JamieLogical

Like @@shedo82773 said, you will definitely want muscle repair along with the panni. If you have had children or are "apple" shaped (store most of your fat in your stomach), then it is highly likely that fat UNDERNEATH your muscle has stretched it out (just like fat under your skin stretches your skin out) and the only way to repair that is to surgically tighten it up. You will not get as good results with a panni alone if your muscle fascia is stretched out. @@WLSResources/ClothingExch Yes, that's me in the pictures I posted. Those are from one year post-sleeve and four years post-plastics. I actually am a rare case that had plastics BEFORE my sleeve. I had lost weight "on my own" and had plastics back in 2011. Unfortunately, I regained almost all the weight I'd lost by the summer of 2014, which is when I decided to have VSG. Luckily, my tummy tuck held up well through the weight regain and re-loss. My boobs, not so much. I'm going to have to have a revision for those eventually.

"Eat more to lose more" is a little hyperbolic. It's more like "eat ENOUGH to lose steadily". Clearly, in order to lose weight, you have to create a caloric deficit. I don't think anyone is suggesting otherwise. But creating too large a caloric deficit over an extended period of time has undeniable impact on your metabolism. Even the study the OP mentions concedes that much.

Here are some pics of my scars around 4 years post-TT. I had an extended TT (almost circumferential), but not the fleur de lis. The last pic shows how underwear hides the scar completely. I have much skimpier underwear than that and it's still completely hidden.

Like @@jess9395 said, I have always thought of my sleeve as "weight maintenance surgery" because weight LOSS was never my problem. Keeping off the weight I lost was always the issue. I joke that if losing weight was an Olympic sport, I'd have several gold medals. I obviously can't speak for you and what your experience will be. But I found myself in a vicious cycle of weight loss and regain over the course of many years. My largest loss in one go was 90 pounds (270 down to 180), but as I regained that weight, I would gain 30, lose 25, gain 50 lose 40, etc. all the way back up to 260 pounds when I finally decided to pursue WLS. I know I *could* lose the weight on my own yet again, but I also know that the definition of insanity was doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. I knew that in order to fix my weight problem for good, I needed to do something different! For me, the challenge was my mindset. I have always been goal oriented. I have always been great at setting a goal and working toward it until I achieved it. The problem is, once I achieve that goal, I'm kind of like "meh, done with that now". So I would get to my goal and then just go back to exactly my old habits that got me obese in the first place and move onto my next life goal. The real difference for me with the sleeve is that it is forever. I can never be "done" with it, the way I would be with my diets. I had to completely change the way I eat in order to live and that is a lifelong change, not just a means towards reaching a goal. PS: I reached my goal weight right at my one year mark and I have been maintaining below goal for over a year now. WAY longer than I was ever able to maintain my weight loss in the past! And now the goals I set for myself are things like running a marathon (did that on September 18), instead of just seeing numbers go down on a scale!

Proton pump inhibitor. It's a form of medicine that prevents the creation of stomach acid. You should have received a prescription for it post-op.

I had the chest pain (constricting esophagus) with every teeny tiny sip in my early weeks post-op to. You really do just need to take tiny sips. Aim for one ounce of Water every 15 minutes, so only 1/2 cup per hour. Also, try marching in place as you are sipping. Strange as it sounds, that helped me some. The good news is, that muscle spasm/constriction thing only lasted a little over two weeks for me, so hopefully you are nearing the end of it. As for the heart burn, are you taking a PPI? If so would your surgeon consider upping your dose? I was on 40mg of Omeprazole daily for the first two months post-op.

That's actually very common and something you need to be mindful of. For a 5k, you probably won't "burn out", but if you move on to longer distances, it can be an issue. Many longer racers will have "pacers". These are people who run a constant pace and if you have aspirations of completing the race in a specific time, you can just match their pace the whole way. They hold up a sign or have a special t-shit on or some way of indicating who they are and what pace they are keeping.

@@jess9395 Function above form! I try to wear as few articles of clothing as possible so there is less opportunity for chafing. A shirt introduces all sorts of new potential chafing!

Congrats! Onederland is right around the corner!

I admit I didn't read the study mentioned in the OP, but I am curious to know exactly how much of a calorie deficit the subjects of the study had. Were they truly "starving" in the sense that anorexics or people in impoverished environments are "starving" or were they merely creating a significant enough caloric deficit to lose weight? I would think the impact that true starvation would have on your metabolism could potentially be more drastic and permanent.

The "rule" is because some people allow the scale to make them crazy. Especially early on, the scale is a VERY poor indicator of progress and "success". Weight can fluctuate drastically from one hour to the next. Some people just can't handle seeing the scale not move or move up. If you can handle it and understand that the numbers aren't a reflection on your success, then go for it. If you are going to be emotionally affected by what the scale has to say, then just put it away somewhere and only get it out to weigh once a week or even once a month to track your basic trendline.

An 11 minute mile is nothing to sneeze at. I too had ambitions of running a sub 30-minute 5K, but gave that up long ago. I have embraced my slow running and opted to increase distance instead. Which I've obviously been pretty successful at!

Yeah, you will feel better once you can get more calories in. Fatigue was a major issue for me through my liquid and puree phases.