bodycando

Yes, I waited about 18 months after surgery and then got pregnant right away.

I had an IUD (Mirena) when I had my surgery and didn’t personally have any pregnancy scares. Congrats OP if you aren’t pregnant—but if you’re not perhaps it’s a blessing in disguise. It’ll give you more time to lose weight and your future bb better conditions to grow, the further out you are from surgery.

I weigh at the same time every day (morning before breakfast, after tea). Also always naked. Sometimes I don’t remember to weigh myself so it’s sometimes more like 3-4 times a week. My weight has stabilized in the last six months though.

Hi all, 115 pounds down and some pesky cholesterol stones have wreaked havoc in my life! There are many of you who have had your gallbladders removed due to gallstones. Please share your experience here! Background: I’m not getting a lot of clear information from my doctor about what to expect from removal, just assurances that it’s a very easy surgery. Given my last surgery (gastric sleeve) wasn’t exactly a walk in the park, I would love to hear your experiences with removal. Did you immediately choose for removal? Anyone here choose to control their stones through diet modifications or take a “wait and see” approach? After getting an attack during a work meeting in Korea 😅 I’m realizing removal is probably my best bet. I’m having 1-4 attacks per week for the last three weeks.

I’m a year and a half out from surgery and my doctor and I are very happy with my weight loss. I am also very happily pregnant (in my first trimester) and so far have had great medical care. I spoke with my bariatric nutritionist today and she mentioned that I should absolutely not lose any more weight and should work on eating more, ideally seven eating moments per day, gaining 15-25 lbs over the course of my pregnancy. I’m running 5k 3-4 times per week and have been continually, slowly naturally losing weight. I told her this and she said to just eat more so I would gain more weight. In hindsight I feel a bit like I wasn’t totally done losing weight. The shift from being focused on weight loss to gaining weight is unexpectedly hard to make, but it course I follow my doctors instructions to a T. Anyone have similar experiences with struggling to gain weight during pregnancy?

I know this is meant well but I found this painful to read. I’m 11 mo out from my surgery and have lost noticeably a lot of weight (~115 lbs) and people have no problem disparaging my looks from the recent past. I even remember my GP saying before my surgery “let’s hope I won’t recognize you next time I see you!” I just don’t find this a nice sentiment because I loved and accepted myself the way I looked when I was bigger and think that everyone should be taken seriously even when they are very overweight. The idea that you look crazy and shouldn’t be taken seriously as an overweight person, and that you look smarter when you’re thin, goes to show how much society pressures us to intertwine feelings of self-worth that are not related to our weight. Anyway with that said, congrats on your journey @RussT ! It’s really great to have someone so successful with lifestyle changes check in at the 3-year mark as I’m often hearing that restriction and maintenance are more difficult after 2 years.

Really fantastic to see you thriving and happy!

Couldn't agree more. I actually didn't feel super comfortable with my surgeon (mostly because I had no direct contact with him before the day of the surgery, and the surgeon actually switched a few days before). If you feel confident in the hands of your surgeon I think that's a good and even strong sign. There will be so many strange feelings and mysterious symptoms that come throughout the various stages of recovery, and you will want to have full confidence in your surgery experience when encountering them. And like @GreenTealael already said, surgery might give you a perspective that makes you not sweat the small stuff. I just went on my first vacation since surgery (10 months and 100 lbs ago) and what I noticed is that 1.) no one cared what I looked like or even really noticed me at all and 2.) everyone else is also a little loose/saggy/scarred themselves. Hope this helps your decision making.

That’s insane that they dislocated your hip during surgery! Was the surgeon leaning on your hip or something?! And thanks for sharing your experience—did you have to make any major diet modifications after surgery? How long did it take you to get back to normal?

Thanks everyone, I have a pre-op appointment for next week! I hadn’t thought of it being dangerous or the risk of infection with waiting—good to hear that it was an easy decision for everyone.

Same story here, in 2015 I realized I was relying too much on consuming things (both food and alcohol) for stress relief and immediately signed up for a gym membership, eventually sought out counseling, and a year later quit drinking on my own accord. My stress levels were out of control (mostly money-related) and through counseling I was able to set up a life for myself with more stability. This included quitting drinking and eating for pleasure/nostalgia. This has been a huge challenge for me—and not taking on too much work continues to be challenging—but I feel I’m better equipped now to know when I’m dipping into the stress danger zone and notice my eating behaviors change. I think with alcohol it’s very easy for us to deny problems that are really there because it’s socially acceptable (or even expected) to drink in so many occasions. For me I know it’s best to just avoid it entirely because I can skip back into denial quite quickly. Best of luck with everyone dealing with this.

I’m 10+ months out and when I had surgery I was not anticipating being in so much pain (mostly because of what I’d heard from others) and I was completely blindsided from the extreme pain when I woke up. It took me a month to get back to work, and even then I built up my hours. I live in the Netherlands though so I *could* do that an still get my salary. In hindsight I’m really glad I took it slow. Even in the third week I was so weak and barely able to walk long distances.... good luck with your recovery.

Hi all, from what I read on this board it seems like everyone here tracks their food intake and calories. I haven't tracked calories since my first weeks post-surgery, but I do track exercise and my measurements, and eat very mindfully. The reason is that I have a history of disordered eating and am concerned that I can get too obsessive with tracking. My therapist is also not a fan of calorie tracking. In the distant past I've gotten very obsessive with tracking, but in the more recent past I feel more a weird combination of laziness and anxiety around it. I'm 9 months out and have had great success post-surgery (100+ lbs down) but am wondering if I should rethink my no-tracking stance as I get into more challenging territory closer to my goal weight. Anyone else in the same boat?

Tylenol with codeine but only for rare/extreme pain. For everyday aches and pains I tough it out or take regular Tylenol.

Haha you've got a point! I'm going to give this some thought and potentially start tracking soon. One question--do you use measurement cups or a kitchen scale or both? I live in Europe and the way we track everything is metric / with a kitchen scale, which feels *quite* exact.

It's good to hear that this is also working for you too--I was also never told to count calories by my bariatric nutritionist or surgeon, rather they gave me guidelines to stay within (i.e. no refined sugar, always whole grain, eat five times a day, etc.) My nutritionist actually wants me to eat more carbs... different strokes I guess!

Patience is a virtue... just keep doing your best with your diet and exercise and you will get through it. I'm realizing now that I had a stall over the summer that lasted around two months. I didn't completely stop losing weight but my weight loss majorly slowed down after about month 6. I had been losing very fast, so I thought this was a normal adjustment, but something has clicked in the last couple of months and I'm losing much faster again. Could be also that I'm more honest with myself about food choices and exercise and have more of an exercise routine now. Anyway, best of luck--you will get through it!

I was personally never advised to crush pills... even the day after surgery my nurses gave me whole pills. (I had the sleeve though, not sure if it's different with RNY.) My only issue was with tolerating the iron in multivitamins, so I use vitamin patches now. I would of course suggest to follow your nutritionist's advice and ask their office for clarity if you don't understand their instructions. With that said I'm surprised by the crushing advice.

My size has stayed the same but I can wear normal width shoes and more adventurous styles now. With that said I would add that what is a feminine foot size is totally relative! Self-acceptance and the confidence that comes with it is much more sexy than the difference between a 9 and 10 shoe.

Haha I love this--I did the same thing. I've been quite open with my immediate family, close friends and a couple of colleagues who I trust, and also obese people who I'm less close to but would know that 100 lbs of weight loss in 9 months didn't come suddenly from taking the stairs instead of the elevator. I will say that I'm very glad I told a couple of colleagues who I also consider to be friends/acquaintances because I felt safe eating lunch with them and knew I wouldn't have to field "how do you do it?!" type questions. Each of them also opened up about their own health struggles--one with fertility, the other with anorexia, and the other with being overweight but not so overweight to qualify for surgery. It really transitioned them from being acquaintances to friends, and they have not betrayed my trust. I do regret telling my neighbor, who is a 75-year-old Dutch woman (for reference, I'm 34 and American). We see each other almost every day and she means well, but she didn't have the nuance or empathy to take in the news in the way I needed. She asked some awful, insensitive questions like "How did you get to be so big anyway? I never see you stuffing your face." But on the bright side she was next door in case anything went wrong. Now she gives me constant compliments and is always telling me how much skinnier and amazing I look--which I actually don't even really like, because it feels like demeaning pre-surgery me, who I also loved. I think the compliments are the most weird to deal with, personally. This is an incredibly personal decision that will be different for everyone. You can feel it out as you go--just make sure each person you tell is trustworthy in terms of respecting both your decision to get the surgery, your current appearance and your privacy.

I think it's a normal part of adjusting to the surgery to go on vacation and majorly screw up your diet! With that said, it's also probably a good time to check in with your nutritionist and/or therapist. I went back home to visit my parents in June (~6 months post op) and had my first major extended weak moment--because of the insane amount of food available to me (and my lack of willpower) I ended up eating like my family (which is not good), snacking like crazy and making generally poor food decisions. Luckily this gave me a breakthrough to realize that I felt self conscious making separate food for myself because I thought it'd be rude (no idea why) and from that point on I was able to better moderate my bad food decisions. I just got back from vacation with my partner and I actually lost a few pounds over the course of 2 weeks. Thus, no sweat this time but do try to get to the cause of the slip and learn from it.

I had a lot of pain drinking after my surgery as well--it was the worst part for me. It gets a lot better very quickly. Broth and protein shakes helped enormously. If you're getting bored of liquids try looking up some recipes for interesting but mild broths. I ended up making chicken pho broth which had a lot of flavor but was still very soothing. As @FluffyChix already said, hydration and walking are key right now. Hang in there.

Steak is actually one of my favorite post-surgery foods! I sautée a 150 gram piece in a cast iron skillet and eat around half of it and have the rest for lunch the next day. I cannot tolerate rubbery scrambled eggs or some leafy uncooked greens in salads. Also if something has a lot of oil or butter on it (like very buttery toast) that disagrees with me as well. Sugar I can tolerate fairly well but it definitely makes me crash hard so I avoid it.

I also had extreme pain after surgery and felt a bit misled. Apparently it’s policy to wake up patients after surgery without pain meds in order to make sure there were no complications from anesthesia. So I woke up and threw up blood, cried from the pain and immediately asked for pain meds. The worst was that the nurses made me constantly drink liquids and discharged me within 24 hours, and to be discharged I had to eat puréed food, which I was so not ready for. It hurt just sitting there but it was extremely painful to take anything in. I felt like my recovery “back to normal” was pretty slow in general because I’ve had a lot of problems with low blood pressure. 85 lbs and 7 months later I’m very glad I did the surgery but just wish I was more prepared for the pain.

Hi all, I just hosted a party for my birthday last weekend and realized that I just cannot tolerate rich food anymore. I am almost 4 months post-op and haven't been eating rich food at all, and tried a couple of bites of party food (burger, mac n cheese, cake) here and there, none of which agreed with me. It felt like my esophagus was mad at me for even trying! I've been really good and keeping up my high-protein diet but figured I would make an exception for my birthday, but boy was I wrong. Has anyone else experimented with eating "treat" food for holidays/special occasions with success? Or is this an extension of food addiction thinking that got me so overweight in the first place?