Smanky

74lbs in 3 months is excellent. I lost MUCH slower than that. You can absolutely make a weight of 180lbs a reality. I never thought I'd ever weigh in the 60s (kilograms), yet here I am and still losing. Stick to your plan and it will happen! As for what you're doing, so long as your team are on board and you're managing it well, then there should be no issues. Just be mindful that muscle weighs more than fat, so get out the measuring tape as a secondary indicator that you're losing, otherwise the scales may trick you into thinking you're not doing as well as you are! I personally love my mini bypass/omega loop, and could not be happier with my choice. It's a more common procedure in my country, but yes, on here we're a tiny group!

Congrats! The final couple of kilos came off surprising quickly for me, though I think that's how it felt because I wasn't paying much attention to the scale at that point. And I absolutely know the feeling of weighing less than you ever have as an adult. I haven't been under 70kg since I was a young teen. It's a trip!

3 Days is still fresh wounds, you're going to feel rough after major surgery like this. It took a good two weeks for my bypass + hernia repair to feel comfortable again. You have to be patient and give your body the rest it needs to repair itself.

Clothes browsing and wish-listing was honestly the best distraction and motivation pre and post-surgery. You'll be startled by how quickly you shrink through the sizes on your way to goal! Absolutely advise buying second-hand during the losing phase where possible, because the window of time with each size down is maybe a month or two. I ended up passing on items to goodwill that I didn't even get to wear!

It's no different. I will, however, always dispute the well-worn myth that it's hard to get your protein in. I've never had an issue. Once you know what foods are your higher protein options (and there are many), it's no more difficult than lacto-ovo diets. There's so much available these days!

The IV going in can hurt, not gonna lie, but it's over with quickly. Just breathe deeply and slowly and keep chatting to the nurses and anesthetist, they deliberately chat away to you to help your nerves. Once the IV is in, they'll give you sedation and you'll fly off into a delightful high and you won't care from that point on. Then they'll start the anesthetic, and there will be a total time skip. You won't dream or even have any sense of time passing like you do when you sleep. Instead you will suddenly wake up again as though a mere second has passed. You may have pain while waking up, and if you do, they'll quickly give you strong pain relief like morphine. If they ask you if need more during your stay, always say "yes"! I know it's scary when you've not had surgery before, but this is a safe procedure now, and you have an entire TEAM of excellent professionals whose job is looking after you and keeping you safe. Let them know you're nervous when you go in! They have drugs that can help. You'll be fine!

I stalled week 2 and then stalled frequently the entire way (I honestly lost count of how many stalls I had). It's frustrating, but all you can do is stick to the plan, be patient, distract yourself and stay off the scale. It will break when your body is ready, and sometimes that's a week, sometimes it's many weeks. I know it sucks when it's happening, but it's a normal part of the process.

You should have been given a pre-op diet plan to follow, as there's no one diet prescribed to everyone. For some it's strictly liquid only, for others, it's one super low calorie meal plus protein shakes. So could you give more information about what your team has asked you to do?

Protein water. Everyone who struggles with the shakes needs to get onto it.

Also goodwill/op-shop fan! All my favourite clothing items are thrifted. I absolutely bought an incentive item - a vintage 1990s leather jacket in a size AU12 (US 8). It felt super risky because of ALL the years of buying something "to fit into when I lose weight" only to never lose said weight, so even with surgery I still had that doubt programmed into my brain. However, I was able to fit into it when I was around the 80kg mark, and now it's big enough that I can wear a jumper underneath with ease. I adore it! However, while losing, I bought second-hand/thrifted jeans off ebay. No point spending money when you're losing, it's like spending top dollar on toddlers clothing! Waste of money because the window of time you can wear inbetween sizes is like... a month or two? Plus you can pass them all back to goodwill afterwards. I bought a small pair of trousers from one thrift store that were much too small just before I hit goal. They now fit with room to spare! This is the one that shocked me, I thought I'd never get into them and was prepared to send them on!

This is one of those wildly variable things depending on your surgeon. I didn't have a lot of trapped gas post-op, but others have more or less. All you do is walk it off, soon as you're able. I did slow laps around my ward and it very quickly resolved. So take this one as it comes - you may not get any at all!

I easily hit all my protein goals with protein fortified soy milk (which I used for unsweetened matcha lattes), scrambled or marinated tofu, and shakes/protein water during the soft-food phase. It's such a short period of time, you're not going to become deficient before more options are available to you. The post-op vitamins will certainly help with that anyway. I was still having protein shakes post-op, which I loathed and switched out for vegan protein water which was a nice double-up towards protein and water goals and a lot easier to stomach. I still use protein water to this day. Tofu, edamame, mung beans etc can all be turned into nutritious soups during the puree and soft food stages, before you're able to eat solid foods like seitan. Soy based yoghurt also has a good protein count.

Yep, I had a hiatal hernia repair with my bypass. It was unexpected - I had no idea I had one (but in hindsight it explained a lot!) and neither did my surgeon until he got in there. My hernia was a large one, and had been forming for a long, long time apparently 😬. I honestly felt like I'd been hit by a truck for a good two weeks after surgery. My incisions were fine, but my insides took time to settle down. I slept with a pillow protecting my abdomen for a while. Pain medication kept it manageable, though. Once healed it was all smooth sailing though. Just gotta weather those first weeks while you're healing.

You sure do look younger! Look at that bone structure! It's amazing seeing cheekbones and jaw contours previously hidden, isn't it? I'm still startled by my mine.

I spent the better part of my 40s as a self-hating shut-in who avoided going out, hated photos taken of me, and wanted to vanish when my skinny partner would introduce anyone to me. I missed out on a decade of life. Yeah, I would comfort eat, but that's the vicious cycle. Overeat - gain weight - feel miserable - eat more - gain weight. Food was never my friend pre-surgery, despite the fact that I ran to it for comfort. Now that I'm on the other side I am happy, I have my life back again, I love going out, will photo-bomb anyone anytime, and my partner has been teased more than once that he's "punching above his weight" when I'm introduced as his partner (they would not have said that a year and a half ago!). Food IS my friend now, because I've changed my relationship with it. I enjoy nourishing food, and will absolutely eat a couple of bites of something traditionally "naughty" as an occasional treat without guilt. A couple of bites is all I want now. It's been a lot of hard work, but absolutely worth it. Best distraction I found as the weight started coming off was moving. Started walking, then riding a bike. Even getting up and cleaning. And as others have suggested, if you have an emotional attachment to food, bariatric therapy is recommended.

Give yourself space and time to heal. It's 3 weeks. At the size most of us are/were at surgery, weight loss ISN'T visible until months after. I know it's hard, but try to block out the voices of others, it's not helpful. Concentrate on healing, be patient, focus on the plan and distract yourself where possible. You'll be experiencing non-scale-victories frequently, so enjoy those as they come. I honestly didn't get any "you're looking smaller" comments until a good 3/4 months after surgery. I was 130kg and wore my weight from head to toe, so even a ten kilogram loss wasn't a big visual change at that stage.

I know it's almost automatic to assume that post-surgery life is going to be punitive and you'll never ever ever eat any "naughty" thing again but that is untrue. The restrictive phase isn't forever, and there will be pizza and cake in the future. The only difference is you won't be wanting more than a couple of bites, so it'll be an occasional treat and you'll be fine with that! Once slip up isn't going to ruin things if you've stuck to the pre-op plan well the rest of the time. But absolutely be upfront and honest with the surgeon regardless.

Congrats, Summerseeker! We started around the same time, so it's fantastic to see you hit another milestone! The shifting-goal thing is a personal choice I think, and it's ok if you stop while still in an "overweight" BMI because of what Catwoman said about the extra scaffolding we acquired from our years of obesity. I'm not even in the middle of a normal BMI yet, but I actually think I'm starting to look frail and bony and I don't think I like it. So I'll be looking at hitting the brakes, though it's hard because I keep losing slowly without meaning to now. You may find you still lose over time.

Some foods are easier to eat in a bigger quantity than others. Pizza may something you're able to eat more of. For me, I can now eat three Vietnamese rice paper rolls in one sitting. I'm very full after, but I can eat all three. But if I try to eat a sandwich or other bread-based meal, I can manage a couple of bites before I have to tap out. Thin crust pizza sounds like something that could be a slider food for you, perhaps. So I don't think it's unusual so far out from surgery, it just depends on the food and why calorie counting remains so important. Ask your surgeon anyway, just because you should get the thoughts of your team on anything you're concerned about.

Pro-tip: Wear them lots the second you can fit! The window of time for wearing clothes in those mid-loss sizes is startlingly short! I had a bunch of clothes waiting to fit, including some Torrid (size 1) stuff that I bought waaaaaay back in the early 2000s when Torrid was still a subculture store, and never got to enjoy them because when I finally tried them on again, they were too big! Now they're just sentimental keepsakes. 🤪

My paranoia about the wounds in my stomach and new intestine join had me taking super gentle sips of allowed liquid after surgery. I could definitely feel it going down. That paranoia stayed with me right through to about the fourth month, well after my incisions would have been completely healed. Move around as much as your body allows to help get rid of the gas. I did laps around the wards as often as I could to get mine to shift.

So make 181/size 14 your initial goal weight. This is what my surgeon gave me - a goal weight of about 80kg which would have me wearing an AU size 14 (US size 10). In the past I had gotten down to where I could fit into a large size 12 (US size 8), so instead of 80kg, I made my goal 75kg. I had been close to there before, so I could picture it. When you hit the more familiar intitial goal, then make a new one that's closer to the one suggested to you, and so on. When you're at the start of the process it does feel unattainable and like you'll never get there. I expect this is a universal feeling, especially when there's so much weight to lose (I've literally lost an entire person). But it does come off, and one day you'll weigh yourself and be staring at your goal weight on the scale and needing someone to pinch you. I've passed goal and am about to fit into a size I have not touched since I was a kid. Madness! I'd have absolutely lost that bet, yet here I am. TL:DR - Don't let the length of the process intimidate you, there are so many mini victories along the way. In 12 months time, you'll be living what you may right now have trouble visualising.

I would find the risk of impulse swallowing too great to try chewing solid food before the plan gives that green light. It's only a few weeks, for what it's worth. Maybe try bone broth and beef clear soup if it's the flavour you're craving?

Yeah, I'm unlikely to be able to afford skin removal surgery. I'll try saving and see how I go, as I'd certainly take that option if it was available to me, but I'm also realistic and refuse to hang my contentment on a surgery that may or may not happen. I like myself just fine now, loose skin and all! Sure, I could probably escape on a strong gust of wind like a sugar-glider, but I'm calling that my superpower. 🙃

Yeah, we're pretty much stuck with the loose skin. I keep my sense of humour about it, and stick to high-waisted undies and jeans/pants. Can't do much about my crepey arm skin, especially in summer, but they thankfully don't bother me. I find dressing myself post-goal is a lot of "smoke and mirrors", with a healthy dose of "eh, I don't care" for the bits I can't hide.