JamieLogical

I think I'm going to have my doctor start documenting my inner thigh chafing immediately (have an appointment on the 24th) in the hopes of maybe getting my insurance to cover a thigh lift down the road. Chances are slim, but I might as well try, right?

I lost 8.6 pounds the first week of my pre-op diet and only 2.2 pounds the second week. I think it's pretty normal to lose really fast right in the beginning, because it's such a shock to the system, depending on how extreme your pre-op diet is. Full disclosure, though, I went from exercising every day the first week to every other day the second week, because my energy level just go SO LOW on so few calories. My pre-op diet was only 450 calories a day.

I decided to cut out caffeine during my pre-op diet, so I wouldn't be going through withdrawal right out of surgery. I was not allowed to have caffeine until 30 days post op, just had my first post-op cup of coffee yesterday! Anyway, while the caffeine in 5 Hour Energy isn't great for pre-op, the Vitamin B is. Your energy level is going to drop a lot, depending on the calorie restrictions of your pre-op diet, so it's a good idea to start taking B12 along with the pre-op diet, since most surgeons are going to have you on B12 post-op anyway. That will help somewhat with your energy levels.

I'm curious if you guys have all been tracking your weight weekly since your surgery. I've been keeping a spreadsheet where I track my weight every Monday morning (my surgery was on a Monday) and I find it fascinating to see the differences in how much weight I've lost each week, even though I'm only 4 weeks out so far. I would LOVE to see some of your stats if you are willing to share them so I can see how much variance there is in the week-to-week losses further out from surgery than I am. So, if you have been tracking your weight weekly, please post all the weekly stats here! Here's mine so far: Surgery: 235.6 Week 1: 228.6 (-7.0) Week 2: 228.2 (-0.4) Week 3: 224.4 (-3.8) Week 4: 221.8 (-2.6) Looking forward to seeing yours!

Congrats on reaching Onederland! Seeing your stats gives me a lot of hope, because your numbers aren't huge from week to week, but they've really added up over the course of 15 weeks! Down over 40 pounds! Very very encouraging!

I'm trying to not let it get to me. I will be one month out tomorrow and have "only" lost a little under 15 pounds so far post-op. I see people saying things like "I'm three weeks post-op and I've lost 45 pounds, but the weight loss seems to be slowing" and I'm like WTF?!?! I just remind myself that I am losing and this is a marathon, not a race. There are many advantages to slow weight loss. For one thing, most of my coworkers don't know I had WLS, so I'm not having to explain to anyone how I've managed to lose 45 pound in 3 weeks. Also, I imagine my excess skin situation will be much less dire if I lose weight slowly. Oh, and I won't be having to get all new clothes every month with my current rate of weight loss!

OMG, I can't believe your wife asked you to make her dinner when you can't eat it! WTF? The pre-op diet is tough, depending on the guidelines you have to follow. Mine had me only getting 450 calories a day so I was dead on me feet all of the time. It definitely sucked pretty hard-core, but I got through it and it's becoming a distant memory. Hang in there!

Pretty much none at all. I was able to fend for myself the day after I had my surgery. If I'd had pets or children to take care of, it might have been a little more difficult, but taking care of myself was no issue at all.

Every surgeon has different requirements. Who knows how they decide upon one method or another, but I like to assume they know what they are doing. My surgeon only allowed me 3 Protein shakes per day (max of 150 calories each), one green salad with calorie-free dressing, and sugar-free Jello or popsicles. Since the salad and sugar-free stuff had next to no calories, that was only 450 calories a day for me.

Congrats on taking such a huge step! You are choosing a better life for yourself and your family!

Well, the issue is that everyone's pre-op diet is different. You say you are feeling great and don't have headaches, but then you go on to say you are eating just under 1200 calories a day. My pre-op diet had me on only 450 calories a day, so my experience was VERY different from yours! I'm glad things are going easily for you, though. I wouldn't wish my experience on my worst enemy!

You need to eat a high protein meal/snack within two hours of exercising. You will find a MILLION articles telling you that.

As I reading your post I was going to advise just waiting until your next physical with your PCP, but by the time I got to the end, you already suggested it. I's think that would be sufficient unless you are experiencing any symptoms of vitamin deficiency or whatnot.

He uses glue on the incisions and steri-strips on the drain site once it's removed. I was able to take a shower my first day back at the hotel. You will have to wait to take a bath or go swimming until the incisions are fully healed up, though. Both the glue and the steri-strips eventually come off on their own, so there are no stitches to remove or anything.

I'm curious if you guys have all been tracking your weight weekly since your surgery. I've been keeping a spreadsheet where I track my weight every Monday morning (my surgery was on a Monday) and I find it fascinating to see the differences in how much weight I've lost each week, even though I'm only 4 weeks out so far. I would LOVE to see some of your stats if you are willing to share them so I can see how much variance there is in the week-to-week losses further out from surgery than I am. So, if you have been tracking your weight weekly, please post all the weekly stats here! Here's mine so far: Surgery: 235.6 Week 1: 228.6 (-7.0) Week 2: 228.2 (-0.4) Week 3: 224.4 (-3.8) Week 4: 221.8 (-2.6) Looking forward to seeing yours!

I decided based on a number of factors. I checked out all the surgeon's web sites. I checked out all the pricing. But I would say the number one deciding factor for me was just reading all of the personal experiences from the patients on these forums. I read SOOOOOO many posts and threads on here. But, after reading every single post in the Dr. Ariel Ortiz thread, I was pretty convinced he was the surgeon for me and I was right! My surgery went great and I have loved being able to contact OCC with all of my follow-up questions post-op. I feel like there is a true team of people at OCC to support me through this journey. Any time I have a question about whether or not it's okay to eat a certain food, I can email the nutritionist. When I had a concern about the healing of my drain site, I sent an email to Dr. So and he called me back within minutes. It has been fantastic!

Nope, that's the one. I did pretty much the same thing. Just stick to the plan and the scale will start moving again, I promise.

That is so awesome! Congratulations! And 81 pounds in 5 months is fantastic! We are so similar. I am 5'6" and I have been on SOOOO MANY diets where I have set my goal at 155. The closest I ever came was about 176, but then I gained back up to 260 ultimately. I cannot wait to be where you are in a few months. You must feel AMAZING!

I really love the EAS AdvantEDGE Carb Control Rich Dark chocolate flavor ready-to-drink Protein shakes. The only down side to them is that they only have 17 grams of protein, so I end up adding some extra unflavored whey protein to mine.

Congrats! I can't wait to get there myself. And already in a size 12?!?!?! That's amazing!

Wait, you've lost 47 pounds in 3 weeks and you are complaining about not dropping weight fast enough? I'm four weeks post-op and have lost just under 15 pounds since my surgery.....

That's too funny, because I did the EXACT same thing yesterday. I'm still not allowed solids yet, but as of yesterday I was allowed ground meats, Beans, and soft whole grains. So the first thing I did was hit up Wendy's for lunch and ate half a small chili! It was a bit of a reality check for me, because while it went down and stayed down fine, half a small chili was probably about 2-3 bites more than I really needed. Before my surgery, when I was DIETING, my go-to DIET meal at Wendy's was a small chili, a 4-piece chicken nugget with BBQ sauce, and a small Frosty. It truly is crazy to realize how much less I can eat now.

Muscle is denser than fat. So if you gain muscle and lose fat, you could stay the same weight, but become leaner.

I went back to work 15 days post-op. I had surgery on a Monday and went back to work the Tuesday two weeks after that. It was hard. I wasn't sick or sore. I was just SOOOOO tired. When I was off of work, I could get up in the morning, drink a protein shake and watch some TV. Eventually get around to taking a shower, lay in bed a while after that, and get dressed at some point. First day back at work it was get up, go to the bathroom, brush my teeth, take a shower, get dressed, grab a protein shake.... trying to get it all done in about 45 minutes when I was taking like 3 hours to do it before proved to be very tiring. By the time I got to work I couldn't WAIT to just sit down in my desk chair. The other issue I had once I was on purees was trying to eat fast enough on my lunch breaks. I always come home for lunch, which is convenient post-op, because my coworkers don't see me eating weird stuff. But between the 15 minute drive to and from work, I only had a half hour at home, which isn't a ton off time to prepare and eat lunch, when I have to eat so slowly. Also, there were a couple of times I tried to eat too quickly and felt REALLY over-full and burpy having to head back to work. I would say that, overall, it hasn't been too bad. The fatigue is getting to be less and less of an issue. But I definitely still can't do as much as I was doing pre-op. I attribute that to just having such a low calorie intake, but I've been making progress on that front as well. I even managed to get over 900 calories a couple of days ago. Now that I'm doing my 60-90 minutes of "brisk walking" at least every other day, I need all the calories I can get!

I was limited to three protein shakes a day and one green salad with calorie-free dressing. It came out to about 450 calories a day and next to no carbs, so I went straight into ketosis. I was terrified of cheating at all because I did NOT want to go through the headaches again once I got past those first couple of days! Under 20 grams of carbs per day will definitely put you into ketosis.