SpartanMaker

Not trying to be argumentative here, but this seems like a bit of a strange comment considering that Google literally states that "AI Overviews use generative AI, which is a type of artificial intelligence that learns patterns and structures from the data it is trained on and uses that to create something new." Personally, I think it's important to treat anything AI Overview produces with a significant bit of skepticism. I don't doubt that this particular response was generated primarily from other sources since that's literally how AI works. That said, there's an old adage in computer science that goes "Garbage in, garbage out". This is just as true today with AI as it was in the dawn of the computer age. I absolutely agree, but there are 2 things we need to take into consideration. The first is to what extent we burn additional calories. There is data in the scientific literature showing that RMR (not total calories burned), increases anywhere from 15% to 50% during the acute recovery phase. Whether it's near 15% or 50% depends a lot on what one is recovering from. I'm sure you'd agree that having a grade 1 muscle strain is not nearly as taxing on the body as chemotherapy or, say recovering from extensive burns. Add in the fact that most people have no clue what their RMR is and it can be very difficult to estimate the exact amount of additional calories burned. (Plus, the farther along the recovery process you are, the lower the increase in RMR.) The second confounding factor here is whether one actually needs to eat back those calories or not. Just because one is burning more calories does not mean one also has to eat all those calories back. This unfortunately is not clear at all in the scientific literature so we're sort of on our own here. My personal belief is that if your calorie needs have gone up a lot because you're recovering from a significant injury/illness AND you are at or below maintenance, then it's probably more important to eat more because you have less stored fat to fall back on. On the other hand, If you still have excess fat stores and/or are recovering from a more minor injury/illness, then you probably don't need to consume as many calories as you might otherwise. I also tend to believe that eating good quality foods is probably more important here than just eating more calories. 1000 extra calories of junk food is not going to help nearly as much as 250 calories of whole foods. The problem is, most of us are just not going to be able to accurately calculate any of this. This is why I'm recommending caution and only jumping up a lot in calories if major fatigue is an issue.

@AmberFL I must have missed that you are recovering from surgery. While I probably wouldn't recommend a significant fat loss diet while healing, I'd also be a bit cautious about using Google AI recommendations. The idea that you need 15-20 calories per pound of current body weight to heal just doesn't pass the smell test. If this were true, none of us would have properly healed from our bariatric surgery. Keep in mind that 15-20 pounds for you right now would be roughly 2500 to 3400 calories. At your starting weight, that would have been about 4500 to almost 6000 calories a day! Looking through the scientific literature, I couldn't find a single reference that this level of calories was needed to promote healing after surgery. There were some references to additional calories being helpful in the event of significant wounds, thus your calorie needs may be somewhat higher for more involved surgeries vs simple ones. I apologise, but I have no idea what "PS surgery" is, so that doesn't really help narrow things down. I think my recommendation would be to base this more on feel. If you are feeling really rundown, that's probably a good indication you may need to up your calories. You're always going to feel somewhat tired after any major surgery, so I'm talking about feeling excessively tired. If you do feel the need to add more, my recommendations above regarding macros still stand. We do know that wound healing requires adequate protein (thus 1.6g/kg is a good minimum target). We also want to make sure you're getting adequate essential fats, so shooting for a minimum of 50g is still good advice. If you are more like 70 to 80g, especially when not on a fat loss diet, that's just fine. I wouldn't necessarily recommend going much higher that that on fats because if you do, if will mean you would likely be subtracting calories from carbs. Good whole food sources of carbs like whole grains, vegetables and fruit have tons of nutritive value that you really shouldn't be skipping right now. In short, protein first, essential fats next, and carbs for the rest of the diet.

I think we first need to define stall here. A true stall is when your weight does not go down even after 2-3 weeks. 3 DAYS does not constitute a stall. Keep in mind that your body is made up of lots of other "stuff" besides fat. Things that can easily vary from day to day and even hour to hour besides fat: Muscle mass Water weight (did you know that your body is about 60% water?) Food weight Stool weight Of those, the biggest culprits early on are likely water weight and stool weight. The latter one because lots of people struggle with constipation early after surgery. Water weight can vary for lots of different reasons, but hormone changes, medicines, temperature differences, fluid consumption rate, stress levels, excess salt consumption, illness and low protein, potassium or magnesium intake all can contribute to water retention. I know you said you just HAD to weigh yourself daily, but if you are expecting to always see a nice linear drop in your weight day-to-day, weighing so often is probably not a great idea for you. Remember, this is for the long-haul, so don't stress small variations in your weight. It would be physiologically impossible for you to have literally stopped losing fat at this point.

If you can hit your protein goals (as given to you by your surgical team), without the drinks, there's no real reason to continue them. If, on the other hand, you need the extra protein from the drinks to hit your goals, there's nothing wrong with using them indefinitely. Said differently, there is no specific time when you need to "give them up" post surgery. I'm over two years out and still use them. That said, I'm also shooting for 150g of protein per day, which I just can't get close to without some whey protein or a fairlife drink. If you find the premade shakes to be prohibitively expensive, you could always get powdered whey protein isolate. That's generally considered the highest quality protein powder. Other even cheaper protein powders are available, such as whey protein concentrate, but those will have more fat and lactose. I think in terms of grams of protein per dollar, it would be hard to find things as cheap as powdered whey protein. Beans would probably be about the only thing I can think of, though it's hard for most of us to eat a ton of beans since while they are protein rich, beans are not particularly protein dense. Most all meat is generally a lot more expensive than whey on a gram for gram dasis. At one time, I might have put eggs in the less expensive category, but I'm not so sure anymore without running the numbers.

Wow, amazing progress! Do be careful you monitor yourself for musculoskeletal issues such as shin splints, achilles tendonitis, plantar fasciitis, knee pain, etc. As I mentioned above, your cardiovascular system improves at a faster rate than your musculoskeletal system. Even if it "feels" somewhat easy for you to do this right now, you could be doing more than your bones, tendons & ligaments can handle yet. Running is a high impact activity and while that can actually be a good thing, we want to give our bodies time to get used to this extra load. As a rough guide, I'd say try to keep the amount of running about the same each day during the week, then only increase a little bit each week. (e.g. 15 mins this week, 18 next week, 21 the week after, etc.) Also, do be careful about going too fast too soon. I'm oversimplifying a lot here, but an ideal percentage of slow to faster running really should be roughly 80% slow and only 20% faster. This will significantly reduce injury and overtraining risk. After all, it's best to think about running as a lifelong activity. If you start going faster and faster each time just because you can, you're going to significantly increase your risk of injury, which could do a lot more harm than good to your fitness and health. Again, this is a drastic oversimplification, but I'd recommend trying to keep your heart rate below ~75% of your max heart rate when you run. If it's a lot above that, you're probably going too fast and should slow down. I could go into a lot of detail why this is the sweet spot in terms of heart rate, but suffice to say it's going to do a better job of increasing aerobic endurance than you'll get at faster paces. Most people that are new to running seem to balk at that idea since it seems a bit illogical that going slow is actually better. The truth is this has been shown over and over in scientific studies, as well as in the training plans of the worlds best runners. Best of luck!

Well, I'm obviously not 15 years out, but I suspect that your surgery is not the cause here. Could it be a confounding factor? It's certainly possible, but it seems much more likely to me you have something else going on. I'm not a doctor (obviously), but what I do know about health and digestive issues is that there are potentially dozens of causes for symptoms like yours. Another thing to consider is that sometimes there may be multiple things going on at the same time. I mention this because we as humans have a tendency to look for (and want), a simple explanation when there isn't one. This is even true for doctors. They are trained to make a differential diagnosis based on a process of elimination. The problem with that is sometimes they struggle to make such a diagnosis because the symptoms and/or tests are conflicting, or pointing to multiple issues. I mostly mention this because I'm guessing more than anything, what you want at this point is to know why this is happening to you and if it can be fixed. If there are multiple issues, it could make finding the root causes difficult and thus it could take a while for your medical team to figure it out. In my opinion, it's best to be prepared for that eventuality. Some ways to deal with things if they do drag out: Be an advocate for yourself. You know better than the doctors how you feel and how your symptoms impact you. Don't let anyone dismiss or belittle your symptoms Don't accept "I don't know". Ask for additional tests or recommendations for other doctors that may be able to help. Seek 2nd, 3rd, or even 4th opinions if you are not satisfied with the answers you've received. Sometimes you may even have to consider traveling for medical assistance if no one in your area has answers.

Amazing job! You are doing so well!

It probably depends a lot on what your normal diet looks like. If, for example, you normally drink protein shakes and want to continue having those, then you could take protein powder that you mix with water or milk. Honestly though, if this is just a week or two, why worry about it? I'd say go have fun and eat whatever you want on the cruise. If when you get back home you find your weight has creeped up, just reduce your intake a bit for a while until you get back to your current weight (assuming you like being at your current weight).

I should have added, there really is no right or perfect way to structure your diet. it's all about what works for you. As such, try what I'm suggesting above if you feel like you need some guidance, but feel free to tweak it if you find yourself struggling.

I think the way I'd put it it's best to is nail down your calories first, then depending on your goals, you can tweak your macros to better accomplish your goals. Since you're looking to drop a few more pounds and limited in terms of workouts right now, I'd probably recommend something more like this: 1600-1700 total calories a day. You could go as low as 1400 or so, but you may feel lousy if you do, so don't go that low for more than 2-3 weeks at a time. Target ~1.5 grams per kg of protein, or more. Thus ~115 grams minimum. If you are not struggling to get up to say 150 grams or so, that certainly won't hurt and may help you feel better. Fats around 70 or so should be just fine and will mean you're likely to be less hungry. You can go lower if you're comfortable doing so, but it will likely mean you're hungrier. Don't go below about 50 grams. Whatever's left over, make up for in carbs.

What struck me here is not really the macros and much as how different the calories are. The thing is, no calculator is going to tell you what the calorie count should be. My suggestion would be to simply track your existing calories for 1-2 weeks to see where you're at now. I assume your looking to maintain based on the fact you are showing to be at goal. If that's not accurate, then we might need to make some adjustments to what I'm about to propose. At this point, you can completely ignore anything a calculator spits out in terms of calories since by tracking your calories at your current weight, you know exactly where YOU need to be to maintain. Let's say for the sake of making the math easy, you determine that 2000 calories is working for you at maintenance. Skip the calculators and do this: Protein should be somewhere between 1 and 2 grams per kg. If you are inactive, 1 gram is probably minimally sufficient, but if you are very active or shooting for body recomposition, then you need to be closer to 2 grams per kg. 1.5 to 1.6 g/kg might be a good target if you are working out, but not super active, or are not really trying to add any muscle. The next thing to determine is grams of fat. If you are just maintaining, anywhere between 1 and around 1.5 g per kg is probably fine. If you are actively trying to lose or recomp, it would be better to be closer to 0.7 g per kg. Carbs is next and really will just be the rest of your calories, vs. a specific number of grams. Here's how that looks in practice: Again, just to beep the math simple, I'm going to stick with 2000 calories at your current weight of 170lbs, which translates to about 77kg. If your goal is body recomp, then 2g/kg should be your target protein, which equates to 154g per day. 154g at 4 calories per g equals 616 grams from protein per day. Fats when doing a "recomp" would be 77 x 0.7 = 54 grams of fat. 54 grams of fat at 9 calories per gram would be 486 calories from fat If we subtract 616 and 486 from 2000, we'd get 898 calories from carbs. This would be roughly 225 grams of carbs per day. A few notes: This is all based on research, but I also am not "carbophobic". My personal experience is that sufficient carbs are needed to fuel workouts. Some people have success with fewer carbs and more fat. I have no problem with that approach if it work for you. If so, feel free to adjust fat up and carbs down. Either way, the protein is the key, since you'll need that to build muscle. If recomp is not your goal, feel free to run the numbers with lower protein and correspondingly higher fat and carb numbers. Don't go lower than 0.7 g of fat per kg. You need a minimum level of essential fatty acids to stay healthy. In terms of how to change this if you are working out more than you are today, it really comes down to both the types of workouts (endurance sports virtually demand more carbs), but also how vigorous your workouts are. If you are trying to lose weight, I would recommend eating back at least half your calories from your workouts. Any less and you're likely to feel too rundown to put the proper effort into the workouts. If you just skate through workouts, then you lose a lot of the benefit of them. If you are trying to maintain or recomp, then you really should eat back all the calories from your workouts.

Depression can definitely impact motivation, so your husband may be on to something? That said, there is a difference between clinical depression and situational depression. Clinical depression is generally a lot more serious and long lasting, whereas situational depression tends to be less severe and tends to get better over time once you are further out from the triggering event. I'm not a mental health professional, but it certainly seems more like situational depression to me if you're really stressed about the work/funding situation. I think if you are concerned, the best course of action would be to talk to a mental health professional. We all go through some rough stuff every now and again, so if you need help, please get it. With that out of the way, I do also want to give you my thoughts on general overall motivation to exercise when you are struggling with that. What people often fail to understand is that humans are literally designed to conserve calorie expenditure. This is a key survival instinct, or at least it was back when food was a lot more scarce than it is today. I mention this because sometimes people think there's something wrong with them when they are not motivated to workout. Actually just the opposite is true. That feeling to want to do just about anything else other than workout is instinctual. So what do we do about this? well, since calorie conservation is such a strong instinct, we need even stronger things to overcome that feeling. Below are some ways we can do that. These are roughly in order of importance (at least in my opinion): Probably the single most important thing is to really understand your why. By that I mean if you don't really know why you want to exercise, or if the reason is somewhat vague (such as just feeling like you're supposed to), that just may never be enough. Really explore what caused you to want to make this change. If the reason is sufficiently important (for me it was not wanting to die an early death), then it makes everything else a lot easier because you can always refer back to the why when you'd rather just do something else. Make it a habit. Let's be honest. There are certain things you do in life that are just habits and you don't really need motivation to do them. They may not even be things you enjoy, but you do them anyway. For me that's things like laundry or dishes. Showering or brushing my teeth might be more examples. I don't really need a lot of motivation to do them, I just do them because that's part of what I do day to day. What we want to do is get to the point that exercising is just another habit. This could be a pretty long post in and of itself, but one tip I have is something called "habit stacking". I blatantly stole this idea from a book by author James Clear called "Atomic Habits". (I Highly recommend reading it by the way.) The idea here is to attach the new habit you want, such as working out, to an existing one you already do like eating dinner. It might look like this: "After I eat dinner, I will go for a walk around the block" Set realistic goals and update them as you progress. Realistic is the key here because I often find that people either set too easy of a goal, or much more likely, too hard of a goal. If your goal is to workout 5 days a week for 30 minutes at a time when right now, you're basically doing nothing, that's simply too much at once. A much better goal would be something like "I'm going to go to the gym once this week". For some people, just getting out the door and to the gym is the hardest part, so if the goal is just getting there, it overcomes the biggest challenge. Most likely, once you're there, you'll at least do something (you won't just turn around and come home). The same can be true if you're goal is walking around the neighborhood. Often just getting out the door is the hardest part, so instead of saying I'm going to walk 30 minutes a day, simply make the goal getting out the door once this week. This one is a little harder, but you need to explore your feelings and determine what your intrinsic and extrinsic motivators are. Some people are motivated almost exclusively by one of the other, but my experience is that most people are motivated at least in part by both internal and external things. When you know what these things are, it makes motivation a lot easier. As an example, I really love the way working out makes me feel, which is a strong internal motivator. That said, I also really enjoy looking fit. (I'm vain, sue me). I use these two things to my advantage. Put it on your schedule. Way too many people say they are just too busy to workout, but most of the time, that's just an excuse. If it's important, then you'll put it on your calendar just like anything else that's important. "Pre-prep" for your workout. This can vary depending on what you do, but a lot of people that workout in the morning (or immediately after work), find that if they lay out their workout clothes, or pack their gym bags before they go to bet the night before, it takes away one of the biggest challenges they have to getting the workout started. This removes an excuse not to do the workout, and in addition, serves as a reminder to actually do the workout. These are the biggest ones that come to mind for me. There are other tricks and tips I could give (like finding an accountability partner), but this post is already pretty long. One final thing I wanted to mention. A lot of people have found (and research backs this up), that regular exercise can actually significantly lessen symptoms of depression. While I do still recommend talking to a professional, you may find that working out actually helps you feel better. Best of luck!

Not sure I'll ever look hawt, but my wife did say the other day (bless her heart), that I looked like one of those greek statues. I'm thinking it's time for her to get new glasses! 🤣

@bahuber5477 Great job, it sounds like your doing all the right things! I too make an exception for protein shakes. The nutrient profile for most of them is fantastic and for many of us, it would be next to impossible to reach our protein goals eating just whole foods. I know I can't eat that much and I'm over 2 years out. As an aside, I just wanted to say thank you for what you do. Nurses are the unsung heroes of the healthcare system and I for one really appreciate what you all do.

I sort of think of it as 2 to 3 "rest" days, because that's how many days I don't run. While my lifting is still a good workout, I don't really accumulate a lot of systemic fatigue from it. Keep in mind too that I take a deload week about every 4th week. In those, I drop down ~25%-30% in mileage and typically also don't do any lifting. That means I truly do have 3 full rest days during those weeks. As far as how long my long runs take, It obviously depends on the overall length, the terrain, and the pace I run it at. This can vary as my fitness changes. but also varies based on the weather and how I'm feeling that day. Right now, they probably last around 1.5 to 2 hours, but I have done a few that were in the 2.5 hour range. I would typically advise folks that are training for a first half marathon to work up to long runs that will take about the same amount of time as they expect it will take them to complete the race. In other words, if you expect to be about a 2 hour HM runner, then you should be doing long runs leading up to that of about 2 hours. It will obviously be a shorter distance because you'll be running slower, but for this, it's time on feet that really makes the difference. For someone training for a marathon, it may not make sense to try the same thing unless you're pretty fast. For example, I think the average marathon finish time is around 4 hours and 30 minutes. If you're a 4 to 5 hour marathoner, doing long runs that long would just be too fatiguing, so 3 to 3.5 hours would be about the max you should be doing.

Well, it's highly dependent on where I'm at in a training cycle, but it might look a little like this: Monday: Rest Day. Tuesday: This is my speedwork day when I do intervals. What that specifically looks like is different depending on my current goals. For example, If I'm training for a shorter race like a 5k, I'll probably do more intervals at a faster pace, but the intervals will be shorter in duration. For example, I might do 8 total intervals at RPE 9 for ~2 minutes. In between each interval, I'll rest for 2 minutes. On either side of the interval work, I'll do a 10 minute warm up and a 10 minute cool down. Thus the entire run takes roughly 52 minutes. If I'm training more for a half marathon, I'll do more like 3-4 intervals but they may each be as long as 6 or 8 minutes. Rest periods will probably be ~2-3 minutes. Note that these are done at a slower pace, so more like an RPE of 7-8. Regardless of what the intervals look like, I always warm up and cool down for at least 10 minutes each. Wednesday: This is typically a strength training day for me. Sometimes I may run 2-3 miles afterward, though more often than not, I cross train on the bike, or sometimes do some rowing. Thursday: This is what I call my "Distance Run" day. It's typically going to be between 50% and 80% of my long run mileage, so if I'm doing 30 miles a week, it might be somewhere around 5 to 8 Miles. This is almost always done at an easy pace, but I do tend to add in strides toward the end. (Strides, for those that don't know are short 20 to 30 second accelerations followed by a minute or so rest. Because they are so short, they don't tend to add a lot of extra systemic or muscle fatigue or increase injury risk like you'd have for normal speed training.) Friday: This is when I do Race Specific Pace Runs, Hill Running, Tempo Runs or Threshold Runs. Again, this is highly dependent on where I'm at in a training cycle, but an example leading up to a half marathon might be a 10 minute warm up followed by 40 minutes at my half marathon goal pace, followed by a 10 minute cool down. Saturday: This is my other strength training day. Here, since I've accumulated a lot of weekly fatigue by this point, I'm a lot less likely to run afterward, meaning if I do anything after the strength session, it's going to be on the bike or rowing (or nothing at all if I'm wiped 😄). Sunday: This is my long run day. As a general rule, I don't want this to be more than about 30-33% of my overall weekly mileage. Thus if I'm at ~30 miles for the week, my long run won't be more than 10 or at most 11 miles. Most of my long runs are done at an easy pace, but I do sometimes add in some faster pace work toward the middle or end. It's all dependent on my goals. Overall, 30 miles per week is really not that hard for me at this point. Keep in mind, I'm retired now and my kids are grown so I don't have to worry about fitting this in around work or my kids needs. Now as I increase my mileage working up to 50-60 in prep for my fall marathon, I'm expecting that will be a lot more challenging. Physically I think it will be fine, I'm more worried about my ability to dial in my nutrition. It will be a lot of extra calories burned in a week and my fueling strategy has to be really dialed in for the 18 or 20 mile long runs I'll be doing toward the end. I have a tendency toward hypoglycemia if i don't get my fueling perfect. It would not be good to pass out when running!

You are killing it! Your point about calories is really on point as well. I recommend any bariatric surgery patient read up on Relative Energy Deficiency in Sport (RED-S). The simple explanation is that if you work out a lot, you need to eat more. If you don't, then you are a lot more likely to start having a hard time with things like fatigue, various injuries, getting sick a lot, lack of concentration and depression. At its worst, you can get really sick, leading to heart issues and worse. My personal experience is that women tend to struggle with this more, though anyone can be impacted. Some people here might think it doesn't affect them because they don't consider themselves athletes, but if you are working out multiple days a week, it is a risk, especially considering how hard it can be for us to get more calories in. Over time, you'll hopefully learn where your personal limits are. For example, I've found that right now I can maintain my weight reasonably well up to about 30 miles a week, but beyond that I lose weight whether I want to or not.

I think it's fantastic you're thinking about this now. Unfortunately a lot of people don't really think about that until it's too late. My goal is not only to increase my lifespan, but possibly even more importantly, my healthspan. By that I mean I want to remain healthy and capable as long as I can. Changing topics a bit, as you continue jogging, I wanted you to be aware of something that not a lot of people realize. This is a bit of an oversimplification, but you can break up the parts of your body that are involved in running performance into two big buckets: The first is your cardiovascular system. We're talking about heart, arteries, veins & capillaries, as well as the intracellular components that deliver oxygen and glucose to your muscles. Interestingly, this system tends to improve faster than the next system. The second is your musculoskeletal system. Obviously we're talking about your muscles, bones, tendons and ligaments. All of these will improve over time, but tend to be a bit slower to get stronger. I mention this because not understanding how these components react is probably the top reason new runners hurt themselves. As they start running, they find they're able to run farther/faster fairly soon as their cardiovascular system improves. Unfortunately, their musculoskeletal system (especially their bones, tendons and ligaments), aren't quite ready for the extra stress. In short, take your time pushing farther and faster and make sure to take an occasional deload week, just like you would for your strength training.

Sorry, wanted to make one other comment here. Please don't approach your weight loss as something that will inevitably stall short of your goals. Plenty of us make it to goal and below, and have maintained this lower weight successfully. There are two things that will really up your chances here: You need to eat better and move more. If you slowly start making better food choices, you'll find you'll lose weight more steadily and be a lot less likely to regain. By making better food choices, I mean eating less ultra-processed foods and focusing instead on: Protein: High quality legumes Lean dairy Lean meats Carbs: Mostly veggies Some whole grains Some fruit Fats: Try to make this primarily monounsaturated fats This is not to say you can never have a treat, or have to eat only the above, but the more you focus on less processed foods, the better off you'll be. I also recognize that you can't make changes like this overnight. Take your time by just making small changes here and there until they become your new normal. Once those small changes are the new norm for you, it's time to make another small change. Keep at this process of making just small changes and eventually, your diet will be a lot better. In terms of movement, we now have lots of data to show that people that are successful in maintaining after weight loss tend to be very active. Once again, I know you're not going to be running any marathons tomorrow, but you absolutely can start small and focus on doing more and more over time. The CDC recommends at least 150 minutes of moderate intensity physical activity per week, which works out to 30 minutes per day for 5 days. They also recommend 2 days of strength training per week. Some data suggests that formerly overweight and obese people need to do even more than this, so my personal recommendation would be to shoot for at least 300 hours of moderate-intensity physical activity or 150 hours of intense physical activity, or some combination of the two per week. If you are over 65, the CDC also recommends you do some sort of regular training to improve balance since this can have a dramatic impact on fall risk. I know that sounds like a lot, but again, if you start slow (even 5 minutes a day 3 days a week), you definitely can get there. For reference, moderate intensity physical activity is walking a brisk pace, or similar activities such as a slow bike ride. Intense physical activity is more like jogging or riding a bike up a hill. If you didn't work up a sweat, it definitely does not count as intense.

I think you have to first understand what these medicines do. They stimulate insulin production. This may or may not be important to you depending on if you are diabetic. They slow gastric emptying, meaning you'll feel full longer They may suppress hunger signals. Interestingly, researchers don't fully understand why all of this occurs. My personal take in your case is that if you are still steadily losing and are not feeling overly hungry yet (most people don't feel a lot of hunger 4 months post op), then I personally don't see the need to use this medication. I doubt it will do a ton, and might even make it hard to get adequate protein intake. If on the other hand, you are already feeling a lot of hunger and are struggling, then these might help. A few other things to think about: For most people in the US, these medicines can be VERY expensive, even if you have good insurance. If you don't have good insurance, then I hope you're independently wealthy because they can be several thousand dollars a month. Most of the pharmaceutical companies that sell these drugs do have some sort of savings card to make them SIGNIFICANTLY more affordable. Keep in mind that most of those are only good for up to one year. That means you could be back to looking at thousands of dollars a month to continue the medication after the savings card runs out. There are companies that are selling compounded versions of many of the GLP-1 agonists and they sell these for a lot less (typically hundreds of dollars a month rather than thousands). Bariatric Pal is even doing this. These companies can do this because the FDA has special rules for drugs in short supply that allows companies to make them to help fill demand. The issue is that you may or may not be getting what you think. See this link for more info: https://www.fda.gov/drugs/postmarket-drug-safety-information-patients-and-providers/fdas-concerns-unapproved-glp-1-drugs-used-weight-loss While some companies are certainly reputable and selling you what they say they are, others just are not. It's a little like the wild west right now when it comes to compounded GLP-1 agonists. There is a percentage of people that don't seem to respond to these medications. It's about 15% for semaglutide and a bit less for some of the others. I mention this since some people get really disappointed when this happens, so it would be good to be aware of this possibility ahead of time. These drugs (like most any drug), can have side effects that make then not worth taking for some people. There's really no way to know ahead of time if you will have this sort of problem. Generally speaking, most people that stop using these medicines tend to gain weight back pretty quickly, since the hunger will kick back in. As such, most doctors and pharmacists recommend staying on these for life. It's best to be prepared for this now, vs. thinking you're going to get away with just taking it temporarily.

I think trying to compare yourself to others to determine what's "normal" is a losing game. Plenty of people struggle with various things like fluid intake or nausea early on, but lots of others (like me), had very few issues at all. There really is no normal here. Regarding weight loss, it's only been a week. I'm quite sure you've actually lost some fat in the last week, but you are probably hanging onto some water weight after the surgery. That's quite common. I would suggest that you keep in mind that you're "playing the long game" here. Daily or even weekly variation in your weight are not things to be concerned over. It would be physiologically impossible for someone to eat 600 calories a day and not lose fat. It probably takes more calories than that just to keep your brain alive (much less the rest of you), every single day. If I can give you one piece of advice, try not to stress the process because stress can derail your success really quickly. People sometimes don't realize this, but stress can have a bigger impact on weight loss success than just about anything else. Stress will suppress your metabolism and also cause you to retain fluid, thus even further masking weight loss. I know it's hard, but trust your doctor, trust the process, and follow your post-op diet. It will work, as long as you do what you're supposed to do.

You ready for a long story? 😎 My exercise history is definitely one of extremes. I was very athletic in High School (Secondary School). I played football (American), was on the swim team, and ran track and cross country (not all of those every year). Afterward I spent time in the US Army where running was the norm, so I ran quite a bit. My recollection is that I was running roughly 30 miles a week at that time, so actually a lot more than the minimum required. Unfortunately I was badly injured while I was in the service and was barely able to even walk for a long, long time. Once I mostly recovered from that, I got heavily into powerlifting for almost a decade. I had convinced myself that due to bad knees I shouldn't run anymore, so instead i just focused on the strength training as well as a tiny bit of cardio on the elliptical. Unfortunately, I tore up my back in a workplace accident, so from that point on, no more heavy lifting for me. This was really the beginning of my descent into inactivity and severe weight gain. The heavier I got, the less I was able to even move, until using a cane or walker had become the norm. In addition, during this time I ended up having multiple surgeries, including 5 different shoulder surgeries, multiple knee surgeries culminating in a total knee replacement, and even open heart surgery for a bad heart valve. Fast forward a lot and about 9 months after my bypass surgery, I was walking and backpacking pretty consistently. A bit like you, I decided mostly on a on a whim to just try jogging a bit. It was more to see if I could even do it than anything else. You have to understand with my health history, lots of my doctors would say I shouldn't run. I say I'm going to do whatever I need to do to keep myself healthy because I suspect at some point, I'll need both a revision to the knee replacement and a new heart valve. My ability to survive those surgeries at an advanced age is going to be highly dependent on my overall health. Anyway, back to running. I was so shocked at how well and relatively pain-free the running went, that I decided to start training for a 5k. From there it's just snowballed and I've now done around 20 or so different races between 5ks, 10ks and Half Marathons. I'm not super fast (I am 60 afterall), but I am still pretty competitive in my local races, at least for my age. I'm also lucky that I'm now retired. This means I have the time to train appropriately. I typically run 4 to 5 days a week and average between 25 and 35 miles a week. I'll probably ramp that up in 2025 because I'm targeting a fall marathon and I'd like to be around 50-60 miles a week at peak fitness before the race. At this point running is my passion, but I do still strength train twice a week to keep what strength I do still have. As an aside, I'm strongly considering becoming a Certified Personal Trainer. Not really because I needed the knowledge, or because I expect to work in the industry (I am happily retired after all). My real goal is to help others where I can on their journey to fitness. I feel I can better relate to those that are struggling than a lot of CPTs that have always been fit. I also at least want those I work with to know I do have some knowledge of the subject (even though I've frankly probably forgotten more about training than a lot of CPTs even know). I'm really glad you're going to keep after it. You might surprise yourself in terms of what your capable of!

YESSSS!!!! I'm so happy for you! There is NOTHING like that feeling of having a capable body. All the walking at incline you've been doing really paid off for you so far. Next thing you know, you might get bitten by the running bug like i have and be training for a 5k, 10k or more! Remember, the vast majority of people that have lost weight and successfully kept it off for long periods of time are very active.

A hernia seems really unlikely if it doesn't hurt. To me it sounds more like a keloid, but I agree that the best option is to ask your doctor about it.

I agree, almost certainly just fluid retention. Both hormonal changes, as well as exercise will lead to extra fluid retention. Keep in mind that when you stress your muscles, whether by cardio or by strength training, muscle fibers break down. The repair process requires fluid buildup to do things like help remove waste products and transport things like cytokines and amino acids that are needed for muscle repair. It's really unlikely to be fat, since in order to gain that much fat in 10 days, you would have had to eat over 10,000 more calories than you burned off, or roughly 1,000 more calories every single day. While a little bit of it may be additional muscle, it would be a really small amount (maybe a 10th of a pound, if that). You're just not eating enough to pack on a lot of muscle in just 10 days, and even if you were eating a lot more, you just don't have enough free testosterone to gain much muscle in 10 days. Even male bodybuilders taking anabolic steroids couldn't pack on 3 pounds of muscle in so short a period.