Babbs

I'm 2+ years out. From April to June, I had managed to put on 5 pounds by slacking off a little on my exercise and letting too much sugar sneak back in. I've since done intermittent fasting, focused more on building muscle and high intensity interval training, and upped my Protein to 90 grams a day. It took me a couple of months, but I've managed to take off the 5. I've also lost inches. I was eating 1000 calories a day in weight loss mode, and mostly just a protein prepared the way I like and a green veggie for lunch and dinner. I did start Protein shakes again in the morning to help get my 90 grams in. Lots of Water or very low/no calorie beverages! A few days a week, I would stop eating at 8:00 PM and not eat again until noon the next day, and then eat only 500 calories the rest of the day (mostly just shakes). Those were the 'fast' days. Although hard at first, it seemed to really help get my metabolism going again. I also felt better restriction with my sleeve afterwords. Lots of information online about it if interested. It's called 16:8 Intermittent fasting. Good luck! You'll get back on track!

Very common. The true friends may just be concerned for your safety. Then you can just educate them with the facts. The not so true friends just may be a bit jealous. You'll have to weed out which ones are which and stick with the supportive ones. We need all the support and positive vibes we can get to be successful at this!

If you follow your surgeons program and do what you need to do, you'll get there. I'm living proof. It took me 15 months to lose 95 pounds. Frustrating for sure! I finally got smart and stopped comparing my losses to everyone else and just kept my eye on the prize and the next thing I knew, I was 6 or 7 pounds below my goal. Now I've been maintaining it for a year, and none of the fretting over my weight loss even matters anymore. Besides, almost 10 pounds in 2 weeks is not slow at all. You're doing great so far. Enjoy the journey!

No, not everyone. But I would highly recommend it. It helps with keeping the muscle that will be lost with rapid weight loss and also helps with toning what muscle you have. Doesn't hurt to be heart healthy, either. In my opinion, I don't really think it makes too big of a difference with weight loss whether you exercise or not, because I was the slowest loser on earth and exercised all through my weight loss process. But what it gave to me otherwise was invaluable. I have great muscle tone, was able to stave off a bit of loose skin, and my resting heart rate now is in the 50's. I'm just healthy overall now. But you don't have to kill yourself at a gym, either. Just being more active doing something you love and getting your heart going several days a week is all you really need.

@@Saeed I lost about 30% of my hair, but luckily I had pretty thick hair so it was only noticeable to me and my hairdresser. I had lost it off and on for the first year trying to get my Vitamins dialed in just right. Now at almost 26 months post op, I'd say it was back to it's original thickness and texture it was before.

Yup. Yup. and Yup. And I've also seen literally hundreds of posts from people being on these forums for over 2 and a half years who have also gotten plenty of Protein and took all of their Vitamins and still lost hair. 99% of people lose some. Some more than others. It's really not a huge deal in the grand scheme of things. Those things may reduce hair loss a bit, but it certainly won't prevent it. People lose some hair at around months 3-6 post op, so you may as well get used to the idea. Don't kill the messenger.

You're going to get a variety of answers because people lose weight at such different rates for different reasons. Men lose much faster (boo), if you start out heavier you'll lose more than someone with a lower starting BMI, sometimes being a bit older can make a difference with weight loss. I think I'd lost around 35 pounds at 3 months? I'm over 2 years post op so I can't quite remember, but I check 3 of the boxes I'd mentioned above (a woman, on the older side, lower BMI). I was a bit on the slower side, but ended up below my goal weight and have been maintaining that for a year at a size 6. It takes a bit of an adjustment to get used to. A new way of eating, all the emotional (and physical) aspects that go along with all of the changes, and always making sure you're continuing good lifestyle choices to lose the weight and then keep it off can be taxing at times, but so very worth it if you really are committed to being successful.

He's full of crap. Most have hair loss no matter what we do.

I had Cigna, and I paid $3500 out of pocket

I can't link on my phone, but go to YouTube and watch Dr Matthew Weiner's video called "Myths about bariatric surgery". He explains it really well.

I've told this story before, but relevant. My hubby had RNY 10 years ago. He started at 300 and had gotten down to a healthy 175 pounds, but all he ever heard was "You're too skinny!" And "You need to stop losing weight!" When he was lamenting to his surgeon about the comments, his surgeon simply said "There are so many overweight and obese people these days, they don't even know what a normal weight looks like anymore".

I'm kinda old (almost 50), and I am always perplexed why people feel that everyone is on a need to know basis these days? Maybe it's 24 hour news and social media? Whatever happened to good ol' privacy? I'm one that told people, but if I had chosen not to and people felt the need to ask me what I was having done, you bet your shrinking booties I would have shut them down right quick.

Very little processed sugar, processed food and processed carbs (especially the 'white' stuff).Proteins such as lean cuts of beef, pork, chicken and fish. Beans and nuts are a great Protein source also. Green, non starchy veggies. Fruit, but only in moderation and try to stick to the lower sugar fruit like berries. Lots of low calorie/no calorie fluids every day. Move more. Do that 90-95% of the time, and you'll be golden.

LOL. There's going to come a time where you WISH you could only eat a few spoonfuls of food or a couple cubes of watermelon. And early out, you actually will be satisfied with that small amount of food. That "couple of spoonfuls" literally only lasts for a month or so. The natural progression of things is to be able to eat more as time goes on, and it's not due to stretching. It's due to healing and things relaxing a bit in your stomach. At 2 years out, depending on what it is, I can eat up to 5 Oz of Protein and up to a cup of food. And yes, I have put on weight even with those portions. That's why further out it's not about sleeve capacity at all. It's more about WHAT we're eating. I suggest you stop focusing on what you aren't going to be able to eat and focus more on the reasons why you need this surgery in the first place. It's normal to "grieve" and worry about food more or less at first, but try to understand that to make this surgery successful, eating for pleasure shouldn't be front and center anymore. Otherwise you'll find yourself eating around the sleeve and defeating the purpose of the whole thing

Took me about 5 weeks to feel somewhat human again.

Probably. That's what Spanx and surgery is for if need be

I was 47 and 235 when I had surgery. I lost slowly but steadily. Took me a year to get to 150, and another several months to lose about 7 more. I started cardio along with resistance/strength training at around 6 months out, and have been exercising consistently ever since. It helps a little in my opinion, at least the areas that aren't completely gone, lol. No amount of exercise will help with my panni area, only surgery. I've got a bit on my inner thighs, but my arms and legs look pretty good. I was pleasantly surprised. Like I always say, not bad for an old broad lol.

I, too, am a big fan of the Keto lifestyle and intermittent fasting. I took off almost 6 pounds of regain doing the Keto/Intermittent fasting for a couple of months. So @@Donny, I'm curious. How's your sleeve restriction at 4 years out? I'm 2+ years out and curious.

Yeah, those giant chewable ones are pretty nasty. Everyone I've seen who have been on the Patches have had great labs so far. I actually got away from the chewables about a year ago and am now taking good ol' pre natal Vitamins, lol. They're working great for me. Labs (except for Vitamin D, but I'm always deficient and have to take 50,000 IU's) are awesome.

Keep us posted on what happens. I'm really curious.

See? These are the 'hacks' I was talking about! Find whatever works for you. For instance, I find a little bit of low sugar fruit like berries go a long way when I get a hankerin' for something sweet. For a chocolate craving, I'll bring out the big guns and have a square or two of low sugar dark chocolate. Or a chocolate flavored Greek yogurt. Those things work for me.

I dunno. I just looked at the surgery as some sort of "reset" for me. A 'do over' if you will. I was determined to make it work this time, and so far so good. So honestly, it was fairly easy to mostly stay away from that stuff the first year as I was losing, because I had a goal in mind and was determined to get there. There would be times I would endulge a little, and with the sleeve early out it's fairly easy to take a bite or 2 and be satisfied. That does get harder the further out you get. With me, if I over do sugar or carbs, it gives me terrible cravings for more. So that makes it easy for me to stay away 90% of the time. I hate having to detox from them like a crack addict, lol. I find if I just stay away from it, there's really nothing to miss, and I get no cravings. It's just a fine line I'm always having to walk. There really is no easy answer. What it really boils down to is how bad you want to change your life, and finding the best ways or 'hacks' it takes for you to become successful. If there is an honest goodness issue with food, professional help may be one of the ways to help you succeed, because we obviously can't expect a smaller stomach to do it for us. It really ends up being more about our mindset, not stomach capacity. Good luck on your upcoming surgery!

Totally and completely normal at your stage. Here's why it happens to 99% of us. Keep getting your Protein and fluids and it will pass. A "stall" a few weeks after surgery is not uncommon, and here's why. Our bodies use glycogen for short term energy storage. Glycogen is not very soluble, but it is stored in our muscles for quick energy -- one pound of glycogen requires 4 lbs. of Water to keep it soluble, and the average glycogen storage capacity is about 2 lbs. So, when a patient is not getting in enough food, the body turns first to stored glycogen, which is easy to break down for energy. Then when 2 lbs. of glycogen is used a patient will also lose 8 lbs. of water that was used to store it -- voila -- the "easy" 10 lbs. that most people lose in the first week of a diet. However, when the body stays in a caloric deficit state the body starts to realize that this is not a short-term problem. Then the body starts mobilizing fat from adipose tissue and burning fat for energy. But the body also realizes that fat can't be used for short bursts of energy. So, it starts converting some of the fat into glycogen, and rebuilding the glycogen stores. As it puts back the 2 lbs. of glycogen into the muscle, 8 lbs. of water has to be stored with it to keep it soluble. So, even though the patient might still be losing energy content to their body, the weight will not go down or it might even gain for a while as the retention of water dissolves the glycogen that is being reformed and stored.

If you can weigh every day (or even several times a day) and understand that there are going to be stalls and fluctuations without letting it freak you out or ruin your whole day, then there's no problem weighing more frequently. When I was losing, I weighed daily and recorded my weight on Mondays. Now in maintenance, I still weigh daily for accountability. Before surgery, avoiding the scale was a recipe for disaster for me!

Do the best you can to get your protein in, especially the first few months. It is important for keeping the muscle that's so easily lost during the quick weight loss phase and it does help with healing. I don't think anyone gets all the required protein in the first few weeks, and @@OzRoo is right, hydration is much more important in the early weeks after surgery. People don't land in the hospital for lack of protein, but do all the time for dehydration.