Webchickadee

Count me in! ~ Surgery Date (SD): May 14, 2012 ~ Starting Weight (SW): 319 lbs ~ Current Weight (CW): 227.5 lbs ~ Goal Weight (GW): 135 lbs * Bonus: Inches Lost: - I'll have to add up totals in my spreadsheet at the end of the month!

Look at that smile (and those collarbones!). That is FANTASTIC! Thanks for the inspiration.

I'm sure that her answer was contextual. Did you say something like, "honey, which do you think looks worse on me, extra fat, or loose skin?". She gave you a quick honest answer. But what if you had asked "honey, would you rather I risk developing heart disease, high blood pressure, diabetes, cancer, etc., or have some loose skin?" Obviously, your wife would want you to live a long healthy life with her, extra skin be damned. The health benefits of your weight loss are INFINITELY more important, long lasting and satisfying than the small cosmetic drawback of excess skin (which can be improved with exercise, good skin maintenance and if necessary, cosmetic surgery). Your attitude about not focusing on that right now is spot on! Keep your eye on the "prize" and don't worry about possible negative outcomes that are related (such as the skin thing). You KNOW you will lose the weight, be more healthy, more fit and increase your longevity as well as your day-to-day quality of life. You MAY (or may not) develop some excess skin along the way. If you do, you can deal with it once you've reached your weight loss goal. It will be "Phase Two" of your transformation!

Yes, I stalled for approx. 10 days at day 34 post-op and started losing again on day 48 post-op. I then went into a pattern for the next several months where I would lose for approx. 20 days each month and stall for approx 10-12 days that same month. It's just your body trying to adjust to the new weigh distribution, and your metabolism trying to equilibrate. It's tough, but try to be patient and if you can, stay away from the scale for a few days. And even more importantly, start tracking your measurements. Even when the scale is not moving, you may be losing inches! I measure every month on the anniversary of my surgery (surgiversary).

It's very possible that early on, you were mistaking excess stomach acid production and hearburn as a sign of hunger. Your stomach was (and still is) healing and can be irritated very easily. It's a very good sign that you don't have that feeling so often any more, as it likely indicates your healing is going well! I made the same mistake early on, and thought "oh now, I'm hungry, that's not supposed to happen!". I don't really feel hunger the way I used before surgery, but if I haven't eaten in 5-6 hours, I do feel "empty" and usually eat something (Protein first!) to fill me up. To this day though (and I'm almost 6 months post-op) I still try to weigh my food, (when I can) so I don't overeat. It's always that 1 extra bite that leaves me uncomfortable and in pain. Weighing helps me avoid that. I do take a PPI (proton pump inhibitor) such as Omeprazole to help control my stomach acid production, twice a day (20 mg). It helps a lot! You're making great progress. Keep up the good work!

The early diet is very different from surgeon to surgeon. Many patients are placed on a liquid-only diet for several weeks to allow maximum healing of the stomach, Then slowly we are introduced to "mushies" (food that is pureed in a blender or easily broken and mashed with a spoon or fork). After a couple of weeks of "mushies" patients then move onto more solids food, very slowly, introducing individual choices one at a time to see how your stomach and body will tolerate them. I might suggest you "go back a step" in your food plan and see if you tolerate the easier foods a bit better at this early stage. By my caculation, you are only 2 weeks post-op, so you might do better with all liquids or very thin "mushies" for a couple of weeks. I was told it takes several MONTHS for our stomach to completely heal, so solid food too early will certainly be uncomfortable, may make you vomit and will slow down the healing process. There are MANY people here who are extremely knowledgeable, friendly and supportive. Feel free to ask questions, and take advantage of the SEARCH field (top right hand corner of the website). It's very likely the question you want to ask has been asked and answered many times before! Good luck to you and let us know how you are doing! P.S. My husband and I visited Bern and Basel on our honeymoon 2 years ago. We have friends who live in Bern. I LOVED Switzerland, and I'm looking forward to going back for a visit again in the future!

Fantastic! Right there with ya (except I've got through ALOT of new clothes already!) Keep up the great work.......you must FABULOUS!

I've been walking (mostly) for exercise, but I know I want to build more muscle mass and prevent it's loss over the next year. I've joined a gym and I will have a trainer work with me to get me started. I'm really looking forward to transforming my body as well! I was always althletic as a child/youth. I played ALL the team sports (usually captain of my team!), cycling, etc. But once I started university I was so busy working full time and going to school full time, the exercise was the casualty! That's not to say I was ever skinny. I have had an obesity problem my entire life (from about age 8. But it never slowed me down until I hit my 20s. And now I'm in my early 40's! Time to get my life back.......

It happens to most if not all of us. I think it took about a week for me to get back to "surgical" weight. Just be patient (I know it's hard in the beginning!). Concentrate on getting your fluids in, taking small sip, slowing down and getting in protein (if your doc has you on protein shakes already). The weight will drop, I promise!

That is BRILLIANT! You started at the same weight I did. I'm now 228, so hoping to get to that 199 mark by the end of January (hope to get through Xmas without gaining!). You are an inspiration! Keep up the fantastic work! WOOHOO!

Half-way to goal and looking great! Keep up the fantastic work!

Congrats on the weight loss! Just wanted to give you a bit of info you might find useful regarding cardio workouts. Cardio workouts certainly do burn alot of energy during the workout. In fact, they burn so much energy that while you are in a cardio session, you will use up all the available glucose in your system and the body will turn to the next easiest source of energy. Unfortunately, that source is NOT fat. It is muscle. So while you are losing weight, it is possibly not the weight you want to lose, which is fat! You may be canabalizing your own muscles to feed your body during your long cardio sessions. It is VERY important that you eat alot of Protein to try to make up for this, and rebuild muscle. Generally speaking, it is also important to do a significant amount of resistance training (weight lifting). That will build muscle and muscle burns energy (fat) even at rest. When you're in a cardio session, the energy burning benefits stop the minute you step off the scale. When you build muscle, it burns energy even while you're asleep! Not to mention that building muscle will help you keep a toned, shapely look once you've burned off the fatty outer layer. If you're all cardio, all the time, you may end up looking very skinny, but flabby and not as healthy as you had hoped! A good balance of cardio and resistance training is a great formula for success now and ongoing! Just something for you to consider.

You're 8 months post op. How much have you lost, and how much more do you want to lose? Have you had "stalls" along the way? How long were the stalls? Did you know that sometimes your body can stall for months at a time before you start losing again? Especially if you are now at a weight where you previously were for a long period of time. It often occurs that the body "pauses" at that weight because it is "familiar" and comfortable to stay there. Have you taken a close look at what you're eating and your eating pattern? If any bad habits have creeped back in again, your "stall" may be due to increased calorie intake, more carbs than usual, snacking, grazing, etc. Also, are you exercising? As you get closer to her goal, your calorie deficit (between your Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR) and your caloric intake) narrows. So you lose less and more slowly. You can increase this gap by exercising and getting your metabolism charged up! If you've done all these things and carefully analyzed your own behavoirs, food patterns, exercise, etc. and are still convinced further changes will not help you get to your weight loss goal, THEN you should investigate surgical options. I believe it is possible to convert the sleeve to a full gastric by-pass or you could also have a duodenal switch surgery. Both are HIGHLY invasive, will leave you permanently taking supplements (for the rest of your life) and have a much higher surgical and post-op recovery risk than the sleeve does. But they are available if no other options will work for you. I'm sure there are others here that would be happy to give you further feedback, and I'm glad to answer any questions you may have (with the little bit of knowledge I have....I'm not a doctor!).

You are doing great! Don't forget, most people gain weight during their surgery from all the fluids, anaesthetic, etc. Then after we've lost that and are back at our "surgical weight", we starting losing for real! Most people lose the greatest amount of weight in their first month or two. And it sometimes slows down a bit after that. As you get closer to your goal weight, it will slow down even more and become much more difficult to lose each pound. This is due to simple mathematics. At our high weights, our BMR (basal metabolic rate) is high. We require alot of calories just to maintain our current weight (breathing, heart pumping, organs working, etc.). And that's without any exercise! BMR is based on if you stayed in bed all day! So in the beginning, lets say you're 275 lbs and 5'10" tall and a 40 yr old male (for example). Your BMR is approx. 2400 calories/day. And if you're only eating 600 calories a day, you have a DEFICIT of 1800 calories a day. A pound of fat is approx. 3500 calories of energy, so you would burn a bit more than a 1/2 lb of fat each day your intake is about 600 calories. However, as your weight drops, so does your BMR. You require less energy to survive, day to day. And the difference or deficit of calories narrows. If that same 5'10" 40 yr old man loses 45 lbs (as you have), his new BMR is now approx. 2100 calories. But if he's still eating 600 calories a day (and in a few months your intake usually increases to 800+ calories), the deficit is now only 1300-1500 calories a day. Which is equal to about 0.4 lbs of fat lost. And so on..... That is why weight loss slows down, and it gets harder to lose the lower you go. But don't despair! You can do something to change this equation! There's no room to reduce your food intake (nor should you....in fact you probably need to UP the calories). But there's lots of room to increase your energy expenditure! So exercise! Any form of exercise you like.....work out with weights, do cardio, run, swim, play sports. Just get more active and more intense in your activity. And the deficit will increase again, you'll lose more weight, even as you get smaller and you'll reach your goal (and get a lot healthier too!). I lost over 25 lbs my first month, only 15 my second month and about 12 lbs each month since then. If I can stay at 12 lbs/month, I'll be ECSTATIC! And I've only just reached my 1/2 point to my goal. So I expect it to take much longer to finish the second half. About 6 months to get here, and probably another 10 months to get the next 90 lbs off. At least my skin will have time to adapt and I'll have time to adapt too. As it is, I'm already having to get new clothes (I'm becoming a great used clothing shopper!) every 6-8 weeks! Keep up the great work and don't get discouraged. Especially once you start to really see you body transforming. It will be very motivational, and it takes some time for your head to catch up with everything, believe me!

Halloween-size candy bars have been floating around our office for a couple of weeks! One of my colleagues is constantly doing crazy food challenges with some other guys in the team and he's the main culprit for bringing ENTIRE BAGS of these tiny candy bars to our meetings! It is nearly impossible to sit through a 2 hour meeting where everyone else has PILES of empty wrappers in front of them (and the crazy glow of a sugar high in their eyes) and not eat ONE damn bar. I've done it many many days here in the last two weeks, but I have given in a couple of times and had a mini bar or even two. I always logged it in MyFitnessPal and always regretted it when I did so.....so many calories and carbs, and so little "room" left in the rest of my planned caloric day! All that being said, it was fun while I was eating it, and I'll probably do it again next time he's inundating the office......but I'll do it knowingly, sparingly and try to at least get some enjoyment out of it at the time!

I am 24 weeks post-op (almost 6 months) and my average calorie intake is approx. 750 daily. While that seems low, I do get at least 60 g of Protein in daily, and I try to keep my carbs to 40 g or less a day. With this regimen, lots of Water, and some walking, I'm down approx. 90 lbs and averaging about 12 lbs/month weight loss for the last 3 months. And best of all, I'm almost NEVER hungry, even with such low caloric intake. That being said, I've joined a gym as of mid-November and will be starting circuit training, weights and more swimming. So I will need more calories and more carbs to offset all that exercise, and to keep my workouts effective.

And you also ticked over into ONEDERLAND recently I see! Congrats to you both!

Wow, it's really big on you now! Looks like you missed the "sweet spot" window during your weight loss, when it fit properly. I can't tell you how many clothes I have recently donated to charity that I had been holding on to, waiting for the time I could wear them again. I was thinking they still wouldn't fit, and then, when I tried them on, they were WAY too big, so I've given them away! A great thing, mixed with a tiny bit of sadness at not being able to wear a cherished old piece any more....

Just to clarify, muscle does not weight more than fat. A pound of fat and a pound of muscle both weight the same. 1 pound. However, muscle is much much more dense, and so therefore occupies significantly less space. As abetterme4.2 explained above, that would certainly account for your dramatic change in clothing size, without the normally associated weight loss. What you need to focus on is that you are achieving your real goal, which is to lose body fat (not just weight). If you had your body fat composition measured before you started at the gym 6 weeks ago, and compared it to your body fat composition now, I am sure you would see a BIG difference. You should be ecstatic! If you continue your hard work at the gym, you will see weight loss as well, however if you really want to track your progress, get a body fat analysis done (this can be as simple as having an experienced person at the gym measure you with calipers, and does not have to cost alot). Keep track of this measurement over time (monthly?) and you will see a steady decline that will give you a true sense of your progress and achievements! If you've ever read the fine print at the bottom of the BMI charts, it states that the BMI formula does not apply to those with greater than "normal" muscle mass (ie. athletes, professional body builders, etc.). While you may not be in that group now, your frustration can be attributed to this unique aspect of the BMI formula and scale. Keep up the great work, don't get frustrated, and enjoy the smaller clothes you have now. You'll be trading them in for even tinier sizes soon! And if possible, give the scale only a passing glance once in a while. It's not giving you detailed enough information, and impacting your motivation! Cheers!

Early on I thought I was having problems with dairy, but eventually I figured out that the very loose stools were due to the post-op antibiotics. It cleared up as soon as I finished taking the antibiotics, and started eating mushies and solids. I have not problems with dairy now (5+ months post-op), but I don't drink regular milk (only unsweetened almond milk, once in a while). cheese, yogurt, cottage cheese, etc. are all well tolerated (and loved!) Now my biggest challenge is eating too fast (I still haven't learned how to slow down enough!), and occasionally eating too much . Just ONE bite too much can send me into bad stomach pain and I have to lie down or walk around (no sitting, crunching my stomach together even more!). And I get the "slimies" where I have excess saliva production, have to swallow alot and wait for it to pass. Not fun! I also get hiccups when I'm full or slightly past full.

Just think how speedy you will running the bases once you're at goal weight! You'll probably be stealing bases like crazy!

My husband and I just booked a 2 week vacation in the Mexican Riviera (long, long overdue!) at a wonderful all-inclusive resort. We're traveling in January 2013 and I will no doubt be challenged with the buffets, a la carte dinners, alcohol, smoothies, etc. However I think my husband will have a great time, we will take part in many physical activities, tours, snorkeling, diving, etc. The food and drink are not important to me. The sun, beach and relaxation are! I will ABSOLUTELY not get my money's worth in food and drink. Nor will my husband be able to make up for my small portions, by eating more himself (he's losing weight also, on a low-carb diet). And I don't care in the least! We will enjoy the resort amenities, the atmosphere, weather and other guests. We'll enjoy what we do eat and drink, and I will get my money's worth of relaxation, recharging my batteries and enjoying my slimmer body. We go out to restaurants now and usually order an appetizer for me and an entree for him (sometimes I just eat a bit of his entree). We've been to a few buffets and it just doesn't make sense to spend the money anymore. I don't miss the buffets at all. At least in an all-inclusive, I can treat the buffet as if it was an a la carte restaurant and just build my own small plate, as if I had ordered it like that on my own. It's already paid for, so less of a feeling of wasted money! Hopefully I'll be down another 30-35 lbs by then (in ONDERLAND for the first time in 25 years!) and be able to do activities I've always wanted to, but never could (zip-lining, horseback riding, para-sailing, diving, etc.)

I'm not a big fan of greek yogurt either (especially plain, which is really the only one that fits in my carb count for the day). I do know someone who also is not a fan of greek yogurt, but mixes it with PB2 (Peanut Butter powder) and she loves it that way. Perhaps something you might try (if you like peanut butter, that is).

Tmoss, first of all, congratulations on your amazing success and major lifestyle change! You won't like it, but really the only way for you to slow down your loss is the mathematical way.........eat more or exercise less (or both!). Essentially, it's all about CALORIES IN vs CALORIES OUT. If you are exercising a lot (seems like it, by what you've written), and especially if you're doing resistance training (lifting weights), you're probably building lots of muscle (which burns lots of calories, even at rest). In addition, any cardio work you're doing is also burning calories fast (during your workout). If you're not eating much (especially protein), your weight loss will be very fast and possibly not as healthy as you would like. You need to feed the machine! You don't expect a car to run without gas, and your body won't run well without fuel either. Metabolism of fat (while it is the goal of any weight loss plan) is not a complete nutrition plan. You must ensure you are inputting proper amounts of Vitamins, minerals, Protein from meat and plan sources, Fiber and fluids. This can only be done by eating! You will see from many people who post here that they also exercise hard and often, but most of them "eat their exercise calories". That is, if they've worked out for 600 calories in a day, they eat an additional 600 calories that day (on top of their normal daily caloric intake). This helps prevent catabolism of muscle, leaching of essential minerals from bones and fatigue. I'm sure there are a number of members on this board who would be happy to give you some advice on how to adjust your workouts and food intake to achieve a better balance. I would most strongly suggest you also speak with your surgeon and/or nutritionist for more precise and informed medical advice on how to proceed. Good luck and let us know how things are going!