TeeBeau

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.

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.

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.

I hadn't thought about it until I saw this post, but I no longer sweat excessively. It's amazing. I used to be so embarrassed by the sweat pouring down my head and neck at work for no apparent reason (other than obesity I guess).

Oftentimes, people don't post when things are going well, but I thought I would chime in with my good experiences for those still researching. Today I am 8 weeks post surgery and weighed in this morning at 199.5, a number I haven't seen on the scale in more than 27 years. I've lost about 31.5 pounds since day of surgery and I think 84.5 since I began the 6 month supervised diet with my surgeon. I feel GREAT! I wouldn't say I have tons of energy, but I do have more than the early weeks after surgery. I go to the gym each morning and workout for 60 minutes, which has been helpful both physically and mentally. I haven't had any complications per se, other than constipation, which my nutritionist has suggested chia seeds and spinach added to my protein smoothie and it seems to be working. I had a month off after surgery, which surprised me, but my surgeon insisted. I'm glad I did because it gave me to opportunity to focus on healing, getting better, getting to the gym, and figuring out how to drink and eat. I'm hoping to lose 10 pounds this month, prior to my next surgeon visit. And my fitness goals include getting back into weight training, in addition to the cardio I've been doing.

My joint pain is better when I walk 60 mins everyday at the gym. If I miss a day or do the bike or short walk and weights I have hip pain at night. So I think exercise does help. My ortho did tell me as I lose weight I may experience new or changing pain in my hips and back as my center of gravity changes and or loose skin begins to pull in different ways than the fat did. But he said that would get better too, over time. Hang in there, hopefully it will get better for you.

Tomorrow is the big day for us schedule for March 12. I go in at 5:30 am for a 7:30 am surgery time. I'm only slightly nervous. Feeling mostly content with my decision and ready to get this done and start recovery. I've lost a total of about 53 pounds, 40 on the 6-month supervised diet and about 13 (I think) on the two-week liver shrink diet. My tummy got smaller so hopefully that's because my liver shrank as it should have. I should have about 105 to 110 pounds to lose after surgery to get to my ultimate goal. I'll try to update at some point after the surgery. Good luck and best wishes to all having surgery tomorrow. Here's to a new life of living instead of watching it pass us by. Update here, as you are able.

I have Anthem BCBS now, but when I started I had insurance that had only a medical necessity requirement. But, my surgeon required 6 months supervised diets, which at first irked me, felt like jumping through hoops. But I took that six months to really evaluate myself and what I was about to commit to. I used that time to work on myself and try to get as healthy as possible going into surgery. I'm having surgery next week and in hindsight I'm very glad my surgeon made me do the 6 months because I made most of the changes that I will need to make already. I feel prepared and ready for this new way of eating and lifestyle. It is annoying at first, but you might come to appreciate the process of preparation once you're closer to surgery.

So sorry for your losses.

Mine is March 12! I'm on day 3 of my preop diet. I'm starting to get excited instead of just nervous. How are you doing?

Oh you do get more variety than I do. I can't have any bars or other foods, just the shakes/soups. I was on a modified version of New Direction diet (1 or 2 meal replacements per day plus 1 or 2 grocery meals) for my six month doctor supervised diet leading up to this point. That gave me the option to try many different things and figure out what I like. I don't like most of the puddings unless I mix with twice as much water for more of a shake consistency. I like the chocolate with fiber, the mixed berry, the pineapple apricot, and tortilla soup the best. I do mix all the drinks with more water than the directions call for--it cuts the sweetness for me. I also mix the soup with less water as I prefer the consistency better. I keep telling myself It's not forever. It's temporary. I can drink these temporarily and eventually I'll be able to eat healthy food (in small portions) again. Hang in there. I hope you find a flavor that's tolerable for you.

I'm on day two of 14 day preop liquid diet to shrink my liver. The meal replacements I take are from my doctor's office (New Direction brand from Robard) and have 27g Protein and 200 cals each. I have 4 each day for 800 calories. It's not as bad as I thought it would be, so far. On Friday my BMI was 43.x and he thought I could get my BMI to around 40 before surgery on the 12th. It's interesting how all preop plans seem so different. I suppose each doctor has reasons for each patient as to what the protocol will be. Good luck!

This is truly inspiring. Other than the sleeve (of course) to what do attribute your amazing success? I will have surgery on March 12 and will have roughly 120 to lose to goal. And I want to do all I can to make that happen with the sleeve. I've already started working out preop so that I'm in the habit post op. Any other advice for a newbie?