NCL04321

Hang in there, those last 20lbs or so come off very slowly! I am 16 months post sleeve and just hit my drs weight goal (although my goal is 5-10lbs less than his 😂) I drink Coke Zero everyday and probably more than I should but that being said, it has not impacted my weight loss at all. I must be one of the few lucky ones that don’t get heartburn from it. However, I do notice I can’t drink it too soon after I eat. Good luck with those last few pounds! Just stick to the program and they will come off eventually!

Down 90lbs from 230 to 141. Not quite at 18 month mark yet and still losing weight but sloooooowly. I would like to lose 6-11 more. Down from XXX to M clothes! You all look fabulous! I love seeing people’s before and after. Pictures like these were one of the biggest influences on whether or not to have sleeve surgery! Thank you to all for your inspiration!!!!

Down 90lbs from 230 to 141. Not quite at 18 month mark yet and still losing weight but sloooooowly. I would like to lose 6-11 more. Down from XXX to M clothes! You all look fabulous! I love seeing people’s before and after. Pictures like these were one of the biggest influences on whether or not to have sleeve surgery! Thank you to all for your inspiration!!!!

Down 90lbs from 230 to 141. Not quite at 18 month mark yet and still losing weight but sloooooowly. I would like to lose 6-11 more. Down from XXX to M clothes! You all look fabulous! I love seeing people’s before and after. Pictures like these were one of the biggest influences on whether or not to have sleeve surgery! Thank you to all for your inspiration!!!!

Down 90lbs from 230 to 141. Not quite at 18 month mark yet and still losing weight but sloooooowly. I would like to lose 6-11 more. Down from XXX to M clothes! You all look fabulous! I love seeing people’s before and after. Pictures like these were one of the biggest influences on whether or not to have sleeve surgery! Thank you to all for your inspiration!!!!

From watching my 600lb life, it seems the fat does not weight as much as you think it does.

Congratulations! you are an inspiration to many!

I tell you all the time you are amazing and an inspiration to so many!! You look spectacular!

That is not an easy thing to do! Congratulations!! You both look great! Best wishes on your new beginning!

That is amazing! You look great! Thank you for sharing as it gives all of us confidence that we can do this and maintain the weight loss!!! Thank you!

Love, love, love this advice!! I can personally tell you that you are 100% correct. I was not drinking enough Water (i was relying on Coke Zero) which i know actually dehydrates you. I also got into the bad habit of staying up way too late on my phone while watching Netflix so I was not getting enough sleep. My weigh loss stalled. I have now been drinking a lot more water and making sure i get between 7.5- 8 hours of sleep a night. By doing this i have broken the very long stall/very slow weight loss!! I know this is common knowledge about getting enough water/sleep, I just got into very bad habits for a while. I had my surgery 4/12/23 and have lost 82 lbs so i am doing good, but i knew i could do better!

I would definitely mention this to your primary care/gynecologist. Could be unrelated to the surgery. TMI.....Im actually enjoying it again as Mr. can find his way down there much easier with less fat rolls!

Love, love, love this advice!! I can personally tell you that you are 100% correct. I was not drinking enough Water (i was relying on Coke Zero) which i know actually dehydrates you. I also got into the bad habit of staying up way too late on my phone while watching Netflix so I was not getting enough sleep. My weigh loss stalled. I have now been drinking a lot more water and making sure i get between 7.5- 8 hours of sleep a night. By doing this i have broken the very long stall/very slow weight loss!! I know this is common knowledge about getting enough water/sleep, I just got into very bad habits for a while. I had my surgery 4/12/23 and have lost 82 lbs so i am doing good, but i knew i could do better!

Love, love, love this advice!! I can personally tell you that you are 100% correct. I was not drinking enough Water (i was relying on Coke Zero) which i know actually dehydrates you. I also got into the bad habit of staying up way too late on my phone while watching Netflix so I was not getting enough sleep. My weigh loss stalled. I have now been drinking a lot more water and making sure i get between 7.5- 8 hours of sleep a night. By doing this i have broken the very long stall/very slow weight loss!! I know this is common knowledge about getting enough water/sleep, I just got into very bad habits for a while. I had my surgery 4/12/23 and have lost 82 lbs so i am doing good, but i knew i could do better!

A final update for this thread: I had my gastric bypass on Feb 21!
Check in went smoothly. I changed into my hospital gown, got my IV inserted, and was given a number of medications to take before being moved to a waiting area where I got onto a gurney. The various members of the surgery team came by to introduce themselves and check on various things. Finally, the anesthesiologist came by and gave me "something to relax" via my IV port. A minute later, I was being wheeled into the hallway, and that's the last thing I remember until waking up in my hospital room. I never saw the inside of the OR, and I have no memory of the recovery area afterward, either.
The surgery itself took much longer than anticipated, about 6 hours. I was fine and safe the whole time, but the surgeon ran into some issues with my small intestine and a small abdominal mass (sent to pathology and was benign) that required additional steps. Because of this, I was surprised to wake up in my hospital room and discover it was already 9pm when my surgery began at 1pm! My poor mom had been so worried because we thought it would take maybe 3 hours max.
The nurses checked on me several times that night. I was able to get up to use the toilet on my own, and the only real challenge was the IV pole having to be dragged along. I was very fortunate that I ended up with no roommate. It wasn't technically a private room, but no one else was assigned to it while I was there.
In the morning, my surgeon came by and explained what had happened during surgery. He was concerned because some of the stitches ended up under more pressure than he considered optimal, so he wanted me to do a swallow test before I could have anything by mouth, including Water. They got me in for that and it turned out okay, so about an hour after returning to my room, I was brought a bottle of water and a cup of red sugar free Jello.
I have to say, it was nice to have water because my throat was dry, but I really didn't care about eating. I did because they told me to, and I know at this point I hadn't had a single thing in my belly for over 40 hours, but I just didn't care. I felt zero hunger. But I at the jello, and later they brought me a popsicle, another jello, and a chicken broth. I ate it all over the course of about an hour. It was fine, but again, I just ate it because they told me to.
Because I got such a late start on fluids after surgery, they kept me an additional night, just to be sure. But on Friday morning around 9am, I was discharged. I had a Protein Shake when I got home and worked all day on fluids. I was tired and a little sore, but my pain had been minimal enough that I was only on Tylenol. It worked well enough that I only had a few moments of real pain, mostly when shifting position that required the use of abdominal muscles. I was fortunate to have someone staying with me for the first few nights home, and my parents kept my kids (ages 12 and 15) with them for the first week so I wouldn't have to worry about all their activities and food.
It took a few days to discover what worked best for me, which ended up being hot tea (decaf and herbal) instead of flavored waters as I'd been having pre-op. For the first week, I've met my 64oz Fluid and 60g Protein goals most days, but as time has gone on, I've become completely turned off anything with artificial sweetener and every protein shake except Syntrax Nectar Natural, which I can still manage. I definitely wasted a lot of money on shakes I won't be drinking, but I'm glad I had them for the 2 week pre-op diet and to take the pressure off finding things to try when I got home.
Yesterday, I was allowed to start soft protein foods. So far, I've had tuna salad (2 Tbsp), refried Beans with a sprinkle of melted cheese (1/4 cup), and 1 poached egg. No issues with anything so far. Tonight I will be cooking some haddock with pesto for dinner.
I go in for my 2 week post-op appointment with my surgeon next Tuesday and hope by then my weight will be a little lower. I lost 15 lbs on the 2 week pre-op diet, but my weight was higher by about 5lbs when I got home from the hospital thanks to the fluids and swelling, and I'm only just back to where I was the day I went to the hospital. Still, 15lbs in three weeks isn't bad.
As for other incidentals, I have been taking Benefiber daily in my morning tea and it really has helped. I had the first BM (very loose and not a lot) before leaving the hospital on day 2, and have managed to go at least every other day since, and daily the last couple of days, so I'm very grateful for that. My energy levels have been decent, but it's only today that I feel like I don't need a noon nap. Going without caffeine has been a struggle, but I'm getting used to it.
After all the wait, I'm so glad to have this behind me and be able to focus on a healthy future!

I'm so sorry you are experiencing this!! This isn't a you problem!! If you aren't losing sufficient weight you are either being given poor advice from your nutrition team, poor medical support from your surgeon, or it is possible your body is under significant stress for whatever reason and isn't losing weight. There are rare cases when someone with a sleeve doesn't respond but often those are people who have low starting weights. If they had a high starting weight and don't respond to the sleeve surgery, these people generally end up revised to bypass or a DS/SADI, and then lose weight, but again, that should be a convo being initiated by your surgeon as a future possibility if food modification and medications don't work.
Some people take GLP-1 meds to help jumpstart their weight loss if the surgery hasn't triggered it, but again, at the 6 month mark this should be something the surgeon initiates conversation about. You shouldn't be living in fear of your appointments with them. If you aren't feeling supported you might consider getting a second opinion from another bariatric surgeon in the area not affiliated with this practice. I strongly believe in second opinions when talking things like surgery... It may sound like I'm being harsh on your team, but lets be clear. They made a nice chunk of money off of your surgery. You deserve good aftercare!!
Some surgeons, like my own, believe that the best way to lose weight in the first 6 months to a year after surgery is through being in ketosis. This involves a good Protein intake (60-80 grams with the sleeve) and carbs below 50 total carbs or 30 grams net carbs. You can get pee strips to test if you are in ketosis. Once in ketosis you should go through regular periods when you lose some weight, followed by periods where you lose none as your body stabilizes from the previous loss and recalibrates. If this doesn't happen, I'd definitely be communicating with the surgeon about it! What dietary advice did your team give you?
Hydration is important for weight loss. If you aren't able to eat enough calories or drink enough Water your body will go into starvation mode like @summerseeker mentioned. This is a huge stressor to the body!! And huge stress will cause weight loss to stop. sleep is also crucial to weight loss, often more important than exercise. If you aren't getting regular sleep for enough hours per night, this can stall your weight loss. Physical activity of some kind is important, but it accounts for less weight loss than proper nutrition and sleep. And if you are under calories and under hydrated exercise will just further stress out your body.

Take a few deep breaths, and then watch this video for reassurance from a bariatric specialist:

Congratulations to you!!! You are inspiring. Thank you for sharing your story with us.

Me too. My hair is wild and curly, so I use hair gel to try to keep them in line. When I was a kid we used to call them the frizzies. LOL
I just had my hair cut today. Mine's in a long shag a bit below shoulder length and so the layers help to create fullness.
Glad to hear yours is growing back. I feel bad for those who lost their hair in clumps. Yikes!

i think many people on here will tell you any revision surgery results in a much slower rate of weight loss than the first time around.

My incident of hair loss was very similar to yours. It started about 3 months post surgery and continued to about 8 months. I cut my hair to shoulder length and that helped restore some fullness. I am now noticing hairs about an inch long growing all over my head! Good news, its coming back!!!

i think many people on here will tell you any revision surgery results in a much slower rate of weight loss than the first time around.

My incident of hair loss was very similar to yours. It started about 3 months post surgery and continued to about 8 months. I cut my hair to shoulder length and that helped restore some fullness. I am now noticing hairs about an inch long growing all over my head! Good news, its coming back!!!

i think many people on here will tell you any revision surgery results in a much slower rate of weight loss than the first time around.

i think many people on here will tell you any revision surgery results in a much slower rate of weight loss than the first time around.