Losebig

Just curious for people who are out a ways, how often do you weigh yourself? Is there a set weight at which you take action to get back on track? Do you still track food? For me I'm still a relative newby, I weigh in weekly usually, bi weekly worse case. I focus on staying within 2.5 lbs above or below goal, if I get to either end I adjust my eating to fix it. I stopped religiously tracking foods about 6 months ago, though I do track off and on and spot check days for macros if I feel like I'm off.

Little over 2 years out, lost 100 or so lbs and have kept it off. Exercise had taken a hit lately due to non stop travel, but still maintaining....

Talk to your doctor. Small volume, low fat soft foods are your friend.

Interesting topic. I'm at 2 years and haven't thrown up since right after surgery. I've been close a few times, but never had the issue. I rarely get sick either, in fact I just got the first "sort of cold" that I've had in those 2 years, which is amazing. I attribute it to the vitamins. Diarrhea is unfortunately a frequent visitor, espcially if I eat anything fatty. Haven't noticed much of any other differences, though I am really careful to hydrate constantly still and imagine that could become an issue if not feeling well

Thanks. Just passed the 2 year mark myself, huge changes and still have very similar eating habits to 1 year post (4 oz of protein for a meal). Biggest challenge for me and the only way I've been able to gain wait is alcohol so have to be careful of that. No issues with overeating, if I even approach it I'm in great pain and it serves as a potent reminder so I'm very very careful still. Awesome to hear how well you're doing further out and hope I'm doing just as well. I'm still at goal, super active and loving being thin!

Sex drive went up DRAMATICALLY and after a couple of years still is. At times I definitely use that VS food, which is fine as long as you're healthy. Fair warning after you lose the weight you may find yourself with a lot more opportunity for that too.... with or without your spouse, so be careful and smart and there's nothing wrong with 4x a day as long as its not hurting anyone

Recently I switched to Vodka water and lime juice. Very good

Wondering what folks are doing in terms of drinking. If I want to go for a night out, but don't want to get plastered what can I drink if I don't do beer or wine? Beer is too fizzy and wine puts me to sleep, so I stick to low calorie mixed drinks, problem is they tend to be way stronger so over a couple hours I can easily have more than I want. Anyone have any low cal / low alcohol mixed drinks?

closing in on 2 years. I have to be super careful with anything that expands (i.e. pasta, rice, potatos, some breads). The only result is I have a tiny amount < 1 oz and am in pain so its just not worth it. I have to be careful with sweet stuff (I never loved it but now don't even really like it). Fatty stuff goes right through me, so anything as fatty as or fattier than say a breaded chicken tender causes problems. Fatty meats do it too. With that said it was / is life changing and absolutely worth it

It's gotten more busy, but that's expected. Still struggling and may end up dropping down like 10 lbs and seeing if that is easier to maintain... I suspect that I'm going to have to monitor my weight closely (both up and down) forever. Maybe the appetite suppressing effects will lessen after a couple years

So I'm out a little over 18 months, though virtually all of my ~100 lbs lost was done in the first 6ish months, so I've been on maintenance a while. I've been doing really well and my weight has been +/- 3 lbs the entire time. I just started a new job and I've been really busy. My problem right now is that I'm not feeling hungry so I don't eat and I'm running around so it feels like when I do eat I'm competing with whether to eat or drink, this has me down to 3 meals a day (from ~6) and my calorie intake is half what it should be for the past 2 weeks. I'm starting to lose weight and generally feel like crap. I've tried adding in some higher calorie stuff (pastry, sausage, cheese, nuts), but just don't have enough time to eat. I likely need to do some kind of schedule, but my struggle is what can I eat that's < 4 oz, but will get me ~500 calories per meal? Any suggestions on easy nutritionally dense snacks so I can have fewer bigger meals with this new schedule? Other folks have this issue when they get busy? For some reason if I don't eat or drink for a few hours its like my stomach clenches as well and my capacity is greatly reduced, for example I didn't have dinner until after 8 tonight and even eating 2 eggs was a no-go with pain like I over-ate, so that's also causing some issues.

Up and down. Job is great, but I had a super busy week a couple weeks ago and lost 8 lbs... so still working on balance. The good news is I had been on vacation prior and gained a few lbs over a couple weeks so the swing wasn't crazy and I'm not too badly below my target zone. I've stocked my office with nuts etc and that definitely helps

Thanks! Aware of the transfer risk, so am very careful to take it easy. There's actually a number of risks post surgery including a super high rate of divorce and a higher rate of accidental death. So far I'm beating the odds and don't enjoy drinking enough where I think it'll be a problem (also only really drink when out of business, which often times has weeks in between events) Some good ideas here. Any carbonation for me is a no go, just feel full and uncomfortable.

Thanks. I actually go out a LOT (job hazard). The problem is I really feel my drinks so I'm looking for ways to minimize. My go to has been vodka and diet cran. Thinking maybe rum and coke since rum is often half the alcohol of vodka. I have gotten good at not overdoing it. Post surgery I feel it way more and much more quickly, but it also passes faster too. will have to look at a 'tall' in my are that usually is a double (2x the alcohol). Really something like flat beer would be ideal, low alcohol and it takes a long time to drink.

Super helpful, I was afraid I was weighing too often. Daily I fluctuate a lot (water), so weekly works well for me (same time and day every week). I just returned from a 3 week vacation with no scale and am 1.2 lbs above my 5 lb range I usually fluctuate in, so working to get that corrected over the next couple of days... Agree about staying on track, that's what got me in trouble every other time I got thin, but not this time!

Worth calling the DR. If you had a hernia repair that could also be a cause. I had some pains, but they were sharp and short in duration and usually when being active, the theory at the time was scar tissue from the hernia repair and it eventually went away (but I did go see the DR)

Nope - you didn't make a mistake. You will feel like you did for the next few weeks though. What you did do was embark on an incredible difficult journey, which is going to be both terrible and absolutely amazing. When you come out the other side in 6, 12, 18 months or whenever you'll look back on it and it'll be one of the best decisions you ever made in your life. Focus on the day to day right now. Follow the plan as closely as you can, keep on top of the pain, call the DR if something isn't right. It took me weeks to get to the liquid goal and my calories were like ~300 per day for the first month, it got much easier after that. Once you start seeing weight loss (a few weeks) it'll be more motivating. For now keep busy, sip constantly (try watering your shakes down) and try to walk a lot gently as that helps with the pain.

I made exercise a big part of my weight loss and have tried to keep that up in maintenance. I'm not great or super formal about it, but I try to be active most of the time. When I was closely tracking I would work out on average 3 - 4 days per week, usually cardio oriented exercise like running, biking, walking, hiking, or vigorous yard work. Now I have less time, but I try to incorporate exercise into little stuff - making dinner for the kids? Lets see how fast you can do it! Or bringing out the trash? Great Run! After you do it enough it becomes a lot of fun. I for example used to HATE running, now I love it. In fact I find myself running anytime I can and it's socially acceptable. Its great stress relief and for me at least is key for sanity

Sorry for the slow reply, I've been on vacation for a few weeks and not online. She didn't say what a good ratio was, just to have complex carbs if I was going to work out (she suggested oatmeal for example). One other thing that helped me a little with light headedness was to have a beverage containing electrolytes at least once a day. For me that became a 20 oz powerade zero, its way too sweet for me, but I religiously have at least one bottle a day and that does help. Honestly though I still have days when I nearly pass out when I stand up quickly - especially if I'm really exerting myself. The DR's don't have any answer for that and I did have a full cardiac work up shortly after surgery due to a complication, so there's no issues there. My theory is that you have a lot of extra vascularity when you're heavy (more blood vessels to feed all that fat) and when you get thin the blood vessels don't go away. No one has been able to tell me if that is the case or if they go away over time - but in my case my blood pressure went from borderline high to on the low side, but my resting heart rate has also increased even though I'm in good shape. TLDR: Try an electrolyte beverage to see if that helps and have complex carbs before a workout - a lot of other stuff could be going on too and the DR's don't have all the answers unfortunately.

Thanks for the reply. Nutrition I'm hitting my Macros and in good shape. My issue is just that I'm losing weight, not trying to bulk up for competition or something like that.. but losing 5 lbs just because I'm busy, even when not doing a ton of physical activity. This is a problem because when I drop too much I look sick and feel sick... High class problem I know, but still a problem. I have since done more protein bars, which are easy to have on my, calorie dense and decent nutritionally. I've been doing more peanuts and peanut butter too. That has helped the last couple of weeks, plus having pre-cooked stuff I can just grab (cheese, sausages, chicken, etc). With those changes I'm maintaining

I'm in the same boat and also drink mostly powerade zero these days. I was talking to my nutritionist and she said this is pretty common. I noticed that with regular water and other drinks they tend to sit in my stomach or make it clench while other stuff I can almost drink freely (or at least in frequent biggish sips). Her theory is it is the PH of what you're drinking and that stuff with a slightly more acidic PH goes down easier. I've tested this a little and very often drink about 4 oz of diet cranberry with 16 oz of water (in a powerade bottle). This until I got lazy a month or two ago was 99% of what I drank and it goes down easy. Lemon and water is ok depending on the amount of lemon. Kind of interesting.... temperature also effects me, cold stuff isn't good and warm stuff is super easy so light hot cocoa very diluted is a go to if I'm having trouble

Wow!

Froze at first when I was losing. I got about 10 lbs below where I am now and didn't feel good, so adjusted goal up a bit. As soon as I put on the weight it actually helped a huge amount. Now I'm not cold all the time, yes I run way colder than I used to and lack insulation, but its not like it was before.. it's actually nice I don't need A/C. My wife is the exact opposite, hot constantly so we have quite the battle in our house with the HVAC Another thing that happened was it HURT to sit, I lost the tailbone fat pad and it was painful, gaining the 10 lbs back solved that too, which was nice...

Good point on the carbs. I used to do almost none, but when I would go for a run or other exercise I would get light headed and kind of shaky. The nutritionist had me start eating more carbs and that made a huge difference with energy level and endurance training exercise. I do try to have the carbs in the AM with the pastry being my largest carb intake of the day, usually i work out right after having that because it's an instant energy boost. If not working out I skip it

Top advice is to follow your plan and make sure you are doing everything you are suppossed to. Make exercise an important part of your day / week and keep it up. For me it replaced eating for stress relief to some degree, which is great. The biggest thing I would change is to take stool softeners and maybe see if you can do Miralax immediately following the surgery... the first poop a week after was memorable and also completely horrible.... I probably have PTSD from it. For me this proceedure was life saving and has completely changed how I view, use and interact with food. I followed the plan EXACTLY to the letter and made losing the weight my #1 priority over everything else until it was gone