Forget #WLS - just exercise 4-6 hours a day says Dr. Huizenga

• Exercising for four hours a day and following a strict diet can yield the same results as weight loss surgery, a leading doctor has claimed.
• Dr Robert Huizenga, of UCLA, says his extreme diet and exercise plan should replace bariatric surgery as a treatment for obesity.
• He says bariatric surgery is expensive and carries risks of death, muscle loss, bone thinning and mental health issues.
• His 'Biggest Loser' weight loss plan, which was made famous by the hit TV show of the same name, helps people lose the same amount of weight and is cheaper than surgery, he claims

• Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-3014400/Weight-loss-surgery-waste-time-results-dieting-exercising-FOUR-hours-day-leading-expert-claims.html#ixzz3VgUVnXve 

Dr. H says that "we" watch TV for four hours day, surely we have time to exercise that long, but FRANKLY, I DON'T WANT TO.  

I am LAZY.  

 

Do you honestly think I would have even considered it at my former size at ALL?  NO freaking way.  I am in a normal body weight range right now and there is zero point zero chance of getting me to exercise aerobically four hours daily -- at 320 lbs -- I would have sooner had weight loss surgery -- and I DID.   Eleven years ago.  LOL.  It worked.

<3, MM.

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Bariatric surgery may improve pregnancy outcomes - mostly

FAAAAAHTS or Gastrointestinal colonization with methanogens increases difficulty of losing weight after bariatric surgery

New Treadmill Stress Test Spits Out Your Risk Of Dying

New Treadmill Stress Test Spits Out Your Risk Of Dying.  Hooray. 

 

If there were any means to get my ass back to the gym and motivated it is reading things like THIS  and pushing through back pain and tearing up my stupid excuses.  BLAH BLAH BLAH BETH, I DON'T CARE THAT YOU CAN'T DRIVE YOU WILL WALK TO THE GYM AND DO IT ...

The FIT Treadmill Score is calculated using the patient’s age, gender, fitness level measured by METs, and peak heart rate reached during exercise. Researchers found these four factors to be the greatest predictors of mortality risk. After the research team accounted for other important variables, such as diabetes and family history of premature deaths, they determined fitness level to be the single most important predictor of death and survival.

“The notion that being in good physical shape portends lower death risk is by no means new, but we wanted to quantify that risk precisely by age, gender, and fitness level, and do so with an elegantly simple equation that requires no additional fancy testing beyond the standard stress test,” said Dr. Haitham Ahmed, a cardiology fellow at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.

FIT Treadmill Scores ranged from negative 200 to positive 200 — participants over 0 had a lower mortality risk while participants under 0 has a higher mortality risk. Participants with a score between negative 100 and 0 had an 11 percent risk for dying in the next 10 years compared to three percent among participants with a scare between 0 and positive 100. Participants with a score lower than negative 100 had a 38 percent mortality risk compared to two percent among those who scored positive 100 or higher.

The study abstract - 

Objective

To determine which routinely collected exercise test variables most strongly correlate with survival and to derive a fitness risk score that can be used to predict 10-year survival.

Patients and Methods

This was a retrospective cohort study of 58,020 adults aged 18 to 96 years who were free of established heart disease and were referred for an exercise stress test from January 1, 1991, through May 31, 2009. Demographic, clinical, exercise, and mortality data were collected on all patients as part of the Henry Ford ExercIse Testing (FIT) Project. Cox proportional hazards models were used to identify exercise test variables most predictive of survival. A “FIT Treadmill Score” was then derived from the β coefficients of the model with the highest survival discrimination.

Results

The median age of the 58,020 participants was 53 years (interquartile range, 45-62 years), and 28,201 (49%) were female. Over a median of 10 years (interquartile range, 8-14 years), 6456 patients (11%) died. After age and sex, peak metabolic equivalents of task and percentage of maximum predicted heart rate achieved were most highly predictive of survival (P<.001). Subsequent addition of baseline blood pressure and heart rate, change in vital signs, double product, and risk factor data did not further improve survival discrimination. The FIT Treadmill Score, calculated as [percentage of maximum predicted heart rate + 12(metabolic equivalents of task) – 4(age) + 43 if female], ranged from âˆ’200 to 200 across the cohort, was near normally distributed, and was found to be highly predictive of 10-year survival (Harrell C statistic, 0.811).

Conclusion

The FIT Treadmill Score is easily attainable from any standard exercise test and translates basic treadmill performance measures into a fitness-related mortality risk score. The FIT Treadmill Score should be validated in external populations.

 Now do it. 

But.  But.  But.

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Treadmill Stress Test Can Predict The Likelihood Of You Dying Within The Next Decade

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This Girl Can.

I saw this video floating around a couple of weeks ago but did not click it. I just did - and glad I did. I enjoyed it, aside from the use of one phrase I don't particularly ... like?

It's inspiring for those who struggle with exercise and body image. (Because, yes.)

My Big Fat FABULOUS Life.

On getting old.

As many of you -- I have had lower back pain for years, and in my normal Beth way I have ignored it or (...don't tell anyone!) medicated it with NSAIDS off and on, and heat, and exercise, and stretching.  AND GOD DAMN IT, IT HURTS.

Source - Healio 

NSAID use is contraindicated in gastric bypass patients as it can cause serious ulcers.  I started popping them like candy recently.  No. good.

The back pain comes  in cycles and never really goes away.  It gets to the point where I cannot ignore it and I am currently in a Flare Of I Cannot Sit Down Or Sleep Or Lay Down And Nothing Feels Right EXCEPT getting on my knees in 'downward dog' position.  When I describe it to other people they chime in with "Yep.  I live this." 

I had my husband take me to the urgent care MD on the weekend for X-Rays.  They show disc degeneration. No surprise. I suppose after ignoring it -- plus a few years of massive obesity, plus four pregnancies, losing all of the weight plus eating haphazardly and vitamin-deficiencies, it shouldn't be a surprise.  

Hooray.

I was prescribed an anti-epileptic drug instead of a pain-medicine, at my request because I do not want to be sedated, and that I am epileptic.  

Although as the doctor was describing the medication's side effects to me, he explained that it might cause "sedation, dizziness," and I stated, "... that it isn't like I do anything important anyway, I'm not using heavy machinery as it is."  

I do not know that he got my seizure humor. 

I don't feel much relief from a few days of this added medication -- and I do not feel that it will be of help to the pain, but there are more options.  I think that I will need to use exercise somehow, because this, just isn't working.  

I can't sit.  I can't sleep.  

I have a broken ass.  I. am. old.

Video - YOUR CHAIR IS KILLING YOU. Get up! Non-exercise Activity Thermogenesis - the N.E.A.T. Energy of Life

HERE is one of my favorite speakers at the #YWM2014 event. HANDS, BUTT down.

• Get up! Non-exercise Activity Thermogenesis - the N.E.A.T. Energy of Life

• Streamed live on Sep 27, 2014

  Everything that we do throughout the day uses up our metabolic energy. Dr. Levine explains all the components of your daily energy expense, or N.E.A.T., and the science of how you can make this energy loss part of your strategy to improve health.

 

Go You Chicken Fat, GO!

I have two sides to my feelings on this ad:

I am oddly intrigued by the fact that I do not utilize my own iPhone this way. I just throw my music on at the gym and GO and it is not as nice and edited as the Apple advert makes it seem.

The other half of me wants to scream and yell at whomever THOUGHT THIS WAS A GOOD IDEA -- honestly by tugging-at-the-childhood-fears of the fat kid who heard this little song you added to the edit as a kid in elementary school?  I am too young to have known about it, but I am that fat kid who failed the Presidential Physical Fitness Test. The "kids" that would recognize it are not the "kids" shown in the ad -- clearly.  They are the next generation maybe.  

Because what the hell is CHICKEN FAT?

Skin skin skin

"Where do you hide all the skin, you look GREAT!?" Exactly. Hide All The Skin. We learn to hide. *peers over at the TV who is currently trying to tell me to #lovemyselfie Shut Up* 

Barbell Denim for people WITH ASS!

I HAVE A Mighty NEED for these jeans.

-Signed, the girl who is constantly yanking her jeans UP.

Barbell Denim uses technologically superior denim designed to move in complete sync with your body. With our jeans it almost feels like you’re wearing nothing. Designed for athletes, these jeans are made to fit comfortably over muscular legs by accommodating your quads and butt without forcing you to buy larger sizes for the small waist you work so hard for. However, Barbell Denim will accommodate any body type. Even if your legs aren't particularly muscular, Barbell Denim will still look amazing on you and feel even more amazing as you move in them. Our hybrid denim stretches both ways so that it can compliment smaller legs, while still easily stretching to accommodate larger legs as well.

That time I shamefully admit I was lazy.

December 2013

February 2014

Current

This is that moment where I put my tail between my legs and come to you and say it -- because this is what I Need To See - Proof That A Thing Works?

I have a very literal type brain.  (More on that later this year.  I promise you. My next appointment is Valentine's Day.)

Figure out where Beth's seizure focus is?

I must have proof of a thing in order to believe it.  I do not blindly follow anything without seeing results, documents, charts that show me "IF YOU DO X, Y will be yours."  This is why I am a hard "sell" and you rarely see reviews here anymore.  (More on that, coming, too.)

In 2012 I was in a regain pattern and found myself hitting a high weight that I could not imagine after RNY.

Regain, 2012

I refused to allow it although I know realistically it is possible.  I've been there before.  And knowing that I need to eat food  -- I realised I needed to do something different because obviously eating as much food as I want/need to and not moving my ass was no longer working.

I added a little bit of exercise -- and I saw a little bit of endurance increase.  And I struggled to keep going, and keep at it and now I finally see body results.  

The scale is in solid maintenance mode.  I see range of up 5 lbs down 5 lbs up 5 lbs down lbs every single month.  But I guarantee my muscle mass is increasing.  I will get a new assessment done at some point to ensure this -- and see because I am interested in knowing the percentage of change.

This is where those people who used to scream at me to MOVE MY ASS get to say, "WE TOLD YOU SO."  I did not listen.  I was (...somewhat, but not really) lazy.  I thought I could get away with just "eating okay" and being relatively active.  

Nope.  I am proof it (...sitting on your ass) doesn't work.  

• Join me on Facebook - where I post everyday
• Join BBGC for free online WLS support

#thebiggestloser - Rachel at the Live Finale - Too far? A post for the WLS community.

As a disclaimer, I have always watched The Biggest Loser casually as someone might watch The Super Bowl for the commercials. I enjoy making digs at the product placement, the commercials, etc. This pleases me #broughttoyoubyziploc #subway #extragum #whomever

This year, however I was taken in a little more, sucked in, even after saying things like:  "I'd never watch that crap," and "How dare they publicize weight loss competitions!"  I am sure I have said MANY choice things over the years about this (...and other shows) as an online weight-loss blogger, even as product pitches aligned with this show were tossed my way.  I still watch for the product placements.  I also watch for the exercise -- WHAT?!

This year, I started a (...word warning) "journey" nine years after I started my massive weight loss path.

I began exercising in earnest.   I dropped some lbs and gained muscle.  I have endurance!

I found that The Biggest Loser gave me some "Actual Motivation" if only for ideas of What To Do To Move My Butt.   It's the reason I tried the "Jacob's Ladder," guys.

Or, even just for a frame of reference in body-size for someone like me: a former morbidly obese individual whom had been 320 lbs now 144-150 lbs and maintaining my bodyweight while learning to create health, and gain muscle and make exercise a habit.  If you have not been living in a 200, 300, 400 lb body - you must know - the body dysmorphia that comes along with the change from your super-morbid or morbidly obese self to your "normal" self can last for years.  It may not be until you see another person whom is "wearing" your "body" size when you realize what you look like, and only sort of.

That said -- The Biggest Loser's winner, Rachel.  And please remember that I can only relate to what I know to be true, and to what I see in relation to the hundreds of women (... and some men) I read about daily in my weight loss groups for bariatric surgery.  

She went too far, and sometimes that happens.  

I hope that it was simply because she was pushed to far for the "trigger" of money -- and will find balance in health. 

It happens in our bariatric-post operative patients all the time, and the thing is:  bariatric patients don't have the temptation of a quarter million dollars hanging over their head like a dangling carrot as thin-spiration.  It takes a lot less sometimes for a person to be triggered to lose too far.  Some women (...and men) are pushed by a bad photo, cruel word, or emotional disturbances. 

In the weight loss surgery world, we have a hard time with talking about weight.  We don't like to talk about "how much weight is too much to lose."  We don't like to discuss "too far," and we say things like "well, you called her fat, now she's too thin and you hate her for it."

No.  It's not that.  You/we really have to stop thinking that way.  It is just the same as having bariatric surgery WAS for YOU.  It was supposed to be about your health and saving your life.  There is not a stitch of hate in the words.  It is out of concern for the person, and the people watching:  like our daughters and sons.  

Going on The Biggest Loser was about stopping this person's journey through morbid obesity and saving her life, and getting healthy again.  However, dropping to an underweight body-weight and publicizing this for all of us on TV and creating this huge social media #thinspo out of it -- is WRONG.

Where were the trainers, Biggest Loser Team, producers, etc. when she hit the red flags?  Where was the psych team?  Where is her help?  Is this really just about prize money and not health?

 

I think that says it all.

You failed, @thebiggestloser

 

Why do we not HAVE THIS!? Gyms for people of size!

EXACTLY.  Do you know how long it took me to put my butt inside a gym?!  Listen at this link.

I talk all the time about having enough money to open gyms for all-sizes-and-levels.  Regardless of my size, I am still 320 lbs in my head and I am more comfortable surrounded with women of size.

It's one of a number of companies and organizations that are marketing fitness to people who are overweight or obese. It's not a bad business strategy, considering that 69 percent of American adults fit in that category, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The Planet Fitness chain touts its "Judgment Free Zones". In Omaha, Neb., Square Onepromises you won't find "size 2's in sports bras sprinting on treadmills." This gym, started by Marty Wolff, who competed on NBC's "The Biggest Loser," says it is for "people of size." And many YMCA facilities feature photos of the faces and bodies of actual members – "real people" – instead of supermodels or body builders.

Schrantz used to be a chronic gym quitter. She'd sign up, go once and never return. The looks she got at other gyms made her uncomfortable.

"My thought on that is why are you looking at me when I got off of the couch, I got off of my bed and I'm actually doing something about it?" Schrantz said, during an interview at the gym. Still, she says, "It's hard."

As she said that, she began to tear up. Other members of the gym came to comfort her. They put their arms around her while she cried.

Here, members sweat together – and shed tears together.

Kishan Shah is the CEO of Downsize, which has hundreds of members across the U.S. They weigh anywhere from 200 to 700 pounds. Shah used to weigh 400 pounds and have a 62-inch waist. Today, he's half that weight and always finds time for a yoga or cardio class in between business meetings.

Fitness is about a lot more than just looks, Shah says.

These gym stereotypes are right on - which are you?

And yeah, they all go to my gym, too.  (I could add a few.)

Which are you?

Proof exercise works!

My weight - has not changed in six months - I am maintaining from 144-150.

But this, this is new.   I had zero definition in my body before.   

It's the little things, honestly.  A little change makes a huge difference - the fact that I can finally see change - makes the work WORTH IT.

 

Video - How Does Exercise Impact Weight Loss?

This explains maintenance.

9.6 yrs post op weight loss maintenance - finally! Releasing the negative. (Repost for sound issues)

That time I relived the Presidential Physical Fitness Test

"So you're a blogger, are you going to write about this?"

"If I told you..."

I might have already put it on Facebook because I have compulsive posting issues. 

I had my Very First Fitness Profile At A Gym yesterday.  

Just Because Someone Has Bariatric Surgery - It Does Not Make Them A Magical Athlete Who Runs Marathons, Lifts Weights Or Even Gives A Flying Fuck About Doing These Things.

"But all the people on the Facebooks -- they post photos of the try-athelete-a-thons -- and the Things They Can Do Just Six Weeks After Surgery,  and all their new muscles and how they can make it rain, and Why Can't I?"

No.  It is not *typical.

Here comes Beth -- pissing on your surgiversary parade again.  Boo-hoo.  This is my opinion only.  If you do not like it, fine.

However individuals that have bariatric surgery -- they are tore up.  One does not go from super morbid obesity to Athlete! *with added sparkles and instant motivation* overnight.  It just does not happen that way.   

Sometimes it takes a very long time to get some any motivation, inspiration to get your butt off the couch and do something anything!  In my experience over the past ten years post weight loss surgery:  motivation comes cyclically and there's always an underlying trigger and goal.

For a select few post WLS patients, just losing weight is enough of a motivation to get going.  You see this in the "honeymoon stage" of weight loss repeatedly - people get all sorts of excited during the rapid stages of weight loss and sign up for their gym - get into a class - buy a piece of equipment for home use - sign up for their first walk, run, "I did my first 5K!"  These kind of things are all common.

For me, this happened ever-so-briefly.  I got out and walked miles and miles and miles to the Black Eyed Peas - it was 2005.  I reached to my "goal" weight.  We joined the YMCA.  Things were going swimmingly in All Things Weight Loss!

But you know what - life happens sometimes.  

"WHAT IS THIS THING YOU CALL LIFE?!?!  HOW DARE IT INTERFERE WITH MY SIZE 6 PANTS?!"

Shit happens.  You deal.

I threw away my size six pants, bought maternity pants, and she's now seven. (And cute.  We'll keep her.) However that wasn't the only Life That I Got.  My life imploded at about the same time - and I haven't had a normal living/working situation since.  

Again, I'll say this:  

Shit happens.  You deal.  (OR.  You don't.  And it's pretty obvious when you aren't.)

Mostly?

My weight chart reflects the ... mostly.

It looks like a bad ride on the rollercoaster until about one year ago.  

And you know some health-coach-wannabe posted that on my weight chart a few years ago - and I nearly tore her head off.  It was truth.  

My weight chart reflects that I was not dealing very well with my shit.

That kind of honesty hurts sometimes - and I am sorry if it bothers you.  But we - as former current-always-cycling-obese folks (...I will always be a big girl) wear our issues.  When I stop weighing myself, checking in with my jeans-that-should-fit, eating as I know I should, I need to check MYSELF. 

Weight is very personal.  Let me repeat this.  When I stop weighing MYSELF - it means something is out of balance.  It means FOR ME - that I have made a choice to stop doing something right elsewhere:  usually my eating choices.   To be perfectly honest, it takes very little change in calories or types of food to increase my body weight at this stage so I notice upswings immediately.

(This is when the trainer reading this realizes he got way more than he bargained for.  Why did I ask for this URL!?)

A little more than a year ago - I was in a regain pattern.  I saw a number on the scale that frightened me.  (Personally.  We ALL have a number.  Your number may be different than my number may be different than her number.  I am five foot three, and my personal number was the qualifying number for WLS again.)  

I knew that something had to change and I knew that I had to do something different because I was stuck in a rut of this pattern up cycling up so many pounds and back down so many pounds.  

I have been a weight loss patient for many years - I know how to lose weight - goodness knows I can regain it - but - maintaining is different.  I had to think about it:  what haven't I done before?

Um.  #1 - Exercise on a regular basis.

*SHOCK AND AWE - GASP!*

No shit, right?  Nope.  My exercise motivation over the last ten years has been apathetic.  I have more excuses than most of you, honest.  I still do, and it's hardly worth throwing them out there because there are people out there with much bigger challenges than you or I - that are busting their butts - and we aren't.  

"What do you mean, EXCUSES, Beth?"

I can't drive a car, when I was diagnosed with intractible epilepsy I had to lose my drivers' license, I can't get to the gym on my own, I am not supposed to exercise near the road, I can't walk on my own, I have four kids, begging them to go is a pain... yadda yadda yadda...

And, the worst of all?

I. am. *lazy.  I have always been lazy.  I may always BE lazy.  I may never really enjoy Exercising On Purpose.  It may always feel like work to me.  

"Just put in a DVD."

That's where lazy comes in.  See?  That has happened maybe five times in my life -- and each of those times I ended up blogging about the video instead of working out.   TV + Me = No. 

So, there's that - I started moving my ass just a little bit.

It worked.  It did not take much.  I don't try very hard.  *See above, lazy.  I lost every pound of the regain, plus some, and I have maintained the loss for six months.  

*tiny party*

As for exercise - if you have been following me on Facebook - I try to get to the gym at least three days a week or more - it is increasingly difficult with my husband's work schedule and six of us in this house but we do what we can.  When I do get there - I aim for a full sixty minutes of cardio on a cross-trainer or elliptical machine, and sometimes another fifteen to thirty on another machine or treadmill at a lower intensity.  

I was not able to do that much exercise right away.  It was overwhelming to me -- which was why I started to write this post to begin with.  I started with FIVE MINUTES on the machine, many months ago and pushed through to where I am now.   Because you know what -- six months ago -- had you told me "Go do an hour on that machine --"  I'd have laughed at you.

That is why I am sharing - because - it's NOT too late to start.  I was nine years into my journey when I started "again."

#2 - Food journaling, eating of Le Crap.

*GASP!  What do you MEAN the Bad Girl Does Not Actually Eat Cupcakes?*

I cannot validate the caloric-cost.  Sorry.  I never really have.  To be honest:  I don't know why that was really ever equated with ME - because - I HATE CAKE.  If you knew me at all, you'll know that if we go to the local cupcakery  (1-2 times a year) they sell frosting shots, I buy ONE.  I put it in the freezer.  It's about 2 ounces of pure butter and sugar.  It's enough carbohydrates and fat to put a horse in a coma.   I am a SUGAR-CRACK-HEAD.   I dump on sugar.  Therefore, I can't, I don't.  But I would if I could.  I know myself.  I do not purchase nor eat much in the way of junk.  

Let me rephrase that: I eat a fair share of what I consider crap, I purchase none of it and I try hard not to allow a lot of stuff in my house.   I have a harder time avoiding it if it's in my face, I try to make choices based on what's left in my alloted calories for the day.   I do okay.

I aim for 1200-1400 calories, I land around 1400-1600 most days, some around 2000 calories.  

I journal about 60-75% of the time lately, days where I am distracted by stuff get forgotten (yesterday was totally lost...) and holidays tend to be screwed the heck up, but overall I have done okay with assessing my intake and my weight has stayed the same.

Where am I now?  Where do I "start?"

I passed everything except flexibility - which may have sucked because I just had a brain angiogram and I have a plug in my groin.  LOL.  (I didn't tell the trainer that.)  However, that sit-reach thing brought back awful memories of elementary school and the Presidential Physical Fitness Test.  Blech.  I couldn't ...

I find this quite amusing -- the suggestions were to lose "two pounds of body fat" to be in the "fit" range, which I did by taking off my clothes and going potty this morning.  

I'm fit.  "I fit."  

LMAO.  

And, to add resistance training - because my personal goal is to gain muscle mass and retain health. This is my start.

It's not too late.  Have you done a fitness profile?  

 

 

 

Running for beginners

I do not run.  I am not a beginning runner.  I am not even a jogger.  I may be inclined to say that I am a skipper.  I don't understand that "runner's high" that runners describe when they get moving long-term and feel their endorphins push through - because I haven't gotten that yet.  I am a walker.  I can walk for miles and miles.  I almost never feel the urge to run.  How is that for honesty?

But.  I may or may not have told someone that I like the svelte look of a runner's body.   (And that maybe someday I could try?)  Runner's legs are the shit.  Not runny shit.  Runner's legs.  You know, all tight and muscley.  

I saw this plan online today and realized that I could probably, maybe, perhaps handle this plan.  I do not need to run a 5K, a half-marathon, or ever become a triathlete, but two or three solid minutes in a row of jogging without DYING the DEAD?  Might be nice.

You don't need a gym.

We usually do head to the gym, but tonight was the first night of football practice, so we walked and ran and played while the boy did this:

Related articles

Hello maintenance or the no-stress apathetic no-diet plan for long term WLS patients.

Ten thousand - #YWM2013

#YWM2013 Photoshow

• Photos from #YWM2013
• Your Weight Matters Convention 
• Costume Party Beach Movie Theme - hence MM in shark, uh, mess
• Team Bariatric Bad Girls 
• #BBGC Raises Nearly SEVEN THOUSAND DOLLARS for the Walk From Obesity National Event for the SECOND YEAR in a ROW! GO TEAM BBGC! 
• Two years of National Walks = $14,000!
• Thanks to everyone who donated - you're all eligible for prizes!
• See you in September 2014 in ORLANDO, FLORIDA!

 

Again, Because We Can.

 

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Save. The. Date.

Bariatric Advantage Ultra Multi Formula with Iron