Tomo

If you find the answer, let me know. My food storage is over-the-top. Luckily I don't have kids and family nearby otherwise maybe I'd do the same. My problem is I love to shop for food. I buy and buy and I have bins of food, and both freezers are stuffed with food. Help.

I don't do carb cycling because I eat a lot of carbs (tons of fruit) BUT, I naturally do calorie cycling. I know both carb and calorie cycling are effective. Some days I just feel hungrier so I eat more those days. I track calories by the week (net calories under weekly goal) so there is a lot more leeway, freedom and flexibility, for those bottomless pit days. My longest "stall" ever was during my maintenance phase. It was 33 days. I'm still trying to find my maintenance calorie level but if I keep losing, I won't stress, I'll just let nature takes it's course since the honeymoon phase will inevitably end soon enough since I'm 15 months post-op. Link: "Research suggests the benefits of calorie cycling include greater weight loss, improved ability to stick to a diet, less hunger, and a reduction in the negative hormonal and metabolic adaptations of a normal weight loss diet." https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/calorie-cycling-101#:~:text=Research suggests the benefits of,it works best for you.

I can only dream to get food like that at home! I have been working on my cooking skills but ehhh, got a long way to go. I wanted to comment on your 1-2 bites. I practice the take 1 to 2 bites of everything when I go on vacation. It's a great rule. lol My siblings are foodies, and love to take me to all the best restaurants and try their favorite findings. The 1 to 2 bite rule is a lot of fun and works out well for me.

100%. All of this.

Sounds like everything is going pretty smoothly. I also had a huuuuge lump under one of my incisions this last surgery. It was the size of an egg. I thought it was a hernia or something. I do everything not to go to the doctor's but I was so concerned I went in ASAP, and let him squeeze and manipulate it, and then to ultimately tell me "That's normal" lol. Been looking for your update the past few days, and hoping you'll get a speedy recovery. If you don't feel like going back, I hope you can take another week off. The post-op exhaustion is real.

Didn't see your reply that you already checked your team. Good good. I guess different surgeons have different criteria.

I asked a relative who is a surgeon (came over to visit). He says no testosterone 2 weeks before or 2 weeks after. It thickens blood and may risk blood clots. Good to ask your team instead though.

Things seem to taste sweeter. I never had a sweet tooth but now when I eat things savory that has a smidge of sweetness, like sauces, it's a ugh. It's amplified.

Protein concentrates shots at Bariatricpal tastes good. I tried one over and liked it. Tiny bottles, 15g protein. All kinds of fruit flavors. Lemon, grapefruit, grape cranberry and more. I am not a shake person either. During that time I just put unflavored protein powder in everything including my coffee.

Yeah but I was allowed to go through a quick drive thru at the local pharmacy. It takes a minute and doesn't hurt at all since they are no longer deep nasal.

For awhile I looked like a terminally ill patient but after a few months of maintenance, my hair (finally lol) and skin recovered. I feel better and look better at my current weight (lowest) than I did at my goal weight of 140 lbs. I agree with Ms. SSS said, I think it is just a temporary phenomenon of rapid weightloss. Btw, hair thins out regardless of size, it is the surgery itself, it can't be helped. It is not her fault. Her hair will grow back.

My lunch 2.2 oz salmon sashimi, with 2 oz rice with a 1 tsp of seasoned vinegar. I dipped the fish in lemon juice, soy sauce and wasabi. 177 calories total. Total weight meal 118g. I ate it all.

Yeah, I really believe that once insurance starts accepting it, probably the majority of people will go with esg. It's just most can't afford to pay out of pocket. If I had the choice years ago, I know I would have choosen esg over lap band or vsg. I recently tried to mention the ESG to someone close to me who is diabetic and obese because he is skittish still about any WLS. It didn't work but I tried.

Wonderful pictures. Wonderful post. You look great. Happy 5th anniversary. I am glad you are here to always share your wisdom and experience. Although I've been fighting the good fight for a very long time, I have stayed to myself all this time until just this past year. People like you make it easier for introverts, like myself, to get out of our comfort zone and share a bit.

I am using both for maintenance calories. As everyone knows, these tend to be a little off but I still love using them since it gives me some kind of guideline, and I find tracking fun and enlightening. My questions are: When I input my weight when I lose or gain, does the calories adjust to the new weight I input or does it always go by goal weight and Fitbit activity alone? Also, those of you that use either, do you find the calories (or carbs if you are on low carb) requirement to lose or maintain, too high, too low or just right? Thanks in advance.

I'm 5'3. I had my vsg at around 200, got to 160. No problem getting it approved due to comorbities. I held that for about 6 years, felt good, most comorbities resolved. But then I got severe gerd and had an rny to fix gerd over a year ago, now weigh 109 lbs.

Looks good to me and I love your penmanship.

Izzio San Francisco sourdough bread (2 x 70 cal), air fried toasted with pepper jack cheese (2 slices x 70 cal) and spritzed with lucini garlic infused olive oil (2g =16 cal). Total weight 115g. Ate it all.

I don't formally exercise because I don't like the guilt or stress feeling if I don't do it a certain day. So this time around, I have embraced a lifestyle that is based on movement, meaning I just keep moving in my daily life. Whether I'm at home doing chores or at work. For example, when I watch a movie, I will do exercises, like crunches or sit-ups. I keep a pair of dumbbells by my couch. Sometimes I wear leg weights all day. And some days, I feel so tired probably because I'm not taking in enough calories, and I won't do anything but stretch all day. I practice the "One in One out" rule to have no clutter in my home so I do a lot of walking back and forth to get what I need. Things like that. While others depend on exercise to lose weight. I don't. I can't "outrun my fork" lol. The exercise is to just to keep me healthy. The weight loss is from my diet.

Every surgeon has a different post-op diet. Luckily, my current surgeon's diet philosophy is similar to my own. My post-op was and still is a balanced diet with tons of fruits and veggies. After 8 weeks, the basics of my diet is to get my adequate protein, 7 to 13 servings of fruit/veggies a day, 20 to 50g good fat, and good carbohydrates (about 50% of my calories are from carbs).

Was cleared at 6 weeks, but as some others here, I don't formally exercise. I just focus on moving more in general and have adopted a more natural, guilty-free, movement-based lifestyle for staying healthy, nothing to do with losing weight. Losing weight for me is a completely separate issue, it is an emotional, mental and keeping up a healthy diet issue.

For the first 3 months, I had the "foamies" meaning if I didn't chew well, I'd get a lot of excess saliva. If I chewed really well, no problem except for fruits with skin early on, those always gave me problems in the early months. After the 3 months passed and my stomach healed completely, I can tolerate everything. I just came back for a vacation, and my siblings insisted to go to all their favorite restaurants there, and I took a bite of practically everything, and no problems whatsoever, from seafood to beef, to desserts to sourdough bread to pasta. I may be in the minority in how smooth everything has been but this has been my experience. I was also this way with the vsg except (I know this is weird) I dumped from time to time with the vsg. Weird, I know.

I answered you on another thread but just a quick recap here. I had such a horrible time with acid reflux that when my surgeon said that if I have the MGB I may be risking bile reflux which is linked in a recent study. So I went RNY as per my surgeon.

Thank you thank you all. Helpful information!

I was the same way with both the vsg and after my revision to rny. Usually people post if they have problems. When things go so smooth, we just talk calories... Etc. You're doing great.