what’s the best diet for a lap band user who needs to re-lose some weight?
I’ve had my lap band for a little over 5 years now, and I’ve gained about 60% of my weight back. I drink lots of water and eat healthy most of the time, and I guess I could exercise a little more, but the weight does not seem to be coming off. Any suggestions?
October 29th, 2010 at 7:32 am
Throw the lap band out. Look, you know you should exercise more and that is good. You are obviously on the right track mentally, you just need to believe in yourself that you can take your preconceptions into action. Losing weight is not easy, if it was everyone would be skinny! Just do it, what do you have to lose?
October 29th, 2010 at 8:00 am
Most people get obese because their bodies just can’t process carbs any more. They become insulin resistant & carbs go straight to fat cells. As healthy as fruit may be, it just doesn’t promote fat loss. The body won’t release fat stores until the blood stream is free of insulin. In someone insulin resistant, the insulin response is too sensitive & produces too much insulin.
I highly recommend that you do no carbs for 3 days to get past the carb addiction & then increase carbs by 5grams every 5 days. Your carb level for losing weight may be very low, which is fairly common with insulin resistance.
Simple carbs are addictive & can be disastrous to health. The best way to break the addiction is NO carbs for 3 days. Make a huge batch of deviled eggs, eat one every time you want “something” – have huge omelets with bacon, sausage, peppers, mushrooms & cheese. Pork chops smothered with peppers, mushrooms & cheese – pork rinds & dip or tuna/chicken/turkey/egg salad – steaks – a huge sugar free cheese cake. Eat so much you won’t feel deprived of anything. By the 4th day, the addiction will be gone & the low carb way of eating will create a natural appetite suppression that makes it much easier to make healthy choices.
You can lose more body fat eating protein & fat (don’t eat protein alone) than not eating AT ALL. To lose weight fast, eat all you want, but nothing but meat, eggs, healthy oils, mayo, butter & half an avocado a day (for added potassium). Keep the calories high & the fat percentage high, at least 65% of calories. Green vegetables & some cheese will continue weight loss but at a slower pace.
The first 2 weeks eat several cups a day of (mostly) lettuce & celery, cucumbers, radishes, mushrooms, peppers & more variety of vegetables thereafter – add 5 grams per day additional every week (20 grams day first 2 weeks, 25grams 3rd week, 30grams 4th week etc) til you gain weight, then subtract 10grams. That will be your personal carb level (everyone is different & depends on how active you are.)
Start with meat, fats & salads for 2 weeks and then slowly add in more green veg, wk4 fresh cheeses, wk5 nuts & seeds, wk6 berries, wk7 legumes, wk8 other fruits, wk9 starchy veg, wk10 whole grains. You will learn how your body reacts to different foods.
The first week is just water weight but fat is lost thereafter if you keep your calories high enough. Otherwise the body will strip it’s own lean tissue for nutrition. Although that may look great on a scale it will make it MUCH easier to accumulate fat in the future (since all that pesky lean tissue burning up calories will be gone). The body won’t release fat stores if you lower calories below what it needs. It will slow metabolism to compensate & store every spare ounce as fat. If you continue lowering calories, it will continue lowering the set point, til it can survive off nothing & store fat on anything. The body will only release it’s fat stores if it knows there is plenty of nutritious food.
Eating carbs while trying to lose body fat is terribly inefficient. When in glycolysis (burning glucose as fuel) you have to lower your calories (which slows your metabolism) & exercise heavily to deplete your glycogen stores before burning body fat.
The core of Atkins program is converting the body from glycolysis (burning glucose as fuel) to ketosis (burning fat as fuel). Dietary fat levels need to be at >65% of total calories, if not, the body will still remain in glycolysis by converting 58% of excess protein into glucose (via gluconeogenesis).
It takes minimum of 3 days to convert a body to ketosis, (but only one bite to convert back to glycolysis). People feel sluggish the first week but most feel better than ever thereafter.
Simple carbohydrates (sugar, flour, bread, cereal, pasta, potatoes, rice) trigger insulin (the ONLY fat storage hormone). The more protein the more the fat burning hormone glucagon is released.
High insulin levels promote inflammation, weight gain, hunger & unbalance other hormones. Controlling insulin levels will balance out other hormones & allow human growth hormone (HGH) to be produced naturally so lean muscle will be gained even without exercise.
Ground flax seed (4 Tbsp) 1/4 cup water, artificial sweetener, mix in a raw egg – let sit 10 min. to absorb liquid, put cream cheese in the middle & nuke 2 min. for daily fiber needs.
As long as you have <9grams carbs per hour, you will maintain insulin control & shouldn't gain weight, no matter the calories because insulin, the fat storage hormone is not activated. Many people gain weight on high carb, do low carb to lose weight & then are shocked when they return to high carb & gain weight.
October 29th, 2010 at 8:46 am
there’s your solution…”eat healthy most of the time” it has to be done continuous or all the healthy eating during the week is nullified. If you have to eat sorta bad, eat bad on Sundays (with friends, family) or the last day of your healthy eating for that week. but not overdone like crap sodas, high fructose foods/beverages, high sugar content items
1.) Eat smaller portions (this is key), nothing after 7pm, if so make it a fluid, tea
2.) try to exercise 4 to 5 times per week. 30 to 45 minutes..50% resistance, 30 to 40% cardio
3.) eat more meals with 50% vegetables (real ones, not potatoes, yams, yucca green leafy ones)
4.) eat more fruits, a variety is best especially berries
5.) after your workout eat nuts, almonds are best, or walnuts
on the exercise stuff..try some exercises from P90x, some not all..as even I can’t do them all and I am pretty fit. especially the ab-ripper part.