Arabesque

Don’t fret yet @Lilia_90. I too thought I’d lost my hourglass shape but it came back although the hip waist breast ratio was smaller. Once my weight stabilised, my remaining fat resettled & my waist & hips came back. My boobs were there too but needed hoisting up in a well fitting bra-LOL!

Thank you. It happens when the pressure in your ears builds up. It can even be affected by air pressure so when storms are brewing. In my case it’s genetic. My mother has it & my grandmother had it. We take meds (betasert/serc). but only when we start to experience symptoms though some take them every day. The vertigo is the worst! These are more than a tart though @GreenTealael. Flaky puff pastry just like a croissant but with a delicious creamy custard filling. You have to try one.

For the food porn lovers: a rather large Portuguese custard tart. Now the story turns sour. I ate a third, then another third later in the day, gave the last third to my niece & then was violently ill. I was blaming the tart - too rich, too sweet,… This will teach me to stick to my eating. No more testing the waters. This is why you don’t go to these places. Etc., etc. Turned out it was a rather severe bout of my meniere’s. Usually I get the crazy room spinning first & if I don’t take my meds I can be sick. This time sick multiple times first then the vertigo hit. Couldn’t take my meds in fear of more vomiting. And yes it was the old, pre surgery, muscle wrenching sort. Groan! Think I will still blame the tart otherwise I’ll be back buying another one. PS. This is from one of the many artisan bakeries that have opened up in a very small radius of my house & your old Brisbane residence @ms.sss over the last few years. Terrible, terrible temptation.

I’m sorry I can’t offer any help but I remember someone mentioning something similar a while ago.. Hopefully they’re still about here & may offer some suggestions. You’ve probably read this article, but in case you haven’t, there may be some interesting points you could rule out &/or raise with your cardiac specialist or bariatric surgeon. If you don’t track anymore, I liked the idea at the end of the article to track your food to see if anything more specifically that you’re eating sets off the heart issues. https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/diseases/22416-heart-palpitations-after-eating I hope they can come up with some answers soon.

It’s almost like the plain water feels heavy in your tummy. I was the same. Try drinking water at different temperatures or adding a little flavour to do it like a squeeze of lemon or lome, or flavours like crystal lite. You can also drink green or herbal teas. I found they were very tolerable & soothing. Ginger tea may help if your tummy is a little upset or queasy.

@SaraSara4 Lots of nerves were cut during the surgery so messages about feeling full, having had enough, eaten/drunk too much, etc. either don’t get through or don’t get through in the same way. So the listen to your body advice doesn’t really work fully yet. Plus liquids go through your digestive system much more quickly so you won’t ‘feel full’. It’s why it’s important to stick to the recommendations regarding portion size, sipping your fluids slowly & eating slowly too. Tread slowly & carefully. I used to dilute my cup of shake or soup to around 1.5 cups or more & literally took about 2 hours to sip my through it. They count as fluids so all good. It takes around 6-8 weeks to recover & for the nerves to be back working properly & even then the messages could be different than what they were.

First, congrats on your weight loss. Wonderful! Second, is it a stall, a very normal & important part of your weight loss, or is it just your body slowly down the loss to seemingly nothing as you’re nearing or at your body’s new set point weight? If it is your new set point, you will constantly be fighting it to try to lose more. This is where your body is happiest. If your weight loss has slowed/stopped at this weight that means you will need to continue to eat the 1000 calories you are eating now to maintain it. Or less to lose more. Is that sustainable? Is it healthy in the long term? There’s the weight you want to see on the scales & the weight your body wants you to be & is compatible with your life & lifestyle. This alone can take time to accept & wrap your head around. Just some things to consider. Not everyone has a bounce back regain. I didn’t. I still weigh about what I weighed when I first stabilised with the same fluctuation range of about a kilogram/2 lbs at almost 5 years out. And I consume more calories now than I did when I first stabilised (1300 then & 1600 now). I don’t do any real exercise, am a little shorter than you & quite a few years older than you I expect. Also, look at increasing your fluid intake. You should be aiming for 2 litres a day & more on the days you’re more active. Your weight loss isn’t over until it’s over. A stall doesn’t mean it’s over. Just your body taking a break to reassess your current needs.

That’s pretty much what to expect in the first month (around 15-25lbs). Those who lose those large amounts of 30, 40 or so pounds the first month usually start of at a weight much higher than your’s like on My 600lb Life. And 100% of what @summerseeker said. Never compare yourself to others. It will mess with your head bad! Congrats on your surgery & your weight loss so far. Wonderful!

Definitely go back to your prescribing doctor. Meds are absorbed in different parts of your body (stomach, intestines, kidneys & liver). It may mean changing to a more rapid release vs slow release or a different med. My experience was the absorption of my HRT but after my gall was removed. My doctor switched me to a patch to ‘completely avoid my digestive system’ & all was good again. But that likely won’t be an option for the meds you are on.

That’s such silly advice. Make high protein choices. We make those choices every day. Okay up your protein but also up your calories. Your calories or volume of food you eat should be slowly but steadily increasing as you progress until you get to the point you’re maintaining. Until that time, you will keep losing but the rate slows & slows. Like many of the others above I kept losing for almost another year after I reached goal so about 18 months in total. (Wasn’t intending to lose more but it took time to increase my portions & calories to a point it the loss stopped plus it was obviously where my body wanted to be as I’m still there.) And the loss in those last months was grams a week (or none) not kilograms. It’s not over until it’s over.

Ask about bone broths & consommés too as they are allowed on many plans. They may say no to creamy soups (I used to dilute mine to make them thinner) but yes to clear soups like bone broth.

Check with your dietician. We all have such different needs. From activity levels, whether you’re maintaining vs still losing, current weight, age, metabolic rates, to genetics, etc. I’m a little shorter than you, am almost 59, not very active, on the lower end of the BMI scale & I need around 1500/1600 calories to maintain. However, the actual total calories I consume a day aren’t important to me (never had to track) but I randomly check out of interest & people can better relate to number of calories. Portion size & the nutritional value & quality of what I eat is more important.

My regular dinner plates sit all forlorn in the drawer too. I use entree plates which are slightly larger than a side plate. My dinner forks are the same - never used as I use my entree/dessert forks only.

I still cut up my meals like a toddler so all the components, vegetables & meat, are bite size. Am I the only one who does it this far out or are there are few others who do it too. Didn’t eat all of this but most. (Didn’t do the chef thing of wiping of the plate before the pxt. 😁)

If I remember correctly I think it was around one or so weeks. I remember the surgeon saying the dressings would slowly work their way off (loosening around the edges) & as long as the wounds weren’t being irritated by anything like clothing & looked healed on the surface I didn’t have to cover them again. Your internal healing takes about 8 weeks.

I’ll add to @SleeveToBypass2023 response. We all carry our weight in different places. If you carried it in your tummy, this will take the longest to go simply because it has the densest volume of fat. For some it might be their thighs or their butts. Even when you get to your goal you may still carry some weight there. But yes as @SleeveToBypass2023 said, this will also likely be where you have the most loose skin after too. Out of curiosity, have you had children? There could have diastasis recti where the abdominal muscles that separate during pregnancy don’t rejoin after. It can cause your tummy to protrude. Congrats on your weight loss so far. Wonderful.

Constipation is very common. So your pain may be from that. Remember even though you’re only drinking liquids, those shakes & soups have nutrients that end up as waste once your body has got what it needs from them. Your poop may be small &/or softer or you may have bouts of diarrhoea from all the liquid. Don’t expect to go every day either in the beginning. Back pain can also occur because of your weight loss. Many of us experience this as our bodies try to rebalance ourselves as we get smaller. Our muscles, tendons, etc. have been compensating for our heavier weight & now it doesn’t have to. Our posture & centre of gravity changes too so don’t be surprised when at odd times you lose your balance. The back pain can be from being moved about during the surgery too. But as with all things, if this seems strange or unusual for you or the pain isn’t manageable, contact your medical team. Better to be sure it’s nothing than something. Congrats on your surgery!

Remember too a lot of nerves were cut during the surgery so you won’t be getting messages in the same way or getting them at all. Plus all those sutures & staples holding your digestive system together. It takes about 8 weeks to heal so stick to the advice you’ve been given. It’s there to protect your healing tummy & support your recovery. All because you can doesn’t mean you should.

All those calculators are just averages so try not to get too caught up in what they say you’ll have lost at certain times. Some will lose more. Some will less. Some will lose as they say. That’s how averages work. And it may change time frame to time frame. Treat it only as an idea of what might happen not what will happen. You may end feeling like you’re failing if you look at their results as gospel.

We’ve all been where you are now. Loss of hunger & appetite is a benefit of the surgery (though there are some who don’t lose their’s) but it can be confusing & difficult to work with it. Aim for three ‘meals’ a day and eat what you can. Don’t force yourself to eat more even if that means you don’t eat all your portion. You’ll get used to leftovers in your fridge you’ll finish at your next meal or the next day. I only drank two ‘meals’ a day during liquids. I diluted everything and just sipped, sipped, sipped until it was finished - usually a couple of hours hence the two meals. Probably the most challenging part is understanding the difference between real hunger & head hunger especially as many of us were driven by our heads when it came to eating not real hunger. Head hunger isn’t affected by the surgery so it can be a real struggle to manage as it seems almost stronger. Generally, if you’re craving a specific food, flavour or texture that’s head hunger (a craving). If you’re hungry out of boredom, emotions (like stress & worries after the surgery), habit (always snacked by watching tv or after dinner, etc.) that’s also head hunger. If head hunger is making itself known try distracting yourself: read, craft, do a puzzle, ring a friend, go for a walk, sip water, a cup of tea, or similar. It takes about 8 weeks for you to be healed after the surgery and this includes your nerves which carry the messages to tell you you’re hungry, had enough or are full. So for a while those messages may not get through or may get through differently and the signals may be different. Like some sneeze, or their nose runs when they’ve eaten enough. Believe me, when your hunger does come back you’ll wish for the days you didn’t have it. All the best. PS - Yes they pump you full of lots of fluids so the scales can show an increase after surgery. You’ll pee it out over a few days.

I agree with @ms.sss. Stop the vitamins & go to see your doctor. Ask to look into why you may be anaemic. Is it an absorption issue, do you have some internal bleeding/blood loss, etc. In the past, I’ve always bought the non constipating iron. Can’t recall what makes them different though. The link below gives some information about other drug & vitamin interactions you may find interesting. Also advice to avoid caffeine - reduces iron absorption by up to 60%. https://www.health.qld.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0036/931698/c-lifeblood-iron.pdf Hope you can get some help soon.

I honestly didn’t notice it after my sleeve surgery but I was in hospital for a couple of days so it was day 4 before I think I weighed myself so had likely already peed most if not all of it out. I was out the next day after my gall removal & there was a good 2+kgs (5 odd lbs) on the scales (at my current weight so a lot comparatively). Yikes. I swear all I did was pee for the next few days. 😁

As all above 100%. Your medical team may track what you’ve lost since surgery but how you look at it is your choice. To me, it doesn’t matter that some weight was lost before surgery & some after. You’ve still lost all that weight & that’s amazing. Congratulations.

Yep, it is. They pump you full of lots of fluids. You’ll pee it out over a couple or so days & the scale will drop. But it is a shock when you see the number on the scales & realise how much they filled you with. PS Congrats on your surgery.

Absolutely gorgeous - the dress & your daughter. You’re so talented. So few people know how to sew on a button these days let alone make a dress as beautiful as this. I used to make gowns to wear to B&S balls (bachelor & spinster balls in country Australia. Would go for two days & involve copious drinking & very little dancing.) Went to a few when I was teaching in central Queensland back in the day.