Spinoza

Really interesting thread!! Firstly - OP you look amazing. Bet you feel fabulous too. I have always fitted the criteria for being small boned by my wrist measurement, even at my heaviest, despite the fact that I was 5'10" in my heyday and am even now kind of built like a rugby player (American football for most of you lot)! Honestly, the more generalisations I become aware of re the human body (BMI anyone???) the less I believe any of them. We're all so very different.

Love this NSV. For me - gone are the days of panicking when a waiter starts to show my family to a booth, rather than a table where I can push my chair back as far as I need. Some of the most public embarrassment I've faced during my life as a person with obesity.

I explain the small meals by saying 'OMG I ate just before I came out - I was starving, honestly couldn't hold out!!' or simply 'I'm just not that hungry at the minute'. Apparently these are actual things that happen to actual (thin) people. Never happened to me when I was morbidly obese, but people do seem to swallow this without question. Just makes social interactions around food a bit easier to navigate (for me). What I also do (and I know this isn't to be advocated in all situations, and certainly not with any frequency) is completely cheat on the rules by eating mainly carbs and drinking fluids at the same time on purpose so I can squeeze a bigger volume of food in (because it's clearing through my pouch quicker). Actually, usually I have to combine both these techniques in order to pass as eating even a close to normal amount when I'm really under scrutiny (I have a distant friend with a band and suspicions, LOL - she stands down when I eat several slices of pizza in one go with a beer, because that doesn't fit with her knowledge of bariatric surgery). That occasional excess is totally worth it to me but I stress that's just my way of navigating what I have to. Also when I don't have the confidence to sit tasting just bites in the middle of a 6 course tasting menu with other people, and I just want to deflect attention. It is absolutely AMAZING to me at this point how much you can dump onto other people's plates with a 'OMG you HAVE to taste this, it's amazing!' ending up with just the bite or two that you wanted in the first place. When people ask how I have lost so much weight I say I dieted very strictly for over a year. Which is factually accurate. I am very careful not to lie. I would find it really hard to answer the question 'did you have bariatric surgery?' but nobody has ever asked that specifically. I know it all sounds a bit cloak and dagger and in a way I am envious with those of us who can be more open, but I am done with people having opinions on my weight - even less so now that it's a socially 'acceptable' weight. I told my partner and two children - nobody else's business.

Oh I feel your pain. Most of my migraines are triggered by one of three things. Sleep disturbance; blood sugar disturbance; hormone disturbance (specifically pregnancy, when I had the worst migraines of my life - but I know others have them at menopause). I suspect yours might be as a result of the second? If so you might want to think about some slow release carbs if you can on your programme. Also - the worst headaches of my life have been caffeine withdrawal headaches - could yours be those?

Stick to your programme and you will lose weight. Lots and lots of weight. It doesn't come off in a linear fashion, or in the way that others lose it, but it will come off and you will be glad you had this surgery. I totally totally feel you re the uncertainty at this early stage but honestly if I could go back and whisper something into my own ear a year ago it would 'trust the programme'. Best of luck and enjoy the ride 😍

Oh this is SO interesting to me! I graze on Mondays and always allow myself extra leeway. It's far and away my worst eating day of the week but I have learned to allow myself this and then track track track Tuesday - Friday. Interesting.

OK so you win dinner.

This is a stall. Everyone, but EVERYONE, experiences them. You are doing really well and if you stick to your programme you'll start losing again really soon. They are the most hated of all phases but they always pass. If it helps at all just stop weighing yourself for a week or two. It sounds like you're doing really well. Took me 6 weeks to lose 18lbs after my sleeve. Also, unless your girlfriend is a bariatric surgeon or nutritionist I would just nod and smile when she says stuff. 😉

Once I hit the pureed phase I just pureed whatever my family was eating with extra sauce/gravy! I have said it here many times but the best thing I have ever tasted in my life was a big roast lamb Sunday dinner (couple of spoons of everything, pureed with gravy). A-MAZ-ING after 3 weeks of just fluids. I don't have a problem with baby food consistency though and I know that could be an issue for some folks. I'm sorry you haven't been given many ideas - if you have a blender and can eat mush the sky is the limit.

Haha I didn't understand what you were saying PSMR - I live in Europe too - here a milkshake is milk and fruit and whatever else you fancy adding - you're right - in the USA that IS a smoothie!! I'm voting for your filling up the hotel fridge on arrival. I travel for work sometimes too and I have taken to what I call 'hotel picnics' with a vengeance since my surgery! Deli meats and babybels and other cheese are my saviours, along with fruit. When I can eat proper meals in the hotel or elsewhere I go for salads every time. Protein bars as a backup sound a great idea too. It's really good to think about this stuff well in advance - I didn't and I remember my first work trip after surgery, just landing in this godforsaken hotel and thinking 'waaaaah, there's nothing here I can eat!!' There ALWAYS is - just needs a bit of planning and creative thinking. Best of luck OP!

I think I was pretty much exactly where you are at 3 months post op! My team went one step further and didn't give me ANY goals at all. Just food consistency phases. I learned how to eat and what to eat mainly by reading this forum. I think I still had to push myself to reach 800 calories a day - I remember at that stage often having to take a few spoons of nut butter or some cheese at bedtime just to hit the 800 some nights but I never wanted to eat any less than that. I was drinking alcohol at weekends by then too so my intake was well over 1000 on two days a week - that was by choice though. It may have slowed my weight loss a little but luckily it didn't stop me reaching goal. I mainly walked, but I walked *very* fast and did (still do) it several days a week. I have never adjusted my intake to make allowances for that - never felt the need. I was very conscious of squeezing every pound of loss that I could over the 'honeymoon period' when I wasn't hungry - with my own personal concession being a couple of glasses of wine on Fri and Sat night. Over the months my calories have kind of drifted upwards really - never planned. I can just eat a bit more before I get full, and I get properly hungry now which forces me to eat again at the most 3 hours later - at 3 months out I was pretty much eating by the clock to get 100 or so calories in every 2-3 hours. You had your surgery almost exactly a year after me and you started 4lbs heavier. I've just looked at my diary and this time last year I was...218lb exactly, same as you today. What are the chances? You are doing brilliantly. 😍

Oh no! Sounds just awful. I really hope the revision corrects all this really quickly and that it goes smoothly for you SD.

Best of luck FMO for the big push - check in often please!

I came back to share something else because I've just done it for one of only a handful of times ever. Don't ever eat quickly from a big container of food. It's impossible to tell how much has gone in. I just made stew and thought I would eat it from the pot. To save me washing up one plate. A big mistake and one that slower eaters wouldn't make, so there's another good reason to stick to the rule. 😢

I have not stuck to this rule at all and I think I've just been lucky. Since a few months after my sleeve once I know I can eat a certain amount then I have just it at a normal (quick) pace. I remember asking a question here about 6 months in about why I needed to eat one egg slowly if I already knew my stomach could comfortably accommodate one egg. I should say I have been, and I think will always be, very careful with portion sizes. So I'm not in the business of pushing it even a bit - if anything I will quickly eat something that I know is less than my stomach will hold in preference to sitting at a meal for half an hour to find out when I might feel satisfied. If I need a little top up of something 10 or 15 minutes later because I'm still hungry I just have a little piece of cheese or some deli meat. It has worked for me because I'm busy (and impatient). Not advocating it for everyone - everyone above has given very considered advice and experience - just saying what has worked so far for me.

Best 50th birthday present ever 😍 So glad to hear of your success!

This is super interesting. BMI really cannot cover all body types and shapes can it? It's a population measure, not an individual measure at all. I suspect my body fat percentage is higher than yours. Maybe that and visceral fat are what we should really be focusing on.

So lovely to hear your update and how well you've done Lanitele!! 😍

Sleeve here and I have had no issues with carbonated drinks of any kind since a few weeks after my surgery (I had champagne at christmas last year with my surgeon's blessing). I just burp up the gas immediately but I can have a few swigs of beer or diet cola etc. before that happens, and then I'm ready for another few, LOL. Must be one of those things that varies from person to person as well as depending on the procedure you've had.

Hi D&S, lovely to see you again and glad to hear you've done so well! Think I'm also done losing - at 147 for a few weeks, going up and down the same pound or two. Very very happy too. I can't afford any skin removal surgery so I just have to content myself with my body's appearance. Definitely much better than it looked 15 months ago!

SO frustrating when you did so well up to that FMO! I am also good on weekdays, lax at weekends and I also drink alcohol at weekends but I'm maintaining at this point. Could you go back to something more like your post op diet? Protein first (so important I find) fruit and veg next, carbs a very last last? And track track track - you know it works. Focus on the 3 months you have to lose some more before that check up. I wish you the very best of luck 💪

Best of luck to you OP!!!!

Absolutely gorgeous looking both!

Yes definitely sounds like a stall. I urge you not to over-analyse what came before or after - that way madness lies. If you're sticking to your programme you WILL lose weight but it will NOT be in a linear fashion. It's zigs and zags, big losses one week, none (or a gain) the next. What matters is looking back over the entire period and seeing a downward trend. Some people seem to have taken the path of checking weight at looooong intervals. Most of us weigh much more frequently because we can't bear not to. None of that matters - the fact remains - if you stick to the rules you will lose weight (in all but the rarest circumstances). You have absolutely done the best thing you could ever have done for your health. If you can relax a tiny bit more and accept that then you're gonna have a fun few months and come out of those lighter and healthier. Best of luck. 😍

In the first weeks and (hopefully) months after your surgery you honestly won't have the appetite or the space to indulge in big volumes of unhealthy food. I do worry that after that, when you get your appetite back, you might get tempted. I would say use that time to normalise bringing in healthy snacks like fruit and veg so that's what they (and you) expect when there are loads of junk foods swilling around. Sounds tough though. The alternative would be to ask all of your co-workers to stop bringing in (or ordering in) this sort of rubbish. I have no idea what your relationship with them is like but I can only imagine the response I would have received to a similar request in my workplace. 😂 Best of luck.