PolkSDA

I'm fighting this same issue as well just under 2 years out from surgery. I hit an alltime adult low of ~213 pounds about 8 months ago. I've kept it close to that, but over the past 6 months I've slowly gained about 9 pounds. Don't get me wrong, 222 is still a far cry from my June 2019 weight of 389, but the warning signs are there. I'm hoping that Spring warmer temperatures finally actually get here so I can get outside for exercise more regularly (or that I'm more inclined to do so), but I need to focus on my eating habits more and nip this thing in the bud. I think we sometimes forget that lifelong battles are indeed that.

Amen to that. As I've written previously, most people would recoil in horror at what and how I've eaten following surgery, as it violates all of the normal "rules" for successful weight loss surgery... but I'm 14 months out from surgery and hit an alltime adult low weight this morning. I've reset my target goal twice now. It appears OP, that you and I have very similar frame sizes, starting weights and goals weights. My high adult weight was approximately 410. My original weight goal as discussed with my surgeon was 250. I'm not sure what your age is, but I'm 55 (taking early retirement next week in fact). I've been exceeding the daily caloric goal written in the surgery manual since about day one (but not excessively so), and well exceeded the target fluid intake goal. Fluids were never a problem for me. I would say it's far too soon to try to assess success or failure. See if your weight loss continues as you progress through the food re-entry phases. You'll be able to better gauge your progress. IMO it's the long-term trends that matter as opposed to week-to-week loss.

I was told to avoid caffeine for the the first 30 days following surgery. My understanding is that this was because of the diuretic effect, and fluids are a fairly critical part of short-term recovery following surgery. I'm 14 months out from surgery and am a caffeine fiend. I mainline coffee. No issues.

Thanks, I'll check those out. I've tried the Cherry 7-Up one and it's ok but nothing to write home about. Most of these drink mixes tend to put the emphasis on "sweet" rather than the actual underlying flavor IMO. I've been getting my ginger fix from hoarding the seasonal "Gingerbread Cookie" flavored Equal packets they put out last Christmas season. They had this, Peppermint Mocha, Pumpkin Spice, and Salted Caramel. This and the Peppermint Mocha are quite good. What caught me off guard is that they are actually more flavor than sweetener; the gingerbread in particular is a very robust ginger flavor. A couple of packets in my coffee and I'm in hog heaven. I didn't learn about them until after they were pulled from sale, so I had to seek alternative secondary market sources for them. Supposedly they're coming out with them again this winter, so I'll be sure to stock up this time rather than having to pay inflated prices on the secondary market (eBay, Amazon Marketplace).

Sorry, kale is of the devil. It is pure evil in food form. 😁 There is no single "right way" when it comes to eating/snacking habits. We're all different, both physiologically and more importantly, psychologically. What works for me may not work for you, etc. When I read "Forget snacks entirely, unless..." I immediately tune out. Things couched in absolutes don't resonate with me. Sure, those prohibitions may be absolute in YOUR experience, but they may not be so for others. My nutritionist has been reinforcing that WE SHOULD be snacking post-surgery; 4-6 small meals per day is important to success. Advocating against that IMO runs counter to generally accepted practices. Now with respect to what the composition of those snacks are, that IMO is a *VERY* YMMV issue. Me? I eat garbage. I have my fast food and my chips, cookies, etc.... but in much, MUCH smaller quantities than before I started this journey. Some might say that this is setting myself up for long-term failure, but I say au contraire! I loathe cooking. I hate it. I can't be bothered by it. I don't want to "learn to enjoy it". I don't find value in it with respect to my time and/or convenience. Never have. That's in my makeup. I am what I am. I know myself and my weaknesses. I *NEED* to enjoy food. If it's food just for the sake of eating and nutrition, I WILL find a way to cheat, "sneaking" bad food on the side IN ADDITION to whatever healthy food I'm supposed to be eating... which IMO is far, far worse, given the increased caloric intake and quantity eaten. Better that I cut to the chase and eat small portions of "bad" food that will satisfy me than to eat food I don't enjoy and still be psychologically unsatisfied, if that makes any sense. It's better for me to work within the constraints of my weaknesses than to ignore them or try to futilely change what I believe to be fundamentally unalterable. This morning I hit a new alltime low adult weight since age 18... 37 years ago... and my weight is still going down (albeit very slowly now) 13.5 months after surgery... so however unconventional, it's working. I would hardly recommend this approach to anyone else... we're all different.

My surgeon and nutritionist both said no carbonation for life post-surgery. Given that I don't need any additional possible impediments to long-term success, I've decided to heed that advice. Given that pre-surgery I could easily drink two 2-litre bottles of diet soda per day, this was a not insignificant change. I've tried carbonated beverages I think twice in the 13.5 months since my surgery, and each time they made me feel uncomfortable, so it actually hasn't been difficult to give up. The only thing I really miss is ginger ale/ginger beer. The most difficult thing has been finding noncarbonated no-sugar drinks when traveling, going to fast food joints, etc. Before this I really had no clue that just about EVERYTHING is carbonated or loaded with sugar... and don't get me started on energy drinks. There are virtually no zero-sugar non-carbonated energy drinks in existence. There are a few Monster tea variants, but they all taste like ass. Hydro Zero has almost nil distribution; one Wal-Mart locally carries it in the checkout end-caps, but it's perpetually sold out. Rockstar Recovery Lemonade was my go-to. It was delicious and I was going through 3 cases a month... until the bastards at Coca Cola decided to change the recipe and make it carbonated, just like every other [CENSORED] energy drink on the [CENSORED] market. My go-to is now unsweet tea wherever I go, and I keep a large box of Sweet & Low in my car so I can sweeten it to taste. One other thing that is nummy is Zero Sugar Pomegranate Vitamin Water, found only in fountain form at Subway restaurants. No carbonation, no sugar, and really tasty.

Hang in there. At least you have a new scheduled date. When my surgery was cancelled in April of 2020, there was nothing even proposed, let alone tentatively scheduled as a new date. We as a society were freaking out (toilet paper hoarding, nightly BLM protests, riots)... no one knew what the endgame was going to be, and there I was being told by my surgical team that I still had to keep from gaining weight for an unknown period of time or risk being booted from the program. As a lifelong overeater, lemme tell you that stress eating most certainly is real... especially with society seemingly falling to pieces around you and also having to manage a team learning to work from home for the foreseeable future. tl;dr: Smile, it could be worse.

I'm 13 months out from surgery and my calorie intake varies wildly, anywhere from 1100 to 2000 calories per day, with the vast majority of days in the 1300 to 1600 range. I'm still losing weight though, hit my lowest weight in 35 years this morning.

Yeah, I'm admittedly a "lazy loser" myself. I've never been ANY good at counting/tracking calories, points, whatever. I eat things I enjoy because I know that one of my mental shortcomings is that if I try to force myself to eat things I don't enjoy just because they're healthy, I know I will cheat. I will *have* to eat something enjoyable, regardless of what other "healthy" things I've eaten... so rather than compound the calorie intake, I'll just cut to the chase and eat what I enjoy, healthy or not, but in moderation and smaller portions. Not everyone's brain works the same way, and I know this perspective is likely anathema for others, but it's working thus far for me. 1 year out from surgery date my weight has plateaued as expected, but knowing my propensity to enjoy food, I'm deliberately keeping a closer eye on the scale. I have my fast food and my occasional sweets, but If I see any long-term trend upwards more than about 2-3 pounds, I immediately tighten things up. So far, so good. Just this morning I hit a new low weight, so the the trend is still downward, and IMO that's what's important, no matter the methods employed. Different strokes, yadda yadda yadda...

Your surgeon is a douchenozzle. I lost 13.4 pounds the first month after surgery. At 12 months I'm down 110 from surgery date, and down a total of 161.6 from entering the program. My surgeon is thrilled. So the first month loss can be a false indicator (in either direction).

Yikes! It must really very from person to person. I had been told that NSAIDs were off the list after surgery as a general rule. I had expressed concern up front as I am prone to sinus headaches and the only medication that helps is extra-strength Excedrin. They said that on rare occasions, if needed, I could take it sparingly, and if there was discomfort to take it with pepto or something similar to buffer the potential impact. I've been taking Excedrin as needed since shortly after surgery, albeit at a much lower frequency than before surgery, with zero side effects. While I take Tylenol on a much more regular basis, I would say I have Excedrin once every week or two, if that. As with any of these things, YMMV.

My likely response: "The only weight I'm really looking to lose in the short term is GETTING YOU OFF MY F*CKING BACK!" To be fair, I have on occasion been accused of being somewhat indelicate and tactless... "He's uncouth. Couth him!!!"

Huh. This is the first I've heard of Metformin helping you lose weight. Then again, it does explain some things... I was diagnosed with early stages of Type II diabetes in June of 2019. I was prescribed a low dosage of Metformin. It was as a result of that doctor's visit that I started looking into weight loss surgery and then went "into the program" being required to showing some persistent weight loss before the surgery was approved. Despite my being morbidly obese my entire adult life and never being able to lose weight, I was actually able to lose the prescribed weight leading up to my surgery without too many trials and tribulations... in retrospect, I wonder whether Metformin aided in that weight loss effort without my realizing it. Not that it makes a difference now. I've not taken it since my surgery in July of 2020.

Congrats on the progress! One thing: When you say "I hoped that I would be at goal by now, but I'm ok that I'm not.", given that you're not at the one year point, I don't know that this was necessarily a realistic goal. It's not a finite 1-year horizon from surgery. My surgeon told me that by one year out I will have lost the vast majority of the weight I'm likely to lose, but there was no framing it as a time limit or deadline. People lose at different rates, so some will reach their goal months before or months after that 1-year point, and some may never reach it at all. I've seen some wildly optimistic goals mentioned on this forum. I've not been concerned with "goal date", but rather the long-term trend. Am I still losing? Yes. Is it at the same rate it was? Heck no, nor should that be expected. Some people drive straight to the office and some take the scenic route.

At 11.5 months out, I range between 1200 and 1800 per day. Still losing, but at a much slower rate (as expected).

Equate (Wal-Mart generic) Flinstones chewables 2x a day. I've gotten used to them and don't mind them so even 11 months out that's what I'm still taking. Also 2 calcium chews per day. I absolutely love these: https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B00477IVDK/ https://smile.amazon.com/Viactiv-Calcium-Vitamin-Supplement-Chocolate/dp/B00DYSU8SE/

While I always suffered from occasional charlie horses (calf) in the night, since my surgery and/or dramatic weight loss, I've periodically gotten the most Gawdawful cramps in the tops of my feet extending up into lower shins, again only at night. Actually tougher to deal with than charlie horses. With the latter, at least massaging the muscle typically would cause the spasms/constricting to abate. Not with these. Gotta gingerly try to walk it off over a period of 15 minutes or so. #notfun

11 months out... hasn't gone away yet. 😂

Yikes! 150 for 5'11" is a good 15-20 pounds lower than what even the online calculators come up with, and those typically shoot way lower than reality as it is. Where the heck did he get that number from? Statistical outliers notwithstanding, IMO that is setting someone up for failure.

In all honesty, I really don't care how I look. It's how I feel that matters to me. I've never really been interested in how others perceive me (hence my being a lifelong bachelor utterly oblivious to fashion/hair styles). I dress for comfort, not other people's opinions, and this journey has been about my health and my comfort and mobility; how I feel physically. If someone else likes the appearance of the "new me" compared to the old, that's fine and dandy, but that's never been a goal unto itself. Lowering the initial weight goal is more about "ok, that goal may have been reasonable at the time, but given the progress thus far, I think I can do better." But again, it's about me, not anyone else. I'm just an old fart that's set in his ways enough to not really care about how others think I look. Some may consider that self-centered... but that's a them problem, not a me problem. *shrug*

That "ideal" calculation is really too simple, isn't it? It doesn't factor in frame width, being "big boned", etc. Two people can be the same height but have vastly different frames/structures. I'm 6'1", which by the above calculation sets my ideal weight at 178 pounds. I would look absolutely emaciated at that weight, given that my frame is fairly wide/broad-shouldered. Depending on your body type, these sorts of formulas can create some really unrealistic (and unhealthy) expectations IMO, especially if people take the concept of "ideal" as a target to strive for... in the vast majority of cases that ideal, i.e., 100% of excess weight lost, is not realistic. I started at 383 and my surgeon and I started with a target of 250. If I hit that weight, I would consider the journey a success. Alternatively, the above formula sets the target at 239.5, which isn't far off the mark... although if you use online obesity calculators, 6'1" and 240 is still considered obese... go figure. As I approached my original goal faster than expected, I revised the goal downward from 250 to 225. I'm now at 10.5 months from date of surgery, and while my rate of loss has slowed drastically (as expected), that revised goal is now too in sight at 230.4.

No regrets at all, but believe it or not there are downsides, or more accurately unanticipated adjustments that may be needed. It's been 10.5 months since my surgery, and in no particular order: Temperature sensitivity. I always used to run hot, which made summers uncomfortable but was great in the fall and winter months. I had enough internal insulation that I frequently didn't need to wear a winter coat even down in to the 20s. Now it's the exact opposite; I always feel cold. In moderate temperatures (50s-60s) I feel chilly. By the same token, I can now go outside for exercise in 90 degree weather and I feel fine. It's just completely different parameters when it comes to temperature. Bones. Everything was padded before. Now with bones/edges, it can be a bit uncomfortable sleeping/lying on my side or stomach, as pressure/weight is now on bone rather than fat which cushioned everything. Lack of muscle. For my entire adult life I could leverage my bulk when it came to moving or picking up things; inertia vs. using muscle. Moving furniture and heavy/bulky objects is much more difficult now. I really need to work on building/rebuilding actual muscle. I can't just put my hip into something anymore... they push back! Knowing what I know now, would I change my mind? Absolutely not. The benefits still outweigh (no pun intended) the downsides, just be aware that there may be life changes you didn't anticipate.

I think we're talking about a couple different things here: Insurance approval, and medical team approval. Based upon my experience, I'm surprised that some people are able to go from 1st consultation to surgery in under 2 months. I guess certain medical organizations are more cautious and/or want to lay the groundwork for success. I was told up front that it would be at least 6 months before surgery would be scheduled, with regular consultations with dieticians, a full psych eval, and the requirement to lose X pounds prior to approval without any major re-gain, or I could be expelled from the program. My initial consult was in July of 2019. In January of 2020 I was medically approved (insurance approval only took a few weeks and the medical team handled the entire process; I never had one interaction with my insurance) and surgery scheduled for April of 2020. Covid unfortunately interrupted everything and my surgery was canceled as all elective surgery was put on hiatus. Trying to keep from gaining weight while being locked down, dealing with the stress of a societal implosion and unrest and the uncertainty of damned near everything, when being predisposed to stress eating was... uhh... "interesting". Then in June of 2020 things were put back on track for a mid-July surgery date.

Poor advice. Everyone reacts differently. Just because procedure X didn't work for you doesn't mean it won't work for someone else. Conversely, just because procedure Y *DID* work for you, it doesn't guarantee it will work for anyone else. Even if you do your due diligence and your medical team is capable, there will always be a small percentage of people that have unforeseen side effects or complications to any procedure. While it is unfortunate to fall into that percentage, that doesn't invalidate the procedure.

YMMV of course, the notion of spending a bazillion bux on "bariatric" anything is anathema to me. It's just license for them to charge more IMO. It's been 10.5 months and Wal-Mart's generic Equate equivalent to Flinstones chewables have worked just fine for me. I realize that some people have issues with taste & texture when it comes to medications, food, etc., but I always start with the cheap options first.