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There is no pattern to weight loss. We do not get to control our rate of loss with our diet or exercise. You do what you're supposed to do and sometimes you're rewarded with a big drop and other times you're stuck in one spot or even gain for a bit. It's normal. Do start tracking your intake. Calorie-wise, as long as a piece of pizza fits into your diet plan and you didn't go over calories it's fine. Mentally, if it's going to trigger you to eat less ideal choices regularly, you need to address that and make different choices until you're in a different place. The fact is that the amount of calories you should consume is the number you can eat on for months that will not hinder your loss. My advice is to hang with the 1,000 - focusing on ideal food choices 90% of the time but allowing yourself some flex so you feel more "normal" and less restricted. If you don't lose anything over the course of a month at that level, then think about changing it up. You're also hitting the exercise pretty hard so make sure your trainer does measurements if it hasn't already been done. Muscle weights more than fat, blah blah blah so you might actually be seeing changes in your tape that you don't see on the scale. If you continue to shrink despite slow progress on the scale, there's no need to change anything. Good luck, ~Cheri

Oh, and Swizzly, did you search him using O.T.R. sleever with the periods? Came right up for me. http://www.verticals...18-otr-sleever/ ~Cheri And I get you about wanting to enjoy this. Lots of gals post about being thin in high school and wanting to get back there or something. The last time I was thin I was in the sixth grade and ten years old. I had a playground mom ask me the other day why I "try so hard." By that, I think she meant, "Why do you put on clothes and make up and not wander around in a messy bun with unwashed hair and yoga pants on like the rest of us." I want to say it's because to them, this is the time to be sloppy - they did their years as the skinny pretty ones and they want to beat themselves up over being ten pounds heavier. But for me, it's different. I want to enjoy this. I spent years and years in lounging clothes hiding and not putting any serious effort into my appearance because I hated the way I looked. It matters to me now. I'm not prancing around in heels at the park, so it shouldn't be an issue. But I had a gal tell me the other day that the other wives don't care much for me - between my tattoos and the way I look/dress they think I'm either a bad influence on their kids or I'm trying to steal their husbands. Ha!

Sounds like most people had a crap Tuesday. Me, too! Sorry to hear it and let's hope today is better. Up on the scale again - I was up eight tenths of a pound again - and back over where I ended last week. Screw it, buying a scale is the next check box on my to do list. Hubs told me he was up three pounds today. I hate the darn scale. I can lecture to my heart's content about avoiding it and not expecting a loss each time. I mean that - I really don't expect a loss. But the constant up and down? It's driving me bonkers. Regular day. Taking baby for her four month immunizations - that stinks for her and means a few sleepless nights are on the horizon for me. The last of my "extra" guests leaves in the morning and then we're down to stepkids only until Tuesday when my MIL shows up. Hubs is taking an entire week off work. This is absolutely unheard of - and I'm thrilled I'll have him around so much. Not the least of my reasons why is that he does morning duty when he's home, so I'll get more sleep. I'm in a mood and maybe just a tiny bit looking for a fight. I'm probably going to lay low and avoid VST for a day or so. One of those spells where every other post I read just hits a nerve or something. Tomorrow is a fast day, I hope I'll manage with no problems. Good luck to all of you today - hang in there! ~Cheri

Look. First of all, never, ever, ever EVER weigh at night. If you must weigh, weigh once a day, first thing in the AM. I can "pack on" as much as six pounds throughout the day - it's Water, sodium, little muscle tears from exercise, whatever. Second - the alcohol. There's a line here. For starters, it's not forbidden and it's not packing on pounds. It is, however, empty calories but so long as you log them and account for them in your diet it is not an issue - LATER ON. There is nothing wrong with a drink but you'll find yourself even more dehydrated and might find your mood isn't so great if this is where you're consuming a good number of your calories so far. What can be an issue is transfer addiction, so please be mindful. Socially drinking at one year out has somehow turned into daily drinking for me three years out. I was enjoying just one beer, cider or wine an evening but have recently called it quits entirely. Alcoholism is very, very common post WLS, so just be aware of your consumption. Finally: reassurance. You already know that 3,500 calories make a pound. And you already know you didn't accidentally consume an additional 21,000 calories in the course of a few days. Lynda told you and it's true - it is physically impossible to gain that much, that fast. Hormones play a role here, too. I gain four pounds every cycle. Stress makes me gain. Lack of sleep makes me gain. Too much sodium will make the scale bounce. If there were as many ways to lose as there are to gain, we'd all fly to goal in no time and hang there forever! I had two nine week stalls. Stalls are normal and happen. Put that scale away - HatheryOHW is absolutely right because it's making you a bit crazy. If it depresses you and brings you down it's a problem. So weigh once a day, first thing and put it out of your mind. Do not expect to lose every time you step on the scale. You are only a handful of weeks out from surgery. Your body is still recovering. Give it some time. This happened to me a lot, too. It still does!! I bounce up and down on the scale or hold steady for weeks at a time. Then, all at once a few pounds fall off. Then I get to start the whole process again! I had months where I only lost in the tenths of a pound. Relax. Get back on your PPI if you've not been taking it. Eating regular, small meals will help. Do not allow yourself to be dehydrated. At this point, your focus is still hydration, then Protein, then calorie count. And no, alcohol doesn't fit in there just yet, at least not regularly. It's more important to focus on building a solid foundation of good habits here before moving into the things we learn while transitioning to maintenance! ~Cheri

I agree with a lot of Paul's post. There is a huge reason you see so very few real vets around here. You see a large number of people that post all day, every day for most of the first year...and then they drop off. Anyone remember Tiffykins? Or Diva? Or even O.T.R.? Hey, my buddy ButtertheBean isn't around as much anymore, either. And PdxMan? He's one of my heroes. They are hardly here anymore, and many don't show up at all. Even cheerleaders like Lissa or regular posters like Catracks are gone! And let us not forget that it basically falls to a handful of people that are reasonable, with sound experience, to give a lot of the support here. I figure upwards of 75% of the posters here are not regular. They come in, post a vent or complaint or a yay me post and boogie onward without a thanks or a farewell. This is a community of TAKERS with very few people that actually give their time or experience. I can attest to that as most any time I have asked a question I've gotten a handful of responses - more people manage to "like" my post than bother to help me answer a question and quite frankly, it's frustrating to see that a post about sex drive or hating your sleeve can generate hundreds of replies when people have REAL questions or REAL concerns that actually matter. Seriously! FACT: It is absolutely EXHAUSTING to give your time, effort, advice and experience here. If you're the voice of reason and don't couch your responses in perfectly P.C. encouragement, people actually attack you for trying to help. See, you're supposed to help - you just have to do it the "right" way. Utter B.S. I have gone back and forth on this one, myself. I have had super ultra politically correct and supportive months and months where I get so sick and tired of it that I post blunt, hard truth. I've been told I make people scared to post. Well, my opinion? Stop posting silly things. Really - it's embarrassing to everyone here to have the value of this entire community and the easily accessible information diminished by silly, immature posts or by the same darn questions over and over again. If you want to post a question and already know the answer or already know that nobody is going to okay your poor choice DO NOT LOOK FOR VALIDATION HERE. But in all honesty? These aren't even the questions that get me anymore. It's the (HT, FYE) hubris of some people. In the last three days I have read some of the most insulting comments by people that, comparatively speaking, have almost ZERO real experience with the sleeve. I'm glad you're here contributing after four to six months, really, people. That's super swell. But it takes quite a bit of chutzpah to assume you know every challenge on the road ahead, and to insult people for not walking the exact same path as you. People are not stupid because they eat foods that aren't ideal choices. They're human. This is not all or nothing, there is not only one proper way to achieve and maintain. Do not assume that your way is the only way or that if someone chooses a more moderate approach that they're wrong, they're going to fail, and they're stupid. Because that's what I'm seeing. You think this is super easy and anyone who struggles or loses slowly isn't trying hard enough? Come tell me that in a year, or two. You think the answer to everything is more exercise, more Protein or more Water? Gee, thanks for that. I'm sure nobody ever considered it. You think that every pound you lose is gone forever, because the only way to stop losing or regain is to go on an ice cream orgy? Ha! You think this is as simple as eating the "right" foods and getting exercise? I only have crude responses to that. Because this person - the person that says this - is a hypocrite. Because this is the abuse that was heaped upon us by family and doctors prior to our choice to have surgery, so give yourself a nice pat on the back to being absolutely unhelpful, and yeah, a hypocrite. Look - it's a line to walk. Insult the vets and lose the vets. Ask a question, expect answers. But watch how you ask and answer things, too. I try to be more considerate and thoughtful nowadays. I still have my moments. But people are more likely to listen if their hackles aren't up. Everyone that disagrees with you isn't stupid or wrong. Paul is a tremendously successful vet and while his approach and mine are different that does not mean that one of us has to be wrong. It means we have two different viewpoints and two different sets of experience we can and do use to help here. And hey, while I'm thinking of it, lurkers and infrequent posters should consider contributing here a bit more. And hey, to those that are constantly stirring up issues and being argumentative, try to keep your high school drama and clique garbage to yourselves, and, as I tell my five year olds "pack up your bad attitudes and put them in your pockets." All the attempts to prove you have the one perfect and correct answer by going back and forth does is alienate people. Ya'll make me crazy sometimes. Good post, Paul. None of the vets here are here to give validation for poor choices. ~Cheri

Really, short of telling them to stick it, I don't have much to offer. I didn't tell many people prior to my surgery. I have told dozens and dozens of them since I've been at goal, though. As soon as people start in on that "Oh, I know this person that lost weight the hard way (or the right way, that's also popular)" B.S. I stop them and tell them: 1) Piss off 2) I've forgotten more about proper dieting and exercise than they'll ever know and have tried every diet, book, weight loss method, pill, hypnosis, acupuncture nonsense they can think of, so refer back to #1, please 3) Dieting for 15 years wrecked havoc on my body and my self esteem so again, refer back to #1, please 4) For every "ideal" weight loss solution they can show me, I can point out six others that contradict it, and every one of them has doctor and nutritionist approval and they can't all be right so refer back to #1, please 5) Traditional diets have a less than 5% success rate but the sleeve results in 50-60% EWL after 5-6 years - that means worst case scenario you'll keep off 50 of every 100 pounds you lose, instead of only 5 of them. And I dispute the stats and feel that most of us really see more like 80% or more EWL. Again, #1, thanks. 6) Losing weight is not easy even with a sleeve. You make good food choices and learn how to overcome your disordered eating or you fail - same as any diet. So yeah, #1 again. At this point, sometimes I haven't been quite hostile enough for a person to get the picture. Either that, or they're one of those people that must convince me they're right no matter the consequences. Typically, they bring out the big guns next: that horror story of that person they know that knows a person who has a second cousin who has a neighbor that either died from bypass surgery or regained all the weight. I respond by giving them a dead stare that hopefully conveys how incredibly stupid and uneducated I find them and follow that up with, you guess it, referring them back to #1 once again. So, in short, I tell dissenters to stick it. ~Cheri

I'm sure we'll see you in short time venting about how incredibly frustrating it is that you can't get in all of your Protein due to your restriction. Hang in there, and congrats on your new sleeve! ~Cheri

I had a Mirena IUD put in the first week of November. Not for birth control but to control my endometriosis. So far, it's doing that spectacularly well. I used to live in constant pain, had pain during sex and it got even worse during/around horrendous cycles. Now I'm living almost completely pain free, the two periods I've had since it was put in were easy and light and sex is fantastic again. But I also noticed that my weight completely stalled out for a bit there. I'm also moving, and our orders were put on hold AFTER we'd left Germany but BEFORE we hit our next assignment, so we're hanging in limbo and it's definitely a stressful time for us. I don't want to blame the IUD when there's a bunch of other stuff going on, too. I've had the light bleeding/spotting for 5-6 weeks now. During those weeks my weight actually went up three pounds and stayed there consistently. I also lost a pant size during this time, so inches were coming off despite the stall. Now that the bleeding seems to have run it's course, I've dropped seven pounds in the past week. That's never happened before. I'm just curious to hear from other women using Mirena - is this type of gain/stall common? I've been a bit of a sluggish loser from the start, but I wonder if anyone noticed a change once they had the IUD. Or, if anyone has endometriosis and is on a successful treatment, has the weight started falling off? I don't usually lose weight this quickly, and I hope it's not a fluke. I'm also not complaining about the stall - yeah, I'm "only" down 60 pounds in five months, but I'm between a 12 and 14 and I wear L tops, so there's nothing to gripe about. Anyway, I'd just like to compare results with anyone that's got one. ~Cheri

I don't regret my surgery but I regret that I didn't have a clear picture about the realities of life post op prior to having it, how's that? There are lots of threads about this, so I encourage you to read as many positives and negatives as you can find and think on them so that you're better prepared for life beyond the healing process and beyond the first six months post op. Read those regain posts, read those complication posts and read the vet forum - give yourself as much information as possible so that you can face the hurdles and obstacles as they come. Good luck! ~Cheri

Most of our "oops! I'm pregnant" posts that were IUD users are from Paraguard, not Mirena. I did lose my Mirena after surgery, even though by everything I had read it shouldn't shift with weight loss. I had to have a new one placed and eventually chose to forgo it completely until I reached goal weight. Be warned that any hormonal birth control post op can cause some wonky stuff - look for old threads about this and read about the experiences of others. One cause I've read for this is that our fat cells store hormones, as well, so as we shed the fat we have hormonal erm...adjustments, I suppose, even without being on hormones for another reason. However, many, many women post and have zero problems with their preferred method of birth control post op, so I think this is highly individual and you'll have to take a wait and see approach. Someone jump in and correct me, but I don't think we see many women that are on reliable hormonal birth control get accidentally pregnant here. We do see women that have increased fertility get pregnant but in most cases they weren't using protection because they'd previously been told they couldn't conceive. Good luck, ~Cheri

Mandy - bleeding after intercourse is common enough that there are literally hundreds and hundreds of posts about it online. I didn't have this particular issue, but I did have problems with my husband being able to feel the strings even after having them trimmed and after they'd had long enough to soften. Go with your gut - if you're unhappy with this method of birth control there is no reason to continue to use it. Based upon my own experience I wouldn't recommend it to anyone but those suffering from endometriosis. I used it for that purpose and even with the side effects (and I had one IUD fall out and had one replaced shortly after!) I'd probably consider using it again just to control the pain of endo. Be warned: infections are more common in IUD users and bleeding after intercourse is a possible indicator of an infection. I'd make an appointment and talk to your doc. At that point, let him/her help you make the decision about the best course of action and whether nor not you should remove it. Good luck, ~Cheri

My surgeon has his patients on clears for ten days, then on full liquids for a week (or was it ten days?) and then FINALLY onto soft foods. It's hard to do, but there's a reason my surgeon has no leaks after thousands of operations - I trusted him to slice and dice me, I ought to trust his post op recommends, too. Liquids make for tough going - you won't feel fullness and you're not satisfying that desire to simply chew. It's tough to hang in there but do it, even if other folks have a surgeon that isn't as strict. Follow the guidelines you were given. Trust me, in just a few weeks (or days?) you'll understand completely. I wasn't able to eat more than a single egg scrambled with a Tbs. of cheese until more than a year out. It's individual, but my capacity remains small after three years - I can eat roughly 3 ounces of dense Protein or 8 ounces of food, total, if it's a combination of foods. On certain days or with certain foods I can fit as much as 1.5 cups. That's not a lot of food. I still have to choose eating OR drinking because I cannot do both and have room. ~Cheri

Keep this thread going! I want to see as many stories as possible that reflect the moderate and downright slow pace some of us experience. I'm three years out. I lost slowly. In fact, I'm sloooowly shedding the last couple pounds of baby weight. It's just as aggravatingly slow and painful as it was to lose the first time. But is the woman in these pictures any less a success for taking longer? NO. I want this thread full of good stories so that I can spam every freakout post about stalls or slow loss I see with a link to it, to say "See?! It happens, relax!" I do not want this to be a Yay Cheri thread - I want to see OTHER stories here, too! Contribute, please! ~Cheri

http://www.verticalsleevetalk.com/topic/65484-share-your-slow-loss-success/page__hl__%20slow%20%20loss You don't get to control your rate of loss and for most of us it doesn't even form a good pattern you can rely upon, so don't get too comfortable. Have other people done this? Yes. I'd argue far more lose slowly than quickly, but those "I lost 90 pounds in six whole days!" posts get hundreds of responses while the more reasonable and moderate losses don't get the same attention. Relax, you're not alone. This is a long road, no matter how quickly you lose. Getting to goal and being able to maintain is far more important than losing quickly. Everyone hits plateaus or stalls along the way and everyone gets worried that they've lost as much as they can when it happens. You keep doing the right things, push through it and keep slogging along until you reach goal. Then, you keep doing the same right things and keep being accountable for the rest of your life. It's a forever choice we made to have surgery - I wouldn't worry too much about losing slowly. Good luck, ~Cheri

M2G are you getting more artificial sweeteners than usual? Adding lemon to your Water and drinking more of it? Otherwise, no clue, but I hope someone can help you out! ~Cheri

Ended yesterday at 592...not so great for a fast day, and yeah...that hard cider I had at the end of the night, unplanned, is what did it. I'm struggling with emotions and stress right now and definitely need to take a closer look at my coping mechanisms. My inability to relax or let things go for the moment without a glass of wine or alcohol is very troubling and is something I'll need to work on, especially if my husband does go play soldier sooner rather than later. Up on the scale after my fast day but I'm not terribly surprised. I kind of don't expect much out of the scale anymore! Hubs says that the scale is bonkers, anyway. His unscientific test on it the last two days indicates that it shows weights within a four pound range one after the other. I just bought the darn thing, too. I'll replace the batteries but it would be nice to believe that I'm not having as much fluctuation on the scale as I thought. So, down from weigh-in on Sunday by eight tenths of a pound. Up from yesterday. Bleh. Dumb scale. Normal day. Lots of cooking and baking today. A yummy, healthy dinner of shakshouka, salat yerakot (Israeli salad), freshly made pitas and hummus. Yum. This is a meal I need to keep in mind because it's ideally suited (sans pita) for fast days, too. Not too many calories. I won't go into detail about the baking as a courtesy to those fasting. Good luck, fasters! I'm glad to read that everyone is experiencing some measure of success here (extra special shout out to coops and M2G!) even if it sometimes seems frustrating to me. ~Cheri

OTR had a small regain - he posted about it a while back. I had already missed him and wondered where he was before that point, and he hasn't been around much since, either. It could be that he's busy but I also really regret that so many of our experienced (and regularly posting) voices go silent in the face of regain, or as soon as we realize we DON'T have all the answers. This isn't easy as pie. I keep saying that and I know that other people say that, too, but I don't think people really believe until they're the ones that backslide. And all too often they disappear or don't want to come back. It's the ideal time to be here but it's hard. I mean, imagine if the folks on this board disappeared for a few weeks or months and came back to say they went totally off the rails and were struggling? Not just with weight but with all that other stuff, too? Newbs might have heart attacks, even if we'd be a more accurate representation of the true challenges of life post op. Just my 2 cents. And iggy? I miss that gal, but every time she shows up people flame her and chase her off. I doubt she gets much positivity and support here on VST and if she ever dares to share her personal experience or feelings she is lambasted and attacked. I've witnessed it dozens of times. People only want to hear about rainbows, sunshine and free unicorns when they research the surgery. Very few people that ask to hear about the bad, negatives and regrets actually want to hear it. ~Cheri

Oh my gosh, I missed a totally weird branch of the smoothie obsession! Who knew? Pages and pages of recipes online and lots of rave reviews. I say, what do you have to lose? Try it out and post your recipe if you enjoyed it - surely someone else could be curious and would benefit. ~Cheri

Egg creams? Like the ones from an old-timey soda fountain? I can't imagine them replacing a smoothie as the ones we'd enjoy as kids at the throwback diner my dad took us to were far too sweet and were made with flavored syrups. I always got chocolate egg creams. Those didn't have any eggs (or cream) at all - it was the seltzer water and milk combo that made that lovely foam on top. Unless there's a new thing out there and I've missed it? It happens, I'm kind of a homebody these days. ~Cheri

First, exercise is no guarantee when it comes to loose skin. It's purely genetics. If you had a lot of stretch marks prior to surgery that is an indicator that your skin has less elasticity. That means you're more likely (not guaranteed) to have issues with skin rebound post op. Age is also a factor because skin naturally loses elasticity as we age. Second, you're only a few months out and probably don't have much to worry about. Between one year and two years post op my skin rebounded tremendously. I went from wanting plastics from head to toe to realizing I only needed them in two areas - and I've had twins so I already had a loose apron before my sleeve. Lots of hydration and doing anything you can to just keep your skin healthy will benefit you greatly. It will bounce back a lot. In the meantime, buy some comfortable, quality shapewear and try not to beat yourself up. The last thing any of us needs to do is continue feeling insecure and unhappy with our bodies after working so hard to shed weight. ~Cheri

Yes, thank you for the wonderful post. It's absolutely true and the epidemic of bypass patients becoming alcoholics - to the point where I've read that it doubles your chance of alcoholism - is not something to tiptoe around or assume you'll avoid. Any addictive behavior can transfer and you'll read about hundreds of crossover addictions if you look and do your research. A few rare people make those addictions fitness but you'll see many more instances of other, less beneficial ones. I definitely tended to lean on food in times of stress and I find that now, especially a few years out from surgery, that I'm more likely to lean on alcohol these days. Things that I never once would have abused or considered prior to surgery are things I have to be careful about - I had an issue with sleeping pills to help me sleep last year. Why on earth would I feel the desire to take them once the need was past? But it can happen - with anything - if you have unresolved addiction issues. It's enough of a worry for me that I refused pain meds after the birth of my daughter. The nurses and doctors are drug pushers and must have asked me a dozen times if I wanted them in the hospital as well as a bottle to take home. No, I don't take chances and I didn't need them. I have to go the safe route these days. ~Cheri

Missed you, Globe! You are not fat. Having sixty pounds to lose does not make you fat - so I suggest you unpack your before pictures and do a real side by side to at least cut yourself some slack here. Congrats on three long and painful years of struggling with your weight and body image - this has been a rough haul for you. The sleeve does work as far as capacity. I wish you were here more to show new folks the reality that eating small portions forever isn't always the perfect solution they think it will be. Best to you - go visit the vet forum, we've been worried about you! ~Cheri

Yep, my full signal is the runny nose and sneezing, too. ~Cheri

I'd puree a cheeseburger first, but that's me. OP - you got good advice here - it's definitely a mushy or soft food, so you'll have to wait a bit. But that Jello is going to melt into liquid - so have at it! ~Cheri

Food is comfort, food is always there, food makes us feel good, food helps us hide from our emotions - food is more than sustenance for most of the people here. Not everyone admits it to themselves, of course, but most of us have disordered eating. I know the poster that OP is responding to here had good intentions. The people that have said the most hurtful things to me said them with good intentions (or so they tell themselves) but that doesn't make it any less insensitive. Why are we all here? We are here because we wanted to extend our lives. We had a drastic surgery to lose weight and in most cases comorbids that were shortening our life spans. We do it to because facing our mortality and knowing that we're shortening our lives is scary and we want to change things. Before anyone else who has not faced a similar situation says anything else unintentionally offensive or insensitive, I ask that people consider how they would cope if faced with not only their own, but their child's mortality on a daily basis. A terminal illness is difficult enough to endure when it is a grandparent, parent or a spouse, but YOUR CHILD? Every parent's worst fear is burying their child and for most people this is a remote, fringe thought - that thing you see in a movie that makes you tear up and gives you an opportunity to hug your kids before you FORGET and MOVE ON. That is not the case for the OP. That is not the case for me, either. Until you have survived something like this and made it over to the other side, please do not pretend it's the same as eating because you got dumped, had a bad day at work, or your pet died. Losing a child, facing the impending loss of a child - that's one of the most terrible and painful things a person can endure in this life. I can tell you, being fat is the least of this woman's worries. I applaud her efforts to stay on top of things and lose weight using the sleeve. I applaud her coming here to "confess" and get reassurance that this isn't a huge deal. It's not. She is not eating to help her son. She is probably eating because it makes her feel better, because it is an ingrained habit and because what else are you going to do? There is no escape from the pressures and stresses here. OP, I'm thankful you have family, other children and a counselor to help you through. This is not the end of the world. Not any of it. This is a minor hiccup and it's one that almost everyone faces - we all eat "badly" at one point or another; we all need to learn our sleeves limits and I've personally read hundreds of posts by people scared they'd stretch their sleeves with one poor choice. You're fine. This is fine. This is small potatoes. Focus on more positive and soothing activities and don't let it become a habit and it will be perfectly fine. Be well, ~Cheri