ms.sss

Haha good point. When i ask for a glass of water no ice, plus a glass of just ice, no server has ever asked me “why?”. (Nor when i ask for everything on the side, or when i ask for an extra empty glass plus some celery salt in a saucer, or when ….the list goes on, lol) PSA to servers: dont fear me when i come in, i tip well 😂

Oops pic forgot to add the pita chips with the soup… +25 calories 😂

What i’ve eaten so far today: Cheese and oven baked (leftover) pita with hummus: 269 calories. Homemade creamy potato and mushroom soup, and a couple of the aforementioned pita chips (omg so good, lactose pills def a requirement beforehand!): 245 calories. Ate it all. Also, i had some beef jerky and pistachios in between (270 calories)

I, for one, don’t believe i feel bad nor harbour any shame about my wls (or any other medical/surgical procedures i have had). I think its just not my bag to share my business to all indiscriminately (i mean, i have even been known not to tell new acquaintances my real name for months lol 😉 ) I have a friend who does keto/low carb. Whenever we go out to a meal together, she has a several minute conversation with the server about her food choices and why, and sometimes shares how much weight she has lost to date (or gained recently by “cheating”). Meanwhile, i just quickly ask to swap out my potatoes or whatever for salad and internally hope (while simultaneously outwardly looking like i’m waiting patiently, ha) for my pal to finish her discussion so we can get our food already!! 😂 But i get it, she is passionate and proud of her lifestyle and progress, and she’s a sharer, so of course she wants to share. And if/when she finds an eager listener, then score! Win-win. At the same time, there are others (like myself) who prefers to discuss aspects of my life to a curated audience. Ain’t nothing wrong (nor weird) with either.

The Kid took home a doggy bag from her meal out so I helped myself to it! Chicken wings & Crispy Riblets: 382 calories for whats shown. Leftovers went into the trash.

I was advised to take them as soon as I got home (i.e., tue day after surgery). And yes, they made me nauseous…particularly the calcium pills, and the multivitamin to a lesser degree, but still quease-inducing. After a few weeks I switched to calcium chews, which where much better, and I dealt with the multivitamin as best i could (i tolerated them better when i had something in my stomach, but i ate very, very little the first month, so it was challenging. Around 2 months post, when i could stand to eat again, i would bury my multivitamin in a tbsp of greek yogurt and down it. That seemed to do the trick.

Salad! With a side of…chicken and gravy! Lol. Remember, don’t judge me…haha 264 calories for the bowl, will eat the rest in a couple hours.

How tall are you?

Regarding consumed vs absorbed, i would hazard a guess that consumed calories is the measurement. Wouldn’t absorbed calories de difficult to determine? Everyone will have different absorption rates. Maybe better to over estimate than under. Your scale and labs will tell u if u need to eat more or less. Regarding weight loss calories, again it depends on the person and their current weight as well as their current activity level. For me, i could lose weight eating 1800 calories when i was very active, but today that same amount is my maintenance level. My NUT was more concerned about the macro makeup of my meals vs a caloric goal. But she did say, if I remember correctly that i should aim to be at 1200 cals by 3 months and more or less the same forever. Well. I was like at 400 cals at 3 months, and sub-800 by the time i got to goal. And now at 1800. So yeah, her caloric goal did not/does not fit my experience. Best to do some trial and error to find what combination of calories/food types/activity works for YOU. And keep adjusting as necessary. Good Luck! ❤️ P.S. Im 5’2” 119 lbs this morning, and 4 years post op sleeve.

…and now because i like to wrap things up into a nice conclusion, here is yesterday’s 4th and final meal. I haven’t logged it yet in MFP cuz there are so many components and i was too lazy (and drunk, lol) to do it last night. So I took a pic of the menu to remind me to enter it later. Ahi tuna appetizer: 320 calories. Ate everything above the rice. Didn’t eat the rice cuz I didn’t want to get too full, plus it was touching the ginger glaze “lake” at the bottom which was waaaay to sweet for my taste. Lavender lemonade: 200 calories. So pretty, right?! Drank it all. Also had 2 vodka sodas: 150 calories, not shown. sooooo…if my math is right, i ended the day at about 1900 cals (i also had some pistachios, some cheese and crackers and a Lindt Lindor truffle chocolate as snacks in between these meals). It really does all add up.

Yeah it all adds up. Mind u if i skipped the salad dressing, i could’ve cut 25% off the total….

Not sure either, but my default reply to your post (and other posts like it) would be: follow the advice of your doctor. Until, of course, you have valid information not to. Have u asked your doc for his reasoning? My own, individual experience : I’m 4 years post op. I stopped taking my vitamins just a little over one year post op. I’ve had several labs done since then and they have all come back satisfactorily. My next checkup/lab is at the end of the month..if the results indicate i need supplements, then I’ll take them, otherwise, i’m good.

May as well post my 3rd meal today too: Persian Food! Salad and grilled meats: 271 calories. Ate it all. (also had 2 sake cups full of…sake beforehand +75 calories, not shown

A Food B&A 3-for-1: yesterday’s dinner, today’s 1st and 2nd meals of the day Yesterday’s dinner: Congee, 192 calories, ate it all. Today’s first meal: Open faced Havarti-poached egg slider, 255 calories, ate half, Mr. ate other half! Today’s second meal: Cole Slaw mix with feta and avocado: 433 calories for the bowl. Ate most of it, and none of the avocado (looked off to me so decided against eating it). Gonna just take off the avocado, so adjusted log to 321 calories.

Ok, so here is a different kind of Before and After. Been having Body Fat Percentage on the brain after a short discussion of it on the Food B&A thread. I’m 5’2”, 118.8 lbs this morning, down from 235 lbs 4 years ago. Picture on the left is me 2 years ago (Summer, 2020), when i was working out regularly and eating pretty low-carb. I was probably 115 (or less) at the time, body fat percentage 13-18%. Picture in the right is me today (118.8 lbs), wearing the same shirt and bra, but not the weight belt that i was wearing in the 2020 pic (which is why my waist looks tiny in that pic). Body fat estimated at 29%. I def do like better how my bod looked a couple years ago, but not soooo much that im willing to put in the effort to get back there, ha! So lesson(s) for the day are: 1. number on the scale is NOT the only factor that determines “health” or fitness level. 2. Sometimes u need to weigh a particular goal with the effort required to achieve/maintain it and decide if its for you. 3. Getting to and staying at a particular fitness level takes effort. Regular, and consistent, effort. I am in awe and admiration of those who can get and STAY fit. It’s hard, man!

Edited to add: sorry, am realizing this post should probably be put in a more appropriate thread. But im too lazy to move it, ha! ———————— Yep. so the first time i got my body fat measures via scan, it was 38%. But this was already 3+ months in, and 70 lbs lost. So i would guess I was probably 50-55% body fat pre-wls given my body measurements at the time. Yikes. After weight loss, at around 1.5 years post, dexa clocked me at 15% (at 115 lbs) My most recent one was Jan of this year and i was at 23% (at 118 lbs that day) My home body scale, while varying wildly day to day, generally reflected these numbers when taken as an average over the time period. Sooooo, if i can count on the averages of my home scale, as of this morning, I’ve averaged 29% body fat reading for the past 30 days. I am 118.8 this morning. Now i still think calling me skinny fat is a stretch since technically im still in the healthy body fat percentage for my stats, i am definitely much less fit than i was before (I’ve basically doubled my body fat percentage over past 2+ years.) With all that said (which was alot, sorry!), i am content enough with my appearance and lifestyle that i have little interest in doing anything drastic to change it. I’m just not very keen on other people unsolicitedly pointing out their precieved deficiencies of my body. But i mean, who does??? P.S. btw, there ARE physical benefits of a higher body fat percentage: my face is less gaunt and my boobs are bigger. Win!

Ok, twist my arm, i’ll play too! Unfortunately this is as far in as the blanket would go 😂 Granted my pants are alot smaller than they used to be. Lololololzzz. P.S. I’ve shoved hot water bottles in my pants…now THAT feel nice!

Actually i think she’s reconstructing/revisiting an old thread where someone indeed shoved a blanket in their pants lol:

No difference in actual eating (but i did/do) burp an awful lot. Fullness felt different…it was/is a pressure in my chest instead of a bloated feeling in my lower abdomen. further…when drank alcohol the first time (about 3 weeks post op) for swear i could feel it travelling down my intestines. After a few months (can’t remember exactly when) alcohol no longer produced that sensation.

Dinner. A cute little dinner roll with a slice of havarti and 3 anchovies (don’t judge me, it was YUM, lol) Ate it all: 238 calories.

I loooove looking at old photos (and showing others these same photos!) Just think its so cool how different I looked and marvel at the difference. There aren’t many of me in my “obese years”, cuz like u (and many others, i suppose) i often hid from the camera, or was the one taking the pictures. Now im in so many and the timer on my camera phone is used ALOT, lol. Its funny cuz now I wish I had more pics of myself from that time. P.S. Its also fun to make Before-and-After collages 😂

Dunno why, but I just felt for oatmeal for breakfast this morning…which is weird because (1) I probably haven’t had oatmeal in probably 10+ years and (2) I don’t normally eat breakfast hahhaha Anyhoo, 260 calories for the bowl, ate roughly half. (Microwaved 1/3 cup steel cut oats with 1/2 cup water and 1/4 cup milk…topped with brown sugar, cinnamon, blueberries and pistachios) The after pic doesn’t look so great, sorry!

5-15 lbs per WEEK?!? For the first few MONTHS?!? That is a bold (and borderline irresponsible) statement for a publication to make. If I lost 15 lbs per week i would’ve been NEGATIVE 5 lbs in 4 months. Dust Particles. Anti-matter? Does anti-matter have negative mass??…i digress… I didn’t even hit an average of 5lbs per week (for first 4 months), and from reading on here i was one of the faster losers. Pro tip: manage (lower?) ur expectations and revel in your accomplishments. It will save you alot of angst. P.S. Congrats on the 20lb loss! That is no small feat in a month.

Things that happened that i did not already know or read about beforehand: 1) 1 month post: my period would come back (i hadn’t had it in 2 years…thought i was in menopause..i was wrong), and continue to come like clockwork every month…im 4 years post now, and its still as regular. 2) 1-2 months post: my armpit stink would disappear (I don’t even need to wear deodorant anymore) 3) i no longer needed my ADHD meds. I had to pause taking them after surgery as advised by doc, but discovered i didn’t need to get back on them. 4) 1-2 months post: super human bladder control. I used to pee 1-2 times an hour during waking hours and got up from bed 4-6 times a night. After 1-2 months i noticed i could sleep the entire night with no bathroom visits and can go for several hours without during day. 5) 2-3 months post: the endless amounts of energy. In would have thought i would be dead woman waking given the so few calories i was taking in, but it was just the opposite Thats all i can think of for now. Im sure there were plenty more but its been so long i forget, lol.