BMR

basal metabolic rate
Function: noun
:the rate at which heat is given off by an organism at complete rest

When I started my journey I weighed 252lbs and my BMR (Basal Metabolic Rate) was 1,953. Which means I could eat 1,953 calories per day and maintain my weight of 252lbs. 1lb equals 3,500 calories so as an example if I wanted to loose 1lb per week just by cutting calories than I would have needed to only consume 1,453 calories per day. This would have cut 500 calories from my diet each day resulting in cutting 3,500 calories per week and that equals 1lb lost. Sounds easy right?

I was watching a Dr. OZ episode where he was talking about weight loss plateaus and your BMR which made me think to check my own. Up until this point I had been loosing weight, and been going about my daily life with the assumption that my BMR was still 1,953. When in all actuality when I plugged my new numbers into the BMR Calculator I found out that my new BMR is now 1,800! That is a difference of 153 calories. So in other words, if I was still eating 1,453 calories per day I was no longer burning 3,500 calories or 1lb per week. Instead I was burning only 2,429 calories which would have caused me to loose less than 1lb per week. So I would have needed to adjust my food consumption to 1,300 calories per day so I could maintain my goal of 1lb lost per week. Does this make sense?

I share this only because if I didn't know that ones BMR can change, I imagine that other people out there don't know this either and can't understand why they can't get past the plateau they have reached. I hope that this helps someone out there and that even if you already knew this that you might take the time to pass it on to someone else that you think might benefit from knowing it!

CLICK HERE TO CALCULATE YOUR BMR

35lbs Lost!!!

I've been at 35lbs lost for about a week or so now and I thought it was time to actually get a decent pic on here to share with you all!

Follow Up w/ Corinne

So I spoke with Corinne yesterday (my nurse practitioner who does my fils), she was so sweet and very concerned about my ER endeavor this past weekend. She said that when things like this happen, she prefers to see her patients every 2-3 weeks rather than every 4-6 weeks. That way it doesn't take as long to fill up. I am totally up for that but I will definetly be getting less fills. Like I said in previous posts, I think I was way too agressive which I of coruse wouldn't admit then. Much like others, I thought the bigger the fill the better but now I know that is just not the case because look what happened =(. Of course Corinne would have to think these amounts would be okay but I was thinking 1.5cc, 1.5cc, 1c, and than just .5cc from there on out as far as the fill schdule would go. I have appointments on Nov. 4th, Nov. 20th, and Dec. 4th so far. After the Dec. 4th appointment that should leave me at 5cc and then I was thinking to get .5cc before christmas. I don't know I am just thinking outloud at this point lol like I said Corinne would have to be cool with all this.

Does anyone else out there feel like maybe they have been too agressive with fills or anything like that?? Oh and I wanted to say thanks to everyone for all your suport during my ordeal! Ya'll rock!

Visit to the ER

Around 1 o'clock yesterday I decided to eat some soybeans in between breakfast and lunch. I was feeling hungry but it was not time to eat lunch just yet. I was really excited because I ate half of one serving which was only about 1/8 of a cup and felt really satisfied. About 10-15 minutes after I had ate them, I started feeling weird. I didn't have any painful feelings, it was just severe discomfort. Immediately I thought that I had perhaps ate too fast and so I was ready to endure the discomfort for the next hour.

After one hour I still felt the same. I kept having to spit because it was like there was not enough room in my stomach for me to even swallow it! Then I kept throwing up. My stomach kept creating that "slim" to try and help through whatever was stuck but of course that was not helping because it was creating less and less room in my stomach. No word of a lie this went on for 6 hours!

Finally around 6pm I called Lahey Clinic to make sure that if I went there, there would be someone to help. They assured me there was a doctor on call. So I went to the ER at Lahey, checked in and it took about 2.5hours until someone could see me. I spent almost all that time waiting in the bathroom spitting and trying to throw up. I felt so sick. I felt like I had a golf ball stuck in my throat.

Finally this man came out, come to find out he was my surgeons Sr. Surgical Resident. He was so nice. He didn't seem very confident in himself of being able to find my port though but at that point I didn't care how many time he had to poke me I just wanted it out! He found my port very quickly and extracted 6cc's of saline and left 1cc in. I am not kidding when I say that I had immediate relief! The doctor almost didn't believe me. He said "are you serious?" and when I said "oh yes" he said "well that was gratifying!" That made me giggle.

So then he took me for an xray to make sure the band was still in the right spot. Since I had been throwing up so much you just don't know. The xrays came back and he said everything looked perfect. He sent me home and now I just have to call Corinne (my nurse practitioner) on Monday and let her know what happened. In a way I am kind of happy I had almost all the fluid taken out because I feel I might have been to aggressive with the fills thinking "the faster the better" so I would much prefer to go back and start filling up much more slowly now.

Sigh...so that's it....I am on liquids today and softs tomorrow. Thanks for listening!

5th Fill

So I got to Lahey Clinic around 11am this morning for my fill at 11:30am. They were really busy today so I ended up waiting until almost noon before they took me in. My nurse practitioner, Corinne who gives me my fills is so nice, I just love her. I swear we talk more about personal things rather than lap band related things lol.

Before todays fill I was at 6.5cc's and I had been feeling a big difference for the first time. I went to Lahey today with the intent of getting just one half of a cc and Corinne thought that was a great idea because she thought I was getting really close to "my sweet spot". I totally agreed with her. So I am on liquids today so I don't really know if the .5 has made a difference yet, we will see. I have a really good feeling that it will. Typically I have been getting fills every 3-4 weeks but I shceduled my 6th fill for Dec. 4th (6 weeks) because I feel at 7cc I should be set for a while. Of course, you know I'll change it to sooner if I feel like I need it.

Keeping my fingers crossed that I'll loose 4 1/2 pounds this week like I did after my last fill! That would be cool lol. Where are you all at with fills????

New Year, New You Challenge

So I started this new challenge on Lap Band Talk called "New Year, New You" (NYNY).....for anyone familiar with the Turkey Day Challenge it is the exact same thing. I created this challenge to overlap the Turkey Day because I didn't want to be left with no Challenge come the day after Thanksgiving! So the NYNY Challenge will run from Nov. 1st to Jan. 1st.

Basically what it is, for anyone who doesn't know......I created a google speadsheet and you just go to the spreadsheet and fill out the info it asks for (start weight, goal weight, ect) and it will automatically calculate the lbs you need to loose by the end of the challenge.

If you are not a member on Lap Band Talk, you can just make a name for yourself where it asks for your User Name. If you aren't part of the Turkey Day Challenge and you want to start this New Challenge right now, just put todays date in the column that asks for the date you started this challenge.

To recap my own goals......I wanted to hit Onederland (199lbs) by Thanksgiving.....if that actually happens then my goal will be 175lbs by Jan. 1st. I might be able to hit the 199lbs seeing I do get another fill tomorrow. We will see!