SpartanMaker

That's not how this works. You're basing how much you should be eating on some external factor, whether it's what someone told you is the right amount, or based on past experiences. Neither of those things matter AT ALL. PCOS has 2 potential impacts on your body when it comes to weight gain: It can make you eat more and it can also slow your metabolism. That latter point is critical here. It means you may have to eat a lot less than someone without that disease. If you REALLY want to know how much you should be eating, I would strongly urge you to go get a metabolic test. These are available in most major cities, either at larger universities, or via a commercial provider. If you keep insisting that you're able to put on weight, but don't overeat, then I'm afraid you're going to continue to suffer from the disease that is obesity. I don't say this to be mean. Sometimes the truth hurts, but you can't magically break the basic laws of physics just because you don't like them.

Only you can decide if surgery is right for you, but if you are obese, you overeat... full stop. One fundamental rule of weight loss is that you cannot break the laws of thermodynamics. If you eat fewer calories than you burn, you'll lose weight and if you eat more calories than you burn, you'll gain weight. I know some people don't like to hear that, or think it doesn't apply to them, but physics is physics. You can't add body mass unless those calories are in excess of the number your body needs to keep you alive. Look at it like this: your body burns a certain number of calories per day. It's not exactly the same every day, but for most folks, it stays fairly consistent. The problem is in your case, you stated you only eat 1400 calories a day. That number alone is completely meaningless. Because weight loss, weight maintenance, or weight gain are all about energy balance, you also have to also know how many calories you burn in a day. If you are gaining weight on 1400 calories per day, there are only two possibilities: You are underestimating how much you actually eat. I know you probably think you're being accurate, but underestimation is incredibly common. Study after study shows that almost everyone underestimates how much they actually eat, even if they think they are accurately measuring everything. Part of that is measurement error, part is variation in foods, part is failure to count certain parts of a meal, part is "eyeballing" foods, and part is due to inaccurate calorie listings. The bottom line is that calorie counting is hard and often not nearly as accurate as we like to think. You may have an exceptionally low resting metabolic rate. As I said, 1400 calories consumed per day is irrelevant because you don't actually know how many calories you burn in a day. Since the basic principle here is you have to consume less than you burn per day to lose weight, 1400 calories consumed doesn't matter if you don't also know how many calories you are burning. Let's move on to how surgery works. Bariatric surgery works primarily by simply limiting how much someone can eat. Yes, there are also hormonal changes, but those are about satiety, so in your case, those may be less important. There is also some reduction in intake calories through reduced absorption (yes, even in sleeve surgery), but that's a fairly minor component overall. At the end of the day, this is no different than weight loss drugs like GLP-1s, or even diets. They are all designed to reduce calorie intake. If you truly have no problems dieting, then it sounds like you need to just reduce your calorie intake until you start losing at a sustainable rate. You need to forget what someone may have told you about how many calories you're "supposed to" eat to lose weight, because it sounds like that whatever that number was, it's not the correct number for you. Once you're losing at about a 2-3% per month rate, just stay there until you reach your goal weight. This should be simple for you since you said you have no problems sticking to a diet. Best of luck.

I had a very similar experience! I bought something online in a medium based on a size chart, only to find that vanity sizing had done me in. I actually needed a small in that brand. I still felt like the sales clerk was judging me for asking for a small. On another note, the vanity sizing thing is so frustrating! I know women's sizing is the same, but I have found in men's sizes if you pick the size that's supposed to fit based on actual measurements a size chart, it's almost always too big. This wasn't an issue when I was obese because I probably wanted my clothes baggy. Now that I'm smaller, having a decent fit is more important, so I almost always pick the next smaller size of everything, and in some things have to go even smaller.

Great work so far! Keep it up!

Sorry you're having trouble sleeping. I know that's just making recovery harder. You probably already know this, but here's the thing: being stressed out about not sleeping can just keep you from sleeping. The first step in getting past that is just to release yourself mentally from the stress/insomnia cycle. What I mean is that you have to acknowledge that you just had major surgery. Coupled with massive dietary changes and you are going through an incredibly stressful time right now. It's normal when stressed to struggle with sleep, so the best possible thing you can do is simply acknowledge that sleep may be difficult for a while and it's okay. I would also say do whatever you need to do to get control of your pain levels. You may need to try changing out your pain meds, or consider changing where/how you sleep. As an example, even though I'm normally a stomach/side sleeper, I slept on my back in a recliner for the first couple of weeks simply because it was less painful. Finally, I'd recommend researching good sleep hygiene and implementing as many of those recommendations as possible. Right now, you need all the tips and tricks you can get. Good luck.

Jollof Rice with Coleslaw, Smoked Chicken with Peanut Butter Sauce & Fried Plantains:

Have you talked to your surgical team? That should always be your first point of contact when you're having issues. I really doubt the surgeon somehow didn't create an appropriately sized stomach pouch. They use something called a bougie to determine where to staple. Not all surgeons use the same size bougie, but they definitely have a guide to use that would preclude somehow leaving your stomach too big. With that out of the way, we can think more about what may be going on with you. Obviously I don't know for sure, but just to throw out some ideas here: Some people have a hard time with the liquid portion of the diet specifically because the desire to chew can override their brain a bit. It can even make them think they're hungry when in fact the issue is just this strong need to chew. This happens because part of what signals our brain that we've eaten is actually coming from chewing, not from a "full belly". There are hormones released while we chew that signal to our brains that we're "done" and don't need to eat anymore. Your stomach is also really inflamed at this point still and the mechanisms involved that signal fullness can get really messed up as a result. This should settle down the further out from surgery you get. It's not unusual for people to not be good at understanding the fullness signals out brains are receiving. Overweight and obese people especially often associate being overfull almost to the point of pain as "being satisfied", when in reality that stuffed signal is not actually what we should have been relying on to know when to stop. If you're chasing this feeling now, that may be part of the issue because you're not going to have that feeling for long, if at all on just a liquid diet. Finally, keep in mind that it's common for hunger cues to be based not on anything physical at all. Sometimes we yearn for food so soothe us or satisfy other psychological needs. If your desire to eat is still present, even after you have a "meal", then it may be psychological, not physical hunger cues that are driving you to eat. Best of luck.

Ohh, I didn't know you had access to a gym! I might have modified this a bit because I was trying to make sure these exercises were something you could do without equipment. Here are some suggested modifications if you are using a gym: If your gym has a hip thrust machine, feel free to use that instead of doing the glute bridge. As I mentioned, hip thrusts offer a bigger range of motion, so are an even better exercise. Push Ups are probably fine as they are, but once you get to doing 10-15 knee pushups, you might also start doing the chest press machine, or doing a bench press with dumbbells. Once you get to unsupported squats, you can start adding some weight. Some gyms have hack squat machines or leg press machines and both will work great here. Another one to consider would be a goblet squat (google it). The nice thing about this one is that it will emphasize your quadriceps a bit more, which might be good since we're hitting your glutes and hamstrings pretty hard with the hip thrusts and lunges. As to rows, feel free to skip all the ones I wrote and do a seated cable row or do something called a bent-over row with dumbbells. With leg raises, do them as listed, but if you get all the way through those, then the next logical progression is to move to hanging leg raises. These can be done on a dedicated machine (sometimes called a captain's chair). The lunge exercises are probably fine as they are, but feel free to add weight (hold some dumbbells in your hands), if you get to where the versions I listed are not enough for you. As an optional thing, if you wanted to add in one additional exercise per session, I'd do a Bicep dominated exercise one day, a Tricep dominated exercise another day, and a Calf dominated exercise the 3rd day. The actual exercise selection does not matter much, so do whatever exercise you like or whatever machine your gym has. You can even do a different one every week. Again, if you're happy without this, then skip it. it's not going to make a huge difference, because we are hitting these muscles some already. Best of luck!

Welcome. Sorry to hear you're struggling. I want to touch on a couple of things you said since the truth may be different than what you thought? First, I want to hit on this idea of a "pouch reset". There really is no such thing. Your stomach expands and contracts normally, just like a non-surgical stomach. You can't make it appreciably smaller just by eating less for a few days or weeks. Sometimes people feel like this makes a difference because it mentally helps reset what it feels like to be full. (A lot of people overeat after a few years.) If you really want to go down this road, you certainly can, but just understand it's not going to magically reset the size of your stomach. It might help reset your brain a bit, but the effect won't last long if you go back to eating too much at a time. You can get the same effect by just reducing portion sizes. Second, I want to touch on you gaining muscle from going to the gym. There are a few things to unpack here, but let's start with the fact that scales are NOT your friend and I would strongly advise you to not use the scale as the thing you use to gauge your success. Let me give you a hypothetical situation: If I could give you a magic potion that overnight made you look just like a fitness model, but it also made you weigh 300 pounds, would you take it? I don't know what your answer is, but I'd guess that like most people, you probably would in fact drink the potion. I don't have a magic potion, but doing strength training in the gym is kind of the same thing. It just takes a lot more work and time. The point here is that muscle is a lot denser than fat, so you can in theory be even heavier than you are now, but still look a lot thinner because you've changed your body composition to favor more muscle mass. Keep in mind that most people find more muscle mass more attractive (well up to a point anyway). Also, you are NEVER going to actually lose weight from doing strength training. it's not a great way to actually burn calories, so thinking you're going to go to the gym and lose fat just isn't realistic. Cardio at the gym isn't much better, so don't think that's the secret either. It will burn more calories, but the reality is a couple of things happen when you do cardio (or resistance training) at the gym: You'll be hungrier, so you tend to eat more than you would otherwise (this might be why you're snacking more). It will seem subtle and may be almost unnoticeable, but you will move less the rest of the day because your body is trying to recover from the workout. This means you don't actually burn many, if any additional calories. Said differently, your body will do everything it can to keep you right where you're at, so it is literally slowing your metabolism down to make up for the calories you burned exercising. I'm not trying to discourage you from working out. It has a LOT of health benefits, but as a way to actually lose weight, it's not so great. Now once you get to your goal weight, working out at least 5 hours a week can REALLY help you stay at your goal weight, so keep that in mind as well. The final thing I'll add here since this post is already pretty long is that the one sure-fire way to lose fat is to eat fewer calories than you burn in a day. I know that seems fairly obvious, but people think sometimes they're special, or that it doesn't apply to them. I don't know how many calories you're eating right now, and it honestly does not matter. Right now, whether you're eating 1500 calories or 3500 calories, you're eating at maintenance for you. If you want to lose fat, then you've got to eat less. The way to do that is whatever way works for you. There is no secret diet that works for everyone. All diets can work if they have you eat less than you eat now. You've got to find not only what works for you, but what is a sustainable way of eating for the long term. Crash diets almost always fail, so I wouldn't look for something that works in the short term. What you need is something that you can do for the rest of your life. Best of luck.

Welcome! I was thinking the same thing as @summerseeker. I personally would try to quit smoking now, rather than wait. A complete liquid diet for 2 weeks is hard enough without having to go through nicotine withdrawal at the same time. To be honest, it would also be safer for you. Smoking puts you at a much higher risk of complications from bariatric surgery. The sooner you quit, the better off you'll be. You do you, but that was my thought. @summerseeker is also correct regarding your post surgery diet. They're all so different, it's hard to give specific advice. I could provide what my team had me do, but that might be completely at odds with what your team wants you to do. I'd start with what your surgical team has given you, but if you have questions about it that they can't answer, feel free to ask here. Alternately, if you want to post the plan you were given, we might be able to generate ideas for you that you can try. One thing to consider: it's REALLY common for people's tastes to change after surgery. Something you like right now, may become the worst thing ever, and vice-versa. I know if you're worried about the post-surgical period, it's comforting to try to plan out what things will be like for you, but please don't try to stock up on stuff. Many of us did that and ended up with things we couldn't or wouldn't eat. Best of luck.

She may have called it a DEXA scan, but it wasn't. That was definitely a BIA scanner. Here's the workout: 3 times per week, please dedicate time to do the following workout. It should take no more than 45 minutes and hopefully closer to 30. For all of the below exercises, I want you to start with the first variation of each exercise. Week 1: Do variation 1 of each exercise for 2 sets of 10 (or the max you can do if you can't do 10) In between each set, rest for ~1-3 minutes. The exact time doesn't matter that much, as long as you feel ready to begin again Week 2: Now I want you to do 3 sets of 10 or your max if you can't do 10. Week 3 (and beyond): Continue doing 3 sets, but now I want you to do the maximum number of each exercise that you can, up to 20. If it's 12. do 12. If it's 15, do 15. If you can get all the way to the point that you can do 20 of the exercise for 3 sets (a total of 60 repetitions), then stop there. Next time you do that exercise, I want you to move to the next variation listed to make it harder. Be aware that some of these may feel like big jumps, meaning you may go from being able to do 60 of version 1, to only being able to do 5 or 10 total of the next one. That's perfectly fine and to be expected. Just keep working at the new version until you can do 3 sets of 20 at that level. At that point, move on the the next version. If you get all the way through one or more of these, there are even harder variations available. Reach out and I'll give you more. That said, after doing these for 2-3 months or so, we might want to switch things up a bit? Doing the same thing over and over can get boring and we also want to fight any potential muscle imbalances by changing things up with different exercises. Be aware that you may feel sore a day or 2 after doing these exercises, especially at first. That's perfectly normal and should get a bit better over time. Here we go!: Exercise #1: Glute Bridge – Primarily works your glutes and lower back, as well as various smaller hip muscles How to progress: Standard Glute Bridge -- Both feet on Floor Single Leg Glute Bridge -- Do a single leg at a time with the other leg held straight out. Be sure to work each leg! Weighted Glute Bridge -- Time to add weight across your pelvis. How much is up to you and you can also progress here by adding more weight. Dumbbells work, but short of that, it can really be anything. Sandbag, milk jug, small child get creative! Hip Thrust. This is a very similar exercise, but allows a higher range of motion, so actually works your glutes even better. Ideally you'd also add heavier weight than you were using for the glute bridge Exercise #2: Push Up – Primarily a chest workout, however it also works the arms, shoulders, core and upper back as well. How to progress: Wall Push Ups -- It's what it sounds like, do a push up against the wall. Start by standing just over arms length away from the wall. You can change the difficulty a bit by moving further away Elevated Push Ups -- Another push up motion, but now you're using something lower to support yourself. You can also gradually move to lower and lower surfaces. For example, start with a kitchen counter, then progress to a coffee table Knee Push Ups -- Move to the ground in a basic push up position, but on your knees Regular Push Ups Exercise #3: Squat – Good leg exercise that hits the quads, hamstrings & glutes How to progress: Box Squat -- This is basically squatting down to sit on a box or chair, but DO NOT use your hands to get up or down. Ideally, the chair/box will be about the height where your legs are parallel to the ground Supported Squat -- No more box. Now you'll hang on to something for balance. Again, try to shoot for getting your upper legs parallel to the floor. Also try not to use the support to aid you in standing back up. It should be there mostly for balance Deep Supported Squat -- Now it's time to go as deep as you can, ideally with your butt hitting your calves Unsupported Squat. Time to let go of the support and do a proper squat Exercise #4: Row – Primarily a back exercise, but also can work the arms to some extent, especially the forearms. How to progress: Wall Pull -- It might be a little challenging to find a place to do this, but the idea is you'll find something sturdy like a stair rail, or something firmly attached to the wall that you can pull against. When you did the push ups against the wall, you stood further away. Here, I want you to start by standing maybe a foot or so closer to the wall so that you're leaning back when your arms are fully extended. Wall pull with a towel -- We're going to increase the difficulty by using a hand towel wrapped around your stair rail or object. You'll hold onto either end of the towel. This will allow you to lean further back. If needed, you can progress even more by moving to a bath towel instead of a hand towel. Inverted Row with Legs Bent -- Now things get even more complicated. Ideally to do this you'd have something like a suspension trainer, but it's possible to do this with a heavy wooden or metal rod suspended between 2 sturdy chairs or kitchen counters. Some city parks may also have a low bar that would be ideal for this, but you might have to look around? Inverted Row -- Same as above, but now you keep your legs straight NOTE: It may not be easy for you to find a way to do the inverted rows. If you're struggling, another option might be a "Plank Row", but this will require dumbbells. Simply progress this by adding more weight. If you go this route, you may want to go easy on the Leg Raises below or you may torch your core muscles.) Exercise #5: Lunge – Another leg exercise, but these are done one leg at a time. This will continue to work your legs, will help with balance and will engage your core as well. How to progress: Supported Rear Lunge -- I suggest just googling all these as they are easy to do, but harder to describe. In this one, find something to hang onto for support. Rear Lunge Front Foot Elevated Rear Lunge Bulgarian Split Squat Exercise #6: Leg Raise – Primarily a core workout How to progress: Lying Knee Raise -- Another one I suggest googling. These are all done from the floor Lying Knee Raise to Straight Leg Lower -- the idea here is you’ll raise your legs with your knees bent, but then straighten out your legs and slowly lower them down. Lying Leg Raise Seated Knee Tuck Good luck!

The average woman is going to be around 30%, but this obviously varies. Also, younger women will tend to have a little more and older women typically have less. Men tend to have more muscle mass, so on average, they will be anywhere from 30% to 45% based on age. Men tend to suffer more from age related sarcopenia than women, though. What I mean is that 40-45% is pretty common for a man in his 20s, but once they get to around 75, 30% is about average. Women on average go from just over 30% in their 20s, to maybe 25% over the age of 75. Keep in mind, these are just averages and it's not uncommon for people to be way under or over this. As an example, the average for my age would be about 33%, but I tend to be around 40-42% based on BIA readings (that can admittedly be off). A lot of these variations are simply genetic, but if you're active, you will tend to have more muscle mass than you otherwise might have. The 26 lbs you were told you had back before surgery does sound really low, but it could be off as well. Obviously I don't know what you had done, so I'm assuming they used something like an InBody scan, which is just a fancy BIA scale that you stand on and also hold some electrodes. If so, that number should be skeletal muscle, so it would not include your heart or other organs. Those all go into what we call Fat Free Mass, which is everything other than body fat. Quality BIA scales like InBody can be pretty accurate, but they're not perfect. The gold-standard way to measure is something called a DEXA (Dual-energy X-ray Absorptiometry), scan, but it seems unlikely you had this done? If you did, you'd probably know it. For these, you lie on a table and the scanner either passes over you, or more commonly, the table moves under the scanner. It's a lot like having an xray or a CT scan, but it scans your whole body. It's not an all or nothing type of thing! Anything is better than nothing, but light weights don't really do a lot, especially if they don't challenge you. Rather than do that, it would be much better to spend the exact same amount of time you do today, but really push how much you're doing. It needs to feel really challenging. If you feel like doing more of a proper workout, I'd be happy to provide something you could do at home to really work on building some muscle, but I'm not going to do it unless you promise me you'll actually do the workout! Deal?

Forgot to post this last night. Blackened Shrimp bowl with brown rice, sauteed peppers & onions, tomatoes, avocado and a remoulade drizzle.

As you probably know, PCOS can affect metabolism. This means you may be getting a double whammy from PCOS and your height that really pushes your metabolic rate down. As I mentioned earlier, without having an expensive metabolic test done, we can't know for sure how many calories per day you burn on average. If I had to guess, I think it could be as low as about 1000 to 1200 calories per day for your Basal Metabolic Rate. This is basically the amount your body burns just keeping you alive. If we add in a bit more to account for the fact we all burn some additional calories (even if we're mostly sedentary), then that could put you around 1300 to 1500 calories per day. If you're eating ~1000 calories a day, that means at best, you'd lose about 1 pound a week, but it could easily be closer to 1 pound every 12 days or so. If you do the math (I did ), then this would put you losing right about 2.5 pounds per month or 10 pounds in 4 months, which is right where you're at. Now for the record, I didn't factor in anything for the fact that as a DS patient, you are actually also benefiting from reduced absorption. These are all made up numbers anyway, so don't get too caught up in the hard numbers here. Remember: Even if you think you're super accurate in logging food, variation in caloric content from one piece of food to the next means your calorie counts may or may not be that accurate. Don't trust manufacturer calorie counts as accurate either. They can be as much as 10% or more off. We don't actually know how many calories you burn in a day on average. My guesses are just that, guesses. Bottom line, you've got a few things working against you here, but as long as you continue to follow your surgeon's plans, there's no reason you can't lose the excess weight. It's just going to take you longer than most people. I know that sucks, but it is what it is. Knowledge is power, so hopefully you'll come away from this with a little more knowledge. That should give you a little more power over your unique situation. All the best.

Welcome! For me personally, body image and self-esteem issues are potentially two different things? I'm obviously not a therapist so take this with a grain of salt, but while they may be related, it seems to me that they may also not be related at all? I know a lot of us have struggled with the body image issue, me included. I think for me that's mostly just because I was so big for so long and I have not yet gotten to the place where being small is "normal" for me yet. i still will grab clothes out of my closet and think "No way I can fit in that", yet I do. I also will look at my stomach and think I don't look that different, but I went from a 44 in waist to about a 30-32 in waist, so obviously I am objectively a lot smaller. I would not, however say that I have self-esteem issues, at least I don't think so! Am I sometimes overly hard on my bodily appearance, sure. As an example, you'll never catch me going without a shirt, even though as a guy I "could" do so. I'm older, have a lot of scars from various surgeries, and still have a fair amount of loose skin that is unlikely to go away. Ain't nobody want to see that! I'm also honestly too cheap to spend the money on plastic surgery. Anyway, I just wanted to share my perspective. I suspect even if your body was perfect (and no one has a perfect body), you might still have self-esteem issues due to your past life experiences? I mention all this because I do have to wonder if you're not thinking "if only I got to a normal weight, I'd feel better about myself", but in my experience, that never works. If you are not currently seeing a therapist, it might be a great time to start?