Losing Muscle Mass While Dieting

Losing muscle mass is one of the problems of aging. Our bodies start losing muscle when we get to about thirty years old. By 50 years, the typical person has lost about 10% of their muscle mass. By age 80 we are shrivelled up and have lost 40% of our muscle mass.

Tom Valeo explains that if we lose 20 pounds while dieting but not exercising, about 8 of those pounds will be muscle. If we then gain the weight back and then diet again we will lose more muscle. See how to avoid this muscle loss while dieting here.

A Virtual Model for Weight Loss

Would you like to see what you might look like if you achieved your goal weight? Jacqueline has discovered another neat virtual model online where you can plug in your current weight and goal weight. This virtual model shown here was created by NutriSystem.

Also check out the free weight loss virtual model at Cosmetic Makeovers as well as the version called My Virtual Model that is used used by retailers such as Lands End for visualizing what clothes may look like on you at your current size and goal weight.

8 Weeks + 6 days

I was shocked this morning. I prepared my breakfast - 2 boiled eggs and 2 slices of toast and a yogurt and a coffee. I was hungry - can you tell?

Anyway, the shock came when I could only eat 1 slice of toast. I don't think i have had toast 'dry' like that. I have had it with beans/spaghetti/scrambled egg on, but not just as toast. I boiled the eggs too much, and they were not soft either, so there was just dry food really. I was really surprised. Pre banding I could definitely eat about 4 slices of toast. Easy Peasy.

So even though I think I need a fill, my lovely Band is obviously doing its thing still. It really is a huge difference from my eating pre-band.

So I feel absolutely stuffed!! I don't think I have felt this full after breakfast, so maybe the things I am eating are a little too wet? Cereal and milk, porridge... always wondered about those foods.

Anyway, we shall see how long it lasts. Usually by 10:30 this last week I have been hungry again.

Update:

Well today has been very smooth. Worked with Audrey today which was nice because haven't worked with her before. Came home and we had a WWF meal - Roasted tomato and Brie tart with veg and sauteed potato. YUM. I was a bit concerned about the microwaved pastry, but it was perfect. I thought it would go all soggy and minging, but it was crispy and delicious. The only bad bit was the baby corn were a bit soggy, and I didn't like the look of them. I don't really like them much anyway, so I left them out. They kind of looked a little too limp to be enjoyable.

Then we went to the group after lunch then went with Ann to see Joan and Gerry and give them a tape and had a lovely chat for an hour. Then we came home and put our feet up. A great day all around. Its flown by to be honest. I feel like I have done so much today.

Dinner this evening was Lasagne and peas, sweetcorn and broccoli. Another WWF meal. I love them. They are totally delicious and taste like you are eating out, or have the benefit of a chef at home!!!

So I am about to get DS into the bath and then to have a chill out, glass of wine and a flick through the TV. Might even get an early night... There's an idea!! HA HA as if!

Its chilly in this house. Don't know why because the heating is on. Its been warm today, but the wind has been keen. I think having a tiled floor makes it cooler.

Anyway, that's today done with.

Tomorrow I have been banded 9 weeks! Wow. How is that possible?

Ann Diamond bodged band?

Here is a very interesting critique of Ann Diamonds supposedly botched WLS in Belgium.

I whole heartedly agree with the critic!
http://www.automanuk.co.uk/marika.uk.com/pages/Anne%20Diamond%20page.htm

The Not So Macho Diet

Battlerocker has been successful in losing thirty pounds over the last three or four months. He is losing weight the 'non-masculine' way. Here's a funny passage from his blog;

As part of a general lifestyle change I began earlier this year, I’ve been counting calories. It sucks. Not because it isn’t working, or because I’m having a hard time with it; between dieting and working out I’ve lost about thirty pounds in three months while putting on a lot of muscle mass in the process. What I hate about it is that it’s so boring. It doesn’t have a name, for example. Atkins, South Beach, The Zone; they all seem so modern. “Hi, I’m Science and I’m here to help,” that sort of thing. Not counting calories. It’s the stone wheel of the diet world.

It’s also not very masculine. The great thing about the low-carb type diets is that when you go out with friends, you can be macho and order the 48 ounce T-bone if you want to. No one suspects its part of your “diet.” Not so with calorie counting. Any time you start asking whether or not the “dressing” is fat free, you just know the guys are going to be impressed. So impressed, in fact, that they’ll probably keep bringing it up the rest of the night, with some congratulatory arm punches thrown in for good measure.

The completely unrelated image above is a fridge magnet for sale at AllPosters.com

8 Weeks + 5 days

Woo Hoo. I lost another pound this week.

I am so pleased. I really was not looking forward to today's weigh in because I felt I had had a really bad week.

Is it the same for all Bandits?

I feel like this:

I eat something, later something else, later something else and at the end of the day, because I haven't been following 'a diet' I feel like I am a failure and that because I feel full I must have totally blown the weight loss that week... And that is then perpetual all week.

However, when I look back at what I have actually eaten during the day I am ALWAYS shocked at the small quantity. I FEEL like I have eaten as much as I would have pre banding, because I FEEL the same fullness... But I really have cut down.

This is a head-messer! My feelings about how well I am doing are so off square. I have to remember that I must trust my band, and not my head, otherwise I am still in this crazy world of food obsession.

I LOVE MY BAND

I am so thrilled that this is working for me. I feel like a normal person, in a normal persons body who can eat normal human being things and not worry. Its like a MIRACLE has happened. I am totally not exaggerating either. It really is my own personal Miracle.

I just have to deal with the psycho part of me that keeps trying to do itself down and be negative.

I am going to try very hard to keep positive all week.

Next week I have decided I am not going to slimmingworld as it is now a waste of money. I do not need to spend £4 odd getting weighed. I can do it for 20p at the local chemist, so that's what I will do. Next Monday I will weigh in at the chemist. I weighed in today at the chemist before Slimmingworld and the scales are bang on the same, so I know I am getting a proper reading.

I didn't want to just go next week and suddenly lose 5 pounds because they weigh light, or put on 2 because they weigh heavy. They are exactly the same as I am used to.

I have lost 34 pounds (2 stone 6) exactly now since I joined slimmingworld 2 years ago.
21 and a half pounds (1 stone 7 and a half) of that has been since banding!!

So there we go.

I am thrilled.

Oh, and I also have a fill booked for 3:30pm Thursday 26th April with Dr Clayson. Exactly 6 weeks later to the day since my first fill, just like he said!!!

This will be the fill I have whilst I am away in Sri Lanka. I need a good one!! When I get back from Sri Lanka I can get another one. Goody!

Update:
Have not had much to eat today... strange. I am wracking my brains trying to think what I have had. Ummm....

Oh yeah, no brekkie because of Fat Club, but I had 2 slices of bread for lunch with olive oil and balsamic vinegar dip.

Dinner, as DH is away tonight, was Chinese take away. Yummmmmm
It was the first time I had had Chinese since banding. Properly that is. I think I had bit of a chicken ball a month or so ago when DS had them one night.

The bill was less than £15 for the first time EVER!!! Unbelievable!
We ordered quarter crispy duck pancakes, sweet and sour chicken balls and seaweed. That was it. DS and I shared all this grub, of which half the duck went to the cats and there are still some chicken balls in the fridge. I AM SPEECHLESS!!

I L O V E MY BAND

I would normally order ... seriously:
seaweed,
quarter (or even half) crispy duck,
Singapore fried noodles,
Sweet and sour chicken Hong Kong style,
Prawn crackers,
Mixed Hors'deurves

and it would all be eaten between the three of us... with mine being the larger share. An order from our Chinese take away has certainly has never been in the £teens.

If you are thinking of having a lap Band... GET IT DONE!!! I wish wish wish wish I had done this years ago!!!

I am not deprived in any way, I love my life and I could cry with glee and the normal-ness and lack of pressure of my eating.

This has changed my life already in just 8 short weeks.

Hoodia Gordonii And Its Affect on Metabolism

When most people talk about a metabolism increasing drug or supplement they are referring to a substance that stimulates the body to burn more calories. These metabolism stimulating supplements, such as caffeine, give us a boost of energy and a small increase in metabolic activity. On the other end of the weight loss and diet supplement spectrum is the appetite suppressant. Hoodia Gordonii, a