TeeBeau

This is a great thread and a topic I've been thinking about personally, because I'm not sure what my answer is. I think my doctor's goal for me is somewhere between 120 to 135, which would put me in the normal BMI range. I'm currently about 165, so only 30 pounds to go to hit the high end of that goal. The highest ever recorded weight for me was 303. I started the program at 284 and had surgery around 243. When I was 15 I weighed 150 after unhealthy dieting. I think mentally, I'd like to reach 125 to prove to myself I can do it and to give myself a 10 lb leeway to the top of that range. But I think honestly, if I could maintain at 150 I'd probably be happy. We suspect I probably have about 10 to 12 pounds of excess skin. I don't yet know if I'll have surgery to remove it. If money and pain were not part of the equation I would 100% fix all my terribly saggy skin. And I'm too early to decide about skin anyway. I've hit a plateau, which is frustrating. My NUT wants me to consider doing the bariatric shakes for two weeks to try to break through the plateau. I told her I wanted to give it a month before considering it. It's been 3 weeks and no changes, so I think I'll try it when I see her next week. My husband is going to enter the medically supervised program with my NUT office, so I think it will be easier on both of us if we're doing it together.

My weight loss has slowed. I'm at about 8 months post op and have lost 70% of my excess weight thus far. I'm trying to celebrate non-scale victories until I get past this plateau. This morning I showered and got ready for work at the gym (I have usually just gone home to do this, unless it's a rare lunchtime workout). The tiny towel at the gym completely wrapped around me without a gap. I was so excited to see that! In the past when I've worked out during lunch I've had to bring a giant beach towel to completely wrap myself in after showering. What non-scale victories are you celebrating? I need inspiration to look for other victories in places other than the scale.

The sleeve, along with a lot of hard work and determination, have brought me to a point I never thought I'd reach: Officially overweight and no longer obese. Wow! It's mind boggling. I haven't been here since I was 15 years old. I have about 30 or 35 pounds to get to goal and I'm 7 months postop. Weight loss has started to slow, though it's still coming off. I think I will make it to my goal eventually. My mind is blown.

I'm sorry to hear you've been dealing with breast cancer; I wish you good health. It's good to hear you can be successful with this vegan whole food plant based diet. My primary care provider has told me that they are starting to recommend this way of eating to patients, but that for me, for now, only six months out of surgery, I need to follow the high protein, low carb bariatric diet. But once in maintenance, she wants me to explore the vegan plant diet with my nutritionist. Thanks for sharing.

I had an unknown hiatal hernia that the surgeon found during sleeve surgery and he repaired it at that time. I never had any issues from it, so never suspected one. I am six months out and have been on Omeprazole since surgery and have had no reflux issues to date. I go in for my six month follow up tomorrow and am curious if I'll have to keep taking the Omeprazole.

I've been the same weight for the past month, basically month 5 post op, the entire month. It began after vacation, I had been losing at a slow but steady clip and this past month has been very frustrating. I have upped my workouts as I'm training for a 5k and I think that is the real culprit. My hunger has started to return, but not to the extent is was presurgery, so I have to really focus on protein, veggies, and water for satiety and hydration. I go to my surgeon next week for my 6 month follow up and I hope he has some words of encouragement or advice to get over this stall. I will say though that this morning's weigh in at home I appeared to be down a pound, which is hopefully a sign the stall has broken. Otherwise I would say, patience is required and adherence to your plan, even when it seems like nothing is happening. Do your clothes fit differently? I have noticed mine are looser this month despite seemingly zero weight loss, so maybe for me I've replaced fat weight with muscle weight, which takes up less space. I don't know, but I think this happens to all of us one time or another, so you're not alone. Hang in there.

I'm 5 months post and I can eat almonds, peanuts, cashews in small quantities. Peanut butter did not agree with me a few months ago and I haven;t tried it since.

It took a couple of months but I can guzzle water now fairly quickly when I'm working outside in the heat or working out at the gym. It only sometimes hurts, like if I've eaten within the last hour and I don't have a lot of sleeve space for water. But on an empty sleeve I can chug water pretty well.

I'm 5 months out, but I had significant pain (and I have a high threshhold for pain) for 4 weeks. At four weeks I was "magically" pain free. I started walking at the gym during week two and it hurt, but as time went on it got incrementally better, until it disappeared at 4 weeks. I had been expecting the no big deal recovery that I had heard about and back to work at two weeks. But that was not my experience.

At 4 months out and I have lost >60% of my excess weight. I expect I will lose 100% of my excess weight before it's all said and done. I do think much of the weight loss can happen due to the calorie restriction, but I also do workout. After surgery it was just walking everyday, but now I do weights and I'm training for a 5K run--not helpful for your situation, I know. I attribute my success to following doctor's and nutritionist's orders to a T. I also changed my eating habits and incorporated exercise before surgery so that I had already altered my lifestyle. Exercise has become much easier and less painful as I've lost weight, so I have to keep pushing myself.

I'm about 11 weeks out. I get that stuck feeling, particularly if I eat too fast, usually during the evening meal when I haven't eaten since noon. I guess I'm hungry those times, but I don't experience hunger like I did before surgery, so I don't recognize the new feeling of hunger. I tried a one inch piece of a pita bread and I felt the stuck feeling then too, only more misery; I stay away from bready things now. I can eat about 1/4 cup of dense things (meat), 1/2 cup of yogurt consistency or soup consistency foods before I feel the stuck feeling. I have to have one protein shake a day yet in order to make my goals--I can drink about 8 oz of a thin shake fairly easily. A thicker shake is a smaller portion limit.

I've lost 53# since surgery and 94# since beginning the program. I have about 55# to go to goal. Down to a size 16 from a 24. Shopping a lot at Goodwill and the like. Feeling pretty good, but having to closely monitor my blood pressure so they can adequately wean me off BP meds. Have lots of sagging skin on arms, belly and breasts. Have rash under pannus which has been documented by PCP and prescribed nystatin cream. Frequenting the gym 5 days a week. Feeling pretty good overall. Can tolerate most foods I've tried. Peanut butter is a no go. Peanut powder though is ok. In about 2 weeks I'll be at 3 months post op. Time flies.

I don't know if height has any correlation to PCOS, would be interesting to find out. I did not consider a different surgery. I've known several people (5 maybe) who have had RNY and gained back the majority of their weight. So I figured it's the work you put into it, not necessarily the type of surgery. And that's been my focus. My surgeon said to me, that now it's up to me, he's done all he can for me and now his job is that of cheerleader for me, but the real work is up to me.

Congratulations! I hit 199.5 the other day, first time under 200 in 27 years. It is truly an amazing feeling! You should be proud of yourself!

I have PCOS and was never able to lose anything significant and keep if off pre surgery. I have lost about 32 lbs since surgery on 3/12/19 and about 86 total since last July when I started with the surgeon's 6 month pre op diet. I believe the surgery did something to fix my hormones, metabolism, whatever involved with metabolic syndrome and PCOS. For the first time in 27 years I am below 200 lbs. I too was afraid the PCOS would not allow me to lose after surgery. And while at times it has seemed slow, I've averaged 4 lbs lost per week post surgery, which is really quite good. I believe if you follow the plan your team gives you, you will be successful. That's how I've approached this and I follow their advice and directions. I sometimes struggle to get enough water and those weeks I lose less it seems.