JamieLogical

My nutritionist is all about lowering my body fat percentage, NOT weight loss. Thus she wants me eating 100 grams of protein a day and had me doing 60 minutes of brisk walking per day immediately post-op. My lifting restrictions were minimal and I was allowed to start doing core exercises (crunches, etc.) at two months post-op. If anything, I've gained muscle because I work out all the time now.

Yay! So glad for you. Keep it up!!!!

They used to do "where are they now" type episodes every couple of seasons and you would see that many of them did regain some, if not all of the weight. I've noticed they've stopped doing those altogether now and instead just have some of the "veterans" who have managed to keep off most of the weight show up at the season finales.

I had the esophageal spasms the first little while post-op as well. I found that walking and breathing were the best cures. I would just march in place whenever I was drinking and that seemed to help some, but it was definitely NOT fun. It did get better for me a couple of weeks out.

Yeah, that would be my thought as well. Unlike RNY, the "stretchy" part of the stomach (the fundus) is removed with sleeve. So it really can't stretch all that much. I'm sure it stretches SOME and I am sure some of our vets can attest to that, but I'm pretty sure it's never going to stretch to the point of me eating a whole large pizza in one sitting again... I suspect that a lot of the weight gain experienced years out is due to eating around the sleeve and those patients could just as easily eat around this band.

So far, in my VERY limited resarch, I have only found small 1 year post-op studies. They show no difference in weight loss between banded sleeve and non banded sleeve, but an increase in vomiting in banded sleeve patients. Until there are longer range studies, I guess it's just too early to tell. It does seem that there is more substantial evidence that banding is beneficial in RNY patients, but sleeve and RNY are very different procedures, so it would be incredibly presumptuous to assume that banded sleeve would have similar long term results. Here's a link to the study that mentions increased vomiting: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24464518

That brochure has very limited info and seems to pertain to RNY, not sleeve. I guess I still don't understand what it's actually supposed to do. I'd be pretty concerned about the long term consequences of having a device like that inside of me, especially when the "benefits" are unclear.

Post-surgery, everything is VERY different. I will say that in the pre-op diet, it's common to develop halitosis as your body goes into ketosis and the ketones cause your breath to be bad and your mouth to be dry. This is only temporary.

I did a decent job of convincing myself that I was risking serious injury or complication if I pushed myself too far too fast. That enabled me to stick to my nutritionist's plan as though my life depended on it, because I'd convinced myself it did! I'm in a similar situation now with the whole "protein first" concept. I've got myself thoroughly convinced that if I don't get my protein in, there will be dire consequences. Seems to be working so far!

Welcome! The first few days/weeks can be pretty rough. These forums are a great way to get support and encouragement. Many of us have been there, so fee free to post your questions and concerns. And even if you just want to vent or need a shoulder to cry on, you can usually find a lot of sympathy here.

I have absolutely no idea what you are talking about.

This was my objection as well. He is allegedly a medical doctor and WLS is medically accepted as a viable treatment for obesity, so for him to disparage it they way he did seems medically unethical.

I want to state for the record that having a hard time losing does NOT equal bad results.

35 and I really wish I had done it 4+ years ago instead of losing 90 pounds on my own only to regain 80 of them eventually. If I had had the surgery back then, I would have endured far less emotionally and put much less strain on my poor body.

This sit has some good ideas. I was especially fond of the baked ricotta, because it was almost like having real food! http://theworldaccordingtoeggface.blogspot.com/2007/08/pureed-foods.html

Congratulations on your approval and welcome! This site has tons of great info and a supportive community, so feel free to join in on any of the ongoing discussions or post your own questions.

When are you getting the results from your stool sample? I'm so sorry you are still going through this. Most people have the exact opposite problem in the early weeks post op!

I guess I'm "lucky" then? I've never had a loss of under a pound two weeks in a row so far (almost 6 months out), but I haven't had many losses much over a pound either. I seem to just lose 1.2 to 1.6 pounds week after week, no matter what I do food and exercise-wise. It's slow going, but at least I am losing.

As far as hunger goes, I'm sure you know that the sleeve surgery is supposed to remove the part of your stomach that produces ghrelin. That is supposed to help reduce hunger overall. I'm going on 6 months out and I can say that so far I am RARELY hungry. I had some head-hunger kind of cravings early on, but I'm past that now. I've only been physically hungry a few times, usually when I've gone longer between meals/snacks than normal. Also, I started really dedicating myself to exercise in mid January and I noticed I was getting hungry between breakfast and lunch (probably just because I was burning more calories), so I added a cheese stick as a snack halfway through the morning and that has resolved that situation. I do eat 6 times a day, so I think that wards off the hunger. It's never much more than 2-3 waking hours between meals or snacks, so that doesn't give me the chance to be hungry.

I was allowed to continue taking my prescription medications right through surgery and allowed to begin my supplements again 7 days post-op. I never had any restriction against swallowing pills. Just be sure to discuss it with your surgeon.

I had reflux/heartburn inconsistently before surgery and it was definitely related to my weight back then. I yoyo dieted a lot and when I was at my lower weights, the reflux went away, but at higher weights, it was more persistent. Post-op I was prescribed 40mg omeprazole for the first two months with the instruction to discontinue it after that. I was off of it less than a week and was miserable, so my doctor had me start taking the OTC dose of 20mg per day. That kept things in check for a while, but within the last week or two (right around the 5 month mark) I found I needed to start taking a second pill every day to keep things under control. So now I am taking one in the morning and one before bed and that seems to be going alright. PS: I'm now well below the weight I was at during my acid-free phases pre-op, so it seems that my current acid issues are definitely related to my sleeve and not my weight.

I'm only 6 months out, so take this with a grain of salt, but my restriction is REAL. I am very restricted in how much I can eat at once time, topping out at 2-4 ounces of meat (depending on what type of meat and how it's served). I can eat a whole individual serving of greek yogurt okay now (different story at like 2 months post op) and I even started adding 13 grams of kashi Cereal to that before my workouts so I have a few carbs for fuel. The addition of the cereal really pushes the limits of my sleeve's capacity, but I just eat it very slowly. Now, that being said, I could still eat every hour if I wanted to. I'm not hungry, but once the food has passed through my sleeve, there's nothing to stop me from eating more if I so chose. I could also choose to eat 4 ounces of cake instead of 4 ounces of chicken. I could drink soda and juice non-stop. There are many many many ways that I could sabotage myself and work around/against my sleeve.

I'm a fellow slow-loser. I'm approaching my 6 month mark (March 1) and I've "only" lost 44 pounds. Like you, I am highly compliant, but my body is just determined to lose weight at a set pace, no matter what I do or how I switch things up. Fortunately, my nutritionist hasn't put any sort of timeline on my loss and is much more interested in my remaining compliant. She's not even very concerned with my actual weight and prefers to focus on my body fat percentage. I am sorry you had to deal with people who are only looking at the numbers and not what's going on behind them. Stay strong and don't let them get you down. You know what you are doing and what is working for you. Maybe next time you will get to see your normal surgeon.

YES! It's gas pain and it will go away eventually, but it SUCKED.

Being out of plus size is a big one for me. I am very close now and I can't wait to be able to shop for pants in any department in any store!