Jolanda

Back again and have been riding again, and it was great! More fun than I've had in a long time. It's funny finding your seat bones all of a sudden, and needing to re-evaluate your balance in the saddle. I'm down to weighing about 163 pounds or 11.6 stone (I'm metric system so I hope Google converted those right, 74 kg is what the scales are at) and it's a huge change. I'm so happy I can ride again without having to pity the horses too much.

I have that too - I've never been a great water drinker, though. But for several months after the surgery I could barely get it down at all. With some low cal flavour mixed in it was fine. In my case I had complications (bleeding) the day after surgery and the surgeon visited and had me drink one sip of water which immediately came back up. Perhaps I just learned to avoid water (and surgeons). But tastes have changed a bit for me, too. Regular milk chocolate now tastes so disgustingly sweet I can barely stand it. Also jam with high sugar content makes me queasy. Oh, and for some reason mushrooms, even cooked, don't go down very well: I burp a lot after eating them so I avoid them. Noodles probably swell once swallowed, so those I avoid too as I get faintly sick if I eat them. Meatballs for some reason sit like a rock inside, so I can't eat those either.

I weigh myself on average once a week except the week before my period: I really start to collect water then and don't want to depress myself by the stall. So far it's working good. The weight loss is slower now I'm close to my goal so I average one or two pounds each weigh-in.

Things I stay away from except for the week before my period (hormonal carb eater, that's me): ice cream, Cookies, halva, milk chocolate (I eat 70% cocoa chocolate ordinarily, can't manage more than about one piece so it's fine to eat all the time). Things that really keep the full feeling long: cottage cheese, chicken, Things that tend to make me queasy: bread, mashed potatoes

Hi everyone, my name is Jolanda and I'm living in Stockholm, Sweden. I had the surgery late in October at BMI 36 (in the past 3 years I'd gone down from BMI 46 to 36, basically losing the weight in 8 months and then yo-yoing up and down since then) and am now at BMI 32. The op itself went ok but the day after they had to go in again and remove some 4 pounds of clotted blood as there had been some leakage (apparently due to my coughing all night after the first surgery, which I remember nothing of). Four nights in hospital, quite a lot of blood transfusions the first day. No problems since then :thumbup: Have lost 30 lbs from the surgery morning weigh-in. I'm looking forward to talking to you all!

Thanks! And one oops: I have had a kidney stone since the op. VERY painful. Didn't drink enough...

Oh, I thought it was just me. I kind of decided it is because the bones are closer to the surface now - no buffering if I bump into something! But I may be very wrong here.

Update here: I'm now nearly 8 months post surgery and I can honestly say that this was the best decision of my life. I've lost 84 pounds since my weigh-in the morning before the operation and just last week I tipped the scales within the "normal" BMI range. I feel great, look better than ever before and haven't really had any issues beyond the original complications immediately after the surgery. I keep buying clothes as my old ones keep getting too big very fast - I think the money saved on food goes on clothes these days! I'm aiming at losing about 12-15 pounds more but I'm eating a little more already as I'm not sure how easy it is to stop losing weight. To anyone still wondering whether to take the plunge, I say: go for it. There are risks involved but living with obesity is risk filled too.

I have a one week stall every month the week before my period starts: probably I'm retaining water or something... I simply don't weigh myself for around 11-12 days a month, and always have dropped at least two pounds.

Oh yes! I'm still learning to buy less food and throw stuff away all the time, so fancy restaurants (and sushi!) is my new favourite, too. I can manage four sushi pieces, and it's my new feel good food anyway.

Now I'm nearing my goal weight, yes, I do have some excess skin. Far less than I feared, though! Mostly I think because I've been losing weight for a total of five years now, first by myself, then with the sleeve, so my skin had time to catch up with the first big weight loss first. I hope it will with this one, too, but if it doesn't, hey, it's fine with me. I love being this slim (just slid into normal BMI and it feels great) and never expected to look like a model without my clothes on :lol0:

I'm late to this but yes, my BMI was 36 when I had surgery. I have been at BMI 46 at my heaviest, four years earlier, and I had gone down to BMI 32 at my lowest weight in 2006 - then yo-yoed for a few years. For me it was a realisation that dieting (and when I did that, I did it very well, lots of lean Protein and salad) would be neverending and I just would always be yo-yoing and struggling and would never reach a normal BMI. Didn't want my life to be like that. I did some research on the different operations, and after making my decision I had the surgery (self pay, I was completely healthy, even blood pressure and cholesterol levels fine, never an ache anywhere) two months later. I had pretty significant (over 2 liters of blood loss) bleeding post op and they went in again to remove the blood clot the day after the operation, which left me a little weaker than is usual the first week. But even so, now at BMI 26.8, I don't have a single regret. Not one. It was the best decision of my life to have this operation. You get used to eating little - now I eat about 1100 calories a day so my weight loss has been slower the past couple of months but I feel a little more mentally alert than when I was doing the 800 kcal a day diet for long. I have normal energy levels but am not as strong as I used to be: I do get tired when doing heavy lifting or some such more quickly than I did before. I should do more exercise, right now it's merely Pilates twice a week and walking the dogs. That said, I can walk 10 k without getting tired, I love moving, and it's SO much easier with less excess weight.

At the moment the horses are pasture ornaments: one is a Swedish Draft Horse, the other an Andalusian. But I like all kinds of horses, really :001_rolleyes: If I'm into anything it's dressage and trail riding. Haven't been riding much now, though - never even sat on the Andi, she's so little... But once summer comes I thought I'd get to take her for a ride, too. What horses do you have?

I used to have a palomino mare, she was such a sweetheart. Now I'm just waiting for spring to come in earnest so it's more fun to get out there.

I wouldn't worry if I were you: I'm now five months out and here are the statistics on how much I've eaten each month: Month 1: 884 calories a day Month 2: 850 " Month 3: 899 " Month 4: 1018 " Month 5: 1234 " I've still got about 30 pounds to lose but for me it has been a conscious decision to eat a little more and lose a little slower. After those 8-900 calorie a day months I was feeling like my brain simply wasn't getting the energy I need to do my job and now I'm feeling more alert. I will still lose the weight but it will be slower - but according to the caluclator I use about 1900 calories a day so it's still a deficit.

Oh cool ceiling!!! Wow! I've bought some clothes and I've dropped a full shoe size so those need upgrading too. I love updating my weight loss ticker and my weight on the online food intake calculator I use (I enter what I eat and it keeps track of my protein/carb/fat etc.). I'm looking to take in a few really favourite clothes but otherwise I need to do some more shopping now spring is in the air. I think a complete wardrobe clearout would do as a reward, too...

With me it's so hormonal it's hilarious. The week before my period starts I crave carbs like nothing on earth. I've tried different things - keeping to my diet through the craving, or eating healthy for three weeks, then allowing myself the tranquilising effect of carbs that one week - and it hasn't really made any difference: once the next phase is on I've had no trouble going back to eating the healthy way again. Don't know if it's the same for you but sometimes it just isn't all in our heads, it may be physical too.

Congratulations!!!

But this is maths and I don't do maths! At my age I think last week was actually the first time since leaving school that I would have needed to calculate the lowest common denominator for anything... I've now lost precisely 60 lbs since my surgery (my ticker shows my initial weight, I dropped about 60 lbs dieting, too) and have recently had a similar experience to Tiffany: for a few weeks, a stall, then suddenly a drop of 4-5 lbs. I don't mind, but then I don't weigh myself every week even. Just monitor calorie and Protein intake. As to the OP: remember that those percentages are averages, people are individuals. There will be some who lose less and some who lose more.

You probably won't get all your calories and protein in the first week or two after surgery. Don't stress it - just make sure you keep hydrated. Dehydration can contribute to getting a kidney stone, for instance: I recently had one, and it was pretty painful. Good luck with recovery!

I had problems with chicken too until about a month ago. I think I just learned to chew it enough I can't do ham and cheese, though, and bread makes me queasy. I used to make a protein-sandwich-without-bread by rolling up a couple of slices of ham and one of low fat cheese and eat it, but when I tried it yesterday (4.5 months post surgery) I felt really sick for a while. Go figure.

I wouldn't even classify what I felt post op as pain, more a kind of discomfort. Got good meds in hospital and then I think I took the pills I got for the pain for an additional three days afterwards. Have since had a kidney stone, which somebody said is just a bit more painful than giving birth, so I now know pain when I see it :tongue_smilie:

LOL - that was funny! I wish it was always the scales...

Give your skin time to catch up! While you're still losing weight, of course no skin can keep up - it will be shrinking a bit all the time but as you continue to lose weight, it won't show much. Once you've reached whatever goal you set and maintain weight, your skin will probably continue to adjust for some time afterwards. Of course this is an individual thing, but for me at least saggy skin will be a thing to live with - and it will be a joy compared to lugging all that excess weight around. I've still got a long way to go but I came into this prepared for the skin issue.

I don't get hungry (nearly 4 months post op) but find I stay full for at least 2-3 hours even if I just have a large mug of coffee and milk. If I eat a steak and vegetable meal (the portion size is about one fifth of what it was before surgery) it's the same. I do get restless and some sweet cravings right before my period starts for a day or two, but once it starts they go away completely.