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First off, let me say that you should always listen to your doctor and nutritionist...rather than crazy people on the internet, myself included. But here's my rant today. And for what it's worth....this is just MY feelings on this nonsense. I'm no expert. Ya'll need to eat. Not overeat. But also NOT UNDER-EAT. Eat healthy food you enjoy. I know how it happens. Your weight loss gets sluggish and stuck and you think OMG, this isn't working, I'm Failing at this! You start to panic. And what does a lifelong self-destructive dieter DO when they start to panic? They go exteme. They go...ok, my doctor said it was ok to eat this much.....so I'm gonna try to eat HALF of that to speed up my weight loss! I'm going to work harder than anyone! I'm going to eat less! I'm going to force this weight off of my body...because this is my last chance and I'm freaking out and I can't fail at this, so I NEED to do better and cut back! Only, here's the thing. You don't need to cut back. You need to stay the course, nourish your healing body, have good energy to boost your metabolism and lose weight sensibly. Why do people do VLCDs? (very low calorie diets....1000 or less calories a day)....they do them because they show results in a hurry. And there is nothing people like better than a lower number on the scale...regardless of how they're achieving it. Or how harmfully they are achieving it. When you eat less than 1000 calories a day, did you know you lose more muscle than fat...even if you are eating tons of protien grams? When you lose muscle, you slow your metabolism, endanger your organs that have muscle (heart anyone?), and decrease your bone density. None of this is a good idea. And when you're eating starvation level calories, your body tries like hell to keep you from dying....by, you guessed it, slowing your metabolism even further. And the carb thing...can we talk about that a minute? You DO want to avoid carbs that are metabolized to sugar really fast, like sugary foods and refined white flour items because they can cause your pancrease to over-react and send too much insulin and you'll end up with rebound hunger....but other carbs, particularly ones that have good fiber content to slow the sugar can also have good protien content...and they don't do the rebound hunger thing. They give you great available energy. Why do we lose so much weight so rapidly when we do keto? We don't really....but the first five pounds is so quick and shocking that it MUST work! (except you're not losing fat, you're losing the water that your liver stores extra glucose in.....and you've stripped your liver of its emergency reserve of energy. And yeah...you can make the sugar you need from other things through gluconeogenesis....but it takes amino acids that your body is typically harvesting from your muscles.) Don't do that thing where you lose the five pounds eating keto....then eat a few carbs and go OMG, look at the weight I've gained!....and go keto again and lose the same five pounds of water. It's an illusion. (Not saying keto people can't lose weight...they do lose weight fast...but they also have about five pounds in lost water from glucose storage, no emergency stores, and their bodies may be consuming their muscles) Food for thought (literally!) Guess what organ runs exclusively on sugar? Pure glucose. Your brain. Your brain burns over 300 calories of glucose every day. At just 2% of our body weight....our brains burn about 20% of the calories we use each day! The CPU needs fuel. Lots of people lose weight rapidly with Very Low Calorie Diets after bariatric surgery. They have these amazing results that other people notice and are in awe of. They lose to goal eating very little and feel very accomplished about their self discipline and their amazing fast results. And then guess what happens? At goal...they are still people who have never learned how to eat sustainably for life. All they know is starvation and self deprivation. And starvation doesn't work long term. Please learn to eat sustainable amounts of calories. Do it early so you don't fudge your metabolism into starvation level calorie requirements. One of the best ways to have a robust metabolism...is to do exercise every day. It doesn't have to be the gym or something you find tedious. Do things you enjoy....but keep moving. It's hard to build your robust metabolism.....when you're too tired to do anything but go to work and go to bed...because you're starving yourself. Please eat. Don't overeat. But eat. Learn to eat right, not starve. Starving is not the cure and in many cases sets the stage for significant regain. Do it right, even it it's slower than other people. Do it sustainably. Learn to coexist with food, not avoid it. (easier said than done) Don't get discouraged by small losses. Just keep losing to goal with small sensible tweeks. You don't have to suffer extremes to have success. Learning to control your diet moderately...is the best skill to have when facing a lifetime of sustaining a significant weight loss. This end my rant. Totally ok if you think I'm nuts/wrong/whatever. Take what you like and leave the rest. Peace and best wishes to everyone on this crazy road.

My VSG surgery is April 22nd and the only person I am telling is my husband. I will not be telling anyone else. It opens you up for too many questions and not all are supportive. Don't feel guilty, do what's best for you.

I'm not as far out as you are (six years in June), but unfortunately, I can eat a lot. It's a constant, daily battle to control my cravings and my calories. Granted, I can't eat half a large pizza at one sitting like I could pre-surgery (I would be in severe pain!), but I could definitely consume half a large pizza over the course of a few hours, eating a piece or two, then another piece or two an hour or two later, etc. So even though I can't physically handle massive amounts of food at one sitting, I can overeat (unfortunately!!)

My sister's doctor called it "Thinner's Leg" but when I googled it I didn't find anything, so maybe this was his personal term for it? But basically it was from losing fat and making it easier to press on the nerve when crossing your legs combined with the fact that she hadn't been able to cross her legs when she was obese, so her body had to get used to her new sitting position and also get used to not having all that fat protecting her nerves.

Oh wow! Yes, I actually have been crossing my legs a lot. I had no clue that this could be a problem.

Well thank you to both of you who responded. You gave me really good information. I'm not sure why when I log on the Aetna website, and search any of the surgeons associated with these hospitals, none of them come up, but this gives me a direction to go. Thank you for holding my hand like a child lol I don't know how I was missing all of this

My surgery was (4) days after yours. Do you feel you have a strong support circle? We really need it with this! People who love us and want to help us be successful. That includes your PCP and surgical team. For me, it even includes these forums and reading people’s experiences. I like that you say you hold yourself accountable because that is you recognizing you can control this situation - that’s a great thing to self-acknowledge! Although the weight loss has slowed for me, coming up on (7) months, too, I’m still logging my food and always working on a better relationship with food (I currently hate it). I’ve become better at listening to my body, but I keep working on it. I disappoint myself but I just gotta get back up each time. I’m not letting “old” me win - she’s what got me here in the first place 😆. You have invested in a lot of tools that you think should be helping your journey. I’d say re-evaluate and stick to one thing for a time range, and eventually add more tools. “Track food for one day” can eventually go to one week, one month, etc. “Stare at elliptical for five minutes” can go to “stand on elliptical” to pressing ON, haha. Make the goals tiny and attainable!

The first few weeks after surgery are pretty miserable. Your body has been put through a huge shock, and is adjusting. You're all swollen and healing. Things definitely do settle down within the first few weeks or months, and it will get way, way easier. One issue is that your stomach starts out really swollen - its capacity may be only 1/4 cup now, even though it may be more like 1 cup after the swelling has gone down. This makes it hard to even fit enough water and/or food in right now. Later you will be able to eat/drink more at a sitting, and you will start to feel more satisfied. Another problem is that it is particularly difficult to get enough protein in at first, especially on the liquid diet. And yet your protein needs have actually gone up, because protein is essential for healing. For me, the first couple of weeks on the liquid stage were absolutely miserable, and I was starving all the time, even though I also felt full and couldn't consume much. This went away completely once I moved on to real food and started to get enough protein in, and also because the swelling went down and it was easier to even do things like drink my water.

I tried it and hated it

@Debbieduck4 PM me if you want to attend my online support meeting tonight at 6pm CST. We're a great group of committed folks who really motivate each other and help us with accountability and focus. It's hard to go back to basics, but IMHO that's what it takes. Plan, weigh/measure, log EVERYTHING that goes in your mouth for a baseline. Everything. Then look at ways to cut the trash out and emphasize the healthy stuff. Prioritize protein, water, healthy veg, healthy fats. You can do it. Seen too many people succeed in getting back to goal to believe it won't. Hang in there. These are tough days.