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I get headaches when I don't sleep enough or eat enough. Could the drastic change in your diet be causing them? Are you back to sleeping regularly or is discomfort keeping you up? That could be your culprit. And yes, be sure you're getting enough liquids because dehydration is a real worry for a while after surgery. ~Cheri

Great posts. I just want to add in one more time so it hits home: PPI, PPI, PPI!!! You need one. Nexium, Prilosec or Protonix. NOT Tums and not Xantac - you need a proton pump inhibitor to control the acid for a few months. Acid reflux and heartburn can seriously affect your quality of life, so why deal with these issues when one small, inexpensive pill can help avoid the problem. Good luck, ~Cheri

In something close to three years reading this board I have only ever seen two or three people come here to say they're lost less than fifty pounds. And in every case, there is a definite issue on the part of the sleever. After losing a good amount of weight it's easy to get complacent, but there is no reason even for those people to sit at a weight that makes them unhappy. This surgery removes 85% of your stomach. You're on a liquid diet for weeks afterward (at least I was) and then you slowly transition into regular foods over the next several weeks. You have a seriously restricted stomach for an entire year, and even at two years out I cannot possibly eat anything even remotely close to my pre-surgery intake. If you don't lose weight, you aren't trying hard enough. That's harsh, but true. However, there is no guarantee about how FAST you'll lose the weight. So some people might drop more than 100 pounds in nine months and some (like me) take almost a year and a half to lose that much. But if you do the right things you cannot help but lose weight. Good luck with your upcoming surgery, ~Cheri

That one's not too bad! In my case, due to twins, my loose skin starts under my bra line and ends in an apron. So I wear this one: http://www.herroom.com/rago-821-waist-nipper.shtml I wear it precisely because of the expanse of material - it covers me from bra-line to pubic bone. It sucks it all in and accentuates the hourglass hiding under the skin. It was uncomfortable the first two or three times I wore it but I'm used to it now. I LOVE that site, though, and if you ever have a question about sizing or anything their customer service is really helpful. ~Cheri

Ugh, those hormones are a complete pain! Literally!! We transferred three frozen three days. All were in great shape, fully thawed and eight cells. They were the last we had and I didn't feel right discarding one. So we took the risk and put them all back. The good news is that despite the fact that I feel a bit bloated in the middle (darn progesterone in oil) I have actually LOST weight this cycle. That did not happen last time. I packed on 20 pounds during my fresh IVF w/ICSI cycle in 2007. I'm only down four pounds but the extra two I had gained plus four more have come off, putting me under goal weight for the time being. So there's hope for you once you guys start cycling again that you won't pack on like prior to surgery. Maybe it's that I no longer have all those excess hormones stored in my fat cells? I have no idea. I'll update with my results once I know. I did a HPT today (7dp3dt) and got a very faint, barely there, gotta tilt the test to see it line. I really am unconvinced, so I'm going to re-test on Saturday and then my blood test is on Tuesday. I hated it when my docs told me losing weight would help me get pregnant. It felt like judgement and yet another person blaming my weight for my problems. And yes, I did experience success even when I was obese and carry to term with a mostly complication free pregnancy. That said, this cycle has been much easier on my body. Not just because it's a frozen cycle but because I really am healthier and (I hope!) more fertile. Best of luck to you guys. Really! I hope you'll see great success after your VSG and follow it up with a nice, healthy pregnancy. Tiffykins and some other ladies here also waited to lose a bit before TTC, so you're not alone. ~Cheri

It's all genetics, though they say exercise will really help. Time definitely does. I'm about two years out and the skin isn't as bad as it was, though I still plan on plastics. I think one real indicator is how many stretch marks you have from gaining. Seriously, I have no real proof of anything but I think how abused your skin was before surgery really affects or at least demonstrates how much elasticity you have. I came through puberty with stretch marks EVERYWHERE even though I was a normal weight. Two pregnancies later (one of them was twins!) and I'm a freaking roadmap. And the loose skin on me was horrible around one year post op. Now it's still unpleasant but not nearly as bad. At first I felt I couldn't leave the house without shapewear under my clothes. Now I can do that, but I won't if I'm wearing something formfitting. And the apron is still bad but it's now completely flat. The typical doctor recommend to wait one year post GOAL for plastics is a very good one, because there was a huge difference in my shape and loose skin in that second year. I look much better naked than I thought I would...but yeah, I still want that flat tummy and I miss being busty! This is something you can't do very much to control. Doing muscle building and keeping your skin moist might help. My advice is to focus on getting to a healthy weight without worrying about the skin. It may sound flippant or rude but I'd rather look awesome in my clothes and have loose skin nobody knows about than walk in a room and have everyone see how uncomfortable I am in my fat. And I do love shapers - I wear a super duper waist cincher by Rago that I freaking love. It accentuates my hourglass figure and hides my loose skin like a champ. Spanx and flexees only make me hot and uncomfortable. I like old school hook-and-eye clasp cinchers or waspies, bustiers and even corsets far more than that stuff! If you don't like that "compressed" feeling, try the Flexees or Maidenform camisole shapers. Make sure you measure and get the right size. They layer nicely and do smooth things a bit without being as uncomfortable and restrictive. Best of luck, ~Cheri

Exactly right, I completely agree with Michelle! A surgeon will consider the sleeve a success if you lose 60-70% of your excess weight within a year...but that leaves you with 30-40% of your excess pounds over your ideal weight. There is nothing stopping you from going further. Our bodies do hit a natural stopping point where losing becomes a struggle, but for me that happened right around my goal weight and under my loose skin is a teeny bit of fat and a bunch of bones! Not much left to lose! So there is no reason to meet his goal and then exceed it, until you reach your own personal goal. I worried about this a bit before my own surgery and I understand your concerns. There isn't a honeymoon here and once you're a year out your sleeve is as big as it's getting - and that means it's plenty small enough to get you all the way to your goal weight if you keep up the hard work. Best of luck! ~Cheri

I take a prenatal Vitamin. The vitamin-y aftertaste is minimal and I know I'm absorbing the Iron because of the side effects. I use BelllyBar Chewable Prenatals, two daily and they're a pretty balanced multi that includes iron and B12. Check with your doc if they're suitable for folks that aren't pregnant or trying to get pregnant. It's the first multi I take every day, because it doesn't make me nauseous. My hair and nails are finally like they were prior to surgery! I take mine first thing in the morning WITH food. Right in the middle of my Protein coffee or whatever I'm eating, I stop to take my Vitamins and then finish my meal. No real aftertaste, no nausea, no problems. Good luck, ~Cheri

I'm a super shortie. Meaning that even petite pants have to be hemmed a few inches in most cases. My inseam is almost 29" and it's a real pain to find pants that fit. A quick fix is some stitch witchery and an Iron, if the already present hem isn't terribly noticeable. I just tried my hardest to find off the rack petites that would fit but I know it's not always an option. I'll lose another entire pant size with plastics, no doubt. My apron is the worst! I can't believe how you're closing in on goal already! It seems like not that long ago you started posting! ~Cheri

Nope, not that I've ever noticed. I hated unjury because you could tell it was in everything because of the smell. And I used a brand called Integrated supplements for a while that didn't have that smell but left an "off" aftertaste. But the Syntrax disappears into whatever I make. Granted, I usually only add one or two scoops to something, but it's enough to boost the Protein by 10-20 grams and adds no discernible taste. ~Cheri

So, I have to ask: How's the eating going? Because (always assuming my cycle worked!) I'd be three weeks yesterday. In other words, barely pregnant. But I've been on hormones for more than a month, including two kinds progesterone shots and progesterone suppositories for nearly two weeks. And let me tell you - I'm HUNGRY. ALL the time. If I don't eat, I get lightheaded and nauseated, just like when I was diabetic before, but my sugars are normal. I have never had the capacity for food that I have this past week. Last night for dinner I ate four ounces of garlic chicken, 1 small boiled potato, 1 oz. canned carrots and 2 oz. fresh pineapple. That's a veritable ton of food compared to my usual intake and when I finished I felt satisfied...not overfull or sick. I feel like I'm eating from sunup to sundown. This would worry me if I was gaining weight. But in the bizarro world I'm currently living in, I'm losing weight. Yeah, that's right. I'm tracking 1,500-1,800 calories a day right now - an amount that would normally make me gain weight - and I've lost four pounds this week. What the heck is up with that? I wonder if they transferred a tape worm instead of frozen embryos? ~Cheri

Then something isn't right and I urge you to get into the doctor so they can figure that out. Are you eating enough? That might be your issue - if you're still severely restricted and not getting in many calories it could be keeping your sugars very low. Normal sugars range from 70-100 (fasting) and should peak at 135-145 (postprandial), or at least that's why my doc had me following. So if your fasting sugars are around 50 in the morning, you might need to eat right before bed. In any case, I was always told that 50 was the high point of the danger zone, and that I should immediately have fast acting sugars to push my levels back up. Anything below 50 and you're tempting a serious risk. I'm not sure how frequently you test but I tested first thing in the morning, 30 minutes after each meal and right before bed. When I wanted to see how a particular food affected my system I also tested immediately before eating and 30 minutes after eating, just to see what I needed to avoid. If you can't get in to a doctor soon, I recommend at the very least testing immediately before bed and eating something or drinking juice if your numbers need boosting, and checking first thing in the morning to see the effect. I'd still be concerned about your levels falling too low while you sleep if you're riding the line at 50 all day long! ~Cheri

I've never tried that - I mix the unflavored into Soups, coffee, tea, juice, etc. You can mix some into pudding, yogurt, cottage cheese...whatever makes you happy! I've even mixed scoops into homemade mini muffins, Breakfast Cookies and scones to add a teeny Protein boost to my carbs. ~Cheri

Exercise is great for your body and your mind, but exercise isn't the answer to losing weight. Diet is the answer. Building plenty of muscle will help you burn more calories around the clock, so don't stop exercising if you already enjoy it. But if you're already active, adding more exercise right now might have the opposite effect on the scale. Track your calories religiously for three days, without changing what you eat. There might be something you need to tweak. Perhaps you aren't eating enough for your active lifestyle. Or perhaps you're eating more than you realize. You won't know until you have a very clear picture of what's going into your body. From there, play with your numbers until you find what works. I know, that's not an easy suggestion to follow! But we're all so different. I lose best (and maintain best) when I eat 90+ grams of Protein daily. I need plenty of carbs to feel happy and satisfied with my meals. Everyone is different. Also look at external factors. I changed my birth control after I got my sleeve and could not lose with Mirena in - I had to have it removed. I don't lose when I am feeling very stressed, even though I don't eat more food during these times. If I don't get good sleep for several days in a row, I can see a bounce UP on the scale. So if there's something else going on with you, make sure you address it so you can be healthy in body and mind. The good news is that you can get to goal. You've done a really great job so far. Your sleeve is still there, still fully functional. All you need to do is find that sweet spot where you can balance your diet and your lifestyle and lose weight again. Best of luck, ~Cheri

I had a nine week stall around that point, myself, and another sometime around one year out. There really are "happy weights" where our bodies just don't want to move past a certain point on the scale. It took me a really long time to get past my previous low adult weight. And once I bumped past it, it was a tiny struggle to stay below it, too! Once I was past the 160s it was like my body gave in and dropped a very surprising eight or nine pounds in just one month - something very rare for me. I flew through the 150s, though! I see nothing wrong with the occasional drink but I emphasize OCCASIONAL - especially while in the losing phase. This is not a diet. It really is not a diet. This is the rest of your life, and if you try to live it giving up everything that you enjoy, you're going to lose the weight and be miserable...and likely fall of the wagon and binge, anyway, when all is said and done. The goal here is to learn to eat normally and normal people do not freak out about a piece of bread or a cocktail once in a while. They make small adjustments so that the big pictures if one of 95% good choices to balance the splurges. There are so many things you could do, but the very first thing you need to stop doing is beating yourself up. My recommendation is to track your calories religiously for three days. Do not adjust your current eating habits at all. Just track every little bite you put in your mouth. If you eat three M&Ms, track those suckers! From there you will have a better picture. If you reduce your current caloric intake by 20% and try to eat in a ratio of 40% Protein, 30% carbs, 30% fat for your daily totals, I think that would jump start you again. Maybe you need go back to one Protein shake a day. I like to mix mine with coffee or tea and start my day that way. You definitely need to focus on getting in enough protein and enough carbs. Good luck, ~Cheri

Yes you do have food issues to work on and YES you'll be okay for surgery. I've never understood why surgeons put patients on pre-op diets before surgery - unless it really is someone in need of liver shrinking. Because, really, who succeeds at going cold turkey from an addiction? The vast majority of people DO NOT, and I, personally do not see the huge difference one week of liquids makes prior to surgery. All it does is make patients miserable and when they have trouble sticking to the extreme diet change, they feel sad, helpless and like failures. Now, that said, getting used to liquids prior to surgery is going to help you. Because after surgery, cheating on the diet can mean life or death. That sounds overly dramatic but I assure you that it is not. You need to heal and you can cause a life-threatening leak if you cheat yourself at that point. I wouldn't stress about it, but I would take this opportunity to evaluate when you're eating and why. If you can pinpoint these issues prior to surgery, you can eliminate them while you're on your way to goal and be happier and healthier in body AND mind once you're at goal. You'll be fine, don't stress! ~Cheri

And I'm just gonna chime in here and add: If diets were one size fits all, none of us would need surgery! We'd be skinny the first time we tried Weight Watchers, or Nutritsystem, or Optifast, or any one of the dozens of other diets I've tried in my life! Overweight people CANNOT eat the same amounts of food as people that are naturally smaller. We must need less, or the 1,200 calorie diet would be a magic wand we could wave at ourselves. It simply doesn't work that way. So, adjust your diet now and talk to your doctor about this. I'm sure this isn't your first go round with a "normal" diet that isn't helping you lose weight, right? He should be sympathetic to that idea. I had a nutritionist call me a liar once because I was gaining weight on a diet she gave me to follow - she insisted I must be cheating. The reality is, I gain weight on more than 1,400-1,500 calories a day, unless I add in a ton of exercise. Now, two pounds is a small gain. But you should have lost in the first month of a new diet, so I'd shake things up. And the last thing I'd do is jump onto a liquid diet. Why? Because you can't maintain that for two whole months and if you fall off and crash hard, the rebound weight might push you higher than you are now. If you want to shake it up, so to speak, replace one meal a day with a balanced Protein shake, and follow some of the advice the PP gave you. Good luck, and I hope it all works out, ~Cheri

Congrats to you, lady! You're doing fantastic! A word of advice, though, based upon my experience. I got down to "just about goal" and was sure I wasn't going to shrink much more. I bought a full wardrobe in the size I was at that time. I only lost six or seven more pounds after that but I went down an entire size and had to replace my entire wardrobe from underthings to a jacket - even down to my shoes! I lost an stinking shoe size, how crazy is that? So, once you hit goal (and you will!) sit there a bit before you go out and invest in a new wardrobe. I gave away clothes that still had tags on them, and it made me very sad. Oh, and hello?! Isn't modern denim the most amazing thing? I tried on a pair of jeans that I had buried in the bottom of a box from the incredibly brief period when I wore a size six as a teen. Ugh - the thick, heavy material with zero stretch was completely unflattering! Though I admit, I liked the higher waist. Call me a mom but I don't think low riding jeans look good on anyone over the age of seventeen. I much prefer the old retro waistline that accentuates a small waist and larger hips. ~Cheri

Three weeks or more at the same weight with no fluctuation. It's normal. For me, short stops and starts were the pattern my body made while losing. I lost on average just over 6 pounds a month, with two nine week stalls in there. In a typical month, I'd stay the same weight for a week, gain three pounds around my cycle, and have a sudden drop of several pounds within a four to six day period of time. Nothing I did to my diet made me lose any differently, so I used that time to work on my food issues and learn how to eat normally. Stalls happen. The important thing to remember is that we are all going to lose weight. To not lose the weight you want you would have to eat around your sleeve. That says nothing about how long it will take you, though! Some people lose very quickly and some lose very slowly. Most people are somewhere in the middle. But you will lose. Good luck, ~Cheri

And to the OP, the best advice I can give you is to shelve any expectations you have beyond losing weight, period. I'm sure that you can reach your goal and it sounds like you really don't have that much to lose. Everyone is really different - so different that we can drive ourselves insane worrying about short stalls on the scale or obsessing about whatever everyone else is losing. That said, I'm just over 5'1" and started at 242 pounds. I lost, on average, just over 6 pounds per month, though I did have two nine week stalls in there. I was a very slow loser, regardless of what I did to speed things up. I took 17 months to get to goal, but have almost effortlessly maintained for the last seven months. People tend to drop a large amount in the first month if they didn't do a preop diet. The second month usually slows because you introduce solid foods again and will likely see slow movement or even small gains on the scale until you're used to the change. The good news is that you will lose, even if it's not at the rate you'd like. But try your hardest to make only small goals for yourself - ten pounds or twenty pounds, max - that are tied to a specific date or season. The post-op forum is full of unhappy people stressing out over short stalls or not losing at a pace they find acceptable, when in reality, there's just no way to control those things (always assuming a good diet) and no reason at all to be upset about losing weight (albeit slowly). Best of luck, ~Cheri

I'm amazed by this. Did your surgeon provide any reason why he wants his patients to avoid Protein Shakes? I'm just curious, because I had such incredible restriction that even well beyond one year out eating more than one egg scrambled with cheese or 2 oz. of dense protein was simply not possible. Meeting healthy nutritional goals would have been impossible for me had I not supplemented with shakes. I know that later on we don't want to be dependent on them for the bulk of our nutrition, but even two years out I drink one a day to keep my protein over 90+ grams daily. ~Cheri

Ugh, fake strawberry anything makes me retch. Syntrax Nectars are truly awesome. Syntrax also makes the best unflavored Protein I've tried. Muscle Milk was one of my favorites for a while but started to cause me digestive issues so I stopped using it. Keep trying samples to find something that works for you. Warm, spicy broth with a little unflavored Syntrax goes down well. And yes, you're far enough along that I understand the desire to chew food! I wasn't hungry at that point but was so sick of drinking my meals. It's normal to feel frustrated but you should be through this phase soon. Your primary concern right now should be hydration. It takes a while to hit nutritional goals and get in enough protein. Keep testing different protein samples - there are lots of sites that sell them but I'm pretty fond of Vitalady's site. Try a bunch of things until you know what works. Protein shakes aren't absolutely necessary but your life will be much better if you can reach your nutritional goals, and shakes will help you do that. You will have more energy and you will lose weight more consistently, and if you get in enough protein you'll be doing what you can to make the weight loss fat loss, not muscle. Hang in there. You'll be complaining that you can hardly eat your scrambled egg in a few weeks, but in a few months you'll be amazed at how much weight you've lost and how much more normally you can eat. ~Cheri

Oh and in the meantime, while you're waiting for your meds to take affect, try sleeping on several pillows and not eating anything before bed. For me it was worst at night until I got it under control. This is a very common side effect. You have nothing to worry about and with inexpensive medication you'll be much better. ~Cheri

You need a PPI - you need Nexium, Prilosec, or Protonix. Your doctor should have prescribed you something like this, but I'm seeing more and more people posting with acid issues lately so I think many doctors simply aren't doing it. Either get to the store or have someone go for you - pick up some generic Prilosec (omeprazole) and you will feel MUCH better. You should be on it daily until you no longer need it and the acid is under control. For most people this is somewhere between six months to one year. The only medicine I tried that did nothing for me was Prevacid, so I'd start with something else. And make sure it's a PPI (proton pump inhibitor) or else you're only treating the symptoms, not the cause and you'll continue to be plagued by acid problems. Hope you feel better soon! ~Cheri

You'll reach a point where losing gets difficult. Some of us are a bit smaller than we thought we'd be when it happens and some people are a bit bigger. Your body pretty well calls it quits on the weight loss when it's ready to stop losing. When you get to that point, where you're trying for a month straight to drop two pounds on the same diet you've been losing on for months, you'll see how tough it would be to keep on shrinking. At that point, you can easily up your calories. You'll want to and you'll feel more "normal" at that point. So long as you go into maintenance with resolved food issues, and you continue to track your food so you know how much you can eat without a problem, you should not see more than a tiny bounce back on the scale. And the great news about having a sleeve is that if you're diligent about weighing yourself and catch a regain early on, it's very easy to take that weight right back off again with reduced calories. The sleeve doesn't lose it's restriction. Good luck, you have nothing to worry about! ~Cheri