JamieLogical

My nutritionist wanted me to have one that measures body fat percentage. Even though it's probably not *that* accurate, I'm only comparing it to itself, so I can at least see that i'm lowering my body fat over time, even if the actual reading isn't correct. Every time she asks me to report my weight in a follow-up, she asks for my body fat percentage from the scale as well. This is the one I have: http://smile.amazon.com/EatSmart-Precision-Capacity-Recognition-Technology/dp/B004L6NTHU/ref=sr_1_1?s=hpc&ie=UTF8&qid=1439580514&sr=1-1&keywords=body+fat+scale

I think you have saved yourself a lot of undue stress and frustration! Good for you!

The mistake you made was using the word "expect". Rate of loss is both completely individual and almost entirely out of your control. Your body is gonna do what is going to do. All *you* can do is stick to the plan and the scale will trend downward. I made the mistake early on of comparing myself to others and it caused me nothing but frustration and misery. I can't even count the number of times I complained about being a slow loser. But you know what? I'm coming up on 12 months out, I'm less than 4 pounds from goal, and I wouldn't change a thing. I realize now that the rate of loss doesn't matter one bit as long as you are losing. If you follow your plan, get in your Water and Protein, and get in some exercise, you WILL lose the weight. And as I often say on these forums, 10 years from now when you are living your happy, healthy life, what will it matter if it took you 6 months or 16 months to get to your goal?

My protein target is a minimum of 100 grams. I don't think I could manage it without my protein bars.

You can't target weight loss. You could do 1000 crunches a day and all you'll end up with is a nice six pack UNDER a layer of fat. The weight's going to come off where it wants to come off. The body is very stubborn that way. Toning through strength training only visibly helps when you have a very low body fat percentage. Trust me. I know a LOT about this. I have ridiculous amounts of weight on my hips and thighs. I run or bike 4-6 days a week and do lower body strength training 3 times a week. All my fat is still coming off places like my face, ribs, arms, back.....

Yay! Congrats!

I'd steer clear of the "protein shots". The type of protein in them is not high quality and is not well absorbed.

My nutritionist definitely wanted me to work toward getting most of my protein from my food every day as soon as possible, but said 1-2 shakes/bars a day is still pretty normal. I do protein bars, because I was SOOOOOO over shakes by the time I was allowed solid foods. Plus I feel like they keep me full longer than shakes do.

Hmm, I don't think it's very common to be feeling worse a few weeks out than in the early days. What food stage are you on? When did you advance from the last stage? Is there anything you are eating now that you weren't eating before that could be making things harder for you?

I learned long before my WLS that weight loss is not a simple equation of calories in versus calories out, like they would lead us to believe. I wore a BodyBugg every day for almost two years and tracked literally every single bite of food I ate (not guestimates, actually WEIGHING it out). There were times when I was driving myself completely insane because my calorie deficit said I should have lost three pounds but I only lost half a pound. Or I should have only lost one pound, but I lost three. I kept elaborate spreadsheets to see if things would at least even out over time and they didn't even come close! It was incredibly frustrating! Post-WLS, I am much more zen about it. As long as the scale is trending downward and I am getting healthier, I am happy. I have the whole rest of my life to reach my goal weight if I needed to. And I'm really not even that invested in a target goal weight. I'm getting healthy and strong. I can run 3.1 miles without stopping! I am working on improving my speed. I feel good and comfortable in my own skin. I am enjoying life. For me, finishing a 5k race is WAY more gratifying than seeing some arbitrary number on a scale. I will probably get to my goal weight. I'm only 3.4 pounds away as of this morning. But at this point, that goal seems so insignificant compared to the true impact WLS has had on my life and health.

@@ExplosiveAmnesia I get what you are saying about the psychological aspect of weight loss/maintenance. Here are the differences for me. In the past, I have successfully lost weight through diet and exercise many times. My most successful "diet", I lost 90 pounds in one year (more than I lost in my first year post-WLS). The way I lost those 90 pounds was to literally track every single bite of food that I ever ate and every minute of exercise I ever did. I had a BodyBugg to help with tracking my calorie burn every day. I had to be perfect and meticulous and it worked! However, that's not a realistic way for someone to live their entire life. No one can be prefect every day forever, especially not me! One of the main things that sustained me mentally through that period was the belief that one day I would be "done" and that I wouldn't have to keep tracking every single thing I ate and did every single day for the rest of my life... just until I reached goal. With my sleeve, I still have to eat right 95% of the time. I still have to exercise regularly. But I don't track my food every day. If I miss a day of exercise here and there, I don't beat myself up about it. I don't have the same "all or nothing" mentality that I did in the past, because I know my sleeve is forever. I'm not going to be "done". There is no end in sight. This is my new life and I will just live like this every day. So if I miss a day of exercise or I eat something "bad" one day, it's only one day in the grand scheme of my whole life. It has allowed me to have a much more realistic outlook and not be so OCD. So it has definitely helped me with the psychological component as well. Also, I've really had to find other ways of processing and dealing with my emotions. When I was on diets in the past, I could technically still eat my emotions when things got really bad, I just tracked it all and tried to make up for the extra calories with exercise. So the opportunity to eat my emotions was still there. With my sleeve, I couldn't eat my emotions if I wanted to, so I really did have to find other ways of coping.

Listen to your body. If you aren't getting enough calories, you will feel it. You will fatigue more easily and you will be physically hungry more often. Also, the scale will likely stop moving. If you are getting enough calories, you will have more energy to make it through your day and workouts, you won't get hungry between snacks/meals, and the scale should be moving steadily.

It depends on how far out from surgery your are. Usually it has to be Clear liquids the last 1-2 days pre-op and nothing at all 12 hours pre-op. Then it's usually clear liquids the first few days post-op.

The trick is finding the balance. If you aren't eating enough calories to sustain your exercise intensity, then you WILL stall out, because your body will try to preserve itself. I didn't start intense cardio until I was about 4 months post-op and was able to eat enough calories to make it work. Everyone is different, so you have to experiment to find what works for you. If I was only consuming 800 calories a day, there is no way I could sustain the level of exercise I'm doing. However, I eat 1200-1500 calories a day and continue to lose doing intense cardio 4-6 times per week. For me, "intense cardio" is running a 5k with a 5 minute warm-up walk and a 10 minute cool-down walk. Or biking an interval program on my recumbent exercise bike for 45 minutes, followed by a slower cool-down, which usually totals out to about 14 miles.

Sounds like you've really thought about it and made the right choice for yourself. Hope everything goes well and you can get to enjoying your new life very soon!

What you want is Powerade Zero or G2. However, if you are only a couple of days out from surgery, the extra calories from full-sugar Gatorade will only help, not hurt. Just don't make a habit of it! And do dilute it with water, 50/50. My nutritionist told me I was allowed to have juice, gatorade, vitamin water, etc. in the first few days post-op as long as I mixed it with water.

I can only answer for myself here, but if losing weight was an Olympic sport, I would be a multi-gold medal winner. I am a PRO at losing weight. World class weight loser over here! However, when it comes to weight MAINTENANCE, I am literally THE WORST. If there's one thing I've failed at most in my life, it's weight maintenance. For me, WLS had nothing to do with losing weight. It maybe helped make the weight loss a little different (wouldn't even say "easier") this time around. But, the key is that I now have a tool to help me MAINTAIN my weight once I am at goal. I won't be able to go right back to eating and entire pizza and pint of ice cream the moment I am "done" losing weight. I am forced to maintain the new style of eating that I've developed as a result of WLS. My sleeve is for life! I can never be "done" with it!

It will get a *little* better 3-4 days in, but it will definitely suck pretty hard core the whole way through.

It actually gets a little bit better even during the pre-op. The headaches are due to your body entering ketosis. That's usually about a 3 day process. Once you are in ketosis, you won't experience the headaches again unless you eat too many carbs, fall back out of ketosis, and have to start all over again. However, with that being said, if your pre-op diet is as few calories as mine was, you will be very tired and hungry the whole time, because you are literally starving. Hang in there. I won't say it gets "better" post-op, at least not immediately, but it is certainly very different. The things you will be coping with post-op are very different from what you are experiencing now.

@@glowickit Welcome!

Oh thank goodness! One less thing to stress about!

Hmmm.... I don't know how a dissolvable stitch compares to the hundreds of permanent stitches I have in my ab muscles from my tummy tuck with muscle repair four years ago, but I don't think it took me more than a couple of months to get to where I could sneeze, cough, and laugh without pain. I wasn't allowed to do any ab exercises for MANY months post-op. But I would think that if you just have the one stitch and it will dissolve eventually, then you shouldn't have much more than a month of pain left.

Good luck! Hope all goes well. And remember that it all gets easier day-by-day so hang tough if you have any troubles post-op.

GERD can be a real issues for sleeve patients. I have to be on a PPI twice a day at 11 months out, but it's still well worth it to me. It is definitely a risk. You have to think long and hard about whether it's a risk you are willing to take. Any surgery is a risk!

I used to worry a LOT about fitting into chairs and seats. I would always buy tickets for the end of a row at a play or concert, because then I knew I would only have to crowd my husband on the one side and no one on the other side of me. When I had to take airplane flights alone, I would always get an aisle seat too and then just try to scrunch over as much as I could against the aisle arm rest so I wasn't "spilling over" into the seat next to me and crowding some poor stranger.