Hanir

I am down 101.4 pounds: 14.6 to go! I haven't been trying too hard too loose weight during the last several months and as a result have been slowly slowly slowly going down. I need to rejuvinate and get my act together and I know if I do this I could reach goal in two months. Regardless if I'm not exactly where I want to be it's still pretty unbelieveable to see how far I've come. Fab-u-lous [sp?]!

My nutritionist said to stick to 800 cals, but make sure to get in 63g of protein a day. That's worked well for me. When I've upped the cals I've slowed the weight loss. I eat lots of protein, then fruit, I have 1oz of nuts every day, very rarely do I eat pasta or grains.

I don't think it's wierd. I'm 9+ months out (96# down) and it took months and months for me to move from 42DDD to 38DD. I've been loosing fat around the back but the girls are pretty intransigent...

I suggest buying clothes on eBay. You can find new as well as "pre-owned" in excellent condition for pennies on the dollar.

I too have stuff from size 8 up to 20W. Frankly I'm glad I saved all my smaller sizes because on my journey (down 96# so far) I've had to buy almost no clothes, (Plus a lot of my stuff is so old that it's now fashionable again because it's now considered vintage!) I've been a little scared to get rid of my fat clothes so my strategy has been to buy a bunch of the giant zip-lock type "vacuum bags" on eBay and seal up the clothes in them and store them in a closet at our second home. I've told l myself that once I maintain my new found goal weight for a year I'll start getting rid of the things that no longer fit.

Hi there! I'm a little more than 9 months out and as of today am down by 96 pounds. I have 20 more to go. I don't think I'll make my goal by my surgiversary (July 19th) but I'm pretty sure I'll be there by my birthday in mid September. During the past month I've slacked off sticking to 800 calories a day and as a result basically stayed level but the good news is that for the last 3 days I'm back on my 800 calories and have started seeing the scale going down again. So I KNOW I'm going to make it. This surgery was the best thing I've ever done!

I had my surgery with Dr. Aaron Roth, associated wtih Columbia Presbyterian hospital in NYC in July 2011. You can find his profile on line under the CP site. I had my surgery up at Lawrence Hospital in Bronxville NY. I've been very happy with Dr. Roth and my outcome (96# lost, 20 more to go!).

I'm a female in my early 50's and 5'6". I started my pre-surgery diet on 7/5/11 @ 251 and had my surgery on 7/19/11. As of today I've lost exactly 96 with 20 more to go (my doctor says he thinks another 5 but I want to make it down to 135). My surgeon was Dr. Roth, who is associated with Columbia Presbyterian but does surgery up at Lawrence Hospital in Bronxville. I actually live really near the 168th street site (up next to the Cloisters) but decided to have the surgery in Bronxville as I thought the caregivers outside of NYC would be better. I am very happy with my decision. In terms of getting back and forth for pre- and post-survery visits at the hospital it was fairly easy to go using Metro North as the Bronxville stop is right across the street from the hospital. The pre-surgery diet and the 1st few weeks after surgery were the most difficult but since then it's been very easy. For the most part I've stick to 800 calories a day, as the nutritionist instructed. On weeks where I went over I didn't loose as much (duh!). I do exercise EVERY day (40 minutes on a real bike mounted on a trainer). Having this surgery is the best decision I've ever made!

I had my surgery on July 19, 2011. My weight on surgery day was 239.6 and today I'm 163.8 = 75.8 loss. I'm 5'5.75. I do exercise EVERY day (ride a real bike mounted on a trainer) for 40 minutes. I'm sure the exercise has helped hasten thing along. Of course I'm loosing more slowly now than I did at 1st (averaging 1.25 pounds a week now). This surgery is the best thing I ever did!

Oh, and one more thing: according to my documented MetLife policy I should've been eligible for up to 13 weeks of disability, if necessary. Though, MetLife decided only 2 weeks were "necessary" in my case. Go figure!

I have my short term disability insurance thru MetLife in New York. My doctor wanted me to be off for four weeks but MetLife only approved me for two weeks; they didn't care what my doctor said. Unfortunately MetLife doesn't pre-approve the coverage, rather they wait until you're already "disabled" to determine what they will cover. In my case, they didn't make their evaluation until I was already out of work for 3.5 weeks. So, all in all, I got STD benefits for 2 weeks, then my company automatically ate into my vacation days for the remainder of the 4 weeks I was out. Further confusion: I live in New York, and the State decided I was eligible for 6 weeks of disability. What a mess: doctor said 4 weeks, state said 6 weeks, but MetLife only covered 2 weeks... Good luck!

I'm a few days short of my 3 month surgi-versary. I'm keeping to my Dr.'s guidelines: max 800 calories a day, 64 oz water a day, minimum 63g protein a day (but I often go up to 80g). I totally burned out on protein shakes from the 2 week pre-surgery and 2 weeks after surgery liquid diet so now I get all my protein from real food (low fat cheese, eggs, lots of fish, chicken, turkey breast, occasionally beef, proten bar maybe once every 2-3 weeks). I eat around 3 servings of veggies/day (total of around 1.5 cups). That's pretty much it. I do 35 minutes on a bicycle trainer EVERY day (real bike on a wind trainer). I'm loosing weight steadily -- after I'd slowed down (but not stopped) during the infamous "3rd week stall." Hope this helps!

I didn't have a drain but I had a 1/2 a golfball size divot below the main incision. It eventually went completely away as I lost the fat around it. Tell your sister not to stress to much about it. Good luck to her!

Think of it this way: you've been loosing at a rate of 3.33 pounds per week; that's almost 1/2 pound per day. That's great! I'm sure you'll continue to loose on your journey.

You look great. An amazing loss in so short a time!