Travelher

Pretty psyched by my Dexa scan results, the technician said she's never seen results like it. I was able to bring my body fat down to 23.7% and gain muscle while doing it! This puts me in the 9th percentile for women my age....Thrilled with the results. Now I need to stop losing.

There are many schools of thought and every bariatric program is different. I just found one that makes sense and works for me. My focus is essentially simply nutritious foods first. I lost and am maintaining on balanced macros, which simply means 40%protein 25-30% fat and 30-35% carbs. Other than that I avoid processed food and choose complex carbs for my carbs and ive pretty much cut out cheese as it is too easy to go over on fat with cheese. Again nutrition focused always. I want to ensure I'm not one of the people with nutritional deficiencies down the road

My being afraid of bypass is what led me to the disasterous decision to do a band to begin with. I have realized very much the hard way that I should not make medical decisions based on things I am afraid of that I have no expertise whatsoever in and that I should listen to the people who do have the expertise. I went to my revision doctor wanting the sleeve. He suggested bypass as a better option. Thankfully this time i listened. I ultimately realized this was the best course to take to avoid the risk of yet another revision. And I'm done with bariatric surgery! He was right and I'm mad at myself for wasting 11 years of my life in denial with the band where I could have just had success and eliminated my health issues in one fell swoop instead of trading them in for The new ones the band caused.

Picture of me nude sunbathing.

Thanks. I'm lucky to not have any hanging skin, but my skin has started to wrinkle and pucker in the last couple of months. Hence the lbl. For exercise I walk. 10,000 steps or more. Plus I'm generally more active, I walk to the fruit and vegetable market every week and carry my groceries home instead of driving to the grocery store...those kinds of things. I like kayaking on the lake etc. No gyms or anything.

Thanks! No no plastics yet. Scheduled for a lower body lift and breast lift in April.

I've never been on blood pressure meds. at 260 my blood pressure was around 115/80. Now post op my new normal is 85-90/55-60. very common to have a drop in blood pressure, so you should go to your doctor and see about reducing your meds.

For starters it doesn't matter how much of your stomach they took. Research says the size of the stomach is not a determinant of weight loss success. it is eating habits and the metabolic reset the surgery gives you. I am an RNY my pouch is twice the size of a normal post op pouch because I was a revision from a band and they had to work around the band damage. Check out my stats. You are on fluids so at this point you don't know how restricted you may be because fluids go right through...they don't hang out. it is why all the bariatric programs in my province no longer have a wait before meals to drink policy. Just after. Once you are on solids you will see your restriction level, but you won't be able to count on it. over time you will be able to eat more...that is how it works. the surgery buys you a year or two to develop good eating habits and lose while you still have full restriction. I suggest you go to youtube and look up dr. Matthew Weiner's videos. THey are very informative on the realities of post op life...there is one on pouch stretching that is interesting.

my answer to this questions depends on the minute. I go from "omg I look hawt!" to" how do I hide x? ". To, no I can't possibly be this thin now...to...well you get it. 2 things I know...The scale lies ...the mirror lies...pictures do not. When i look in the mirror, 50% of the time I think I need to lose more. I saw pictures of myself this weekend at a wedding and finally realized that I 100% do not need to lose more and need to hold my weight right where it is. I looked slim, maybe even skinny in the pictures...it was a real shock to me. So I'm good where I am. Now I just need to maintain.

normal and it does get better. If you haven't already, try warming everything up. I had to drink even my water warm. it was the only way I could tolerate anything in the early days. You'll notice it improving week by week. I think I was 100% by 2-3 months, if not sooner.

what you are feeling is normal. Some people get the feelings of dread and depression and some do not. Just know and take to heart that it is usually temporary. Remember that we used to eat to soothe our feelings and now we cannot. Outside of the physical stress your body is under recovering from surgery that is huge! We need to find other ways to deal with stress (mine is shopping...don't follow in my footsteps ). You will adjust, you will heal. you will be on here in a couple of months saying you would do it again 10x over. that is the experience of the vast majority. I was a revision from a lap band and even knowing how the healing process goes, I still went through moments of feeling like "OMG I will be burping non stop for the rest of my life" (I'm not). or "I'll never be able to drink water again!" (drinking some now). I will tell you that on another board there is a 3 day post op patient spending his days reading horror stories and researching reversals. no complications, no issues...just extreme anxiety and buyers remorse. people are counseling him to get emotional therapeutic help because he is not thinking rationally and could do something that would actually harm him. You are doing 200x better by comparison. I sincerely hope he will get help. You will come out of this. This too shall pass.

#1 have you considered a dueodenal switch? if not, you may want to consider that. Sleeve is the first step in the switch and it has the best stats for long term weight loss, it iis what rny'ers switch to, if they aren't losing. as to cooking and healthy food choices i belong to a facebook group that is great support for that. https://www.facebook.com/groups/SleekandSassyNutrition/

You will love the Dexa scan. I do it every 3 months since April. I've dropped from obese to healthy since then and gained a bit of muscle. Next one in September.

Uh yeah, if you were ever that low then I would say odds of getting there or lower are high. My lowest ever was 142 (at lowest weight in high school and briefly in my 20's) . I'm 140 right now and I'm not sure I've stopped. I thought I had stopped at 148 end again 144. And yet here I sit at 140

actually most people experience their first stall in WEEK 3 not month 3. so congrats on delaying yours so long. Stalls are broken by doing nothing but sticking to plan and waiting them out.

You may want to try regular sizes now. in the mid 180's I was wearing size 12.

just google dexa scans for your area. I found one close to home..usually costs $100 and well worth every penny

what would be interesting is to monitor muscle mass after a switch to a lower protein diet. I do regular dexa scans and I have gained muscle (though I don' t work out) it is counter intuitive. but I chalk it up to my high protein intake. I plan to continue the dexa scans so if I drop my protein I'll let you know if it impacts muscle mass.

I like Dr Vuong's advice. Dr Weiner has a similar philosophy. if you like the gym go. work out if it is what you want to do, if you enjoy it. not to lose weight. If you find yourself stalling know that it may be that you aren't getting enough calories for your activity level. I was striving to be at 800 calories by 2 months, 900 by 3. I could not have worked out on those calories. Now I'm at 1250-1450. i fell like i can now start strength training. I hit a normal bmi at around 9 months with no gym...but i'm active naturally. I get in 10,000 steps a day. I like to kayak, bike ride. Now I am toying with the idea of strength training (something I can do at home).

need to up your calories way higher than that. I'm between 1300 and 1400 and don't work out and I'm still losing (slowly). You need to add in more carbs and maybe add an extra shake? easy not too filling carbs you can add are freeze dried berries. fat is going to be your best bang for your buck with calories. I added a 7th meal to get mine in..so your bed time shake may be the way to go. Yes at your height 160 should be about a size 4. I'm a size 4 at 140 but 4 inches shorter than you.

Band-RNY revision age 49 5'4" Starting weight: 260 Surgery weight: 244, Current weight 140.2 Pre-op-16lbs (size 18/20) M1-16lbs (size 18) M2-15.6lbs (size 16/18) M3-10lbs (size 16) M4-11.4lbs (size 14) M5-10.8lbs (size 12) M6-8.4 (size 8/10) M7-6.4 (size 8...165.4 lbs) M8-11.6 (size 6...153.8) M9-5.6 (size 4/6...148.2) M10-5.8 (size 4....142.4)

10 months out. About 120 lbs down

boobs were the last to go for me. as I lost my boobs just looked bigger and bigger...i went through a period of intense back pain and my mom warned me I may need another reduction. but once I got closer to a normal bmi they looked more in preportion to the rest of me. now I have rocks in socks

wow, my doc said he'll likely only remove about 85 grams of skin...be he tells me that I'm a c cup not a ddd (tell that to victoria's secret and every other bra company I've been to). I really really really don't want implants so I guess I'll end up with what i end up with. maybe he's just prepping me for the cup volume loss...though when I had a breast reduction 30 something years ago I was told I'd end up a c and I ended up a d/dd...so...I guess you never know. Looking forward to going bra less once in a while.

i'm not having a reduction, just a lift. so wondering how much you lose with just the skin removal. I've lost a lot of volume between the 36DDD stage and 32DDD. Right now, sometimes I can squeeze into a DD if the fabric is stretchy, but wondering if I'll end up a D or a DD or a C. At a 32DDD my cup size now is equivalent to a 36D so I'm good with my size now, but would be fine with one or two drops in cup size.