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My surgeon wanted me to lose 20 pounds before surgery. I hadn't really dieted in years, because my previous experiences with dieting were that I would lose a small amount of weight and then gain it all back and more. I eventually quit dieting because I figured I was better off staying at the weight I was than losing, regaining, and gaining more again. I was reluctant to diet before surgery because of my past failures (which was also why I was resorting to surgery in the first place), but I had to lose 20 pounds just to get the surgery, so I had to try something. I decided to try intermittent fasting because I know people who swear by it and it was something I hadn't tried before. Initially, I just fasted for 16 hours per day and ate as much as I wanted the other 8 hours, and it didn't work very well. One of my surgeon's pre-op requirements was to track my food for a week, either on paper or with MyFitnessPal, and I hate doing anything on paper, so I went with the app. I've counted calories before and also used point systems where I had to track my food, but this was in the days before iPhones and I had to track everything manually, look up the numbers either on the labels or in some kind of book, and it was such a hassle that I never stuck with it for long. I was surprised by how easy it was with the app, and I kept using it. It gave me a limit of 2190 calories per day, and at first, it was hard to stay under that, but I gradually decreased my intake until I was averaging 1500-1600 before surgery. I set out to lose 20 pounds before surgery, and I ended up losing 70 in 5 months! I actually started to wonder if I should have the surgery because the combination of intermittent fasting and MyFitnessPal was working so well. I've never lost that much weight before. But I started out with an extremely high BMI (over 60), so even after losing 70 pounds, my BMI was almost 50, and I realized that it was highly unlikely I would be able to lose enough weight without surgery, and also that there was a pretty good chance that I would gain it all back without surgery, so I went ahead with it. I'm glad I put all that effort into losing weight before surgery because it sort of gave me a head start. I've only lost 60 pounds in the 4 months since surgery, but add the 70 pounds before surgery and I'm down 130 pounds total. Plus, it helped me develop some better habits that I think have made the post-surgery lifestyle easier, like cutting out snacks and tracking everything I eat.

After my initial consultation I started making changes to my lifestyle and eating better. I ended up losing 78 pounds between then and my surgery date (mid March to mid September). I didn't at any point think that hey maybe I won't need to do the surgery, but I wanted to get myself in a good place to allow it to have the best chance of success.

I had bypass yesterday morning and feeling good overall. I’m just looking for someone with a similar experience. I’m only needing to lose 80-85 lbs for optimal BMI number. I had high blood pressure, blood work has the bad elevated numbers and have been borderline diabetic for years (2 gestational diabetics pregnancies). Just seeing if there’s others that have less to lose then 100 and how long did it take to hit the number & maintain? Thanks for reply’s!

My Dr and I talked about 3 types. Roux en Y but he said I didnt have acid reflux so I didnt need that, the sleeve w duodenal switch and just the sleeve. I chose the sleeve w the duodenal switch bc i would lose more weight and get off my prescriptions. But i guess the nurse misunderstood and scheduled me for the Sleeve on Dec 2nd. If I want the sleeve w the switch i would have to wait til Jan and start my deductible all over? What do I do?

I think the only thing that my insurance was interested in is that you don't gain before the surgery. That being said I was and still am so overweight that I was never concerned about getting insurance approval. And yes I think starting out some of the changes ahead of time made for less of a shock afterwards.

I'm 4 weeks post RNY today. As above if unsure ask your dietitian or doctor, but some ideas: I'd say log your food and fluid intake to make sure you're taking in enough fluid and so that you know what your calorie intake is. My dietitian told me about a patient who had complained he wasn't losing weight during the liquid part of the diet and when she delved into it, he was liquidising mars bars. I doubt you're doing this but always worth recording your intake I'd say? I've always been told by doctors that building muscle can add weight (or mean that you don't lose weight), so maybe your exercise regime is building muscle at the expense of a weight loss? I haven't experienced a stall (yet!) but many people say they do have this at about 3 weeks? Only other things I can think of would be constipation or fluid retention? Good luck!

The first, like 6 hours after surgery I was really nauseous, and soooo tired from anesthesia and phenergan. I was the first surgery of the day, and my doc ended up fixing a hiatal hernia while he was in there too. So until like 4ish in the afternoon I was totally worthless, but after some toradol and zofran I was much better and got up and walked 3 laps, still didn’t feel great with ice or fluids, but part of a popsicle was good. By the next dose of zofran at 11 something that night I felt pretty darn good, and walked multiple laps through the night. By morning I was feeling at 90+%. I was discharged and out the door by 11 the following morning. I never needed my pain meds or spasm meds at home. Those first few hours after surgery it was nausea that was debilitating, the pain was never bad, the pressure was there, but the toradol took care of that. I was still kind of tired that first day home, but as far as how I felt, by the second day home I honestly felt great.

TRUTH! Nothing worse than saggy underwear! On the plus side...I kept all my "cute" underwear when I grew out of it! I will dig it out and see if it fits yet!

that's a common concern of newbies, but I think the majority of us who are several years out now view it as a minor issue in the grand scheme of things. I think most of us would take the loose skin ANY DAY over being morbidly obese again. Plus, it's easy enough for most of us to hide. And if it really bothers you, there's always plastic surgery...

Interesting article on WebMD says that BMI may be on the way out as the best way to assess body fat and associated health risks. The new kid on the block - height to weight ratio. "Researchers reviewed 31 studies of more than 300,000 men and women. They found that waist-to-height ratio was more accurate than BMI and than waist circumference alone at predicting certain health risks associated with being overweight or obese, such as high blood pressure, diabetes, and heart disease." "Keeping your waist circumference to less than half your height can help increase life expectancy for every person in the world," �says researcher Margaret Ashwell, PhD, of Ashwell Associates, in Hertfordshire, England." http://www.webmd.com/diet/news/20120511/better-way-assess-body-fat-health-risk?ecd=wnl_wlw_051612 Let's see now - 36" waist and 5' 9" tall. So 36/69 = 52%. Rats! Gotta lose another inch and a half around the waist. Off to walk I go!