DS math, being short, long term weight loss...thoughts

[DSRIGGS]

Insurance will only cover $9,500 and I generally think going to Mexico or LA is not that big a difference. USA will cost me 25K and Mexico will cost me 11k. I was super worried about after care by when i found a PCP that has had the switch, I decided I was set.

I was thinking it was $13k for Esquerra. Dr k is incredible and he replies to emails same day and within minutes most of the time if not in the OR. I am just very partial to him because he cares about patients like nobody I have ever met and there just is no better DS surgeon.

Esquerra is building a good name so he will take good care of you if but if Dr K is cheaper with your insurance (even if he was more) I would absolutely choose him.

 

[Munchkin]

By all means, eat the shrimp! It's a good choice. But the steak isn't bad either because you do not absorb @ 80% of the fat you eat postop.

There is no easy answer. What I can tell you for sure is the only good carb is one you don't eat. And lose as much as possible as fast as possible. Over the years I have seen much gnashing of teeth by people worried they are losing too fast. They want to put the brakes on. And sure enough, a couple years later they are back wanting to lose the 40lbs that never came off plus 10 they gained.

Forget the math. For fat people the numbers lie. Maybe they are right for normies but not for us.

Lose all the fat free diet foods. When they take out the fat, it's replaced by carbs, salt, and chemicals. Use the real thing in normal portions. It's perfectly OK to fry your eggs in butter. It keeps you full longer and satisfied.

I hope you see your magic number. And stay there! But there's no guarantees except that you will be better off with the DS than without.

 

[southernlady]

OK, but doesn't diet math still work. So an 150 pound person would burn 1500 calories a day. Plus exercise calories. If eat 3500 more calories than you burn you gain a pound. If you eat 3500 calories less than you burn you lose a pound. Isn't the only other variable here the malabsorption? So, it lets you eat more calories especially fat, but (give or take) a person is still burning 10 calories a day per body weight. It's still eat less, exercise more. Right?

Throw DIET math out the window.

No, no, no...it's not eat less...it's eat MORE...more protein and fat than you every dreamed you might.

A rib eye steak has 8 grams of protein per oz. You will need about 90-120 grams of that per day. Okay so make this easy: 100 grams of steak is a 10 oz steak (or it's equivalent) EVERY day. Since we don't know what the malabsorption is for each person, we assume about 60%, So that 100 grams becomes 60 grams absorbed.

Fat is here: http://bariatricfacts.org/threads/fats-are-not-the-enemy.3185/

Complex carbs we typically ASSUME 60% with the simple carbs at 100%.

100 grams of protein is 400 calories by itself.

I ingest about 150 grams of fat per day as that is what my system needs, other may need more or less. 150 grams of fat ingested means I ingest 1350 calories of fat.

RIGHT there is 1750 calories. I am 5'4" and weight 146 (this past Sunday) so according to "diet math", I am already 250 calories over...and that doesn't include ANY carbs. I eat carbs, usually around 150 in maintenance. And about 50 of them are simple. 150 grams of carbs is another 600 calories. Okay, so now I am at 2350 with NO exercise and still maintaining my weight. By DIET math, I would be 850 calories over "budget" each day and 5950 calories over budget a week. So by that math, I SHOULD be gaining 5 bs a month. Yet,, I LOST two lbs last week and have maintained right at what I am (within 2 lbs) for almost a year.

I eat more and seldom exercise and altho at 5.5 years out I am ONE lb over a normal BMI, I still lost AND maintained 99.9% of my excess weight without exercise. I DO move more but moving for me involves walking, house work, home renovations, yard work IF it's not in the 90's, etc. I wish I liked being a gym rat but it isn't who I am. I still lost weight when walking around the dining room table was all I could manage after my back surgery in 2013.

See why diet math is NOT the way it works for a DS'er? Honestly diet math is just a made up way to shame those of us who would eat 800 calories a day, exercise like a mad person and still not lose any weight after the first initial drop of water weight. You might also want to read this thread: http://bariatricfacts.org/threads/fat-cell-debate.2253/

I understand that it is hard to throw the diet mentality out the window after a lifetime of being indoctrinated in it...but it WILL make you feel less crazy.

 

[galaxygrrl]

Thank you all so much. As I said, I look forward to learning from you all.