etc. etc. etc.

You look like a frigging superhero, man. Good on you!

The really weird part was that after years of wearing bagging boxers, I had to go get smaller-sized boxer briefs because once my pants weren't baggy anymore my, uh, business didn't sit correctly/comfortably.

I realize I'm a guy, so it's different, but... my solution on jeans has been to buy the ones from Lee that have a bit of stretch to them. They tend to have them at Kohl's for buy one get one half off. I bought 40W (which fit) and 38W (that were doable, because of the stretching.) I alternated between those until the 40's didn't fit anymore, then bought 36's and alternated between those and the 38's. The 38's have gotten kinda loose, so I'm heading back this week to buy the 34's. I miiiiiiiight get down to 32 eventually, but it's hard to imagine going past that, so I must be close to done getting new pants.

I'm with creekimp on this, yeah. Stuff tastes the same, but what I get out of it is different. And yep, that changes what I am interested in having. That warm feeling of contentment when I would have heavy carbs--potatoes, cereal, pasta--is gone. It just feels like loading my stomach with wet concrete. Not sure if I'll ever enjoy that stuff again.

While I don't want to ignore the usual caveats about how everyone is different, as long as you're happy with your results, whatever your doctor feels is necessary, etc., I will note without further comment that the overlap between people who track everything methodically and stay carefully within set limits and the people who seem to lose the most weight is pretty darned high.

I eat 1200 a day. I had let it edge up a bit over time, and as long as I was losing weight, I figured that was fine. Recently, I tried to see if I could pull off 1300 with a bit more carbs. That stopped everything dead in its tracks. So now I'm back to 1200 a day with 45 grams of carbs or less. And the weight loss has resumed. I do think you may want to consider edging your calories up in increments rather than jumping straight to a higher number. It's less of a shock to the system and it's easier to see where it happens if you start to plateau.

People 6 months or more out... what is your daily intake like in terms of calories and carbs?

I started at 336.8, got to 310.6 via the pre-op diet, and have lost 92.4 since surgery, for a current weight of 218.2. I've slowed down lately as well, but I'm down to a size L men's shirt and size 36 pants, so I can't really complain too much.

Fellas get loose skin, too! The skin around my belly button is sort of crinkly-looking and weird. It feels like a plastic bag with bits of loose ground meat scattered in it. And the belly button itself sort of pinches it up in the middle, so it's like it's divided into two separate bags of loose skin. I also have loose skin under my arms. My thighs aren't there yet, but they feel just like my belly and arms did before they turned to loose skin. It's like right before I get to the loose skin stage, I have a sort of jiggle stage where the fat stops pushing everything taut and then everything jiggles much more. So I guess that's next.

I do 25-50 minutes at a time, shooting for around 4 hours worth a week. I do about half cardio and half strength machines. This is new for me, though. until it got miserably cold here in Chicagoland, I went hiking 5-6 days a week. I'm trying to make this a thing.

After this fun thread from yesterday about lunches, I thought it would be interesting to see what people have for lunch. I go through weeks on weeks of having nothing more than a shake, so I'm interested to see what others do. Today, I had a Chobani plain greek yogurt with a tablespoon of chia seeds. That particular yogurt is low in carbs, which is good since I'm trying to limit mine. Adding in the Chia seeds gives it fiber, which helps keep me out of the various ohmahgawdI'msoconstipated threads. I let the chia seeds soak in for a few minutes so that they soften and taste better, and then a mix in a little water or tea to make it moist again (otherwise it turns to paste).

Again, it's a noisy post title, but if you read what Raffi is eating, it's 600-800 calories per day, protein first, shakes for breakfast, some light snacking on nuts and jerky, a few bites of something more normal for dinner, and steady exercise. It's not like he's eating cheeseburgers and cake here, people.

I think mostly Raffi just sort of framed his post in an unfortunate way. It would be easy to take him as being all "HAHA the rules don't apply to me!" and that would be a serious concern, yeah. But I don't think that's what he was saying. I think he was actually just noticing that he's maybe not as meticulous with things as he is encouraged to be and takes a few liberties with the rules. The former is easily fixable (though it would be easier to do that before he runs into a problem than after) and the latter describes... pretty much all of us. I mean, shoot, I drink, too. I have a glass of wine maybe 4 days a week. Sometimes two, if friends are over. I have to be really careful about it and I include those calories in my planning. But I do that, too, sure.

I know I tested my wife's patience for a while. I had decided to tell the bare minimum of people. The problem was, until I hit around 85-100 pounds lost, virtually no one noticed (or at least virtually no one said anything about how) I was changing. This meant I was working really hard on diet and exercise, vitamins, doctor's visits, etc. and getting no feedback from the world. I ended up talking about this stuff at home so much I was driving her nuts. We're good now, but I don't think I realized how annoying I had been until after the fact when she told me she was glad I was past that.

I went to a brunch buffet this weekend. We had a buy-one-get-one coupon, so I didn't feel overly ripped off. I got to have small bits of prime rib, bacon, shrimp, and caprese salad. The best part wasn't the food though, it was being at a buffet without feeling apologetic about it. Usually, I am in line feeling like people are staring, like I shouldn't be eating all that *I* can eat because I'm already fat.

Tonight, dinner will be pork loin and sliced tomatoes. I like those Smithfield seasoned pork loins that come prepackaged. They're low carb, not super high in calories, and pretty easy to make in the oven.

I found my new breakfast. It's Chobani plain Greek yogurt with three teaspoons of coconut-sweetened cacao nibs. It's like eating chocolate chip yogurt, and it's only 155 calories and 12 carbs (with 5 grams of that being fiber). It's been a nice change from shake, shake, shake every day.

This all feels 100% true to me.

I had to buy some size medium underwear this weekend. MEDIUM. Jeezo beezo.

Diarrhea? Nah. It's the other problem. The people here who do complain of poop issues usually complain of constipation. That's less upsetting overall and more readily fixable, thankfully.

There are some foods that WLS patients call "slider foods." They're foods you can eat more of than normal because they sort of slide right through. The good news is, that isn't the same thing as having stretched your sleeve. The bad news is, those foods represent a sort of slippery slope that makes it very easy to mess up your diet.

It's kind of like when you're in your late teens/early twenties and not only you can eat any junk food you want and not get fat, you could probably eat the styrofoam container it comes in and be fine. Then, as time goes on, those bad habits catch up to you. Then you end up fat enough that you have to have major surgery... You can probably get away with not tracking what you eat, drinking as much as you used to drink, eating with little to no plan, etc. for a while. You'll probably lose some real weight, too. Then you won't. You probably won't lose all you want to lose. And you'll be much more likely to gain most of it or all of it back. This isn't a fear or a superstition I have. It's a thing I have seen in these forums repeatedly. It's what it looks like when someone doesn't make the commitment to changing they need to make and they blow it. It happens gradually, and it's not a straight drop down, so people usually don't even realize they're doing it. All of this said, I don't think you're doing *that* badly in terms of what you are eating. The scary part isn't the specifics of what you're eating/drinking, it's that you don't seem to have a plan or track things. You seem content to just go with what feels right and trust it work out. I would only remind you that trusting yourself to eat what seemed okay made you an obese person who needed bariatric surgery. It wouldn't even be that hard to get back on track. It's just taking a step back, talking things over with your nutritionist, starting to log what you do on MyFitnessPal, trying to have a plan and accountability. I wish you the best, man.

I thought for the longest time I wasn't losing hair, but now it seems I am. It's just sort of thinning. I've switched to a Biotin/Collagen conditioner. Maybe that will slow things down. My hair is still... okay. I've gone from very thick hair to kinda low average. but I need this mess to slow down. They say most of the time, the hair sort of regrows eventually, though.

The new people are wearing me out y'all. This weekend there are people posting near identical threads pretty much back-to-back. Maybe we need an FAQ post at the top of the thread? Or maybe mods could forcibly merge some of these?

Here are my measurements the day before I started my pre-op diet vs. today. (All sizes in inches because Americans are weird that way.) Before/After Neck 18.5/15.5 Chest 50.5/43 Stomach 57.5/41 Waist 49/39 Bicep 12.5/11 Thigh 27.5/22 Hips 50/42 Weight 336.4/218.4 How about you folks?