OutsideMatchInside

First I want to say that at 2 year currently I don’t consider myself a success because, losing weight is easy, maintaining is the hard part. I really hope that some people that have maintain for some years post here. Most of the posts from long term WLS patients are about their failures, regain and trying to “get back on the wagon”. We need more positive posts for people that are doing well and enjoying their post-op life. Hopefully this can be a resource for other people. I followed my post-op plan to the letter almost for the first 6 months. I did not heavily experiment, I did not push limits. I did not advance my food stages. This provided a mental reset that completely changed my outlook and relationship with food. The mental reset from following the food stages and changing my relationship with food in the first 6 months was the most valuable experience. I do not feel deprived. I found a way of eating that does not feel like a diet. I can eat food that I enjoy and I still really love and enjoy eating food. Food enriches my life, it doesn’t control my life. Weighing my Food Tracking my Food Weigh myself every morning, record it once a week Staying calorie aware and spending my daily calories like currency Planning for eating out. If I am going to eat out for dinner, I allot extra calories for dinner and cut back on my food earlier in the day. If I eat lunch out then I cut back on dinner. I exceed my initial goal for myself pretty rapidly (250) and I have gone further in my weight loss than I ever dreamed I could when I started this. All the benefits from being so close to a normal BMI motivate me to defend my weight loss diligently. I know the difference between being morbidly obese and just being overweight and being overweight is far more comfortable.

Low iron and/or gallbladder issues will give you issues with taste/eating.

I am almost 3 years out. My restriction is almost exactly the same as 1 year. I really think people play mind games with themselves. I can still only eat 4 ounces of dense protein comfortably which is what I am supposed to be able to eat, that is a proper portion-ish. I can however eat almost limitless amounts of mushy, moist or crumbly foods (sliders). The only reason why I would think that my sleeve had stretched would be that as time went on, I became more comfortable with my weight and my sleeve (I knew I was healed and it wouldn't bust open) and I incorporated different foods. My sleeve is still doing it's job as intended. What changed is how I utilize it. People just have to be mindful of what they are eating and get real about their food. I'm trying to hit some new personal goals and did a couple days of mostly liquids. My sleeve is still tight as a drum. Overall people just have unrealistic expectations of how their surgery will work, set mostly by incompetent Drs and staff, or worse no expectations set by their team at all. I had the same issue as @MichiganChic, super stressed out over life over the winter. Not watching what I ate, I just gave up. Gained weight. Just a couple weeks of eating right and it is flying off. The rate that I gained weight didn't even make sense, so it had to be more stress than what I was eating. Now that my life has calmed down and I am focused on my food, it is coming right off. My sleeve helps me still. I went from raging hunger, because I was stressed back to no appetite, and I have to force/remind myself to eat.

In Europe they use it on people mostly so they can lose weight to have a perm WL surgery.

I don't have reactive hypoglycemia, but I have been suffering from hypoglycemia for over a year. I do have occasional issues with reactive hypoglycemia if I have things like protein bars. I also have issues with low blood pressure. My body has never fully adjusted to a lower weight like I hoped it would.

Relearning how to sit properly accounting for my new weight fix it for me. It took me months to get it right though.

You lay on a table and don't move and don't fall asleep for 30 minutes with a tent over your face, a machine measures your breath. Basically it calculates how many calories your burn being a slug, just existing. That is your baseline metabolism, before any activity or movement. It is a good way to set your maintenance calories especially for those people who aren't sure how many calories they should be eating.

I just take a stool softener if I am having issues staying regular. Not taking iron isn't an option for me. Since I switched to the extended release iron pills and started taking nexium, my GERD is much better. I think in 6 months it might be gone. I'll update

You should probably wait another year or two for plastics if you really want the best results

@IveGotThePower Get your metabolism tested at a local university. Find someone that puts you on a table and has you be still for about 30 minutes. That is the most accurate. It should run around $50. Then you can know what your metabolism is, without guessing. I have a normal metabolism even after losing a lot of weight. Some people do, some people don't. It is better to be tested and be sure, than just guessing. Your NUT isn't taking into account that people who are morbidly obese gain a lot of muscle to carry all that extra weight, and whole you lose some muscle when losing fat, if you are meeting your protein goal, you should maintain most of your muscle. If you want to lose more weight, tracking and weighing your food really helps.

It created a domino effect of issues. Even though I was taking vitamins and supplementing with iron, removing meat from my diet made my anemia completely out of control and I only did it for about 6 weeks. My Dr put me on 650 mg of iron a day to correct my anemia, but the iron completely tore my stomach up. From the moment I would take a pill I could feel it literally burning in my stomach. The burning and heartburn the iron pills caused, caused me to eat more, which made the heartburn worse. I have been anemic since I started puberty so it isn't WLS related at all. I was taking 65mg 2x a day since surgery and that wasn't enough once I gave up meat.

@tfarr I took Prilosec for a while, it did nothing. I have been taking 40mg of Nexium (well the generic) every morning and my GERD has greatly improved and is almost gone mostly. My GERD issues are caused by how I eat, if I push my food limits, I get GERD. Then it takes me months to correct it. I just have to be careful with how I eat, period. Mostly I get GERD if I am eating out a lot and not measuring my food. Pushing my sleeve limits for days on end causes GERD for me. I also was on a really high dose of iron for my anemia and that literally ripped my stomach to shreds. They switched my iron and my stomach is healing with the help of the Nexium. I also want to add, I am having gallbladder issues so it all related. I am really trying to avoid another surgery, I just flat out don't have time for it. I have been taking supplements the past couple months after a gallbladder attack and my gallblader issues have greatly improved. And this all started because I gave up meat for a while last year which was the worst decision I have ever made in my life, it caused so many problems for me, I'll never do it again.

@crazyplantlady How I eat at 2.5 years is basically the same as how I was eating at year one. Just slightly larger portions. My dense protein portion size is unchanged at 4 ounces but I can easily eat 8 ounces of fish or a 6 ounce burger. Which is fine for me. 8 ounces of fish doesn't even hit 200 calories. My calories vary wildly depending on my day or mood, anywhere from 1200 to 2200. The average 1400/1500 if I am home all day (which I am most of the time I work from home). I keep my carbs below 25 most days. My protein is always a minimum 100 grams, goal is 130 grams. At 6 months post-op I picked a way of eating that I felt natural to me that I could stick to, so there is no real reason to change it. My physical hunger still has not returned at all unless I go about 16 hours without eating. I do WANT to eat more, but that is due to RL circumstances. I'm a stress eater and 2017 was high stress for me. In the summer I can work off steam being outside, in the winter, when I am trapped in doors it is harder. The mental game is harder, but my sleeve is still function as always.

My vitamin outline says to take certain vitamins separately because some vitamins do not absorb with other vitamins. Like I have to take iron separate from everything else. Same with vitamin D. Zinc and iron can cancel each other out, so it is better to take them separately. Most multi vitamins even the Bariartic ones lump all these vitamins together. You can save money with a regular multi, and then buy the the vitamins your need to supplement in higher doses separately. I am anemic, always have been so I have to take a high grade and dose of iron, but even with that, I spend less than $50 a month on supplements and $50 is high, it is probably more in the $30-40 range. If you want to save money, just compare the doses of the vitamins that your Dr wants you to take and look around for regular vitamins. B-12 and D-3 are cheap and affordable at Sam's club. I purchase almost a year and a half of B-12 at Sam's for 9.99 or 12.99 or something. It works fine my B-12 is off the charts high. Saving money takes a little more leg work than just buying the Bari formulas, so it ends up being time vs money.

I use DEXA scans and metabolic testing to set my protein and calorie goals. Genetic testing has became more affordable and accessible for recreational and lay use. I decided to give it a whirl. I am not going to name companies here since the site is google searchable but if someone messages me I will name the companies privately. My DNA was sequenced by 2 companies. One company does everything self contained and another company sequences DNA and then sells you partner products based on that sequenced DNA. The first company allows you to download your DNA for upload to other companies. The 2nd company does not accept other DNA and does not allow you to export your DNA. I would suggest using a company that allows you to export and share your DNA. These two tests were done a few months apart so I had the first company for a few months to go over the results and also to upload my DNA to other places. I'm not going to get too deep into my DNA here, but the one thing from the larger (imo more reputable) company that sequenced my DNA is that basically I can eat however I want and lose weight. The type of diet doesn't matter, just the calorie deficit. Also, I am a part of a small percentage (12%) the population that doesn't need to exercise to lose weight. My body is predisposed to gaining muscle easily and to weigh about average. This company provides information for ancestry and overall wellness. The 2nd company I signed up for sells diet and fitness coaching. The results from this company are almost the opposite of the original company and the other sites I uploaded my DNA to. Why would the same DNA yield such different results? My conclusion is because they are trying to sell a coaching plan for $1000. If I really believe their interpretation of my DNA I might be inclined to purchase their services, but since this information contradicts all the other information I have obtained over the past few months prior to this test, I believe their results are bias so convince people to purchase their services, which is disappointing. For example they state I have a genetic predisposition to gain weight from dietary fat, when everything else has stated the opposite and my own eating habits have proved the opposite. Their results also say I am less likely to gain weight from Carbs, which personally I know is not true at all. The only thing they agreed about was my overall body composition (genetic predisposed to a smaller weight and normal weight). So if anyone is considering DNA testing for diet and fitness suggestions. Just keep in mind that DNA testing is new, highly subjective and can be interpreted different ways. I am still going to pursue this for more information. There are a couple other nutrition services based on DNA I want to try. I will update with results over the next few months.

There are a lot of changes I have noticed about my body since I have become slimmer. Some of them have freaked me out, but most of them I have become comfortable with. Feeling and seeing my ribs and my hip bones is still weird, but it is becoming normalized. If you have thin friends these things are normal to them and they take them for granted, so it isn't something you have a lot of people you can discuss it with. This blog post hits on 5 differences. Belly Button Hips Ribcage Collarbone Sternum http://fromfattofitgirl.com/what-people-who-successfully-lost-weight-are-hiding-from-you-5-alarming-things-about-your-new-fit-body/ This is one of those annoying slide shows but it hits on 15 points. http://madamenoire.com/266501/what-single-every-part-of-your-body-should-look-like-when-healthy/

@proudgrammy Congrats on all of your continued success.

@Gundy My boobs aren't fake at all and they look just like that in a good bra, that is what a bra is supposed to do for you if you have a good one. The picture you are talking about is about breasts not collarbone. That picture wasn't there in the original post months ago, but it still all natural, even if it is at a weird angle. My collar bone looks even more pronounced than the woman in picture because I have a big frame with wideish shoulders. If I was stretching all my skin and bones out by taking a picture with my hands above my head, I would look like Skeletor. That picture is weird, but there is nothing fake or emaciated about it.

Agreed. I probably spend less than 30 seconds a meal logging. If you log all the time and you have foods saved it goes really fast.

@Berry78 Eating dense protein alone. I eat my protein first, alone, then I eat anything else if I have room. I rarely ever have room. If I eat protein with veggies I can easily eat 2 to 3 times more because adding things to dense protein makes it not as dense. My post-op instructions say protein first.

Yeah, the Illinois marketplace plans have gone to hell since 2015. Sorry your options are limited. Good luck.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-3376765/Why-t-blame-slow-metabolism-piling-pounds-s-excuse-use-unique-experiment-proves-s-poppycock.html#ixzz4hhw13mpn It is a pretty long read but they take 2 people, put them in a pod and monitor them for 24 hours. They feed them, make them exercise and monitor their sleep. 2 people obviously doesn't make for a study but the results are interesting to me. The guy weighs 182 at 5'11 and has 142 pounds of lean mass. They do not give a weight for the female reporter but her lean mass is 93 pounds. His BMR 1656 and hers is 1224. Over the course of 24 hours he burns 2098 calories and she burns 1638. (This is why even if you eat to the level of your BMR you are still creating a calorie deficit, because your burn calories over that amount just living and being active in a day.) He burns 1.15 calories a minute and she burns .85. However they are each burning the same amount of calories per kilo of lean mass .02. The Dr's say that metabolism between age 20 to 50 is pretty constant and doesn't really drop off a lot until 80. Exercising increased their calorie burn 2.5 times normal for up to 2 hours after exercising. Just for a frame of reference, my BMR is 1990 and my lean mass is 123 pounds.

This is going to be kind of rambling. My original personal secret goal for myself was just to get to 250 pounds. Being over 300 pounds for like 20 years that seemed like an amazing milestone on its own. I hit 250 at around 8.5 months, so I obviously I decided to keep going. I had a goal of 180, my HS weight but I never really thought it was obtainable, at least not when I started. I bounce around a lot in a weight range of 5 pounds right now, my body is really fighting against going lower but I know it will, it doesn't really have any choice with my diet and activity levels. I set a goal earlier this year to get my body fat to 30% and whatever weight that was, I would be happy at that fat percentage. Now with the pending possible changes to insurance I have decided to lose to a normal BMI. I want to lose to a normal BMI, which would mean losing to around 150 (which I'm not even really sure is possible or suggested because I have about 122 lbs of lean mass). I am not quite 2 years out from surgery. Lately I have been feeling bored with the whole process. I think realistically it would take me another 6 months to lose 27 pounds. I'm not sure I really have another 6 months in me. Anyone else feel like this? Bored? I feel being bored is going to make less diligent in the long term.