summerset

Never heard of this. If you like saunas (I don't, the cool pool after sweating was always what I liked best about it ), give it a try.

The usual high school playground with all the usual characters present of course.

@allsmilez: This! And now how to decide what's best for you? It all comes down to trial and error in the end (within sensible boundaries).

No, I think they're looking for absolution. They feel like they committed a sin, confessed and want a "fast for three days, work out on the elliptical for six hours and don't sin anymore".

Partly. I think there were always non-compliant patients out there. With the number of surgeries the number of non-compliant patients automatically increases. Let's assume for easy math 10% are not compliant. 10% out of 1000 patients are 100 patients. 10% out of 10000 are 1000 patients. --- As for support before and after surgery: in Germany it's gotten way better. In the past surgeons thought patients have surgery and they're done (I got surgery in 2001 and when compared to what care is available today before and after surgery it is way better today). I don't know what the situation is like in the USA though.

That is what makes me sad (not only on this board). People fail and feel shame on top of it. What's even more sad is that other patients and the medical team often enough feed into that feelings of shame.

Absolutely.

Because there are so many different plans out there. Some information even seem to contradict each other. It starts with pre-op diet, continues with post-op diet and the follow-up intervals and the long-term diet one is supposed to follow etc. It's natural people start asking themselves: "Is my team right? Is your team right? Or the team of another patient? In the end what is really the best strategy?" For me it would be surprising if there wouldn't be questions about all of it. Patients want the best strategy out there for themselves (absolutely normal) but in the end you don't know if your surgical team offers the best strategy that is available. --- ETA: no, I'm not talking about that there might be a team out there that encourages bacon, steak and pizza one week post-op.

The advice you'll be hearing most is "follow your program". There, I said it.

@ Sounds horrible. Co-workers can suck.

Why?

@taracutch: Don't worry, I have to remind myself of the math behind it over again and again.

It's not upsetting, it's normal. 1 kg (about 2.2 lbs) of body fat contains about 7000 kcal of energy or so it's assumed. There are different opinions on this but let's assume 2.2 lbs contain about 7000 kcal of energy you have to burn to lose that fat: To lose "9 stinking lbs" you'd have to burn approximately 22000 kcal of energy which means a bit less than a 1600 kcal deficit a day.

You described your problem already very well in your post. What I mean with this is the following: you already have lost quite a bit of weight as it seems, so you didn't start out at your highest weight ever. Your body already adapted a bit to the lower amount of calories you were eating for quite a bit. As for WLS "making it easier to lose weight" or "make it happen": well, when it comes to metabolism, you will still experience some of the drop down in metabolism simply because you're weighing less than you used to and so you're experiencing a stall right now that almost everyone seems to experience when losing weight. Surgery works because you eat less calories than you're used to. Not really a magic wand involved here. You will continue losing weight, as long as you're eating less calorie than you're using up. It's just a stall that happens after months of being on a diet already. Try to stay off the scales for at least two weeks (or one week if two weeks seem to intimidating). As a master of driving myself crazy with calories, nutrients, weight, exercise etc. I hold the opinion that relaxing a bit seems to be really doing the trick.

And yet some users on here behave like they were always 100% compliant and that everyone who isn't 100% all the time deserves to fail. I'm quite appalled that I had to read multiple times from different users something like the following: "Oh, they're eating pizza/steak/bacon/whatever - let's watch them fail, they deserve it". There are at least three things that rub me the wrong way about this: - the self-righteousness of the user who made the post - the opinion that the patient who isn't always 100% compliant seems to deserve to fail 100% - that some users would obviously really display schadenfreude when watching someone fail who eats foods that are not on their own personal list of approved foods I understand the need to feel superior some times, but some statements just make me shake my head in kind of disbelief.

Good suggestion. I remember a thread in which vets complained about newbies being "so overly sensitive". Some vets seem to be quite sensitive and easily offended, too, as I have noticed during the last weeks.

Silent reflux is a problem because people simply don't notice it. I noticed my (volume) reflux but thought I would be protected because I was taking the PPI (had no burning sensations at all) but in the last EGD they saw a benign lesion and that's when I got scared and wanted the bypass. The lesion was removed but the scar now has to be controlled once a year with EGD.

...whereas bypass creates a low-pressure system. Sometimes RNY bypass is used as an anti-reflux treatment, even if the patient is not overweight (I guess they created a much smaller bypass then). When I got surgery I met a man who had failed fundoplicatio two times and finally got a RNY to treat his reflux.

I had a slightly dilated distal esophagus, severe volume refux and an axial hernia (band removal alone wasn't enough) so I got a revision to bypass and the hernia fixed. Sleeve would have been the wrong treatment for this.

I take Celebrate with Iron and La Vita.

I eat it. I don't have problems with handling fruit on its own and I don't believe in carbs being the new bad guy in town after fat got its good reputation back. I'm already looking forward to ripe apricots and figs.

I still feel very low in energy. Had two horrible nightshifts last week (Sun/Mon and Thu/Fri) and I still feel very, very low in energy. In the afternoon I just feel like collapsing. Slept on the couch yesterday afternoon for two hours straight. I had problems with busy nightshifts before but not to that extend. It seems to take days to recover from them now. Next nightshift is on Thursday again. I used to exercise a lot before surgery and I recovered from the band removal in February pretty well and was able to exercise pretty soon after surgery. Now I feel like "Exercise? Some days I barely make it through work..." Nevertheless I have to start doing something. I miss it. Maybe some light yoga to get back into it.

When being at work? Forget it... I was asked that question (I have 30 min before and after waiting period) when being at the follow up. I said waiting with drinking after the meals is usually ok. My stomach feels uncomfortably full when drinking larger amounts of liquid shortly after eating. I don't talk about the tiny sip I usually take to clean the mouth. That doesn't seem to make any difference so I don't think it's doing any harm. Not eating after drinking for 30 min is quite often not doable at work. Comes with the job. I'm not a desk jockey with regular eating and break times. Didn't get scolded, btw.

Today I did a PTA on a dialysis shunt. Took over an hour. Heavy X-ray coat and all. I should have started with something quick and easy. Now I feel pretty beaten.