Expert: Diminishing Dawn - 2/6/2010

Question
I had my Laparoscopic Roux-en-Y surgery in June of 2007.  I was 32, 248 lbs., @ 5'7".  At my lightest, which I achieved in April of 2008, I was 154.  As of today, I'm 165.  I started religiously going to Curves 5 days a week...honest!  Started that program in June of 2009, wished I could've started earlier, but comfort levels in both my body & financial didn't coincide until 2009.  I still weigh my food and only consume 4 ounces at any given time.  Snacking/mental hunger is my down-fall, I think.  Since day one I've religiously taken all my vitamin supplements and then some.  

Daily I take:  2 Centrum chewables, 2 vitamin C gummies, 1 vitamin b-12 sublingual, 1 vitamin b-1 sublingual, 2 fish oils, 3 glucosamine&chondroitin chews
AND
at the end of the day I take 2 Calcium chews, the Trader Joe kind with added Vitamin d & K.

I've incorporated into my daily diet starting December 30th 2009, green tea supplements and drinking copious amounts of green tea.  An article passed around at the Curves I attend, said that drinking 9 cups of green tea can decrease BMI & curb hunger in 3 months.  Each green tea supplement is equivalent to 2 cu[s of green tea.  So I take 3 a day (the max per the bottle instructions) and drink at least 3 cups of actual green tea a day.  I keep a log of my green tea ingestion and the proprietor at my Curves took my measurements & BMI at the start in December.  So we'll see what, if any changes.  

My question is, how do I lose more weight?!  I consider my GBS a success but I'm hardly a poster-child for the procedure.  I want to be a poster-child, am willing to work for it!  I stopped going in for my post-op appointments due to the clinic's lack of interest in me.  So really I have no one to consult.

I search on-line, reading the extremes in pros & cons.  Which is information and disinformation?!

Is it okay for me to try going back to an all liquid/protein diet...like the good ol' days?  4 ounces does still fill me up.

Answer
There's no magic formula. You are over 2 years out, the malabsorption is no longer an issue for you. You have to pretty much go by plain old caloric intake to lose weight. You are now like everyone else on the planet and it is going to be all about what you put into it.

Using a program like fitday.com or dailyplate.com and religiously recording your intake for at least 2 weeks may help you see where you could do better. For most of us, it is the traditional stuff that we don't need (useless simple carbs that is usually a culprit in us not losing optimally). You are pretty much like everyone else on the planet now at over 2 years out and it will take much more work to get off pounds.  Your gastric bypass optimal time is far over.

Some people go for basal metabolic rate testing to see what their body is burning. Some believe in weight training to increase their metabolic rate.  Muscle burns more than fat naturally at rest.  Curves is not necessarily optimal for this because you use your body's own resistance (which generally you can't incrase over time) --- you might want to consider doing some free weights. Eventually say when you use 5 lbs, it will become too easy, so you move on to 10 lbs, 25 lbs.... With curves you use your body's own resistance so you can't quite vary the load.

The Green tea thing while true, has minimal effects. You might burn off 10 more calories than before. Weight training by far has a great impact than green tea. It's a bit overhyped unless this study you are talking about is something you could point me to.

Are you doing cardio? You need to do something that pushes your heart rate up.  Interval training of walking/running might be a consideration. If you want to lose lbs, do the cardio. Lose inches and raise metabolism? Do the weights.

Skip the liquid diets. They only get rid of water weight. They are only a quick fix. The lbs always come back once we start to put food in our mouths again.

Good luck!

Dawn