CowgirlJane

You make an excellent point. Maybe year 2 revision sleevers are similiar results to say year 3 or 4 "virgin sleevers". statistically, WLS patients regain some of their lost weight over the years. That doesn't mean it has to happen to me or you though! Many people keep the weight off - I plan to keep working the sleeve it has helped me lose 130# so far - I am a believer!!! Even so, I think learning from those that go before us is smart. I would love to see any actual studies on outcomes for revisions - has anybody seen any?

Okay, in the interest of science I will share a general description of my experience. Before weight loss - couldn't see it, who knows what it looked like. 130# loss, looks pretty normal, I don't notice any loose skin. My inner thighs, have droopy skin, but not in the actual area of interest.

but no longer obese!!! That is a very exciting milestone for me!!!! My friend was lecturing me the other day on the dangers of getting too thin, since i still want to lose more weight, but I am quite aways from that problem. I think people are just used to seeing me huge, so getting in the range of normal looks thin. she does make a good point that i have a solid bone structure, and to not get hung up on height weight charts - or comparing myself to her skinny ass self...lol. Yeah, I still need to lose more weight to be a healthy weight but I recognize what she is saying. Anyway, just another reason I love my sleeve - to have crossed this major milestone over Thanksgiving week! This is like some kind of miracle to me.

HaHa - read the mens room forum. You are not alone!

This morning I realized that I am so dang close to being just overweight and not obese. My BMI stands at 30.7. I don't know why, but this has become a real thing for me, to move out of obesity - I just hate that word!!!! I still want to lose 25 ish pounds but am feeling pretty good these days. I have lost nearly 125# and am going to hit 130# lost by the end of the year. In all honesty, looking back, I think I could have even lost more in this time window, but I am content and satisfied with my progress. I took about 2 months "off" in the summer... I was sorta reaching burnout on some things. I didn't go wild, ate small portions and was still losing, but I lose better when I have that laser like focus! I lose better when I really watch the carbs - I started with 150 to lose and I feel that if I had stayed low carb more consistently I would probably be looking at being very near goal by now. I am not saying that as a regret, rather just my opinion that might be informative for the preop crowd! I also notice that exercise makes a difference. I am not convinced it is just the calories burned during the exercise, but rather that it kicks your metabolism up a notch. My routine has evolved over time..... but I am currently doing shorter duration, higher intensity work outs and that helped shake me out of a stall. Oh, what else... I am thrilled, excited, pleased as punch with results but struggle at times with dismorphia - seeing myself as still hugely fat when I really am pretty normal looking for a woman my age! I think that just takes more time. I took this self portrait this last weekend - hard to get a body shot that way. I also attached the dreaded before picture to give you an idea of what 125# lost looks like!!!

I have struggled with similar weirdness. The lowest I got with the band was right around 200-205 range. I was feeling like I looked pretty good. When I got down to the 190s post sleeve, I felt huge. To add to the confusion, here I am at about 178 and have a friend talking to me about when I plan to stop losing. I am like... I just barely left the obese BMI category! In her eyes, I have a big frame and I am looking close to the right weight. I don't see it, I see rolls of fat (and skin). I am aware that I am experiencing dismorphia so I am doing a few things to work on my brain. I take pictures of myself as I am then able to be more rational. I was way fatter at 205 then I remember it being - I can tell from the photos. I was huge in the 300s but I can tell from the photos, I was way bigger then I felt. Now, I can look at photos and recognize I am way smaller then I feel. I went jeans shopping a few days ago. I am a solid size 12 - non stretch, many different brands. It isn't a fluke. I do things like that to remind myself, I really am smaller. I try not to compare myself to others, but here is a positive way to do it. I am in a store, in the "regular" clothing sizes and I am pretty much in the middle of the pack size wise and probably on the smaller end for my age. My goal out of all this was just to become freaking normal, and when I do things like that, I am reminded I have acheived that goal - so that comparison to others just helps me see myself more realistically. Real middle aged women have lumps and bumps and need to wear shapewear... lol... it isn't just me! I also focus on physical accomplishments. I have had so many of those, but most recently is I am doing pushups for strength training. Yeah, they are from my knees, but I can do 3 sets of 10. 300 pound me wasn't doing that. I have made some peace with dismorphia and it has helped me to have some very trusted friends that I can talk to about it. They don't sugar coat, they are honest - and I trust them to continue to be a compass. psssttt... don't tell, but I had a man who is a decade younger then me compliment me on my looks. It was a professional colleague who worked in a different location - had seen a recent photo but then said "your photos don't do you justice, you have such a beautiful smile" and then stopped since we are afterall professional colleagues. That little boost has kept me floating on cloud nine for about a week. I would like to bottle that feeling and send it to you in the mail right now! Anyway, know that you are not alone and for some of us, it is part of the journey. I am dealing with it the same way as everything else - thinking about it, not stressing about it, but acknowledging the mental work I need to do... and then keep on keeping on!

I have a friend who has been thin her whole life. She is feeling really fat right now weighing 150 at 5'7" - 20-25# higher then her normal. So what shocked me in discussing this with her is that while she has never been obese, when she went through that weight gain, it was a very similiar story to what my everyday life was like pre-sleeve. 1. Start eating junky food 2. Get even hungrier then normal 3. Try like heck to "diet"; always failing and being drawn back to the junky/too much food 4. Feel bad at the failures so repeat cycle endlessly In her case, she gained "only" 20-25 pounds but she told me that over the 6-8 months it was happening she was just out of control. Once she stopped eating low nutrition/empty carb calories, her hunger came back down and she is slowly taking the pounds off. In those of us who became morbidly obese, the swing is bigger, much bigger, and I didn't have the big enough losses to ever get down to a healthy weight so I had that metabolic drive to keep overeating. I guess it was refreshing to find someone that really understands this. All the willpower in the world doesn't work if your body is literally screaming for a certain kind of food and driving you to eat. I think that the reason many WLS patients regain is not because their stomach is too big, but rather they slip back into the behavior that "triggers" a re-occurance of the disease or condition called obesity. Then, once the cycle begins it is like you can't get off the merry - go - round. I am not to maintenance yet, but I have seen this even as my weight loss journey is down to the final amount. I started feeling more hunger... felt a little panicked like "okay, this is it - no more weight loss". i took steps such as resetting back to sleever basics and then amping up exercise intensity and I have lost 10 pounds in November - back on track! I am now back t having to remember to eat as I am just not getting hungry whereas a few months ago I felt like someone who had a big return of hunger. Anyway, I continue to learn from this journey and hoping to pick up bits of understanding to help me stay successful over the long haul - truly my biggest fear is regain after all of this!

I have to second OTR. Women mostly won't directly speak to a man to tell him she finds him interesting or attractive. Indirect comments like this are probably genuine but happen because they find you overall more approachable. That doesn't mean they are hot to jump in bed, but that they just find you more approachable and attractive. A few men have told me they find my hair and smile quite lovely now that I have lost nearly 130# - lol. Never got that before so you gotta think it is similar (hair actually does look better thinner after the hair loss!)

I re-read this original post yesterday - thoroughly enjoyed it. Thanks for the best thread on this forum!

You are six weeks out and should be starting to feel noticably better. I think you need to be checked out again, seriously.

I don't know how far out you are, but you sound like what was the "doldrums" as far as eating and food. I didn't have problems, but just had no interest in food. It was like, "why bother". Those are also the months when you lose the most weight, so that is the upside! I personally found success by eating 4-5 small mini meals per day. Here are a few "meal" ideas: - 4 or 5 ounces Greek yogurt - 2-3 ounce of grilled chicken breast (maybe make a lettuce wrap!) - 1/2 cup trim cottage cheese with some pineapple chunks - beef or turkey Jerky - chicken or tuna salad on lettuce or maybe a half sandwich - deli meat and cheese slice - AmyLu's chicken meatballs, even some of the sausages are good moderate calorie Protein choices. I buy them at costco - egg and a thin slice of ham

Are you sleeved? I was sleeved post menopause and have lost weight well. I have always had an incredible hunger drive and being sleeved is the first time I haven't been just driven to want food.

Can someone point me where to research to learn more? I have googled it, and read stuff off various doctors webpages but just want to really understand relative risks and odds of success with the procedures out there. I read about contouring, about how painful the arm and thigh work is etc etc but I don't really have a picture of what this is like to have done or what realistic expectations are. When I started this weight loss I swore I would never have plastics because I didn't want more surgery. I am re-evaluating that rather strident position,

Thank you all so much. the comment about looking younger was a real boost too, that has been a little bit of an obsession lately - with looking so old! LOL. My good friend who is 59 informs me I will get over it but right now it is shocking me! I have had a crazy week, i usually lose weight fairly slowly now, this far out. for some wacky reason I decided to lose 5+ pounds Thanksgiving week and am now just "overweight" leaving behind obesity FOREVER

congrats! I started out with a 52 BMI so I can totally related to your joy... it is wonderful!

That is a fairly normal consumption 6 months out I think. consider yourself lucky that you are losing that fast still! Anyway, I guess I would discuss concerns with your doctor or probably even better, your nutritionalist! It is pretty easy to add calories without adding bulk... nuts for example. Another example is that there are some very high calorie Protein bars out there. I personally agree with the idea that there are alot of good reasons to exercise, not for calorie burn but also helps with maintaining muscle and bone strength - long term healthy benefits.

Thanks! I notice in the sleeve surgery discussion nearly EVERYBODY is terrified of the surgery itself. How come people getting cosmetic surgery aren't also terror struck? It seems to me that some of these procedures are really QUITE big surgeries - am I wrong here?

I think it is very normal for good to not taste good at the stage you are at. I didn't care for much of anything, which sorta taught me to eat for sustinance, not pleasure. I personally tolerated meats fine, but small portions, eaten fairly slowly. Try shrimp, sandwich meat and some of those kind of things if pork or beef feels too heavy. Try greek yogurt, try new things. And then, try them again a few months later as my tastes evolved several times. Think of food as your fuel, and just get the highest quality that you can.

Are you feeling better? That port area was weird and sore. It leaves a big hole in your tissue and then it fills up with Fluid before it heals and finally returns to normal. It will take awhile to completely heal, but the absence of the band makes me realize how much I just hated every single thing about it.

I enjoyed the day, enjoyed the company, enjoyed some wine and small quantities of really great food. Upped my exercise and decreased food the days before Thanksgiving to sorta balance it all out. I theorize that is what non obese people do and dang if it didn't work! Woke up and had lost another portion of a pound.... so, I have now met my November challenged weight loss goal (although I can't find that thread!!!) the day after thanks giving. That is a scale victory that I did not expect!

there are people who have complications that can't eat normally - very uncommon - but a few stories about stomach twists or strictures causing these sorts of problems. for the vast majority of u, but a few months out we have no food restrictions and whatever you were reading was not a broad representation of the situation AT ALL. I am 11 months out and can eat ANYTHING except I don't tolerate spicy food as well as I used to. Even so, I can eat normal spicy, just not HOT spicy. to some extent, those first 1-2 months are a bit of griting your teeth and just living through it... after that it gets alot better. As of this morning, I am down 125# and have my life back so I surely don't regret it!

Your doctor's described it right I think. First of all, all my comments are referring to after you are say 8 weeks or more out... Alot less hunger. In the early months, zero hunger No pain, no vomiting, no food restrictions/food getting stuff Dense Protein satisfies, without causing pain Can eat salads and other troublesome food - no risk of a small opening being covered or blocked like with the band. Just feels like having a small but fairly normal tummy that is no longer a bottomless pit. You still have to work at it, you can fail with the sleeve but it just doesn't have the hassles of the band and more importantly it doesn't have the "punishment" kind of thing with the vomiting.

Make sure you are taking your vitamins and getting sufficient liquids and protein. Mild dehydration will make you exhausted! Otherwise, be patient. I was wiped out, wet noodle tired until about 6 weeks or so out but am filled with energy now! It gets better.

I have done 3 now. the first class, I started warming up and finally caught the instructors attention to let her know I was new. She said I looked like I was doing ok...lol... but helped me with the bike settings. I found the class to be good, but didn't kill me oranything. I went back the following week and the instructor was a no show! It was a packed class and so 4 of the regulars traded taking turns leading the class after they got the keys to the sound system. OMG - I found out where the spandex wearing cycle freaks go in the winter! I never want to sweat that hard again...lol Then, I went back yesterday, thinking it would be a mellow pre turkey day ride. Once again, instructor is a no show, but it was a small group and once again... a regular led the class. It wasn't as bad as the spandex cycle freaks day, but my thighs were on fire. I am loving it... I was getting bored by the elliptical and the spinning seems to work alot better for HIIT. Here was the funny part, the day of the hard workout, they did TEN HIIT repeats. Yesterday, they did a pyramid which went on forever and culminated in a 60 sec on/off... and then went back down the pyramid. Exhausting, but i could really feel the workout. I am excited to have found this, and the cool thing is that you really can go your own pace.... I also like that you stand big sections of it which help you work on core strength too.

Yesterday I saw a group of people that I haven't seen in years. They were blown away by the weight loss but what really warmed my heart was my friend L saying that i looked 20 years younger. I have been feeling a bit discouraged about my looks, so that little comment really made me feel better! So, for those of you feeling discouraged because you aren't quite at goal (I am still 25# over my goal) - these are the little reminders of just how far we have come. Focus on that, Celebrate the successes!