wordsthatrhyme

I had the gastric sleeve performed in July of 2017. The post-op diet consisted of 500 - 600 calories, less than 15 total carbs, and as little fat as possible. This was to be followed until you reached the end goal weight. My surgeon's goal wait for me was 130 lbs, which is at the higher range of a normal BMI for my 5-ft 1-in height. When I followed that plan I lost weight, but after following it for about a year, it got to be too much like torture, and as soon as I started falling off of the diet, I fell really hard. I started eating junk food and carbs/snacks every 30 minutes to every 2 hours and I gained all of the weight I lost after surgery back (I'm thankfully still below my highest weight). I've been unable to stick to a diet for longer than 3 days since. So I'm just curious what other surgeons / nutritionists recommended for other patients and whether they are success stories or failure stories, like mine. I'm hoping to model my diet towards the more successful options and see if that is more obtainable in the long run. Thank you all for your responses! Have a great day!

You look amazing! Thank you!

I don't have an after picture to post at the moment, but I have a question for the rest of you that are in your during or after phases. I have looked through the most recent 40 pages of this post and haven't really seen someone with my body type. Is there anyone who feels comfortable enough to post a picture of a before and during or before and after with a split stomach? I don't know how normal this is, but I have a pouch of fat above the belly button and a pouch of fat below the belly button, and it's what I consider to be my entire stomach. Makes measuring waist size for clothing difficult because of the belly button is technically where I'm sorry too make, but it's the smallest area and the pouch of fat above the belly button is actually bigger than the rest of the waist measurements, so the clothing wouldn't fit. Thanks!

Thank you so much! Great job listening to your hunger cues! I definitely need to start doing that myself instead of just eating constantly because I want to.

Thanks so much! It's refreshing to see that it can actually be done without such strict rules. Great job on meeting goal and I'm maintaining it after so long!

Thanks for replying as well. It seems like yout doctor had you eating different ranges gradually to accommodate how small your stomach was but not to restrict you too much. Sounds like a smart, safe plan for someone coming out of surgery. I love your idea of figuring out how many calories I'm eating now and then reducing by 200 - 500 calories at a time. I think that's a great plan to follow until I can get down to 1,000 to 1,200 calories without feeling like I'm doing too much at once and then binging. And it's smart that both of you plan for days that you'll be treating yourselves and can accommodate the rest of the days the week so that the average is still cared toward weight loss or maintaining. I'm so proud of both of you for being able to reach your goals and for maintaining for this long. I'm making notes of all of your suggestions to work out a plan that I can sustainably follow. Thanks!

Thank you so much for such a detailed response. I especially appreciate your suggestions for non-animal protein sources since I will be reaching my 2-year vegan anniversary next month. The 500 calorie diet was torture. I remember just wanting a bite of fruit and being devastated when I was told I needed to continue until I reached goal. (Guess who never made it to goal) And you're right, I feel like I have a few more eating disorders than I did before the surgery now. I haven't had a diagnosis because I'm a child who's afraid of doctors. This surgery was the most terrifying/bravest thing I've ever done; it was my last straw to losing weight because I'd tried everything else. I got within 15 pounds of goal and gained everything back. It broke my heart. I'm so excited about the research your surgeon is doing and how that I'm able to see the results when the study is done. It seems like he actually cares about your health and wellbeing. I love that you're seeing a bariatric therapist;I should probably see you in myself, but I just hate talking about myself. I'll see if I can look into it though. I wish junk food and taste as good as before. It's I feel like junk food is my main food staple now. All I do is eat sugar and carbs and salties and sweets. Thank you again so much for such a detailed reply. If you happened to track calories during the weight loss process or even during maintenance, would it be possible to send me a day from your food diary? I'm curious to see how everything was planned out. P.S. If my reply seems scattered, it's because I'm reading through your message and replying while working with customers at the moment. Sorry about that.

Forgot to mention that the protein requirement was 60 - 90 grams per day. Not sure why I can't edit the original post now.