pintsizedmallrat

First of all one of the reasons is they ask you not to drink for 30 minutes is exactly why an RNY patient does: because it will push what you ate through your stomach faster, making you hungry sooner and reducing the amount of vitamins you absorb. Second of all, while less common than RNY, some sleeve patients can and do dump.

Is there a big market for this? Seems like a one-way trip to gaining back every ounce you lost and more. I guess some people like feeling like they have a "safety net" which is why the dangerous gastric balloon seems to keep sticking around.

I was on my pre-surgical diet for two weeks and cheated a couple times. I'm not proud of myself nor do I recommend anyone not follow their doctor's advice, but I still lost 11 pounds during that period of time and no one said a word about anything being amiss when I went in for my procedure. Basically, I'd try your best not to do it again but eating one "cheat" meal is not going to undo everything.

This is what I always try to tell myself; while less attractive than I'd like, the loose skin is not going to harm me. Those extra 130 pounds may have killed me.

We have special concerns as smaller people; I often feel like my weight loss success doesn't sound as impressive when I compare myself to people taller than me (A lot of people on this forum have lost more than you and I started out weighing!). So be careful with that, don't compare yourself. I get fun size, travel size, micro person, the whole spectrum LOL. I used to hate being short but I can't change it so I try to have a good sense of humor about it.

I don't know if I consider myself "lucky"...I'm unfortunately learning that every body has its problems and being almost-too-thin is frustrating too. I'm heading to the doctor and my dietitian this week to get myself feeling better.

Hello fellow shorty! I'm an inch shorter than you and my starting numbers are very similar to yours! I had my surgery in September 2021, I reached my goal weight of 110 in October 2022. Overall, this surgery has been life-changing and I am so glad I was brave enough to go through the process. I had some issues in the beginning, but once I started to recover it went fast. Right now if I'm being completely honest the biggest problem I have is trying to keep what weight I have left ON so I can still shop in the adults' section and not have to buy everything in kids' sizes. You're going to stall here and there, some will be short and sometimes it will feel like you haven't lost an ounce in a month; stay the course, trust the process, and know that a lot of the time stalls are giving your skin and muscles a chance to catch up and adjust.

I ate so much Hot and Sour soup when I was recovering from surgery.

Ok hear me out but if you're craving pizza...this is what I do. I use a lower-carb tortilla (my favorite are the Mission Cauliflower tortillas but they are a bit higher in carbs than some of the other brands), and fill it with about half an ounce of mozzarella cheese, some turkey pepperoni, and whatever other pizza toppings I like (mushrooms, green peppers, onions, etc, whatever you've got that you like)...fold it in half, toast it up like a quesadilla. cut it into thin strips and dip it in pizza sauce. I call it a "Pizza Melt" because I feel weird calling it a quesadilla but it does definitely scratch the itch and is a nice filling meal with protein and veggies.

There was another lady on here very recently that broke out in a bad rash like that, and she thought it might be an allergy to the glue used in the surgery. She has photos of her rash; maybe you should take a look at this and see if yours looks similar.

I am always up for new protein bars to try! I recently discover Fulfill bars and they're great as well.

They don't generally give you a number to stay under; the most common practice I've observed is that you'll be given a goal for protein, which in the beginning is hard to reach if you're eating much of anything else. You won't have the real estate in your tiny stomach for carbs if you are focusing on protein for at least the first six months, and you should use that period of time to get used to the idea that a meal doesn't have to have sides like potatoes or pasta. You may also find after your surgery that it's difficult for you to digest a lot of things we're referring to when we say "carbs" (for instance, I still can't eat more than a small bite or two of pasta, potatoes, or rice and still have to avoid sugar because I'm afraid of dumping).

I don't think this is true across the board; I am 18 mos out and while my weight loss has slowed considerably, it's because I am trying to maintain and still losing. I was ready to stop losing 8 pounds ago. My hunger has not returned, if anything I am completely disinterested in eating at all and have lapsed back into forcing myself to eat shakes and bars just to keep myself nourished.

Hello everyone! I went through my gastric sleeve surgery in September 2021 and I've been really successful; it has truly changed my life in so many ways. My husband is approved for surgery himself now, and will be getting it done in April. He is 39 and is overall in fairly good health except for his weight concerns, so I'm optimistic he will also have good results! I had a really rough go of it after my surgery and I'm determined to help him any way I can; I'm the primary food purchaser and preparer in my house, so it'll basically be business as usual there. Men who have had the surgery, what is something you think I need to know? Do you feel like your experience was different in any way from the women who have had it?

Well that's good to know! He is using the same surgery center I did and I was very happy with them. That is helpful. He was so good to me when recovering from my surgery, and did his best despite not having a lot of information and NOT being much of a cook, and I want to make sure I am able to take as good of care of him as he did for me. I had a rough go of it the first few months and wasn't myself again for about six months.

It's also me with popcorn; I get the kind without hulls and it's like butter flavored air.

I have a bit of this myself; once I reach something resembling satisfied I just want what's left taken away from me, I can't stand to look at it.

At 10 weeks I was still on purees and was eating a lot of soft scrambled eggs, greek yogurt, refried beans and various soups.

I have a mostly-remote desk job but I have to report in person once a week to a location 3 hours away that I have to drive to; I was entirely off for one week but worked entirely from home the second week because I still wasn't up to the drive.

My progress has been almost entirely built on routine; if I'm going to change my life I have to build a life that can be successful. I told my husband once I know Future Me is lazy; Current Me has to prepare for that so Future Me has no excuses. So for instance, if I've already got veggies and things cut up for salads or dipping, Lazy Me isn't going to go for the less-healthy option that needs prep work!

I also thought I ate "very little" at the time I signed up for the program and start the process but when I started logging everything I ate, the areas for improvement were very clear. I also have the issue of being a very small person whose maintenance calories are only 1500; 3 meals a day that are "average sized" to a person of normal stature was always going to be too much for me. It's also common for people with weight issues to think they EAT very little but are also drinking a lot of calories throughout the day and don't count those because it's not "food". Juice, sweetened coffee with cream, sodas, milk...those are all calories, and it would be beneficial if you're one of the people who drinks their calories to start treating those things as food in your mind, not beverages. I hate saying this but most of us pre-surgery probably thought we ate much less than we did, and quantity isn't the only thing that matters: especially when we try to space out our meals we often find ourselves eating more calorie-dense food when we do finally eat. If you have decided to start a relationship with a surgeon to see if it would work for you, this needs to be something you discuss with them during your first visit. One of the first things they're going to ask you to do is keep a food journal and the best thing you can do for yourself is be brutally honest so they and you have an accurate picture of what you are ACTUALLY consuming, and being honest about your portion sizes is a huge part of that.

Thank you! I think all of us have that one thing we dreamed of doing that our weight was holding us back from, whether it was confidence or physical abilities or limitations. It's exhilarating to get to finally after many, many years get to ride that roller coaster we didn't fit into before, or wear a hairstyle we didn't want to try because it would draw too much attention, or play a sport we admired from a distance for the first time. I love hearing those stories!

I had VSG surgery in September 2021, and had a REALLY rough go of it recovering. I had a really rare set of complications, ended up in the hospital for a week, and generally felt like I was starving to death for 4 or 5 months. About six months before my surgery, my husband had purchased me a motorcycle. I'm very short, and it was one of the few bikes I had even a prayer of being able to reach the ground on and be able to hold up on my own. I attempted to take the class to learn how to ride and because of the stress of attempting to hold up a 400 pound machine when it was clear my pre-surgery body was still struggling to just carry 150 extra pounds. It was too much. I couldn't finish the class, never got my endorsement on my license, and the bike sat while I was completely terrified of it. After my surgery and I got to a point where I was alert, able to safely drive my car and didn't have concerns about fainting...we traded the too-tall bike for a three-wheeled one that I didn't have to worry about being able to hold up, that fit my dimensions perfectly. At the time I was doing much better than in the beginning, but I was still struggling to eat. I was 5 months out from surgery and still only eating 4-500 calories a day because it was all that would fit. Once I got my license and started being able to ride my new toy, though, I was hooked. It BECAME the reason I pushed myself to eat more, the reason I pushed myself to keep myself hydrated, because I needed to make sure I was nourished enough to be safe, and properly fueled enough to keep going as long as I wanted to. Operating the bike also helped build back a lot of the muscle mass I lost while recovering because it's quite a workout on the shoulders, core, and hips to steer and corner. In a matter of a couple months I went from still incredibly weak, and almost still regretting the surgery, to being stronger, more confident, and having successfully lost more weight than I could have imagined when I started this process. 18 months out, I'm in so much better shape than in the beginning, I'm already considering giving two wheels a shot again, and the confidence I gained by coming out the other side of this life-changing process makes me wonder what else I am capable of that I never dreamed I would be. TL;Dr this is the story of how my weird little motorcycle helped me recover from bariatric surgery. What is your weird thing that helped you recover and get to know your "new" self?

My insurance required a BMI of 40 or 35 with comorbidities (my BMI was 46 at the time of my surgery; my husband is preparing to have the same procedure and has a BMI of 38 but he is diabetic. We both sailed through the approval process and got a yes within 2 weeks.). They require a 3 month supervised diet and a psychiatric eval. We have Blue Cross/Blue Shield through my employer.

If I "cheat" for more than a couple days, my body tells me it's not happy. I have a specific, consistent routine and that includes what foods I eat. Eating poorly makes me feel horrible. That's my motivation; I can and do eat things that aren't on my diet in limited amounts, but it's one meal in an entire day and I'm very careful about portions. I rarely put more food in front of myself than I am comfortable eating to eliminate the temptation (even in restaurants, I will ask for a box WITH my plate and put away everything I don't intend to eat in that sitting before I even pick up a fork.) Basically, I've been there, I've done that enough times to know that a couple days of having to eat extra-healthy to get back on track is a frustrating thing I don't feel is worth it anymore, so I stick with my plan really closely. I'm two weeks short of being 18 months out and my primary issue is being able to keep what little weight I have left ON. I actually have to track my food to make sure I am eating enough to maintain.