equal weight to calories cut through dieting in the weight loss equation.  Essentially, the article held that exercise is not the best tool to fight obesity.  See here:  http://www.vox.com/2016/4/28/11518804/weight-loss-exercise-m yth-burn-calories

And secondly was an article that followed Biggest Loser contestants for 8 years and found that their metabolisms were greatly decreased.  See here:  http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/02/health/biggest-loser-weigh t-loss.html?_r=1

If you are trying to lose a massive amount of weight on your own, I'll admit, these articles are pretty damned depressing.  But to me they confirm what I already knew:  obesity is a disease far more complex than "calories in, calories out", and about a lot more than lack of willpower or discipline.  I hope that articles and studies such as these will make the public realize that there really isn't a viable solution to obesity, short of WLS.  It's not the easy way out, it's the only way out.

So, that first article.  The diet mantra that has been drilled into my head since about the time I could speak was "calories in, calories out."  If you've spent any time dieting at all, you know that you must have a deficit of 3500 calories to lose a pound.  The common thought has been that this can be achieved by some combination of cutting calories, and burning more calories in exercise.  Aka, if you wanted to lose a pound a week, you could either a) consume 500 calories less per day, b) burn 500 calories during exercise per day, or c) do some combination of the two that equaled 500 calories.  And, mathematically, you would theoretically lose 1lb. no matter which approach you chose.  Not so suggests this article and the study to accompany it.  Why?  Well, it gets pretty complicated, but best I can understand is that essentially your body subconsciously compensates for the extra calories you burn during exercise.  In our example, say a person decided he wanted to eat the same calories, so opted to burn 500 calories at the gym per day to reach his goal.  He is unlikely to be as successful as the guy who combines exercise and diet, and the guy who does diet alone may be most successful.  First, "macho man", as we will call him, may overestimate the calories he's burning.  So while he may think he's burning 500 calories, he may in reality only be burning 300.  Oops.  Second, he may eat more to compensate--maybe a preworkout banana, or a protein shake--upping his overall daily calories, and decreasing his desired deficit.  Or, most frighteningly, he may burn fewer calories thorughout the rest of the day.  You see, while we have complete control over the number of calories we eat, we have very little control over the total calories burned by our  bodies.  Only about 10-30% of the calories we burn come from exercise.  The remainder come from the functioning of the body, as well as just how much you "move" in a day.  So what the researchers behind this study/article found was that people who are exercising to lose weight actually decrease their activity the rest of the day.  The fidget less, they take the stairs less, and they probably go ahead and opt for that front parking space.  Major calorie burning points lost here.  

So, while exercise is good for health, it may not be the most effective tool for weightloss.  And it certainly is no substitute for lowering calories by diet.  One of my doctors said "the best exercise you can do is push away from the table."  And in essence, that was the finding of this article.  It concluded by suggesting that dieters exercise, but not count those calories burned toward their goals.  Pretend like it didn't even happen.

I, loathing every minute I spend in a gym, rejoiced over this article.  But not too fast.  My husband was quick to point out "but but but....the Biggest Losers lose massive amounts of weight by diet and exercise.  So exercise must work."

You cannot imagine how OVERJOYED I was when the second article came out not a few days later.  

This second article followed Biggest Loser contestants.  I think pretty much all of them had regained at least some weight.  But I think they were all lower than they were to begin with.  Were any of us shocked that they regained some weight?  I don't think so.  We all knew that it just isn't sustainable to continue to workout 6, 7, 8 hours per day.  That sounds like you're just asking for an overuse injury, not to mention having absolutely zero life.  However, the most frightening aspect of the article/study was that they found the contestants' metabolisms had decreased.  Of course their resting metabolic rate would've decreased by a bit simply because they weigh less.  But it dropped much more than that.  As compared to a person of the same size, their metabolisms had decreased by 250-800 calories.  In other words, if the man with the biggest metabolic screwup were to eat like his friend with the same stats, the metabolic screwup would gain nearly 1.6lbs. per week!  Their bodies are truly fighting with them to get them to regain weight.  And, as the article points out, this is one of the most successful subsets of dieters.  One would think that these contestants have probably done it the right way, at least in terms of their metabolism.  Right?  We're always hearing how muscle burns more than fat (is this even true?  I cannot seem to distinguish between myth and reality any more when it comes to dieting and weight loss!!!).  And I've always been told that maybe my metabolism is low because I don't exercise enough, and I don't have enough muscle mass as compared to body fat.  These contestants should be golden!  

The second problem BL contestants had to face was that their leptin levels (decreased? increase?  I cannot remember.  Too technical) did something to make them ravenously hungry.  I mean, not like c'mon have some willpower for god's sake hungry.  I mean like hulk hungry.  Huuuuuaaaangry.  Biologically speaking, their bodies wanted them not to lose weight.  And it was going to throw everything at them.  

This is what I have been afraid of all along!!!  I know I cannot eat what my peers eat.  Yes, it's somewhat irrelevant--I cannot do anything about it other than eat less and be lean or eat the same and be heavy.  Now before we get too far, I know what you're thinking "but Bonnie, you didn't lose the weight through diet and exercise--you had WLS."  True, true.  And a lot of WLS peeps are rejoicing at this article, hoping to find other articles that say that WLS does not affect metabolism as negatively as extreme diet and exercise.  I'll be honest, I haven't had the time to try to pin down such studies.  I don't know if they exist.  But even if they did, all I want to say is that I did diet my entire life prior to WLS.  I think the damage was already done.  Maybe, if someone never dieted and had WLS, they would be good to go.  But I did HCG diet, and liquid diet, and weigh****chers, and cabbage soup diet, and grapefruit diet, etc., etc.  It was very hard for me not to gain weight at 277lbs.!!!  I think the damage was already done.  That being said, I think their is ample proof that WLS does a great deal for grelin and leptin levels in terms of regulating hunger.  And that has been my experience.  Even in the past couple weeks going back to being really strict about my eating, I have honestly not been very hungry.  

The takeaway for WLS patients:  confirmation that we did the right thing.  Dieting has about a 2% success rate for obese people to lose and keep off weight.  Those are dismal odds.  In truth, even WLS doesn't work all the time--the odds are far better at 50-60% (quoting support group leader on these stats).  As far as I'm concerned, non-surgical means of controlling obesity is a technical failure.  So why do we keep pushing this????!!!  Why do doctors keep encouraging diet and exercise along?  And well-meaning friends and family encourage you to "do it the right way."  It just DOES NOT WORK.  Even when you may be able to lose the weight, you are very likely to regain it.  I have seen so many family members spend years in this purgatory of weight loss and weight regain.  It's such a vicious cycle.  It's not healthy physically (see above--screws up your metabolism).  And it's certainly not healthy mentally.  Any other disease that had one option with a 2% success rate, and another option with a 60% success rate--no one would choose the former!  Again and again I will say, WLS is not the easy way out.  It was the ONLY way out.  I hope that family, friends, doctors, insurance companies will begin to "get it."

And why don't they get it?  Because deep down we've all been fed this bologna about how weight is an outward sign of a serious character flaw.  It's a lack of self discipline and willpower and it's vulgar.  I know better.  Even after WLS, the struggle.  Is.  Real.  Sadly, I think some of us obese or formerly obese buy into this theory the most.  We are so ashamed of ourselves.  If we gain weight we start an inner dialogue of negative self talk.  And some of us, even after having battled these own battles ourselves, seem to perpetuate the notion that weight gain is a sign of a character flaw by the way we counsel those who have experienced regain.  It's not as simple as "work harder."  that's like telling someone who's clinically depressed to "think happy thoughts."  Or telling someone with asthma to "breathe in deeply."  It's kind of insulting and I think in this instance, it perpetuates the very archaic thinking that weight gain is associated with a lack of effort or discipline.  

My hope is that someday obese people are seen as having a genetic or metabolic disability.  That obesity is a disease.  And that it should be treated without regard to one's "character."  I hope one day that we see WLS no different that open heart surgery--a very necessary medical intervention to a disease.  And I would go one step further and say my greatest hope is that we just get over peoples' weights!!  There is so much more to care about.  So much more.  

Great article and even greater commentary. Keep fighting the good fight BB, you can do it!

I'm glad you decided to come back Bonnie. And since you've posted this and you're open to commentary, I'm going there.

At least from my perspective - and if I understand what others have been saying - there is no disagreement around your take on the role metabolism plays. The point we differ on is the amount of emphasis you are placing on it vs what I (and maybe others) place on it. It's just one factor in a multifaceted issue. And as you've said, one we can't do much about other than hope that wls helps it in some way.

I see nothing here that is contradictory with the addiction literature. Predetermined physical factors can trigger addiction, but not in and of themselves.  So people can have the predetermined factor/s and not struggle with addiction.  

When combined with other factors such as early learnings, environment, exposure, behaviour, etc., addiction tends to take hold. Similarly, for example, addiction rarely takes hold merely through exposure and/or behaviour, etc.  it is the combination of factors that create the conditions for addiction.  Consequently, beliefs, behaviours and environment are also addressed.  

So in a nutshell, it's your assertion that you have a metabolic disorder but not a food/eating issue is where we differ. I'm not making the effort to continue this discussion to be unkind, but since you've chosen to put it back here, I do think it's important to address it again.