JamieLogical

I been maintaining for too long. I'm three years post op and the last two years I've been the same weight give or take a few lbs, but now I am trying to lose the rest and I simply can't. I've been eating what I wanted but now that I limit my calories (to about 1200 or so) I just can't shake this stall (or maintenance). Could it be that I am not eating enough? Sent from my iPhone using the BariatricPal App During my weight loss phase I ate 1400-1500 calories a day, hit my protein goal of 100 grams every day, ran three days a week, biked two days a week, and did strength training 5-6 days a week. I think, like you have observed from other posts, I was successful because I actually kept my calories pretty high. I never had the damage to my metabolism that a lot of WLS patients have by creating too large a calorie deficit in their weight loss phase. My only advice for someone in your position now would be to get as much protein as possible and add in some strength training. Muscle burns more calories, so if you can build some up, it should boost your metabolism a bit. But it won't be fast. Don't expect quick results. You have to do it and stick with it and have faith it will pay off in the end.

@@anonmom Definitely talk to your surgeon about all of that. I sincerely doubt he's going to go for the avocado and banana at only 4 days out. You will be okay. I think you are expecting too much from yourself too quickly. It's only been four days. I was still on clear liquids at 4 days and if I got 350 calories that was some sort of miracle. Drinking water WILL be your full-time job for the first week or two. That's completely normal. It can feel overwhelming in the moment, but you WILL get through it.

Talk to your PCP. Mine was happy to check up with me regularly and order regular blood work for me post-op.

The only way you will ever feel "full" on liquids is in the early days post op *IF* you have a lot of internal swelling or later on post-op if you drink too soon after eating. Liquids should pass straight through your stomach. If you don't have internal swelling, there is nothing to hold the liquids in your stomach and make you feel "full". So you have nothing to worry about. Once you are onto soft and solid foods, I am confident you will fill up quickly. Another thing to remember is that a lot of damage was done to the nerves in your stomach, so it may be a while before you receive proper "full" and "hungry" signals. That's why it will be very very important to eat on a schedule and to pre-measure your food.

Definitely a good idea to read up on ketosis. I think people who have never been on Atkins or South Beach don't understand how it differs from a straight-up low calorie diet. That transition into ketosis is no fun! And the water-weight gain from storing glycogen again is going to upset people who put a lot of stock into what their scale says.

I had my tummy tuck done by Dra. Laura Carmina Cardenas of Beauty Enhance.

Yesterday I weighed in a 185.2, which puts my BMI at 29.9. So I am now officially only "overweight". Woohoo! Even though it's only been 2 months and 12 pounds since my last set of progress pics, I had my husband go ahead and take new ones for this major milestone. You can see all of my pics in my gallery, but here are a couple showing my 54 pound loss since the pre-op photos were taken:

I found that post-op, water sat very heavy with me unless it was ICE cold, with ice literally floating it. I got a water bottle that keeps my ice cold all day long and i just drink from that.

Should be fine. Only has acetaminophen as a pain reliever, no NSAIDs.

Hahaha!

You can take most cold medicines that don't contain NSAIDs. So no ibuprofen, aspirin, or naproxin. You can take things with acetaminophen.

Most serving sizes are in grams or ounces, which are units of weight, so you should be weighing your food to get an accurate tally of your calories and macronutrients. 4 oz. only = 1/2 cup when you are weighing water or liquids that are primarily water (like juice or milk). When you are talking about foods, you can never go by the measurement. Always go by the weight.

Are you on a PPI? Your surgeon should have prescribed one after surgery, but if not you can buy Omeprazole or Nexium over the counter at your local store. I take two omeprazole per day and that has kept my heartburn and reflux in check.

I've been using these since I was sleeved in Sept. 2014. My labs have all been fantastic since I was sleeved. https://www.vitaleph.com/products/more-bariatric-vitamins.html

The I would definitely recommend checking out the multitude of bariatric recipes on this site: http://theworldaccordingtoeggface.blogspot.com/

Well no matter what, you have already come a really long way. I think you can reasonably expect to lose at least another 150-200 pounds post-op. It's really up to you how well you stick to your plan and how active you are. Just make sure you do be kind to yourself and allow yourself to heal up from the surgery. Don't push too far too fast.

Oh wow! That's a huge percentage. I am very curious as to why that is when more men could technically benefit from the surgery. Edit: Hmm... guess I was wrong. When you look at this page it shows that while a higher percentage of men are "overweight or obese", the numbers are the same for men and women who are obese and the percentage of women who have "extreme obesity" is higher than the percentage of men. (Light blue is men, dark blue is women)

That's a lot of fruit....

What food stage are you in?

In the full liquids phase, there really aren't a lot of options. It was pretty much protein shakes, yogurt, and strained cream soups. What I did, to give myself some variety, was to literally buy every single type of cream soup my grocery store carried. That way I could try a new one for every meal. I wasted a lot of soup, but it was nice to at least have some variety in flavor, if not texture.

Oh wow. Welcome! It sounds like you've made great progress so far. When was your surgery? Sounds like it was very recent.

I think it's just that more females get on the forums. I would assume more males get WLS, because more males are morbidly obese. But you know what they say about assuming!

PS: I lost 7 pounds my first week, but only 0.4 pounds my second week, for a total of 7.4 pounds my first two weeks. Guess what. I still got to goal! The rate of loss is so truly irrelevant. This isn't a race. You have your sleeve for the rest of your life. In the grand scheme of things, if it takes you a month or two or six longer than someone else to reach goal, does it matter? The weight loss is only a tiny fraction of this journey. You will only spend a year or two losing weight. You will spend the whole rest of your life in maintenance after that.

"Comparison is the thief of joy."

The pain in your chest is esophageal contraction or spasms. I had them VERY bad with every single teeny tiny sip for about the first 2 weeks post-op. They should go away once your internal swelling goes down and you are healed up. I found that marching in place while sipping helped a little. It's very important for you to get your Water in, so you just kind of have to put up with the pain.