delta_girl

Check a BMI chart, too. One suggested estimate is 100 lbs for 5' tall, add 5 lbs for every inch over 5'. That would be 120 lbs for 5'4" and 125 lbs for 5'5".

I'm 5'3" and was 219 pre op and 212 on my day of surgery 9/26/12. I've lost 56 or so lbs (16 weeks if you include the 2 weeks prior to surgery when I lost 7 lbs). I lost a lot at first and since have had a few stalls where I didn't lose for 2 weeks. I'm not sure if that is slow or typical for vsg patients or how that compares to other short people.

Have some diluted fruit juice instead. Or water with lemon or lime. You don't ever "have" to have alcohol to celebrate anything.

I thought I was going to miss soda..really badly. But I don't. Not one bit. Now beer................I knew prior to the surgery that I would be giving it up. That is the only thing I have dripped a symbolic tear for.

You are changing more than others. Maybe their behavior is a direct result of how you are expressing the changes taking place within you, as well as the physical changes taking place in your body.

I haven't eaten popcorn and don't really care to. I have had Cereal with milk one time and am not very interested in it anymore. Sometimes I do have bread. I had crackers at around 3 weeks. I had bites of bread at around 5 weeks. Bread doesn't bother me, but I don't eat a lot of it at one time and I don't eat it very often. I do keep a little bag of Goldfish cheese crackers around if I get a craving for something like that, but it usually only takes a few of them to satisfy that craving. I have also had rice and potatoes a few times. Potatoes taste good but don't have enough nutritional value to allow them much space in my stomach. Rice even less so. We really need to select more nutrient dense foods and quality Proteins. We eat such a small volume of food, we can't afford to put much crap into our systems.

My surgeon says exercise should be viewed as a prescription medication that your body must have. It isn't an option. Some days you may not want to, but you do it anyway.

Hmm...maybe we can all start trying out some brooding, sexy poses and artfully pouting faces.

You can do some searches on this topic at the top of the site. I think that this question gets asked 2-4 times per week. You can search for other topics as well. I had surgery on a Wednesday and was back at work on a Monday.

I switched at the last minute from band to sleeve with no additional anything. But then I'm self pay.

I don't think it is possible for you to get rid of fat only in one part of your body. It comes from all over the body. Heredity and your specific weight distribution are unique to you. For me, it won't matter how much I lose, I will still have a little belly. My mom was tiny at around 5'4" and 104 lbs when she delivered me and she had a little belly. You can build muscle and tone by working out with weights, though.

I'm trying hard to stay away from sweets since those were the biggest part of my food addiction. At night if I want something sweet I have a diet hot chocolate or herbal tea with Truvia. It is satisfying and helps get in more liquids, too.

There are some good points made so far about misunderstanding what your body is telling you. You really do have to relearn some things. Two things that I had to work through were head hunger and then the actual feeling of hunger. I had to define head hunger for me and what the triggers were, then be very aware when that happened. Then those times that I did actually feel hunger, I practiced not feeding it and desensitizing myself to it. Today I actually gave myself a green light to eat a lot more than I usually do, and even add in a few treats. The last week or two I have just not wanted to eat at all and I felt like my body might need to be shocked.

This is a very common thing to happen. I started the morning of surgery and just told the nurses about it. It isn't like its going to go away to make things easier for you Pads help.

My understanding is that it takes a while to work out of your system. Also, it is not completely gone, just the major producer of that hormone. Your body will stil produce some ghrelin. And....depending on how the surgeon goes about his process and taking into consideration that we are each different, the outcome for each of us may be a bit different from one another. My hunger was up and down for about two months. It is always extremely high a few ays before my period. It is higher when I eat way too many simple carbs. But most of the time now (at 14 weeks) I'm more often not hungry at all or just feel a moderate desire to eat.

I had surgery on a Wednesday and was back at work on Monday.

When you are cleared to have them by your surgeon.

It seems like my weight always goes up a few pounds right before I lose. I've also had several frustrating stalls, but overall down 56 lbs in 14 weeks. As long as on average the scale goes down more than up I'm happy. Also.....it isn't a race. It is a lifetime transformation, not instant gratification.

2/3rds of my closet is gone at 14 weeks out. I am at the end of what I can to wear for work (I had sizes 14-20 to start off with), which should get me through the next 10-15 lbs, but then I'm going to have a problem. Since I don't want to invest much of anything in "in between" clothes, I'm heading to Goodwill in a few weeks.

I'm getting in the neighborhood of 4 months out and am almost never hungry. I have to make myself eat.

Neither your doctor nor nurse told you anything about this?

I am in an intensive doctoral program. I started this program in August and had surgery on Sept 26. You just do what ya gotta do. I have a 4.0.

I have a fancy scale from William & Somoma and lots of measuring cups, but I don't use them. I pay very close attention to my body. I'm conservative when I eat and let my body teach me. I have counted calories as my measure. What I have discovered is that in my early weeks with 400/500 calories ... Now is similar with my body signals. I'm still at around 400/600 calories. But you will find what works best for you.

Just from my experience at 14 weeks I'll tell you that I was before, but am now never hungry. I have had a few times that I could have eaten the paint off of the walls. Now eating is a challenge. I don't care if I don't. That is still a problem but so much better than my previous reality