MissKay

The most important thing is if you are healthy and feel good at 170-175, then start maintaining when you get to that point. You may lose more than that, but you can then tweak your food intake and liquid intake to bump it back up in healthy ways. This isn't solely what a BMI scale says, because every scale is different, and if we're honest, not even completely accurate. It's more of a way to estimate than anything else. A woman my height (5'7) and age (26) may be comfortable and look great at 120lbs.... I can't imagine being that small. If my body let's me drop down to that, I'd let myself just to see what it looks and feels like. But that's where if it didn't feel right to me, and I wasn't happy, then I'd change my diet to allow myself to gain weight back in a healthy way.

Trust me, I'm just getting off a 2 month stall. A lot of this was stress and anxiety from a death in the family, working full time, school full time, and a whole slew of other things. There were times I wasn't getting in enough liquids, and times I wasn't getting enough sleep. Things can combine and pile on to slow your metabolism and slow the process or stall it. But I doubt it's fat, especially with what you're eating. I understand the anxiety of wondering why the scale isn't moving, but it will eventually move again. Mine did! I also highly suggest limiting yourself to weighing in once a week or even longer. It'll keep you focused on eating and being healthy instead of the actual numbers. Of course you want to know those too, but doing it daily or even every other day will only drive you insane.

The thing to remember is that even though you aren't feeling any pain, your body still went through trauma, was cut open, stapled up, and swollen. It takes time for the swelling to go down. In the first 2-4 weeks some have even GAINED weight in Water weight, etc. Just keep following your instructions from your surgeon/NUT and have faith in the process. Also, stress and anxiety over it can really impact it. My suggestion is to only weigh yourself once a week. Otherwise, don't step on it. You'll find that you'll feel better the less you're stepping on the scale.

Please keep in mind that in some cases (and there's absolutely no way to tell) there is no avoiding it. It comes with the territory of gaining and then losing the weight. My best advice is make your water/liquids intake goal every day as keeping hydrated will help tremendously. As for getting back in the gym, I started back 2.5 weeks after surgery. I started off with low-impact cardio (treadmill, cycle, elliptical). I only did this with the approval of my surgeon. He said as long as my incisions were doing okay that I had the go-ahead. Thankfully I was an odd case that even 3 days post-op my incisions were almost completely healed. My doctor had a tough time removing the stitches because the skin was already healing over it (and I had them removed 1-2 days earlier than advised). I started weights at 4 weeks. I only put it off because of my low-energy with the post-op diet. I couldn't really do much without winding myself until I started on pureed/semi-solid foods. Talk to your surgeon and/or your NUT. They might tell you the same thing, or they might have a whole different set of recommendations. Each one is different, so it's always best to reach out to them just to be cautious.

Water or pure liquids won't stretch your stomach! If anything, you'll feel a tightness in your 'throat' if you drink too much too fast and you don't give your pouch significant time to empty into your intestine. With liquids it's pretty quickly. So if you're sipping, and you're not having that feeling, you'll be okay! Just remember to be careful before and directly after meals.

I have to agree with @ready_to_be_thin. I've seen some people who could go right to pureed foods the day after being out of the hospital. Whereas I was on a 9 week step diet plan that went from like "Week 1: Liquids only, Week 2: Liquids & Pureed, Week 3: Pureed, Week 4..." etc. etc. I advanced by about 2-3 days on each of mine, but did so cautiously and only with about one meal a day. I only did that, and with talking to my NUT about it, because I was struggling with energy to keep myself going at work. It wasn't until I was on pureed foods that I started gaining some of that energy back, so it was necessary for me to even function. I didn't actually blend up my stuff (I couldn't bring myself to do it), honestly. I just chewed and chewed and chewed until it was mush. the key is to make sure it's mush and there are no chunks, and it's not too big of a 'bite' you're swallowing. Otherwise you run the risk of hurting your stomach. Every surgeon is different. Every body is different. Follow your NUT's instructions as closely as possible. If you are struggling, talk to them. It's what they're there for!

This is so painfully true. I stocked up on the Premier Protein shakes. Pre-op diet, I drank 3 a day and was fine with them. Post-op and ever since, I can't touch the things. Just the thought makes me want to hurl. I have a love-hate with gatorade depending on the flavors now. For me the tastes didn't change very much, mostly just those two things. And I honestly think a lot of that was due to being restricted to them for so long. I don't like repetition with food and drinks. But, I have noticed that milk tastes different. Not bad, but different.

Bryan pretty much summed it up in the best words possible. I had one up on you (not to make it a competition, but simply to show you I can relate). I had my surgery done in Tijuana, Mexico, and I'm from Washington state. The moment I told my boyfriend's mom about it just so she could know the game plan, she started spewing off all this information about crime rates and botched surgery, and yadda yadda. A couple of my friends I told about it talked about people who they knew who got it and had gained all the weight back. In fact, anyone I know of who knew someone who had the surgery only knew someone who gained it all back. Negatives will always stick out more than the positives. Just keep in your mind that this is for YOUR benefit, no one else's. Do it for your health, both physically and mentally. At the end of the day, no one else has to live with your health and body but you. If it's something you're determined to do, you can do it.

I think it just depends on how far out you are. If your profile is correct, you should be fine to ride it out as long as your symptoms aren't worsening, you don't have a too high fever, etc. etc. Basically, nothing is different once you're past a certain point (from my understanding, typically 30 days).

I have a couple times! I've made some cupcakes and muffins with it. It really doesn't taste any different, but does have a little bit of a different texture. Kind of like a thicker more bready texture? But it wasn't bad at all.

What helped me was finding foods or drinks that I could have as part of my diet, but that 'cleaned me out'. For me, that was a cup of coffee with some skim milk (or black). Asparagus did the trick too once I was able to have that at 6-8 weeks. A small square of organic dark chocolate (76% cocao or above) also worked. I don't like dark chocolate, so that was terrible for me and thankfully only needed once or twice for aid. If you get the right kid it's low in sugar, carbs, fat, and can help. But yeah, try things like that. Good ole prune juice might help too.

Umm... what? Yes they do? It's normal for them to stretch to some capacity as you get further out from surgery. If it's stretched too much, some have had to have revisions done. It just can never stretch back out to what your stomach was once before. But if you fall into the old habit of overeating constantly, it will stretch. @@ryan_86 4oz isn't a whole lot with how far out you are, but I also know everyone is different. Sometimes I can eat 3oz of something and be stuffed, other times I can eat 6oz and be content. Snacking is okay as long as you're making smart choices. I limit myself to one snack per day, usually during a stretch of time where I go the longest in between meals. When I do snack, it's typically vegetables or something whole grain and nutritious (I personally limit these because carbs are my mortal enemy).

The pre-op liquid diet will mess with you head badly! I nearly backed out after jumping through hoops to get my passport (as I went to Mexico to have mine done as I got tired of the hoops from the insurance company). It's normal!

Have you tried making changes to both food and exercise? Most will get stuck in a rut of the same thing because it worked for a while, but then it'll come back to bite ya if you keep at it during a stall. One thing my nut recommended was go back if you need to. Do a 2-3 day all liquid diet, and progress through the stages again.

I also have the vitamin patches from the BariatricPal Store. Multivitamin, B12, and the Calcium/D3. I don't forget to take them, stick 'em on in the morning and go. Remove them 8 hours later. It's such a blessing to have removed most of my vitamins from being oral. And from what it's boasted about, you absorb more of the vitamins with them anyways.

I've also heard from many that gummy Vitamins are not nearly as effective. Labs will be the telltale sign. And if things are low, I personally recommend the Patches from the BP store. I've been using them for a month now and I feel it more with them than I ever did gummies or any other oral ones.

This feeling has subsided for me. I only ever get it if I overeat, and I'm almost 3.5 months out.

Yessss, pretty good! Honestly most people fail to realize if you're low-carbing, doing low-fat at the same time is a recipe for 0 energy. Your body has to feed off from something, so you cannot deprive it of both anyways. But, yes, there are definitely those things that I eat and then I feel guilty. We were in Seattle for 3 days and went to Cheesecake Factory. I had 2 bites of the cheesecake (minus crust) and even though that was it (and I still lost because I did nothing but walked for 3 days straight), I still felt bad. But I also look at that as us knowing that we cannot always slip and rely on those things. Meaning, it's okay every once in a while, but 99% of the time we gotta do our best to eat as healthy as possible. It's all a mind game, we just gotta stay in control!

@@Valentina gave the best advice, try something again in a few weeks if you find you can't tolerate it right now. I could NOT do scrambled or hard boiled eggs. The food was soft enough, but it caused a lot of pain in my stomach, cramping/gas like. It hurt so much I was scared to try them again. But 4 weeks later and I was mixing eggs in with some hashbrowns, meat, and veggies. I have never been able to stand greek yogurt. The one and new exception is the Dannon Light & Fit Greek yogurt. It's actually really good.

Dr. Jalil Illan was mine. At the time he was at the florence Hospital which was nice. They're now at the Oasis of Hope hospital and the people who've gone recently have had nothing but amazing things to say about the upgrade. It looks beautiful. No issues! You can read about my experience here: http://www.bariatricpal.com/topic/370663-its-been-a-bumpy-one/#entry4190081

This is completely normal!! I had my surgery booked about a month and a half before, and it didn't hit me until about 1-2 weeks prior where I was second guessing everything. Even down to the day we flew down to Mexico I was freaking out. But now that I'm post-op and seeing results from my hard work (whereas I would rarely see results before), it's all been worth it. But this choice is purely your own, you have to be certain this is what you want. Just keep in mind those questions and doubts are normal.

I didn't even know this was a thing.... honestly, I couldn't imagine having worn a binder post-op. Walking actually helps alleviate the pain, and so adding a binder on top of it when your body is trying to rid itself of the gas used for the surgery just doesn't add up in my head anyways.

My energy was very, very low for the first 2 weeks post-op. I didn't start drinking anything with Protein powder until after 2 weeks out. I couldn't stand any of the shakes anymore after the pre-op liquid diet, I burned myself out on them and nearly gagged every time so I just had to stay away. Now I take about 6oz of a juice (no HFCS juice) and mix a scoop of GENEPRO (30mg protein) and drink that on the days I get lower protein intake. I can definitely tell the difference on the days I get my protein levels up versus the ones that I get very little in. It's a balancing act and it takes time to master it. I wouldn't worry about exercise or walking ability right now. I don't think I gained the desire for any of that until I was on pureed foods because then I was getting actual sustenance to energize me.

As a previous employee of Amazon, I am so sorry, haha! The site practically has everything.

I can't answer your specific question (so don't hate me for posting!) but I do know the further out you are, the harder it is to lose the weight should it come back. So while you'll lose faster than someone who hasn't had WLS, you're still gonna lose a lot slower than you did within your first year. Then again, you may already know know!