Bryce Dallas Howard walking off the baby weight

[sluce]

People please take time to read and comprehend what was said before you comment. No one has said it normal to gain just 8-12 lbs. We said that is what happened to us because we were already fat so we lost some of our own body weight as the baby developed. We ended up weighing less after giving birth that we had been prior to becoming pregnant.

[louiswinthorpe111]

Ok, so Sluce and Nana, I have a question for you that I recently thought of. I watched an obese mom walk her daughter down the street, but the mom was in a motorized scooter, holding the child's hand. This brought the thought for me, at what point to do you look in the mirror and know that you've hit you're breaking point and need to take action on your weight? I've never been overweight, so for me, it was last year when I hit 145lbs and was going to have to go up a size in pants. I was very worried that an extra 5-10lbs was going to sneak up on me every year and then one day I'd wake up and hit 180lb. Obviously for some, their wake up call takes longer.

I'm not asking this to be insensitive or offensive. Mainly curiousity and I'm interested in the answer.

[Charmed Hour]

Speaking for myself, I don't think I ever saw myself as big as I was. I usually stayed about 215 for years. Last year's physical had me at 242 and time for diabetes mefs. Immediately I went on a diet but knew it wouldn't ladt, just like all the others. I decided to look into surgery. My family has a horrible history with diabetes and young aged heart attacks. My paternal grandmother died at 54 from diabetes relared ilnesses after sufferung multiple heart attacks starting at 36. I was already 34. My dad survived a massive heart attack at 44. I remembered looking down at him and didn't want my future children to do the same with me.

[sluce]

I saw myself as even bigger than I was. Through high school I maintained my weight at 120-130 at 5'2". I wasn't fat but not skinny. Then in college I went up to about 145 - still not terrible. I met my husband and over the next few years gained much more. Got pregnant, lost some but was still 210 after she was born. I then gained some more and was 225 when she was a year old and I left him. I am a stress eater and ate my way through dealing with his alcoholism and the divorce and subsequent stress. Then 10 years ago I was in a cavern in Tennessee on vacation with family. We had to walk about a half mile back up and I thought I was having a heart attack. I was terribly unhappy because I hated being so fat. I called my doctor as soon as I got back and she suggested surgery since I had yo-yo dieted my way up to 298lbs. It was the right decision for me but it takes works to maintain it. I hate exercise but I drag myself to the gym about 5 times a week. I have gotten very good at knowing how many calories and grams of protein I take in each day and how many calories I have burned. I weigh myself every single day and when I see a gain of more than 4 lbs I jump into action to get it off. I won't go back!

[MrsDark]

Holy shit. I'm glad you did. That's a lot of weight to be carrying around on a 5'2" frame! How much did you lose?

[sluce]

I lost 150+. I flucuate between 142-148. I will be turn 50 next year so I'm spending this summer trying to drop 20-25 more. I had the surgery right after my 40th bday and have maintained the loss with hard work.

[MrsDark]

I'm about the same height, truthfully maybe a tad under it, and I don't think it would be possible for me to be any weight I was in high school again (average about 115). Even though when I look at pics of myself from then I certainly don't look skinny. I remember thinking I was "fat" even then. I felt like I should be no more than 110#.

This may have had something to do with my mother, who lived when doctors and everyone else went 'by the book' which in her mind was for women: 100# plus 5# for each inch over 5 feet. She is taller than me by a few inches and at 67 still weighs what she should using this method. She does eat like a bird though. She seems to do okay with what she eats, energy-wise, but I'd probably collapse on that amount. Definitely on days when I work out.

I'd just give anything to be the weight I was when I got pregnant with my son 13-14 years ago, which was 124#. Since I worked out five days a week at that time, I was pretty lean at that weight. I think if I got much lower than that at the age I am now I would look older in the face, which is NOT acceptable.

I've even thought about the lap band. But I don't think I'm quite overweight enough for it. (Don't you have to be like, 50# or more??) Plus, I feel like it's something I should be able to do without resorting to that. If I could get my ass in the gym five days a week I know I could get there eventually. But it would take a lot more than it used to.

[Charmed Hour]

All of the WLS surgeries take into consideration your BMI. Generally, you must have a BMI over 40 or 35 with at least 2 comorbidities.

[sluce]

Some will do the lapband at a bmi of 30 since it is much less invasive. My sister had the lapband and dropped 100lbs in a year. Then the band slipped and she had to have emergency surgery to remove it. She has now gained back about 50 of it. Her situation is rare and the US Drs are getting much better at managing the band. I still can't comprehend why the band is so successful in Europe but has such a high failure rate in the US?

[Charmed Hour]

Some will do the lapband at a bmi of 30 since it is much less invasive. My sister had the lapband and dropped 100lbs in a year. Then the band slipped and she had to have emergency surgery to remove it. She has now gained back about 50 of it. Her situation is rare and the US Drs are getting much better at managing the band. I still can't comprehend why the band is so successful in Europe but has such a high failure rate in the US?

I know a few people with the band and only one has lost a significant amount of weight. And they all have complications. The thought of the band scared me.

[Laurent]

Everyone I know with the band have had a rough go of it too. My dad's sister has always been a yo-yo'er and she got the band a few years ago and had horrible complications. She did drop a lot of weight, but when they took it out b/c of the problems, she gained bigger than she ever was before. She's really unhappy right now and is thinking about g.b., but I don't know that she'd be able to maintain that over the longhaul, because you can stretch the pouch back out. She wants a fix that doesn't require will power, and I feel for her, because the weight loss thing is HARD.

[sluce]

^^You're right Lauren. Gastric BP is great if you go in viewing it as only a tool to help you get healthier. You have what is called the "honeymoon" period that lasts about 18 months. After that the weight loss slows greatly and for many stops unless there is a real effort. Your body is remarkable at self healing so it begins to compensate for the changes caused by the surgery. The gherlin hormone comes back developing in the new section of the pouch created by the surgery. The pouch stretches to be able to handle a more normal volume of food and the head gains start again. If you don't do the headwork with the surgery, you will not be successful.

[MrsDark]

All of the WLS surgeries take into consideration your BMI. Generally, you must have a BMI over 40 or 35 with at least 2 comorbidities.

Some will do the lapband at a bmi of 30 since it is much less invasive.

That's just it. I have no comorbidities. And if it requires a BMI as high as 35, I'm not fat enough.

I did know two nurses who were 50# and 30# overweight with no comorbidities who had lap band surgeries (about 5 years ago) that were covered as part of their participation a 3 year long study. Both have kept this weight off. I think the purpose was attempting to make the lap band more widely available (and covered by insurance?) for those who were not yet obese/morbidly obese, with the argument that the costs of providing a surgery to the more moderates (like me, with less weight to have to lose, no comorbidities...yet) would be more effective than the costs down the road that would incur if someone remained overweight (even if as little as 30-50#) as opposed to a healthier weight. In other words, lap bands as a preventative measure before a person developed comorbidities.

This may be why the lap band "works" more often in places like the UK. More people able to get it who are merely overweight (as opposed to obese/morbidly obese with comorbidities)

[Charmed Hour]

That's just it. I have no comorbidities. And if it requires a BMI as high as 35, I'm not fat enough.

That's generally insurance requirements, and some surgeons. If you self pay you may be able to bypass the higher BMI/comorbidities with a surgeon willing to operate on a lower weight patient.

I actually had to fight with my insurance company, or rather my surgeon's office did. They initially denied me because my BMI was 38 at the start of the insurance's 6 month "weight management" program. I had Type 2 and they were claiming obesity was an co-morbid. Really???

[sputnik]

why would you want weight-loss surgery if you know you're not overweight enough to qualify and if you know that you would be able to lose the weight on your own through proper diet and exercise?