Babbs

I lost 17 pounds the first 6 weeks. I have lost 100% of my excess weight and have been maintaining for close to a year now. You're doing great. No, you're not even close to being done losing. Keep working the program and you'll see results. I promise. Get that doubt outta your head and get to work getting your fluids and protein!

@@JupiterinVirgo With all due respect, get back to us in 5-10 years when you successfully have lost all your weight and kept it off. Then, and only then, will I take credence into anything you say.

What she said ^^^^ I find it a little disheartening when people think they don't have to change their eating habits just because they can eat less. This thinking is why over 50% of people gain some or all of their weight back. The hardest part of this whole process is realizing our love affair with food really has to end. It really has to turn into more of a respect for food by understanding what we eat can either make us or break us. Mindful eating, not eating less, is they key to our success. Understanding that is half the battle.

And you wear them well! You look incredible!

Yes, this happens more often than not. It's actually pretty normal. I've seen it on these forums over an over, and have personally witnessed it first hand with my husband and his sister. I'm kind of expecting it, although I'll fight it the best I can when the time comes. Although it can be a bummer to not still be at our lowest weights, I believe our bodies find their 'set point' after several years, and resists any loss even more. This has just been an observation of mine. I'm hoping I'm not too distressed over a 10 or 15 pound gain when the time comes that I can at least cut it off at the pass and hopefully be happy I'm not 235 pounds again! But we shall see

One thing I've learned is that it's different with the surgery. Our bodies get used to the severe calorie deficit, and if we don't continue to increase calories as we get further out from surgery, it can screw up our metabolic rates. You don't want to have to maintain your weight when you get to goal on 800 calories for the rest of your life, do you? You'll find what works for you.

First of all, you look great! But you're correct on the assumption that your habits will eventually cause weight gain, because they will. There will come a time when we will be able to eat closer to normal portions again, therefore the math speaks for itself. Also, most people I know who have kept their weight off years out stay very active moving or do have a steady excersise routine. In my opinion, the easiest way to break the sugar habit is to just stop the sugar habit. Sugar causes cravings. No sugar, no cravings. I eat very little to no processed sugar and food for that reason alone. It's not because I'm so disciplined, I just find its easier to stay away from if you don't have it. And I HATE having to detox off of it. I feel like a heroin attic when I do, lol. Being aware that your habits could be better is the first step. Just tweak a few things and you'll feel better and more in control. And yes, get additional help if needed whether it's from books, therapy, support groups, or whatever.

.2 lb is 3.2 ounces. You really shouldn't be stressing over 3.2 ounces. Our bodies can vary by 4lbs any given day just on the content of our intestines and Water in our body. Your intestines are 25 feet long, think about all that can be held in 25 feet. Maybe weight once a week? Ah, the days of stressing over .2 oz of gain. You'll learn to get used to the fluctuations. It's just normal and natural for our bodies to fluctuate in weight hourly, daily, weekly. You'll also know (I mean REALLY know) when it's just your body fluctuating or from what you are or aren't eating. I've fluctuated 1-3 pounds for the past year. Doesn't affect me in the least anymore. Now if that number continued to go up, then I'll do what I need to do to adjust things.

YES! And that's our prerogative! Jeez. If it's not breaking the law, we don't have to DO or TELL anybody anything! Why are people on their damn high horses about this?

At 20 months out, I can eat up to a cup of some foods now. Enjoy it while it lasts.

Unless they are being extremely nosey and rude, nobody is going to say anything about how much you're eating. I used to worry about the same thing until I realized nobody cared what or how much I was eating. If you don't make it a big deal, they won't make it a big deal. Simple as that.

I gotta say, this thread chokes me up a little. So many amazing transformations and smiling people! You all are such an inspiration!

Uh -- that's not how I eat 20 months post-op. Yes, I spent the first 6-8-10 months being very disciplined about what I ate, when I ate, how I ate. And in doing so I built some new habits. And, badda boom! Now they're habits. I don't count bites or chews or anything like that now. By working hard to build those new habits, I learned how to eat much more slowly, how to chew my food much better, how to recognize what satiety feels like, how to know when I'm approaching "too full" and to stop before I get there. Trust me, I had some awful bad habits pre-op. I bet you do, too. We can't change those bad habits without some serious attention to our behavior. It's not persuasive to say to you, "Trust me, I don't have an eating disorder." But I don't have an eating disorder. What I have is a new lifestyle. I feel very relaxed in this new lifestyle. There's no anxiety about eating. There's no fear, anger, or other upsetting emotions about food. Isn't that what you want? Y'know -- on the front end it does sound *extreme* to remove 85% of your stomach. But on the back end where I am now, it just all feels normal. I just spent a week hanging with some good friends of mine -- all normal-sized and athletic people my own age. We were both eating at home and eating out, too. Some serious partying occurred, as well. What I notice in those settings is that, nearly two years post-op, I am now living the same kind of eating / exercise life they've been living for a long time. They watch what they eat. Read that again: They watch what they eat. Their watching is not obsessive, but it's attentive. I think there's a range of behaviors between obsessive and attentive, and it's intellectually lazy to equate the two end poles of that range. So don't do that. Actually, the barrier to my maintaining past weight losses wasn't the planning -- it was that my plans were so often blown out of the Water because I'd never built any new eating habits beyond the "diet to lose weight" phase. After you lose all your excess weight, after a year or so you can eat so much more than you could right after surgery. The first week after surgery I averaged probably 500 calories/day, all of it liquid. But over the last 20 months I have gone carefully from phase to phase to phase. I didn't go from Dieting one day to Struggling Not to Gain Weight the next day. (How I did all that is a big subject, and one I won't go into here, but it wouldn't surprise you how I did it.) Yesterday, I ate 3 meals and 2 Snacks -- all real food. I do record most days my menus on My Fitness Pal (it takes me all of 5 minutes -- I'm a data hound). Yesterday I ate 1,805 calories, 103 grams of protein, 189 grams of carbs, 67 grams of fat, 23 grams of insoluble fiber. Girl, that's how a real person who's eating healthy and maintaining her weight eats! Oh, and yesterday morning I went for a hike up a small mountain with my sister and late yesterday afternoon I spread 20 bags of mulch in some flower beds. And I went shopping. I wasn't wearing my pedometer all the time, so don't know how many steps I got, but it was at least 10,000 I'm sure. Am I obsessive? Or am I attentive? You decide. You can also read this post to your therapist and see what she thinks. Last thought: You should not do this surgery unless and until you are really comfortable that it's the right choice for you. Don't let anyone here talk you into it, including me. @@VSGAnn2014 This post is damn near perfection

You know this old joke? Guy raises arm to show doctor "Doc, it hurts when I do this" Doctor: "Then don't do that" When you're cooking and tempted to eat fries and other junk weeks out from surgery when you know it could potentially harm you? Don't do that. Sorry if that sounds self righteous.

Look, bottom line is this: You're going to have to learn to delay gratification if you want to be successful with this. If you can't do it with sheer will power, then seek therapy, support groups, read books...whatever you have to do. I'm certainly not going to pat you on the head and validate your behavior. I made my choice, and I chose to follow my plan and not do anything to jeopardize my health and happiness. I'm no better than you are, and my struggle I'm sure is similar to yours, otherwise we both wouldn't have had the surgery. Now do whatever you need to do to make the choice to be successful and healthy . You're worth it.

Getting older really helps with the "not giving a shit what other people think" thing.

We make choices every day. If we want to no longer be obese or not go back to being obese, we make the choice to watch what we are eating and move more with or without surgery. Surgery just made that choice a little easier for me. It is what it is.

Each and every one of us here are the 'lucky' ones. As obese and formerly obese people, we will have to watch everything that goes into our mouths for the rest of our lives or run the risk of either staying obese or being obese again. I think as soon as I realized that fact about myself, it just got easier to do what I needed to everyday to keep the results I want. Is it hard and does it completely blow sometimes? Absolutely! But it's the hand I was dealt. It is what it is.

I've found that the surgery kind of messes with our systems, so rate of loss can be so different than without surgery. That being said, years ago I lost almost 50 pounds on WW's in 6 months in my 20's. Then again in my 40's, but it took me about 7 months that time. It took me 6 months to lose a little over 50 pounds with WLS. So it seems I'm on the slower side with and without WLS. I always say I have the metabolism of a koala. Obviously at this point in the process at goal and maintaining now for about 7 months, it matters not. It's all about keeping it off that's most important to me, not how quickly or slowly it came off.

But it hurts. And really inflamed.

I went from a 42DD to a 36D looooong. They are now facing downward.

Your stomach looks like the picture I attached. It's far from being fully healed, so there are nerves that are cut and your "full" sensations may be a little wonky. Everyone is right. Just because you can, doesn't mean you should. Get into the habit of measuring things out and stopping when it's gone. You'll be glad you started that habit!

Don't be a hero. Take your pain meds if you need them. That's why they are prescribed. You just had major surgery. Take it a little easy on yourself, hmmmm?

@@CowgirlJane is actually one of the most self aware people on this forum, Barry Sue. I always enjoy her posts becuse of that.

A few years earlier, my mom had passed due to heart failure due to a heart attack she'd had after struggling with high blood pressure. She, like me, had gone up and down with her weight her whole life. It was when my blood pressure read 159/96 I'd decided I was not going to die at 69 like my mom had if I could help it. The rest is history. I plan to be the one to break the cycle of relatively early death that runs in my family.