JamieLogical

The second day was my worst day. It was the only day I experienced nausea bad enough to cause dry heaving (no food to throw up). Plus I had severe cramps (felt like menstrual cramps) which turned out to be caused by my drain. I promise it gets easier day by day. Hang in there!

There is VERY little blood loss with this type of surgery. The only bleeding at all comes from suturing over the staple line which some surgeons do as an additional guard against leaks. You can watch videos of the surgery online to see what I mean. There is hardly any blood loss at all from the punctures they use to insert the instruments.

I do want to say that most of the patients they have featured so far on that show have been extreme cases. I also want to point out that you should NOT let fear of excess skin deter you from losing weight. Extra skin won't kill you, but excess weight very well may!

Glad to hear you are feeling confident in your decision. The social stigma and general misconceptions about WLS are tough to overcome. It's not until you do some research and realize what it really takes to be successful that you realize it can be an invaluable tool, but is by no means s "the easy way out". Please feel free to post your questions, concerns, and insecurities here as you begin your journey. This community has so much to offer in the form of knowledge, wisdom, experience, support, and tough love!

It is is a simple truth that if you have 100+ pounds to lose, you WILL have excess skin. How much excess skin and whether or not it is enough to justify surgery is completely individual. There are many factors that go into how much excess skin you'll have, starting weight, whether you've gained and lost a lot of weight over and over in the past, how fast you lose the weight, age, genetics.... There are a few things you can do to try to minimize excess skin, but there are no guarantees. Stay well hydrated. Water is great for your skin! Moisturize daily. There are so many moisturizers on the market but look for ones with shae butter, collagen, and other proven ingredients. Take your Vitamins. Many vitamins can help with skin elasticity, including Vitamin C and E. You can also try some supplements that have been shown to help with skin elasticity, like beef Gelatin. Strength training. Building muscle can help "fill out" loose skin. My personal experience is that I lost and gained weight many times throughout my life. My biggest weight loss was 90 pounds back in 2010/2011. I had excess skin in my stomach and sagging breasts, so I had an extended tummy tuck and breast lift with augmentation. I went on to regain 80 of those pounds after my skin removal and before my sleeve. Now, post sleeve, I have lost almost 100 pounds. My stomach still looks great from the tummy tuck, but I have excess skin in my thighs, which I will likely have removed. I was 31 when I had my first round of plastics. I was 35 when sleeved and I'm now 36, almost 37.

For ready-to-drink shakes, I like EAS AdvantEDGE Carb Control (rich dark chocolate was my favorite). They are available at Target and Walmart and some grocery stores. They are very low carb/sugar, which was one of the requirements my nutritionist gave me for my shakes.

You should be able to eat and drink more over time as you continue to heal. If you are actually getting ill from eating more than three bites of food, especially if it's soft/moist food, you might want to talk to your surgeon as you may have a stricture. As for appetite, yes, you will eventually want to eat again. But, for now, just make sure you are eating on a schedule and measuring your food to ensure you are getting enough.

You have your answer by now, but I will pile on and agree that the black and white one is better. It's more flattering, plus i find the style of the black one to be a bit weird. The one exposed breast thing is just kind of strange....

Since you aren't on a true pre-op liquid diet, you could kind of do one of your own. Swap out a couple of meals a day with protein shakes and do high protein/low carb dinner and snacks.

90% of women have cellulite (true statistic, not an exaggeration). Even skinny ones. Unless you are 20 years old and a model, you are going to have cellulite. Here's an article with some tips for how you might be able to reduce cellulite: http://www.sparkpeople.com/resource/wellness_articles.asp?id=1632

You'll likely receive recommendations from your surgeon as your surgery approaches. Most sleeve patients are required to be on a multivitamin, Calcium +D3, and B-12. My nutritionist also wanted me on a probiotic.

I hope not! I don't want to lose anymore weight now. Only way I'm getting into single digits is if I have more skin removal surgery, which I may do... we'll have to wait and see.

Hang in there and keep working at it. If you do, you will get to that pre-op goal eventually, even if it's not as soon as you like. Don't give up just because it might take you a month or two longer than you'd hoped.

I have lost exactly 100 pounds including my pre-op loss of 24 pounds. My starting weight was 260 and I now weigh 160 (5 pounds below goal). Took me exactly one year to reach my goal weight of 165 and I have fluctuated between 165 and 160 in the 5 months since then.

It is VERY good news you are doing better with your protein and water. The weight fluctuation is likely just due to water retention. Don't let it deter you. Getting all of your protein and water in will HELP your weight loss in the long run. Your body just needs to adjust.

I'm wearing a pair of size 10 skinny jeans today and it feels amazing! Skinny jeans?!?! Me? And size 10? Haven't worn that since I was 14 years old!

At 5 weeks, you are still healing and, presumably, aren't doing any intense exercise. At 5 weeks I wasn't even on solid foods yet, so it would have been impossible for me to get 1000 calories even if I wanted to. I remember working very hard after I was on solid foods to try to get up over 800 calories so I could start exercising. At a year out, you are fully healed, living a full life, and hopefully exercising several times a week. In order to sustain that level of activity, you need to get enough calories. If it was as simple as fewer calories equals faster weight loss, why not just eat 240 calories a day, since that's all you need to get 60 grams of Protein? There's a whole lot more that goes into it, especially long term. You need to care for and fuel your body, otherwise your metabolism will just shut down altogether.

You ever try the cauliflower rice from Trader Joe's? I picked some up this weekend and will be trying it out this week. I have heard good things about it, but I haven't felt the need to try it. Since I don't miss rice, I don't really need a rice substitute in my diet. I feel the same way about Pasta. I don't really miss it. I have tried some high Protein pasta post-op, but I'm better off just eating the veggies and sausage and skipping the pasta altogether anyway.

Dehydration and electrolyte imbalance can cause the cramps. I have been potassium deficient my whole life and I get TERRIBLE cramps in my calves while sleeping if I don't get enough potassium or drink enough water. The soreness in my calf will often last 2-3 days after the initial cramp.

My nutritionist had me push my way up to 100 grams a day as soon as possible and I do think that helped a lot. It's very critical for recovery from exercise.

That's exactly what I'm hoping for! I have the same story. I lost weight when I put my mind to it, but as soon as it wasn't the #1 priority it came right back. I've never maintained a weight loss for any decent length of time--certainly not as long as 5 months. Wahoo!! That is actually a great way of putting it. I have kind of an obsessive personality and as long as my obsession was losing weight, I was good at it. As soon as my obsession turned to anything else (like selling/buying a house and moving), then the weight came right back. The great thing about my experience in these 5 months since I reached goal is that I have been able to focus on other things and still maintain my loss.

I'm not sure that I've even tried more than a bite or two of rice since my surgery to know how it affects me. Rice was never like my favorite food or anything so it's one of the easy ones for me to stay away from without really trying. Anything that I would have had served over rice pre-op I just eat by itself now and don't miss the rice at all.

Yay for you! Did you get your date?

I was completely TERRIFIED of the possibility of food getting stuck in my staple line and cause ulcers or leaks, so I religiously stuck the the timeline my surgeon gave me. Why risk it?

For ready-to-drink shakes, I used EAS AdvantEDGE Carb Control (Rich Dark Chocolate was my favorite). For protein powders, I just use Now Sports unflavored whey isolate and mixed my own flavors using Torani sugar-free syrups. But I haven't drunk protein shakes since the day I was cleared to eat solid foods. I was SOOOOOO over them by then! I switched to protein bars for supplemental protein as soon as I was allowed.