Proud2BMe

If you have concerns then please talk to your doctor. If that's all your eating then you are definitely not eating enough. If you go without sugar for a long time and then eat some then you will get a sugar rush which can vary from being pleasant to bad.

Most of us will have excess skin. Many people freak out over it, even cancelling surgery out of fear of excess skin. There's no way to prevent it but the answer is plastics after you reach your goal weight.

It's not just about being active. It's a mixture of calorie restriction and activity. However, you just had surgery so I wouldn't worry about it. When you lose weight it's not going to be consistent. It's going to be like walking down the stairs slowly. You will "pause" on steps before moving down again. We call those pauses "stalls".

Sorry, that's the price you have to pay when you are wanting insurance to pay for it. You will have to jump through all the hoops. And there is a good reason for this. They want to weed out the people who are not good candidates because they are not willing to do the work that is needed to lose the weight. That's the hard truth. Many people simply do not make good bariatric patients because they have no real drive or motivation to lose weight and make the surgery a success. My own personal opinion is that self-payers tend to be more successful because they have to be truly motivated from the get go because we have to pay for everything ourselves. Then again, we don't have to jump through any hoops for our surgery.

I had no pain and no complications. Everything went great. However, I've heard that the level of pain is connected to your health going into surgery. So if you health was not that good going in then you might have a harder time in the healing process. Know the symptoms of a leak. Watch your temperature as a spike in temp can be an early warning sign for a leak.

I didn't use anything. The scars were very tiny, less than an inch. I'll be two years out in May and they are already completely gone.

Hello Hello! It has been many months since I last posted here. The last time i posted was concerning me developing a problem with alcohol after the sleeve. Well, that problem has been resolved and I no longer abuse alcohol. I admit it was bad and I was drinking whisky literally as soon as I got up, sneaking it at work, and all through the night. I managed to wean myself off after not quite 2 months. I feel great and my liver feels great too. (Used to get pains in my abdomen after drinking but they are gone.) So this is what I'm here for now. For the past 6 months I've been eating crap. I used to be so good on my low-carb diet. Then I started to allow the carbs back in. I was eating everything that I knew I shouldn't. You name it, I ate it. Ice cream, Cookies, cakes, candy, Pasta, mashed potatoes, bread, rice, take-out, I ate it all. As a result I gained 6 lbs. I became horribly depressed and didn't even try to stop from eating this stuff. I simply chose not to weight myself anymore. These past two weeks were the worst. The other day my supper was 2 Hostess orange cupcakes and a pack of Hostess crumb mini donuts. My belief that I was gaining weight was so strong that I convinced myself I could no longer wear the new clothes I bought and was considering buying larger sizes of clothing. I felt so fat. Then one morning I decided to weight myself before showering. Not only did I lose those 6 lbs I gained but I lost an additional 4 lbs on top of that. I'm now at the smallest I've been post surgery and only 10 lbs shy of my goal weight. So should I go back to my low carb diet or should I continue eating crap?

Ketosis is not needed for weight loss. It's good in the pre-op diet phase and can jump-start weight loss and help end carb addiction. It's just that you don't need to be in ketosis in order to lose weight. It might be head hunger.

Well, I continued to drink a protein shake for breakfast and lunch, with dinner being either a salad or lean meat on a bed of greens. I did that for almost a year and lost over 100 lbs the first 4 or 5 months and a total of 170 the first year.

Just go back to your pre-op diet for 2 weeks and start the entire process over. You can also do a shortened version, such as the 5 day pouch test. In case you didn't have a pre-op diet, here's mine: Week 1 Breakfast - Protein shake lunch - Protein Shake dinner - unbreaded, lean meat on a bed of greens All the broth, Water, unsweetened beverages, sugar-free Jello and sugar-free popsicles you want Week 2 Breakfast - protein shake Lunch - protein shake Dinner - protein shake All the broth, water, unsweetened beverages, sugar-free jello and sugar-free popscles you want After these 2 weeks gradually return to solid food but make sure the emphasis is on protein and non-starchy vegetables.

Most people on this journey start out that way. In time you will realize you can now eat just about anything you loved before, just not the same portions. Truly understanding that was a real game-changer for me. I too was caught up in this false belief that I was going to go through the rest of my life going without when that's not what life is about at all. The key is moderation. So I can still eat pizza but just one slice and not an entire large pizza as before and I can eat that slice knowing that I'm not going to gain weight by eating it. The same with anything. (Note: I'm almost at goal so the situation may be different for people who are just starting or who have just recently had surgery.)

Yes you will. Just give it time. I love hot and spicy food too. Try some every now and then and see how your stomach takes it. I was overjoyed the first time I ate jalapenos and didn't get sick.

My addiction to alcohol was only short lived, maybe 5-6 months. I quickly realized I had to get it under control quick and I instinctively knew what I had to do, taper off. So that's what I did. I monitored what I drank over the course of a day. Since I was doing primarily shots of whiskey It was easy to simply reduce my intake by one shot every few days. I need to stress that although I was "eating crap" that my restriction is still intact from the surgery. So if I messed up and ate donuts then I could only eat 1 and not the dozen that I could eat before surgery. So I would eat a cupcake or what not and that would be my meal. When I regained 6 lbs it was primarily due to the fact that I was eating every 2-3 hours, and it was usually something sweet or carb-packed. I stopped doing that as well but continued to eat mostly carbs. I think the restriction is what led me to lose those 6 lbs and more. I'm almost 2 years out and the restriction is still strong. So what I've been eating mostly now is a Protein shake or an egg McMuffin for breakfast, a small Lunchable (the kind with meat, cheese and crackers) for lunch, and either a salad, bit of Pasta, and/or something sweet like a cupcake or two for dinner. So yeah, it's not good but it's nowhere near the abuse I did to my body before surgery.

I picked 170 because that was the lowest I ever got to with just dieting. However, I've been told I could go as low as 160 if I wanted. I do have excess skin on my belly and thighs and I would love to remove it but am afraid of re-gain afterwards as most patients gain after skin surgery. Gaining 40 lbs after skin surgery is not unheard of. I tink I probably have no more 8 or 9 lbs of excess skin.

You will be surprised by just how much of certain foods you can eat. I'm almost 2 years out and I remember what it felt like to only be able to keep broth down to now I can consume almost all of a big mac. The taco test with me was also a big step for me. I remember only being able to take 3 bites of a taco. That switched to being able to eat an entire taco. That became being able to eat 2 tacos. pizza stayed the same. I can only eat 1 slice. Before surgery I could eat an entire large pizza, bread sticks, salad, and desert. Salad boggles my mind. I can literally eat a gigantic portion of salad. It's just crazy and I don't know how I'm able to eat that much. Popcorn as well. I can eat an entire large bucket of popcorn at the movies. Luckily I don't go to the movies that often. Also, you will find that each day is different. Some days you can't keep anything down or even the amounts that you know you have eaten before. Other days it seems like you can eat far more than usual. I don't understand why this is so either. However, i think that it may be due to mucous in the stomach. When there is a lot of mucous you may not be able to eat much.

Well, I can tell you that you are still eating too much as the last I remember hearing was that men on a diet should eat no more than 1200 calories a day with women at 1000. Not to concerned about that though. You are working out too much though. Weight will make you gain weight, as in muscle. Women have a harder time than men losing weight because your hormones really want you to keep the weight on, for fertility purposes. So you need to be consistent and patient. Change your workout to just 2-3 times a week and focus on being active during the day. Consume about 800-1000 calories a day, with most of your calories coming from Protein. Stay hydrated and stop worrying about it. Stress hormones will sabotage weight loss.

It's your life. You will live and die by your choices. If you come here to be talked out of the surgery then you came to the wrong place.

Be patient. You're just 1 month out from surgery. It will take time to for your stomach to heal. You will have bouts of diarrhea and constipation so get used to it. You will not lose weight in a steady fashion. Instead, it's like going down the stairs meaning you will pause on a step. Some pauses may last days. Some may last months. Just be patient.

You're only 3 months out. Your stomach is still healing. Give it time.

I know our brains want the carbs. I know on the low-carb/high-Protein diet I was slower in responding, slower waking up, and sometimes had had mental fog. I feel way better and more alert when I began eating carbs again. But I was a champion of the low-carb/protein first diet so this is a new area to me.

Yes, it's normal. I have to keep my personal heater at work on even during the Summer. Fat is insulating and helps store body heat. The majority of the calories we eat is actually used to regulate our body temp and so when you restrict calories you are going to feel cold. Your body will eventually adapt.

Well, people get frustrated because when you near your goal your weight loss slows down or even stops. I'm only 10 lbs from my goal and it's hard. So people will try different things to lose those last stubborn pounds. It's okay to experiment with things. For me, the way you lose the weight is unconnected to the sleeve. I view the sleeve more as a tool to help prevent regain. I was eating crap for months and only gained 6 lbs because of my restriction from the sleeve. If I didn't have the sleeve I'm sure that would have been closer to 50 lbs gained.

More than likely you are incorrect. So many people claim to not have restriction and that they can eat entire steaks and what not, that it can be quite laughable. If you are absolutely sure that you have no restriction then try eating an entire large pizza and keep it down. See if you throw up. Before my surgery I could eat an entire large pizza, bread sticks, salad, and desert. Now, I can only eat one slice and often I only eat the toppings as the crust can be so filling. There is a very small chance that your surgery was not done correctly. You will have to go to your doctor so they can actually check to see if this is the case or not. The surgery involves the removing of about 80% of your stomach so it would be hard for this to be accomplished yet exhibit no restriction.

For no reason whatsoever? Really? I think losing over 200 lbs is a heck of a good reason for the surgery. Perhaps I didn't phrase it correctly. I only need to lose 10 more lbs. So should I go back to low-carb or should I continue doing what I'm doing now as I'm still losing weight and even though I do eat junk, not junk all the time, but definitely not low carb anymore.