vikingbeast

Part of the dumbbell thing is because your core is not fully healed. You lose a lot of core strength. I would imagine your strict press is also way off. And sit-ups are probably not your friend, nor toes-to-rig. I’m 1y9m post op and it took probably a year before I started to feel strong again. I may never hit my old PRs, my days of deadlifting 545 for reps are probably gone, but my mile time went from 14:48 to 9:33, I can do rope climbs, I can bust out V-ups and the occasional strict pull-up, and I’m a hell of a lot healthier. We did strict press for the first time in a while, sets of 2. My previous 1RM was 195 and my previous 2RM was 175. I did 155 today for 2 and that was after a 12-minute AMRAP of double unders (another thing I can do now) and toes to bar (close but no cigar). I noticed I’m more sore after grueling workouts. (I’m almost 47, so read into that what you will.) It does come back. I lost a lot of muscle mass (yay for DEXA scans) during my weight loss phase. I’ve put on about 17 lbs since my low and 9 of them were muscle per the latest DEXA.

I have no idea what my actual initial weight was because I refused to buy a higher capacity scale, so my heaviest measured weight was 396. But I’m sure I was more than that. All those things you mentioned struck a chord with me. I remember having to ask for tables, not booths, and then having to size up the chair to see if I could actually sit. I didn’t have an aneurysm but I had uncontrollable hypertension and was getting precursors to heart attacks. So I’m here to tell you that it all changes, and very quickly. I’m 18 months post-op. I didn’t hit the goal I wanted but I did get below 20% body fat and am within 10 pounds of my lowest weight of 262. (I’m six feet tall and built like a brick sh!thouse even without the fat). I eat intuitively now (after therapy to help get me to have a better relationship with food) and I exercise a lot. I’m running a 5K on Sunday and it’s… just not a big deal. I fit in booths and I can run up and down stairs and jump to a 30” box. I am not on any blood pressure or blood sugar medicine, and I no longer need a CPAP. I wish I would’ve done this a decade earlier. Here’s the thing, though: the program where I had my surgery done was not that useful. I ended up with a nutrition coach I hired, who got me eating correctly while still losing weight hand over fist. I had already been doing CrossFit (yes, at 400 lbs—the coaches simply scaled the workouts so I was getting the same stimulus as the jacked beasts in the gym but at a level I could do) and building muscle helped with fat loss and body comp. I needed therapy and psychiatric help to resolve my anxiety and depression. You’re gonna do great. Write down all the stuff you can’t do now and use it as a checklist for later. You’ll be stunned how quickly it happens. Just make sure you have the support team with you, don’t rely on the bariatric program; they’re a hammer and everything they see is a nail. I’m happy to pass along contacts for the nutrition program I started at 3 months post-op, or give details about my exercise program, I just don’t want to look like a spammer.

I track, but every now and then I'll have a "holiday" from tracking. I usually end up gaining 2-3 lbs. over a week or two, and as soon as I start tracking again, it goes back down. (I'm just finishing one of these "holidays".)

I went to the dentist yesterday and the hygienist just... put the arms up on the chair. I fit in the chair!

Just go in knowing that everybody is different and every body is different. I am quite densely built so I have to use both the scale and the handheld doodad on "athlete mode" at which point it's close to the DEXA scan. If I do it in normal mode, it WAY overestimates my body fat.

I had to delete nuts from my diet, too many calories and not enough satiety. I do find the temptation to snack happening so I'm trying to be vigilant about that. Fifteen pounds to go, eight months and a week out from surgery.

I doubt it. It's using electrical signals from your legs and can't accurately predict your trunk, so just 3% off is pretty good. I have a DEXA scan every three months and that's what I use (and, oddly, since I lost weight, the DEXA scan is within 0.5% bodyfat of the little throwaway hand-held electrical impedance thing every single gym has.)

FITINDEX smart scale here, and I have the smart tape measure that goes with it too. I love it. It underestimates my body fat by about 3%.

Guy here. I have a "pooch" and for a while I was all "why won't this damn fat just go?" until someone saw me with my shirt off and said, dude, it's skin. It's all skin. So once I stabilize, I'll have it removed. I have worked too hard and want to know what it feels like to just... take my shirt off and go swimming.

I was... but I went too fast and managed to pull one of my incisions which kept me out a bit longer. So even though you're champing at the bit, go slow. And once you're cleared, don't go crazy. It will take time to build back up.

Mine's almost all metal. Northlane, the Architects, Lamb of God, Thy Art is Murder, Sonata Arctica, The HU, it doesn't matter. I need it resonating in my head to lift heavy.

I was allowed back at extremely limited capacity (no more than 10 lbs. and NO ab or core work) after two weeks. I was allowed to lift after 6 weeks. Your strength will take a dive temporarily because you simply won't be able to eat enough to power serious lifts. It was probably 12-16 weeks before I really started to feel like "myself" in the gym. BUT... wait until you see just how much easier the rest of it becomes. My mile time went from 14 minutes to 9 minutes. I went from having to do single "grief burpees" (step out and step in) to being able to chain 20 actual burpees. I'm closer to a pull-up than I've ever been. My strength isn't what it was before, but I'm also not training the way I was before. My deadlift went down about 25%; squat too; bench is down about 30%. I miss the days of a 675 deadlift, but I'd rather have the health markers I have now, and the endurance, and the ability to do bodyweight things. I took my L1 and am now coaching, and helping others to love their bodies for what they can do.

The FITINDEX and Renpho smart scales (both about $25 US on Amazon) do well up to their limit of 400. I find I am consistently within a pound or two of my doctor's scale, which could just be clothing.

I have found—and this sounds so stupid, but it's true—that when I get the 'munchies', if I eat a pickle (garlic kosher type), it absolutely satisfies me and instantly kills off my need to snack. It's the salty acidic thing, I think. Olives do it too, but they're much higher in fat.

I also was able to eat more than your average sleever. But also, I suspect my surgeon made my sleeve a bit bigger knowing how active I was even before surgery (it's hard to be so active when you can't eat enough!). When I was three months out I was restricting myself to 800 calories and my center's nutritionist had an absolute conniption at me. Said I was ruining the tool and if I wanted to just gain all the weight back, that was my business. I was devastated for a hot second before I absolutely lost my temper at the top of my lungs and fired her so loud they heard it in the surgeon's office across the hall. A friend of mine recommended a nutrition program she used, and I am so glad I found it. Immediately my nutrition coach (who had coached other bariatric patients before) upped my calories to about 1200, still prioritizing protein. Over the last six months she's increased it to 1600-1800, and we're just now backing off a little bit because I feel like all I do is eat. I have just a few pounds left to lose, so they will be harder to shift. I expect maintenance will be around 1600 calories depending on activity level.