JamieLogical

Where I had my surgery, they would have kept me an extra night if I needed them to, but I didn't. I would have felt very cooped up in the surgical center if I'd had to stay there a second night. I liked being back in the hotel with my own space.

I did a little "research" of my own recently. We've all seen the "where are they now" articles and news pieces about some of the past Biggest Loser contestants that mostly feature those who have managed to keep *most* of the weight off. Almost all of them seem to be professional trainers or professional Biggest Loser contestants who just travel around the country attending events and giving speeches and they clearly need to keep up their appearances as ambassadors for the show. Well, I decided to look up some of the contestants we haven't heard from or seen since the early days of the show. I tracked down their facebook, instagram, and twitter feeds to see if I could find recent pics of them. Most of those I found appear to have regained all of the weight and then some. It's very unfortunate, as I had really rooted for those people back when they were on the show. Matt from Season 1 was a really big blow to me. He was one of my favorites and to see him now MUCH bigger than he'd been at the start of the show was very sad.

I had a situation where I thought my drain site might be infected, as it wasn't healing shut right away and was oozing puss. I took photos and emailed them to Dr. So and he called me back immediately. He said it didn't look infected, to keep it clean, and if it got worse or I was still concerned, I should go to urgent care. It turned out he was right, it wasn't infected and it healed up fine. As for communication with my PCP, direct communication was never necessary, but I'm sure it could have easily been arranged if needed. I was provided with the full surgical report, a copy of my EKG, and a copy of my lab results. I gave copies of all of those things to my PCP the first time I saw her post-op.

Story of my life! I have even gone so far as to shop for specialty jeans online that are supposed to accommodate people with large butts/thighs and smaller waists and they STILL had that stupid gap in the back. Ugh!

I agree with @@KingMoose that strength training is critical. Not only does it help stabilize or even increase your metabolism, it helps prevent you from losing muscle as you lose weight. If you don't do any strength training, a fair percentage of the pounds you lose WILL be muscle. The whole idea is to be losing FAT, so in order to do that, you need to work to maintain your muscle.

When I went to TJ for plastics several years ago, I was provided with stocking and compression garments, which I wore. When I had my sleeve done in September, I was given compression stockings, but my surgeon removed them, because the elastic was really cutting into my calves, so I didn't wear any on that trip home.

Are you avoiding the doctor because you feel ashamed of the overeating? And when you say you are overeating, what exactly do you mean? Are you overeating in a single sitting or are you grazing through the day or are you eating the wrong things?

Except you aren't taking into consideration the decreased metabolism from losing weight. When your body has to start burning stored energy for fuel, you metabolism slows. So your basal metabolic rate will decrease as a self-preservation mechanism. That's why it takes some trial and error to strike the right balance. If you go too low on calories or too high on exercise, your body will start hanging onto every single bit of fat as long as it can. So you have to try to find a calorie range where you can sustain your level of activity and still continue losing weight steadily. That's why people who are stalled in their weight loss are often encouraged to consume MORE calories to lose weight. They need to consume enough calories to convince the body it's not starving.

Holy cow! I don't know how you manage to eat Subway bread. Just thinking about it makes my sleeve hurt! I can barely manage any bread-like thing at all. The most "bread" I've managed to eat in one sitting is about 3/4 of one slice of Pepperidge Farms Light Style Soft Wheat, which is very thin and only about 3" square. I toast it to make it a little less "spongy", but it still fills me up SO MUCH! Made myself an open-face egg "sandwich" with that a few times and that's it. I'd avoid bread for the carbs anyway, but the restriction really doesn't give me much choice.

I got an aisle seat for my flights home so I had easy access to get up and walk around. Just made a couple of trips to the bathroom when the drink cart wasn't in the way. You shouldn't need any special access or accommodations for boarding. You likely won't be in much pain. All I did was ask someone near me if they would mind putting my bag in the overhead compartment for me. I just said "I just had surgery. Would you mind lifting my bag for me?" and everyone was very helpful. I didn't bring a checked bag with me for my VSG surgery, but when I had plastics several years ago, I did pretty much the same thing. Just asked someone near me at the baggage claim conveyor if they could grab the bag off the belt for me. I was sure to bring bags with wheels for both carry-ons and checked bags!

No no no. The gain has NOTHING to do with increased calories. You didn't increase your calories by 10500 did you? When you begin exercising intensely after a long period of not exercising, your body retains Water to heal your muscles. That 3 pounds is 100% water weight. Read this: http://www.sparkpeople.com/blog/blog.asp?post=why_the_scale_goes_up_when_you_start_a_new_workout_plan

I was allowed to swallow whole pills at 7 days post-op, so maybe ask your surgeon about that? I take a generic version of Citrical Maximum. It's two large pills twice daily.

It's really not quite that simple, but yes. If you are going to increase your activity level, you need to consume more calories to sustain yourself. While a calorie deficit is required for weight loss, too large a deficit will decrease your metabolism and slow your loss overall. So you need to strike a balance, which you can only really do through trial and error on your end. Also, listen to your body. I know that when I started seriously exercising, I started to feel more real, actual hunger and had to add a bit to my diet to make up for that.

I've tried coming off my PPI twice post-op and had acid issues again immediately both times. I'm okay with being on a PPI forever. I would rather that than have another surgery and revise to bypass with all the potential complications there. I mean, I'm already on vitamins for life, what's one more pill to take every day?

You're going to have a hard time finding any sort of bar with low total carbs. There are many low net carb options, but I haven't seen any with low carbs overall. It's the nature of the beast. In order for it to have a bar shape, size, and consistency, it needs to be filled with SOMETHING, and that something is always carbs of some sort.

I ate all my protein and took all my vitamins and still experienced hair loss as well. It was at its worst from about 3.5 months to 5 months post-op. I am now almost 8 months and it has slowed considerably. Still have more coming out than I did pre-op, but I also have a lot of new growth.

It really depends on how far out you are from surgery and what you are eating. I am almost 8 months post-op. I can now eat about 3-4 oz. of dense meat (chicken, pork, etc.) in a meal. If I'm eating something liquid-y... like greek yogurt, I could easily eat 6 or more oz. I eat the 5 oz. containers every day and never feel restriction with them. I also have no trouble eating a 2 oz. Protein bar in about 5 minutes.

You should go by whatever your nutritionist tells you, since every pre-op diet is different.

That article is an opinion piece, not a study, and is written by one doctor, hosted on his website full of pop-up ads trying to sell me his books and supplements. Sorry if I have a hard time taking it as gospel. Even he says 40-70 grams a day and more for people who are aggressively exercising or pregnant women. He doesn't specifically mention bariatric patients, but it is a commonly accepted that WLS patients also fall under a category that has a higher protein requirement. He says these groups need 25% more protein than normal, so that would mean 50-88 grams. And this is coming from a guy who is clearly anti-protein!

Follow your nutritionist's instructions when it comes to post-op diet. I wasn't allowed baby food (not that I would have wanted it anyway!).

I didn't realize you hadn't been working out lately. How long has that been the case and does your overuse injury prevent you from doing ANY exercises or just specific types?

Working out definitely increased my hunger. I had to add a morning snack because I was getting hungry between breakfast and lunch. When I started working out I added a reduced fat string cheese as a morning snack and some kashi cereal or granola to my afternoon greek yogurt. By adding a little bit of carbs to my afternoon snack, I had more energy for my workouts, which I always do right after I get off work. Those small changes helped alleviate my hunger and helped fuel me through my workouts.

The are the perfect size, since you are only supposed to start off with 2 oz. of soft foods/purees when you get to that stage. I bought big tubs of reduced fat cottage cheese and portioned them out into those containers so I could just grab them out of the fridge. Also worked great for tuna once I was allowed to have it, though I could NOT finish two whole ounces of tuna at the start.

I felt the same way when I started week 6, but that was also coming off a week-long vacation where I didn't work out at all. My week 5 long run was my last workout before vacation and when I tried to start week 6 when I got home, it was tougher than I thought it would be!

You should do a little research on the matter, before offering your "expertise": http://www.precisionnutrition.com/high-protein-safe-for-kidneys And, btw, even most of the people who claim that protein is bad for the kidneys wouldn't consider 100 grams too much, depending on the person's weight.