TryingtoloseTom

Thank you and I will!

Hello everyone. My name is Tom and I have been a lurker for years. I had my surgery 11-22-22 at 471lbs. I weigh 214, for the moment, as I continue to lose. What a powerful tool this has proven to be! I am so blessed and thankful I couldn't possibly articulate it. With that being said, I feel I could help anyone that needs it just based on my own research for years into nutrition, fasting, and the many diet plans out there. I would be happy to give my own anecdotal experiences as well through losing the 255 lbs so far. But the point of this post is for me to lean on some of the vets of duodenal switch. I am approaching maintenance phase in around 35-40 more lbs. Does anyone do low carb in maintenance? If so what does that look like? Am I right to assume for us keto is out correct? The fat would be an issue or maybe someone has tried it? My concern when asking about low carb, for me specifically, I have protected my pouch size. I can still barely eat a few ounces of meat or whatever. I could, and may consider, actively stretching it a little when I get to maintenance, but as of right now I am not sure I could sustain on just meat once I am down to maintenance. I have Bilateral knee surgeries coming starting in Jan. I have lost all this weight in the recliner due to health issues. I am lifting, once I hit 300lbs weight, hard 4 days a week. But 0 steps for the most part. That's important because my exercise will skyrocket once I am healed from the surgeries and I will need more calories eventually. Carbs and fat are obviously the most calorie dense so.. Any thoughts or advice would be appreciated!

Thank you very much! Congratulations to you as well for your successful journey. It's amazing to finally be free of the fat and, more importantly for me, the addiction to food and the total control/power I have over food now. It's seriously my lifelong dream at 55 so staying motivated was baked in.. Thank you again. I am sure I didn't elaborate or explain my reasons enough but actually I am concerned about slowing down the weight loss. I still eat very small portions and am worried it would be hard to sustain on just protein, without carbs. I like my body running more ketogenic than carbed up with the ups and downs of carbs. Without adding fat, and with our malabsorption aspect of the surgery, I am wondering if its possible or not so much..If I am being honest, at 240lbs, I started eating dirtier with carbs to try and stabilize at 240 until I got my knee surgeries, but then just dropped another 20+ within a month and a half or so. My steps and activity increased, small by normal people standards, but a lot for where I have been, after I got another Cortisone shot to the knees. This just illustrates my concern once I reach goal weight and I am rucking, hiking, and lifting. Those three things will be lifelong for longevity and mobility going forward. Obviously everyone is different as far genetically and such, but I have been extremely low calorie, plenty of short fasts up to three days, and have plateaued at certain points during my weight loss, and after doing a refeed with carbs and basically whatever I want to eat, I recharged my metabolism for another huge run of weight loss. The refeed was usually only a couple days to a few days but less than a week. Now with this approach remember I am lifting weights. I mean hard as I can weight lifting 4 days a week. It sucks! Low energy lifting is not fun but the recomp.. I really believe the built-in calorie burn from lean muscle mass is the most efficient way to permanently stay in shape. Male or female doesn't matter. IMHO if your metabolism is slow and you are struggling with the last few pounds, I mean the literally like 5-10 pounds from goal BF, man or woman, start lifting weights. The body recomp will floor you. And that weight or really I think just your body composition after significant weight loss without adding lean muscle mass leaves you looking(Sometimes) like a no muscle bag of skin. Flat. It's not fun but the results.. Anyways thank you for the reply and just to make clear if any of the vets care to weigh in, the WLS gave me the tool, the only tool I will ever need again to lose weight. It's so powerful for me that I need to think about slowing down my weight loss combined with, if possible, being low carb and more ketogenic as a lifestyle choice I prefer. I just don't know if low carb is sustainable without the fat calories. that specifically is what I am looking for. Does anyone prefer low carb/ketogenic after surgery and is it possible? I already realize that fats can be problematic, is anyone doing carnivore after DS Sadi. Not my preference but the only option it seems for low carb without the keto fat plan. Thanks in advance for any tips.

Congrats both Mikey and Matt Z! Both are very impressive! I have a question if you don't mind. Mikey I like the idea of prolonging the protein shake as primary protein source for a few months. Do your shakes have many carbs? How many were you drinking per day?

I plan to retire to the Philippines in 10-15 years. Is managing the nutrient malabsorption an issue many years after surgery?

I have been following my surgeons fairly restrictive low carb eating plan for a month. No more than 10 carbs per meal. This past weekend I smelled some delicious pizza and almost cheated, but held strong and had my wife make me keto pizza. No problem. This morning however my Filipina wife made her fried bread she eats with her coffee and I cheated and had a small piece. Now you might be thinking this topic is going to be me crying over cheating. Its not. I don't regret it because after having it I realized it wasn't that great. I mean it tasted good but so does many of the low carb things I eat. That is me working through food addiction one step at a time. Thanks to wealth of information on here, I am progressing. Thanks to all of the posters on this forum.

Thanks for the replies everyone. I can see the decision between sleeve or bypass is going to be a tough one.

I am 5 or so months preop, just started actually, and I am told to limit under 10 per meal. Tracking to show Surgeon on future appointments.

Hi everyone. New to the group just starting my WLS journey. The journey started with a visit to an ortho surgeon for very bad knees. Recommended knee replacements and obviously weight loss. Being only 50yrs old I am going to focus on the weight loss and hope the knees improve greatly with weight loss. I believe with me wanting to lose over 50% of my body weight that bypass makes the most sense. I just had my consultation yesterday. My question is how much less pain, especially in the knees and feet, have you successful WLS patients experienced after 100 or more lbs lost?

Wow everybody.. thanks for the replies. You all have confirmed what I had hoped. I will go forward with bypass and lose the weight. I expect my pain will be very little to none afterwards. Thanks again!

Thanks for the reply. I knew there was another one out there. I'll take the chance and do the bypass. Thanks again.

Thanks for the reply. That is my guess as well, kinda common sense, but I was looking for confirmation. I still have a choice between VSG and bypass. The Nsaid is really the only issue with bypass which i prefer. Thanks again!