I feel for ya dude, being a big bastard myself. I'm slowly losing the weight (ephasis, slowly) with one night a week of weights/running and two (soon to be three or four) nights a week of Jujitsu. I've also tried to cut as much fast food from my diet as is possible. Best of luck man.
Yeah...unfortunately, it is a matter of basic biology and physics. Calories in - calories out = energy stored. The nature of what you eat has additional effects, such as arterial blockages, diabetes, and so on, but the main, basic issue is intake versus output and the threshold you need to stay at in order to live at a deficit until you lose what you want. If you run a deficit, you must lose weight. Your body cannot defy thermodynamics. Energy is stored in several forms in the body, but adipose tissue is a major one and usually the first to be tapped when necessary. Then you must maintain it. Never, ever, ever "diet". Never try to force an unsustainable pattern of eating in order to crash weight if you want to keep it off. It can be done, but most people cannot do it. I say this because such a thing is coming up for me. I have a small bit of excess fat left around the middle, not much, but in October I will "crash" 10 lbs off due to a rather intensive thing I do at a haunted attraction (13 years in the business). The thing is, I am very "into" fitness. 6-9 hours at the gym every week for the last 2 years, working up to a solid hour of nonstop running this month, regularly benching more than I weigh, and so on. I can crash weight short-term because I'm prepped for it now. After that, that phase of things will be finished. I timed it to be so. Most people make the mistake of thinking they can do that and keep it off before they have a good health regimen in place. That won't likely work. Here's the skinny (pun intended). You need to change your lifestyle in that area. Your activity, your food intake (both type and amount), and it must change forever. Right now, you cannot look ahead to when the fat is gone and you may want to bulk up. You must create a lifestyle that you can sustain for the next few years at the very least. Save the surgery money, get a nutritionist/personal trainer. The band may indeed force weight loss in the short-term, but it's not recommended for people who don't have something like hypothyroidism or Crohn's Disease. Oh yeah, as I recall, isn't that thing in there pretty much forever? I would stay spending the cash on someone to get the lifestyle and fitness regimen together will have more benefit in the long run, especially if you want to eventually get into really good shape and not just lose weight. <edit> Oh yes, last thought, BMI is crap as an individual indicator. I'm 6'3" and 220 lbs, but BMI calls me "overweight" at 27.5. It tells me I should be 199lbs. I doubt I'll be that weight even when I hit about 14% body fat composition, not with all the power lifting I'm going to keep doing. - Coeloptera
You say you have depression, do you take a pink oval shapped pill or a little white round pill? I'm not sure which one but one of them makes you gain weight like a mothere fucker. When I was 16 and I got depression I weighed 150 one year latter I shot up to 220 and I stopped taking it.
Hope everything gets better mate. Whatever people say its a harsh situation and just hope you get it sorted
Hey Scourge, let me suggest something re: cost analysis - Instead of paying out $16,000 for the gastric bypass procedure, what about paying out roundabout $6,000-$8,000 per year to hire a really good personal trainer? $16,000 for ANYTHING is ridiculously expensive, and if you decide to hire a personal trainer, you get the added enjoyment of taking the weight off manually and working with the trainer to come up with proper diet control, etc. Additionally, the personal trainer will be way more relentless AND regularly offer a level of positive reinforcement that, in my opinion, would probably be critical to weight loss. I mean, it's just an idea, but it means you'd have to put out probably only half of what you were planning to put out financially. Something to think on.
Have you thought of working out? Or at least trying to cut down on food and go on runs? My dad did that and he lost alot of weight, I think it was about 70lbs in about 3 months or so.
Dont rely on "modern medical procedures" to fix your weight problem. Have you seen the biggest loser show? Those people are huge and they dont need surgery to fix their weight, they burn it off. Instead of spending $ in the medical community get a trainer, supplements and healthier food in your kitchen. Self control man. You can do it. A few years ago I got tired of carrying around 40ish lbs I had on my body and I worked it off with diet and exercise. I've gained it back over the last couple years and have started working it off again. Ive seriously lost 10 lbs over the last weekend and a half through intense strength and cardio training paired with drastically changing my diet.
I did and I had the Gastric Bypass done by the same Doc that did Al Roker. I happened to get lucky where Oxford paid for the entire procedure for me. Most insurance comapnies will pay for it now because they see it as a cheap investment for them considering how much it will be for them to treat you if you remained obese. As far as your company not giving you benefits for at least 6 motnhs then being able to terminate you within that 6 months for being obese, well that just blows. As for the people telling him to eat healthier, I guess you people have been lucky enough never to have been morbidly obese and thus don't understand what it's like. It's not easy and maybe you should realize that before you start taking shots at him for wanting to make himself healthy.
My wife had gastric bypass back in November. She's a diabetic. 10 months later, she's lost almost 100 pounds, and is no longer taking any medicine for the diabetes. No medicine at all, just a multivitamin. I'm in the process to have gastric bypass myself. I've tried dieting, I lose a little weight, then gain it back. But I really couldn't care less that I'm fat. Its my family history that I'm worried about. My dad developed diabetes in his late 40s, my youngest uncle on my dad's side had a stroke in his 40's, and my other uncle and aunt both have had heart attacks. My dad's oldest brother died while waiting for a new heart. This is the reason I'm doing it. I want to stop the health problems before they start.
You should stop drinking sodas. This is one of the biggest problems in the USA. Drink water and Tea's. You will have 2x the amount of energy then you had before. I used to weight 300lbs I changed my eating habits because both my parents have Diabetes, Heat problems, Weakness problems and all around bad health. I am only 24 and I did not want to become like that. 21/2 years later I am still a heavy 250 but i go to the gym 4 times a week (I train to power lift, So I am bigger where it counts ), I eat 5 times a day (small meals). I dont ever ever ever eat fast food anymore, I dont drink sodas and I stay away from fried foods as much as I can. Its hard but man when you can fit into clothes that you never have been able to wear before, If feels great. I just hope everything works out for you. edit: I should also note it takes Hard Work and Dedication. It just seems like everybody wants to take the easy road and its kinda disappointing.
Maybe somebody needs to start a support group for addictions in the social section. Everyone's addicted to something.
I'm glad that dieting worked out for you but the truth is it doesn't work for everyone. I was on about a million different diets, went to the gym and the most I ever lost was 30lbs. It's not the easy road if it's going to save your life. It could take him a few years and in that time he could have a heart attack or something else can happen to him. The surgery will make him lose weight fast and I think the end result is that he becomes healthier. Who cares how he does it?
I won't presume to understand the situation of the OP or anyone else who is or has been morbidly obese, but everything I read says a lifestyle and mindset change have to happen first. I'm hitting my mid-30s and I know the pounds aren't going to just fall off like they used to, so slamming Big Macs is out from now on. I topped out at about 205 early last year and was feeling generally flabby. Cut sodas, started swimming with my kids, hit the gym for a VERY light workout (45 minutes on the bike and a quick turn through a dozen weight machines - no more than 3-5 minutes apiece). A lot of times I'm not even sweating when I leave. I do this three times a week. I dropped to 180 within two months, then started going back up as I built muscle. The real win is, I feel and look ten times better, with VERY VERY little effort. I'm not prepared to adjust my diet to the point where I can get those washboard abs, and I can deal with that. Every day, the toughest part is convincing myself to get up and go to the gym. Once I get past that, it's smooth sailing.
IIRC, Christopher Reeve's Superman, he was listed at 6'4" and 220 and damned if he didn't look lean. He wasn't as toned as a lot of actors are today, but he was far from being fatty. So the BMI is Crap. you can be 6 feet tall, weigh 230 and have a bodybuilder's muscles and be considered fat. can't stand that. Back when i was 10, I weighed 232lbs, had sleep apnea and other problems- spent 2 months at a Children's Hospital where in a month, on a 1200 calorie, no fat diet and 4, hour long workouts a week, i lost over 50 pounds. I wish i had stayed 2 more months, because they sent me home and in less than 2 months' time, i had gained it back and even ballooned to nearly 300lbs. I needed to avoid home to break the cycle. I got yer back, Scourge- well, at least spiritually.
Well I am glad I could start a positive debate on this. I am pleasantly surprised we have been able to keep this on track. For that I want to say thank you TFW. I will comment more after i take in all the current comments.
i have the opposite problem. i can't gain weight due to crohn's disease. i'm 27, 6'1 and i've weighed as little as 140 lbs. currently i'm 160 and that's about as big as i've ever been. i'm constantly hungry and i eat like a pig, but i can't keep any of it on. there are times that i eat and within a half hour, it comes right back out again in the toilet, like some sort of uncontrollable reverse bulimia. i don't even think about eating vegetablesanymore since they just look like i opened a can and dumped it in the toilet. corn and peas look like i could eat them again with a quick rinse. carrots look like i held a grater over the toilet. there's no point in even trying anymore, since i obviously get no nutritional value out of them. it's crazy. on bad days, i've even had small chunks of chewed meat shoot out of my colon. honestly, it's some pretty bizarre stuff.
