OutsideMatchInside

Caffeine and coffee do not dehydrate. The only reason to avoid coffee post-op really is the acid. Anyway, I forgot about Syntrax. It has been a long time since I had a protein shake. I think Syntrax are the best immediately post-op. They are thin like water, mix super easy and you can sip on them all day like water. There are a lot of flavors. I like the Cappuccino lemonade and Caribbean cooler.

@SusieQ_RN How are you meeting your protein goals in a 4 hour window? I think intermittent fasting is great for learning discipline, but long term I think only 12:12 or 16:8 are sustainable. Go as long as you can at 20:4 then back it off to something less drastic. Also the best way to be full and fight hunger is to eat dense protein first, alone then eat the other stuff.

I used protein shakes before surgery so I kept using the same ones I used before. I like the Premier pre-made shakes. I hate protein powder because it is just a pain, the exception being the unflavored which is great in broth. The chicken soup Unjury is nice too but it has a really high sodium content.

Early on taking a stool softener every day helps.

Have you called your Dr? 10-12 days is NOT normal.

Try using Henna. It will tint your hair and it will thicken it. Well make the individual strands seem thicker.

I would go RNY if I were you. And also get a 2nd opinion on the Barrett's and GERD.

Today I am 24 month, 2 years post-op. I just went back today to read what I posed a year ago. At that time I was super happy with my weight loss at the time. 4 months later I was not as thrilled with my weight loss. I was fairly miserable and in the middle of a complete identity crisis. Now 8 months later I feel a lot better about everything. At this point I am pretty scared about long term success because there is so little support for long term “successful” WLS patients. If you are regaining or never reached goal that is a lot of support but if you are “successful”, it is mostly a pat on the head and “keep doing what you are doing”. The change from being super morbidly obese to being a “normal” size and under 200 pounds has been very mentally taxing. Like I said there is little support for it. There is little support in the bariatric community because most people never do it and there is virtually no support outside of it because it is a real rarity. I spent a lot of time and money trying to find a therapist that could help and there are basically zero with any experience, so I was left on my own to find my own plan to work it. Which luckily I was able to do. Everyone, even medical professionals (perhaps especially medical professionals) seem to think losing weight solves all your problems and that is really not the case at all. Losing created all kinds of new problems for me that I never even knew existed. Weight at 1 year post-op 231 Weight at 2 years post-op 186 If I was just going by the scale as a measurement, I would be disappointed right now because I have only lost 45 pounds in the past year and I wanted to be down 50 by now. I stopped eating for weight loss about 5 months ago, and while I am not necessarily trying to eat for maintenance, I am not eating to lose either. In that time period I have still managed to lose 10 pounds. The goal right now is to lose another 15 pounds total over the next year, and hopefully lose another 5 pounds before the end of the year. I could lose it faster if I tried but it is better for my mental health to stay weight stable. Physically I am already at a size I like. 8/10 is pretty perfect for my height/frame. I am pretty sure with skin removal I will be a 4/6. I have lost a lot of inches, and more interestingly my body shape has changed and adjusted a lot. I have a 34 band and I don’t even think my band size was that small in HS. I can’t ever recall buying anything with a 34 band, so that a huge shock, NSV for me. Last fall I really wanted skin removal surgery very badly. Now I see that would have been a tremendous mistake. The surgeries I would have picked last year and the results would have been lackluster. I definitely see the advantage of waiting for plastic surgery. Your skin, fat, body distribution changes. The body is amazing thing and watch it repair and rebuild itself is amazing to witness. I always took a lot of pictures of myself. I have never been camera shy even at my heaviest. Now I take multiple pictures a day as a way to become accustomed to how I look. Pictures and my clothing sizes are my size validation. My face is so different now, the shape is totally different. It has gone from round to square, which requires different makeup application and accessories. Inch loss I have lost 65.5 inches total since last year Difference Bust (fullest part of bust): 6 Pecs (just above the bust line): 4 Ribs (top of rib cage just below the bust) : 5.5 Waist: 10 Abdomen: 5 Hips: 8 Right Upper Thigh: 4 Right Lower Thigh: 4 Left Upper Thigh: 4 Left Lower Thigh: 4 Right Calf: 2.5 Left Calf: 2.5 Right Upper Arm: 3 Left Upper Arm: 3 Totals 65.5 I have so many NSV almost daily it is impossible to list them all. I appreciate the wonder and amazement of what I can do now. In some ways I look forward to when this is more normalized but I kind of hope it never is so I don’t forget. I love my new sports car, I worked hard for it, and I look great in it. I would have never been able to fit in it comfortably before or get in and out of easily. My lap dog really enjoys my lap now that I really have one. I can fit anywhere and shop anywhere. My total losses HW 377 SW 358 CW 186 Size 28/30 at Surgery Currently 8/10 Measurements Difference Bust (fullest part of bust): 26 Pecs (just above the bust line): 19 Ribs (top of rib cage just below the bust) : 26.5 Waist: 35.5 Abdomen: 28 Hips: 25 Right Upper Thigh: 12.5 Right Lower Thigh: 13.5 Left Upper Thigh: 12 Left Lower Thigh: 12.5 Right Calf: 4 Left Calf: 4.25 Right Upper Arm: 9 Left Upper Arm: 8.5 Totals 236.25

I mean it is really fun to be able to shop anywhere. Like on vacation this summer I bought a one size fits all skirt from a festival and it fit me fine, and I didn't even try it on before I bought it. I just got a cute little peasant skirt. That was a really fun purchase. When you are plus size you have a few stores to shop at and the sizing and cuts are all pretty similar and standardized. The variations in normal sizes are really maddening. I used to be able to just look at clothes and know they would fit and I don't normally have that luxury anymore. I almost always have to try things on. Recently like in the past 2 months I have got to the point I can look at things and know if they will fit and now I have enough brands I know well. Also rapidly changing sizes made me crazy. Something would fit one week and not the next. I lived with 18 months of constant changes and flux. It creates a lot of instability. It isn't fun while changing, but once you get stable it is a lot of fun.

Not owning a scale and not weighing myself is how I got super morbidly obese. Weighing myself is a simple part of my morning now. Weighing myself every day has allowed me to learn not to stress about what the scale says. It is completely ridiculous sometimes. Weighing myself all the time, has allowed to accept stalls and learn that even though you are eating perfectly, you still might not lose weight, and that is fine. I feel like having a scale and weighing yourself every day desensitizes you to it so it isn't so dramatic.

@niseys4 I love wearing wigs. It has opened a whole new world to me. I keep my hair braided and I can workout be active whatever. And then when I am dressed I wear wigs. I have several and it makes like easy and getting dressed fun. I'm not sure I will ever stop wearing them.

Before you get your knickers in a knot if you read everything I posted I said the projected WL with RNY is better, but it is only 20 pounds or so. I personally don't think 20 pounds is worth having healthy intestines cut and rerouted or the extra long term maintenance. I don't think RNY is worth the hassle unless you have GERD. I also said, I have exceeded the weight loss for RNY and Bypass. OP is asking for opinions from people on why they chose one surgery over the other. I really don't feel that one surgery has better outcomes than others, just based on the surgery, the patient and their post op choices matter more. I have lost more weight than most people I know with RNY. My diabetes has reversed while a lot of people who had bypass are still diabetic. Surgery doesn't matter as much as lifestyle changes, habits and food choices. People can easily eat around any surgery.

Eating real food, real protein like meat is better for you for a lot reasons. Since it is not pre-processed, your body uses more calories processing meat than it does processing protein supplements, so 200 calories of a protein supplement you will absorb most of the calories, but your body is going to burn more calories processing the dense protein. Also it is more satisfying, and keeps you full longer. At 2 years out a protein bar for me, does not trigger restriction, 4 ounces of dense protein always does. Some people say they still have restriction with protein bars long term, but that doesn't apply to me. For me they are basically empty calories that do nothing for hunger.

My program did not have those classes. They sound very helpful. I would say. Stress Management - if you are an emotional eater and you can no long self soothe with food, you are going to need to learn stress management. Or if you have a drink to relax. Emotional Eating - See above Self image and Self Esteem - This is what I personally had the most issues with and I was a confident plus size woman but no longer being plus sized after 20 years of being plus sized was a huge shift for me that I was no prepared for at all. I thought it was would awesome and fun and enjoyable but instead it was a huge crisis. Changes in social dynamics - This didn't apply to me because where I live, I live alone with no friends near by but if I lived near friends or family it would have been an issue. I see it being an issue for a lot of people. They have made a major life change but they try to resume their old life and keep things going like nothing happened. That seems to mostly have pretty poor results. Good luck! seems like you have a good program. Report back about the classes and if they help you.

Early on they sit in your stomach like a brick. Protein shakes are a lot easier while you are still healing the first 6 months.

I am very happy you finally got the help you needed. Best of luck!

Flatouts last for over a month and you can freeze them. The crisp up perfectly on a pizza stone. @gwbicster You are barely a month from surgery neither are appropriate food choices for you. You seem hell bent on sabotaging yourself almost every post I read from you is one bad choice after another. You have a new baby stomach it can not handle this stuff and even if it is, it shouldn't.

@digi1024 Do you track and weigh your food?

There are 8 years of posts in this thread.

I can't believe people are complaining about a waitress actually doing her job, properly. If most people are not eating their food, they are usually not happy with it. It is the servers job to make sure people are enjoying their food and it was prepared properly. It isn't the server fault that someone had surgery and can't eat. I still don't get why people insist on going out when they can't even make a dent in the food then get pissy when people notice. You choose this no one else. The rest of the world is not required to adapt to you. The smaller you get physically the easier it gets. At the size I am now, when I 1/2 eat my food no one is surprised, lol. When I ask for a box, no one cares. Thin women don't eat a lot and people don't expect them to. Also at 2 years out, I can eat enough when I am out that no one even notices. You would never know I had surgery. I feel like post-op a lot of us put ourselves in a lot of awkward and uncomfortable situations that are not necessary just to try and still fit into a certain mold. The problem is that mold is, it is the one that allowed you to get obese in the first place. There is nothing wrong with being a different person with different habits. Don't be afraid to change and be a difference person. Long term it makes life easier to make choices that align with a healthy lifestyle. The one person that was semi close to me that had WLS before me. She never changed her lifestyle. She still went out to eat with her family to the same restaurant, ordered the same food and just ate less. She never got to goal, never got under 200 pounds (she started close to 400 pounds) bottoming out at 250 and then regained 50 pounds and is now sitting around 300. Now years later she is trying to adapt a healthy lifestyle and lose her regain and then some. It is much hard years out to change your habits, it is much easier to change them early on and then stick them.

If someone is over a year, probably not. Probably not even at 6 months. It is dense because it is basically solid cheese, but the density isn't the issue, since you really eat one piece of fat head and that is it. The calories are too high for a sleever, when there are better lower calorie options. I like fathead, I make it. I have the calories to spare so it is okay for me. I would just caution people from making it a staple in their eating when they are trying to drop weight. 4 ounces of steak is a better lower calorie option.

Well this is posted in the Band to Sleeve forum so I am not sure how many responses you are going to get. Do you track your food? Do you weigh your food? Do you eat dense protein? What do you eat in a day?

Sleevers don't have pouches...

This are these feelings that a lot of people hold. I will admit myself until I had surgery or got close to having it, I thought that surgery did more than what it does. The reality is, you still need will power after WLS. You REALLY need to understand nutrition, no matter how you choose to eat post-op, the people that more successful have a firm grasp on nutrition and how it works. You still have to manage head hunger. I have no physical appetite really, but I have head hunger like anyone else. WLS makes it easier to ignore my head hunger but it is still there. I feel like WW would do more harm than good, for these reasons. If you accidentally slip and let people know you had surgery, they are more than likely going to treat you with disdain. All of your successes will have an asterisk next to it, in their minds. I will be 2 years post-op tomorrow and I feel like the biggest flaw with WLS and the WLS community is all of it is focused on immediate post-ops. No one cares about people over a year out. The further you get from surgery the less of a community you have. People are either successful and they have just moved on from WLS community or they are not successful and are too embarrassed to come back. If you are looking for long term support, other long term WLS patients, support and information, it basically does not exist.

First, just have surgery ASAP. The longer you are heavy the more damage you do to your body. Energy levels were weird for me. I would have a lot of energy, huge bursts, then I would be instantly exhausted and need a nap. The first 6 weeks your body is working over time to repair itself. My Dr said the first 6 weeks are for healing not weight loss. You are having the majority of a major organ removed and it sends your body into freak out mode. It is working overtime to heal and repair all the incision and cuts and reconnect nerves and make sense of what happened. That takes a lot of energy and you are not consuming a lot of calories. If you are very diligent with your eating, and keep your calories over 600 (which believe me can be hard), 800 would be better and keep your fluid in take up you should be okay, but you can't guarantee it and no one can tell you. I have a high pain tolerance and it was easy for me to push myself after surgery (which I regret, I should have rested more, it is major surgery). Everyone is different, you don't know how you are going to be after surgery until it happens to you.