Skywalker

Can only speak for myself--the only exercise I do is walking at my job (which can get up to 1.5 miles a day), since the temperatures here in Texas have been brutal this summer (106 the other day) and I don't have access to a gym. I had the surgery in 2014 and lost about 65 lbs post op. It was worth it. Medications are not needed to lose the weight, and I think phentermine is horrible for you. We had a Dr. start us on that and a more competent Dr. took us off it, saying it was dangerous. The surgery should work for you as long as you follow the "rules"; i.e. no drinking carbonated beverages, following the dietary guidelines, trying not to have water with meals, etc.

On my second container of GENEPRO right now. Have been trying to add it to at least two meals a day (so that's 60g Protein right there). I love the consistency and lack of flavor. It actually makes greek yogurt taste a little better, IMO. The weight loss stall might be moving. Down a couple lbs. Will keep you guys posted, I have to figure out something to not be complacent and get this moving again.

Was wanting to get some advice if anyone has it on the best Protein powder out there. Specifically unflavored; I would like to be able to take something with me that I can add to any "regular" portions of food I might be eating (example: sprinkle in soup), that doesn't make it taste gross. It's also important that it's of decent enough quality to mix in well and not clump up. I bought a $17 container of Protein Powder at Walmart called Body Fortress and it was just disgusting, I ended up returning it (I guess you get what you pay for). The top brands of protein powder I've heard of are powders?utm_source=BariatricPal&utm_medium=Affiliate&utm_campaign=CommentLink" target="_ad" data-id="1" >unjury, nectar, and perhaps the GNC brand. Any advice? If the protein was truly tasteless and dissolved well that would be great.

Do you find that the increased Protein intake boosts your weight loss?

Have gotten GENEPRO in the mail today, and used it in some Greek Yogurt. Impressed with it so far; it mixed in well and did not screw up the taste. It's a bit pricey, but if it works I'm sticking with it. Will definitely be worthwhile if it gets me out of the stall. For the first time in a while I'm meeting my daily Protein goal of 60 g.

Thanks for the tip, I'm looking into GENEPRO and have noticed that it has almost 100% positive reviews on Amazon. When I finish my upcoming trial with unjury I think I'm going to test that.

I ordered some unjury and am going to start adding Protein powder to stuff. Don't get me wrong, protein is the main component of my daily diet. I have lots of yogurt, cheese sticks, etc.

I'm at around 8-9 months out from surgery. Have really liked what it's done, but we're coming right up on the one year mark, and I seem to be in a stall. I'm still eating small portions of stuff, but wondering if there's something I can tweak to make this more effective. Since about two months ago, the weight loss has really slowed down to where it's about 2 lbs per month. A bummer, because I'd like to hit 100 lbs by the one year mark if I could. Has anyone noticed that increasing Protein intake (which is hard if you're trying to get in 60g+ per day) helps with the weight loss? I'm also drinking wine a couple times per week, so I wonder if this has a significant impact on keeping it from losing.

This is an interesting idea. Let me ask you this--if I do the liquid diet and lose it like this, do you think that weight will come right back on when I go back on normal foods? The reason I'm asking is because that was how it was before surgery, but then again, maybe after surgery once the pounds are off, they're off for good. I think I'll run this idea by my NUT. Even a modified form of it--like substituting two meals for liquid Protein shakes--is a thought.

Maybe I need to log it into MyFitnessPal and start watching it again. I did make contact with my NUT, and she had suggested to get at least 60 G of Protein in per day (I'd mistakenly thought it was 30); she said something about the body hanging onto weight with not enough protein or something. The exercise...don't know what to say about that. I'm lucky if I get two days of exercise per week, I'm just so exhausted. I just got a job in central Texas (humid/hot) and am up for work and traveling from about 6:00 am to 6:00 p.m., then working overtime some weekends. I just don't know right now how I can summon the energy to get fitness in, which is why I hope for the time being the dietary factors will be enough. My weight tends to go something like......down 2 lbs....up 1 lb.....down 4 lbs....up 3 lbs.....it kind of fluctuates with a downward trend like that, it's weird. I had a nice weight loss for 6 months or so...think I went down around 65 lbs total...but don't want to get too complacent and just call it done with this.

Mine was over in about 45 minutes. Probably depends on the skill of the surgeon and complexity of your case.

yeah I canceled my gastric bypass surgery in 2012. They pushed me for that and I never felt comfortable doing it. I'm glad I didn't. I'm definitely set on going for the sleeve. Great choice! I've heard good things about the sleeve and only had a good experience with it. No technique is perfect, but the sleeve went very smoothly for me, and I absolutely love this new restriction and hope I keep it the rest of my life (no vitamin deficiencies either, strangely, my Vitamin D is too high right now)

Hi all, I got sleeved in December, so almost exactly 5 months ago (and I love it). However, I've only lost about 50 lbs in those five months. A nice amount, but is this abnormally slow? The other people I've been talking to have lost more rapidly, such as 60, 70, etc. by now....

I can only think of one person who has kept the weight off in that period of time without surgery; however, she had gained the weight back in the last three years, and just took a bunch off during her deployment to Afghanistan. I think sometimes WLS is the only way out. There's some weird metabolic things that occur when our BMI gets over 40 or so, and I know from medical research and personal experience that the body really fights us on losing weight. It just seems like: Body hanging onto calories/fat + extreme hunger = no dieting success. I don't know about the first part of that equation, but the WLS at least takes care of the "extreme hunger" portion and puts the odds back in our favor.

I have been told the exact guidelines for meeting the sleeve requirements (monthly Dr. visits for 6 months, psych eval, nutritional consult, BMI, etc.), and was wondering if anyone knew if getting approval through Medicaid was either lengthy or hard/denied often?

I'm a bit discouraged. Had the sleeve on 12-17 and have only lost around 16 lbs. That's being generous. Is it only going to go slower from here? Shouldn't this be more? I've been following the Protein and Vitamin guidelines..

Sorry I haven't checked in for a while; homework and RL :-) Not too bad, I guess. Since surgery, have been a slow and steady loser. It seems to stall for several days, then a couple lbs down. About 1.75 months out and have lost 28 lbs. Will try to keep up with the exercise and the Water, I noticed that helps and I haven't been doing too much of those two when it stalls.

Does anyone have any information about thyroid and WLS? I ran across a rather concerning link that mentioned hypothyroid (improper monitoring) being a risk for sudden death after the surgery. Obviously there are hypothyroid patients that get the surgery, but does it put them at a greater risk for death or unsafe surgery?

Everyone posted a lot of good info. Like you, I at first was going to get the LapBand. After researching it, I basically learned that: While the initial complication rates for the band were lower, the long term complication rate was much higher I figured that I would rather have a surgery and "get it over with" in the first couple months of healing than deal with a lifetime of getting stuck with a needle in my stomach. (this costs money too) The difference in complication rates, even initially, between the sleeve and the band were really almost nothing. I think the band has an initial complication rate of 0.05% and the sleeve of 1%. It's still very, very small. The bariatric surgeons I've talked with have all preferred the sleeve for me over the band. Plus, if the band fails, it gets revised to the sleeve. I just thought--why not get it right the first time? I don't want two surgeries.