catwoman7

since you're a size 18 (although I don't know how tall you are), you may or may not lose that much boobage. Most of us who've lost a ton of weight (100+ lbs) end up deflated there. Some people have breast augmentations. I hated being "well-endowed", so I had a breast lift and reduction. I wanted to be a "B" cup - or "C" at the most. Now I've got it!

most of us who aren't the size of the people on "My 600 lb Life" seem to lose somewhere in the 15-25 lb range the first month. Of course, you'll always find exceptions to that, but that seems to be about average - so you're on the higher end of that. I started out more than 100 lbs heavier than you, and I *only* lost 16 lbs the first month. So you are doing very well!

the last 20 lbs are a BEAR to get off. Soon after year 1, I was losing around 2 lb a month, even though I was working pretty hard at it. I don't know if any diet programs are going to any more successful at taking the last 20 lbs off quickly, because the fact is, you are likely eating A LOT fewer calories now than you were when you started. I've gained 10 lbs this year, and am working like a demon to get it off. But I'm losing a measly 1/2 lb or so a week (so same as when I was trying to get the last 20 lbs off after my bypass surgery). Reason being - back when I weighed over 300 lbs, it took 3000 (or maybe even more) calories to maintain that weight. Right now, at 160-ish lbs, it takes about 1600 calories to maintain my weight. To lose a lb a week, you have to cut 500 calories a day (or burn up 500 calories a day - which is A LOT of exercise!). To lose 2 lbs a week means cutting 1000 calories a day. That would put me at 1100 kcal/day if I wanted to lose 1/2 lb a week, and 600 kcal/day if I wanted to lose 2 lbs a week. Ah...not happening ( and also not healthy - the only people who should be eating 600 kcal/day should be under medical monitoring, like we were in the early weeks and months after WLS). On the flip side, when I was eating 3000 kcal a day at my highest weight, I could have easily found 1000 or even 1500 calories a day to cut and still been eating at a healthy level (I'm not saying it's easy - dieting never is - but at 3000 calories, it's very feasible to cut 1000 or 1500 calories - not so when you're only averaging (and maintaining on) 1600 cal/day). So by cutting 1000-1500 calories/day, that averages out to about 2-3 lbs a week. But again, cutting that many calories NOW would be impossible for me. long way of saying - it's hard to get those last few pounds off because there are only so many calories you can cut and still remain healthy. I've said this before, but back when I weighed over 300 lbs, I'd mentally roll my eyes at these barely overweight women at Weight Watchers meetings who'd moan and complain about how hard it was to lose 10 lbs. "Ha!", I would think, "try losing 200 lbs!". Now I totally get it... I'm not saying don't try. Your efforts WILL work. But your weekly losses will be in ounces now, not pounds.

as Arabesque said, rate of weight loss is dependent on numerous factors, only a couple of which you much (if any) control over, which are: 1) how closely you stick to your program and 2) your activity level. If you do well with those, the weight will come off, whether fast or slow. If your overall trend is down, then you're golden. I just checked and I'd lost about 32 lbs by then, but my starting weight was lower than yours, plus I don't know your gender, age, activity level, how much muscle you have (the more muscular, the more calories you burn, even at rest), etc. So again as Arabesque said, you can't really compare yourself to others....there's just too many factors at play. Again, if your overall weight trend is down, then you're fine. I think 45 lbs down sounds great, actually.

strictures are pretty rare with sleeve (about 5% of bypass patients get them - not sure of the percentage of sleevers, but suffice it say, although not unheard of, it's very uncommon). I didn't have sleeve (I had bypass), but the PA at my clinic said we could probably handle any pill that was the size of a pencil eraser, or smaller. He was right. I was able to swallow all pills except for two as soon as I got home from the hospital. One of them was split-able. The other one the PA said I could wait on for a couple of weeks, so I did - at the end of that period, I was able to swallow it.

I don't think it matters that much whether you lose the weight slowly or quickly. That skin was stretched out to cover whatever your heaviest weight was, and once it's stretched out, it's not likely to bounce back. If you're young and not very overweight (maybe 20 or 30 lbs), it could snap back, but at the weight most of us start at, you'll probably have at least *some* loose skin. I'd follow my program and not try to eat more just for fear of loose skin. You want to lose all the weight you can, while still remaining healthy. This is your one opportunity in your lifetime when you have a chance to lose a massive amount of weight with a lot less effort than it took before surgery (granted, it does take effort, but the surgery really helps it along!) I lost over 200 lbs, and I had a TON of loose skin (have since had it removed). Honestly, no one knew it was there except for me and my husband . For most of us, it's pretty easy to hide in clothes. I think I'm speaking on behalf of most/all of the "vets" here who've had to deal with loose skin - we'd take the loose skin any day of the week over being morbidly obese again. ANY DAY!

^^^ I agree with everything NovaLuna wrote

yes - it's a lifelong challenge. I have to work at it all the time to keep the weight from coming back!

I can't remember when I first had it (I'm several years out), but since you were able to handle rare seared tuna the other day, you can probably handle sashimi, too

I just use the free version of MyFitnessPal.

it's mostly likely from the IV fluids they gave you in the hospital. It's basically salt water, which a lot of people retain. I've heard of people leaving the hospital weighing up to 10 lbs more than when they went in! It does take a few days to work it's way out of your system, so hang on. You should start dropping weight very soon. as for protein shakes, I never had trouble with drinking things from day 1. I was worried about it because we were told we'd only be able to drink a little at a time, but the PA at my clinic told me not to worry about it - that my stomach would tell me if I was drinking too fast or too much.

I think that's pretty common. I always freak out before a major surgery - I think of all the things that could possibly happen. But they've always gone well!

you'll be on a liquid diet for a couple of weeks, so you won't burst your pouch. And at some point you'll be able to drink water normally again - so no worries! Glad to hear everything went well!

another thing to consider is follow-up. At my clinic (and I'm sure most others), I had to go back after 2 weeks, 3 months, 6 months, and 12 months for follow-up appts. And then we're encouraged to go yearly after that (I do, but i don't think most patients do after the first year). Since it would be impractical to fly to NY for all of those, you'd have to make sure your PCP was willing to do that. And of course they don't know as much about the surgeries as a bariatric surgeon would. complications can happen, but they're pretty uncommon. I'm guessing the person you know who had issues was one of a handful of patients out of the hundreds they've had. I'm sure NYU Langone has probably had some that haven't turned out well, either. With some cases, it may not have even been due to anything the surgeon did. You can always check the reviews on each of the surgeons and see what people said about him/her.

the only question of yours that I can personally answer is the one about the mortality rates. Mortality rate on gastric bypass is 0.3% (sleeve is a bit lower than that, but I can't remember what it was since I didn't have sleeve). Suffice it to say, you have a 99.7% chance of not dying. Those are excellent odds - better than hip replacement surgeries, and they do those all the time. I read all kinds of crap like that before I had surgery and had to make myself stop. I guess it's good to know what COULD happen, but dying during/after surgery and having other major complications is REALLY rare. I wouldn't worry about it.

very common. Many women experience mood swings and/or screwed up menstrual cycles for the first few months after surgery. It's supposedly because estrogen is stored in fat cells, and it gets released during rapid weight loss. It'll stabilize once your weight loss slows down. It can take a few weeks or months.

Gastric sleeve is such a common surgery these days that I don't think I'd make the trek to New York for it. If the place in Orlando has been doing weight loss surgeries for awhile and you've heard good things about it, I'd just do it there. I did travel for my plastic surgery because I wanted someone who was really top notch, but I don't think it makes as much difference with sleeve or bypass (maybe duodenal switch - or various revisions - but not straight sleeve or bypass) P.S. to answer your question - no, I haven't had experience with either one. But I've never heard of people traveling that far for sleeve (or bypass) surgeries - unless you're talking going to a place like Mexico to have it done for much less than most places charge in the US. P.P.S. I just googled reviews of the bariatric surgery unit at Advent Health. Those surgeons all have stellar reviews. And I'm not talking 10 reviews - there are over 100 reviews for each of them. I don't think you'd have to worry about going there...

weight loss after revisions is almost always slower than after virgin surgeries, so it could be partly that - or it could be just fluid (due to a heavier-than-usual sodium intake, maybe?). Also, it could be if you've exercised more than usual, your muscles are holding on to water (they need it for repair, if you're going at it more than usual, or have done something they're not accustomed to). Or have you been eating more carbs than usual? Those make you hold on to more water as well. At any rate, if you've been on plan as far as eating, you should be fine - it's likely just some temporary thing and you should start losing again..

yes - I had the same problem since I had the same reaction to either the surgical glue or the tape that my plastic surgeon used. I broke out in hives a day or two after surgery, but it was too early for him to remove the tape, so he put me on prednisone (I think for a week or maybe 10 days) to calm down my immune system until it was safe for him to remove the tape. There were no issues with that and my RNY.

the other thing is, most people do experience a 10-20 lb rebound from their lowest weight during years 2 or 3 - so your regain is normal That's not to say that you can't take it off again, but yea - it'll take work. Good luck to you!! (as I mentioned above, I'm working on that myself!)

back then, no. I was "overweight" as a teen, not obese, and the surgeries back in those days weren't nearly as safe as they are today. If I was a teen NOW, with the safer surgeries, I probably still wouldn't since I wasn't all that overweight. If on the other hand, I was really obese (and we're talking really obese - not 20 or 30 lbs) - not sure. I doubt I would have had the discipline to stick to the rules and guidelines at that age, so maybe not.

it think it was about a year before I was 100 lbs down, and our stats are about the same. You'll get there. I just checked where i was at eight months out - down 94.4 lbs. so yea....our stats are pretty much the same! You'll probably hit the 100 lb mark in another month or two. Just keep at it!

it happens when you eat too much sugar or fat in one sitting (usually it's sugar - but some people dump on fat). It moves pretty quickly into your small intestine, and your intestines go into overdrive trying to deal with it. Most common symptoms are dizziness, heart palpitations, sweating or chills, diarrhea (vomiting can happen, but not as common). From what I understand, it can go on for a couple of hours.. It happens to about 30% of bypass patients (I've never dumped, and I don't know too many people who have). It's not very common in sleevers, but it's not unheard of. Not sure how long it takes to occur after eating - probably fairly soon, since bypassers' food goes into the small intestine fairly quickly since our pyloric valve has been bypassed.

if you're anywhere close to a normal BMI (including the "overweight" category), weight loss is going to be excruciatingly slow. I put on 10 lbs over the past year and am now trying to take it off. About 1/2 lb a week is about all I can manage. The reason is, your calorie intake now is probably MUCH lower than before you had surgery. So there are a lot fewer calories you can afford to cut. For example, when I weighed well over 300 lbs, I was probably eating over 3000 calories a day. Pretty easy to find 1000 - or even 1500 - calories in there that could be cut. That means it was theoretically possible for me to lose 2-3 lbs a week (since a pound is 3500 calories). Now, after my weight loss, my maintenance level is about 1600 calories/day. Cutting 1000 calories from that would put me at 600 cal/day. Ah...no way. You'd have to be under medical supervision to eat at that level. And deducting 1500 calories? That would put me at 100 calories a day. So....no. About the most I can cut and still maintain my health - and not be under medical supervision - is 300-400 calories a day. At a 300 kcal deficit per day, that's a 2100 calorie deficit a week - so a little over 1/2 a pound. If I dropped down to 1200 cal/day, then we're talking a 2800 calorie deficit, so maybe 3/4 of a pound a week (and of course, things like activity level, how muscular you are, etc, would also factor into this - but it probably wouldn't make a significant difference). So I have been eating about 1300 calories a day for the last six weeks, so theoretically I would be down 3.6 lbs. I'm actually down about 5 lbs, so I'm doing very well! if I had dieted for six weeks when I weighed over 300 lbs, I probably could have lost 15-20 lbs by now. But nope - 5. my point of all this is, you may be losing, but at a much lower weight, it's going to be S-L-O-W. And if you're at a normal - or near-normal - BMI, we're talking ounces rather than pounds. It WILL come off - but it'll be slow. I used to mentally roll my eyes at these barely overweight women who would moan and complain at how hard it was to lose 10 lbs. "Ha", I thought, "try losing 200 pounds!". Now I get it...

very true. I love biking and anything in a pool, so for me, it's fun to do that. I look forward to going. I do not love weight training, but I do it because people are supposed to - but it's a chore for me and I have to make myself do it. It would be very easy for me to give it up (but alas, I can't....). So anyway, suffice it to say, if it's something you enjoy doing, you're very likely to keep doing it.