Lipman

If you do try Crossfit, try to meet some/all of the people on the first day. Having gym friends really helps you stay accountable and make everything more fun. But, be prepared to be surprised at how weak you are (if you know how much you could lift before). I lost 40-50% of my strength post surgery (went back to Crossfit about a month after surgery) and it has pretty much stayed gone (I'm about 35% weaker now. 9 months out)

I have stagnated a little bit over the past month+. Got down to 215 but popped back up to 220ish (now back to 217). Figure it is just a bump in the road and I am still committed to getting to sub 200 by my year mark. Feel amazing and had a good ego boost last week when a nurse at my dad's memory care facility asked my mom if I was single Currently trying to gently talk my sister into looking into the surgery as well (and potentially her son). She is worried about the financial aspect of it, which I totally understand, but my mom has said that she would pay for it. Given how against my surgery my mom was, I feel like this is a HUGE win. I want what is best for my sister (and I think the surgery is best), but I also know how I felt when people told me what I should do about my weight, so I am trying to be very supportive and helpful without being pushy at all. I have talked to others about it as well. I kinda feel like I am a WLS evangelical now! Finally, haven't heard from @Synlee in a while, but I hope you are doing MUCH better. I still say a prayer for you every week.

I was very open with people before my surgery (and I had 2 false starts over an 18m period, so I told a lot of people). I got some comments about not needing surgery, which I brushed aside because my weight was NOT distributed nicely , and I also got some people that were genuinely concerned about the downsides of the surgery. My mother was one of the biggest opponents until I talked her through all of the research I had done. I read multiple clinical studies and research papers that documented the long term effectiveness, watched tons of doctor videos talking about it (both pro and con), etc (like I said, I had 18m to research). At the end of the day, you just have to realize that everybody has their own view of the world. Some of those people are probably making comments out of love or worry, some out of fear, and some are probably just petty people. Focus on what makes you happy and don't let other people change your mood, don't give them that power.

6 month is tomorrow, here are my before/afters so far. I have the workout aspect down pat (5-6 days at Crossfit each week), but need to dial in the diet a bit over the next 6 months.

I believe (at least I was told) that the purpose of the pre-op diet is two fold, first to get your mindset right for the journey ahead, 2nd (and more importantly), to shrink your liver so that the doctor has more room to work during the surgery (as the liver is apparently sits somewhere that the doctor needs to get to). Because of the way timing worked out for me, I started my pre-op diet 6 days before my surgery. I was pretty diligent about it and my doctor commented post-op on how good of a job I did and that my liver had shrunk considerably and given him enough room to work. So just forget your tiny mistake and press on, you should have more than enough time to meet the goals of the pre-op diet. GOOD LUCK, you got this!

I think I know how my wife feels now. Don't take this the wrong way, but if you look like that at 174, I think you would be too skinny at 150!

Checking in. Just short of my 6 month mark (11/15/2023). Down 99 pounds (SOOO CLOSE) at 225. I have a stretch goal of 35 more pounds (190) which my wife hates. She is pretty happy where I am now and worries that I will look "anemic" if I lose that much more, but I was at 192 when we first met 20 years ago, so that has been my blue sky target (although I would be ecstatic with anything below 200 and happy under 210). Been working out 5-6 days a week, but my diet has been middling honestly. I have been eating too many carbs in the afternoon. I think they are better carbs than they used to be (Nut Thins mainly), but they are still far from ideal. I need to be eating more fruits and veggies for sure. I am also pretty much back to my normal alcohol consumption (which isn't much, 2-4 drinks a week, and consists mainly of red wine). Weight loss has slowed down considerably, but is still pretty consistent. Because I am a numbers nerd, I have been tracking a bunch of stuff since I started and here are my month by month losses 5/4/2023 6/1/2023 35.9 6/1/2023 7/1/2023 19.9 7/1/2023 8/1/2023 16.0 8/1/2023 9/1/2023 10.7 9/1/2023 10/1/2023 6.3 10/1/2023 11/1/2023 9.6 11/1/2023 11/6/2023 0.3 I have my 6mo follow up with the nutritionist next Wednesday where hopefully she will tell me that I am not losing too much muscle (something she cautioned me about on my 3mo visit). I'll post some before/after pictures sometime in the next week as well. And finally, welcome to the thread Meana, great results so far!

Sward, I know the feeling. It is odd not feeling the anticipation/joy about food in certain situations (I had my birthday last month about 5 months out from my surgery), but you do get used to it. Not being able to look forward to a Brazilian Steakhouse (all you can eat meat), or a good mexican restaurant (where I would eat too many chips + salsa), etc is a negative, but reframing those moments in my mind has helped me a lot. I can focus on talking more with my friends, or trying new foods (I was a pretty picky eater before and have taken this opportunity to try out a lot of new stuff with the mindset of "If I don't like it, I won't have to eat too much of it :D") Stick with it for a while and you will start to look at this in a different light (although mine still hasn't gone away completely).

Mine was the last diet I did. Went to a place called SOTA (state of the art). Like a bunch of other diets, it worked great at first, dropped 40#, then started to slide off. 9 months later I was 15 pounds heavier than I had started. I told my wife I was scared to diet again as I typically rebounded higher than I started. That was the inflection point where I lost all confidence in my ability to do it alone.

Will be saying some prayers for you Synlee!

Sub 200?!?!

3mo post op update. Getting back into Crossfit after 28 days of vacation in a 6 week span. Energy levels have gotten a little better (adding in more carbs before workout) but is still noticeable. I have dropped about 40-50% of all of my strength moves. And today was the first day that I thought "Hey, that movement was easier than before" and it was on burpees over the bar. 3 sets of 10 that I wouldn't have been able to do before where now just another part of the workout.

3 month update! 5/4/23 - Start Pre-surgery diet - 324 5/15/23 - Surgery - 307.6 8/15/23 - 3 month - 242.4 Had my 3 month visit with the dietician and have blown past all of the targets (both the 3m and 6m ones). The year target is down 100 pounds (from the 324), and I am only 18 pounds away from that one. Should be able to hit it by 6 months. Have had very little in the way of side effects. I have thrown up twice when I over ate and had 20-30m of pain after eating some pork that I apparently didn't do right (not sure if I didn't chew it enough or what). I have been pretty low energy only when working out (but that is getting a little better), but have been fine the rest of the day. I have occassionally had an alcoholic drink (started on vacation and has crept back into one or two drinks a week), but I am trying to be a little more strict about that. Currently reading a book called Wheat Belly that talks about how evil Wheat is. Pretty interesting stuff, but heavy on the science behind it all. In the past week I have averaged: 975 calories per day, 78g of protein, 64 oz of water. Given that I workout in the Texas heat (Crossfit gym), I need to be drinking more fluids, otherwise I am really happy with where I am at. I don't feel like there is anything that I want to eat that I can't (or haven't been) eating already. I cheat a little bit with tortilla chips, but that is really the only thing. Honestly, I feel like this whole process has been as painless as possible. I feel incredibly lucky, especially after hearing Synlee's story (I hope you are doing better!)

Yeah, that sounds unacceptable. They are running it completely like a business with no regards for their customers (who are putting their lives in the "company's" hands). I had cancelled my surgery date twice with the same doctor (first time I had a stroke and had to cancel, second time a year later I cancelled because my company told me they were about to start offering insurance for WLS). They were super helpful with everything, and when I expressed concern about a surgery date that was too close to a series of summer vacations I had, they scheduled the surgery 8 days after they got insurance approval (which I know was very out of the ordinary for them). That made me feel like they cared about me and my personal issues instead of just seeing me as another paycheck. You need to find a doctor and staff that will treat you right, because if you ever lose a little motivation, they will be the ones to get you back on track. And if you don't ever want to see them again (because they are buttheads), that could hamper your long term success I think.

I was told 6 months by my doc, but made it 2. Went on a trip to Italy and drank 2-4 glasses of wine a day (never more than 2 at a time for lunch and/or dinner), then another trip to the beach where I consumed quite a few frozen cocktails. I learned pretty quickly to stay away from the heavy cream type of cocktails as they filled me up and made me not feel great. With the cocktails, I also got a real dry mouth sensation an hour or so after stopping. Now that I am back home, I'll stay away from the empty calories until at least 6 months, but hopefully until I am at my goal weight.

Awesome to hear of y’all’s progress! Synlee, I hope you are getting some relief, or at least some answers and hope going forward. I am almost done with my travel-palooza (28 days of travel in a 41 day span). The diet has been a little wheels off, mainly around alcohol (have a few frozen cocktails on the beach). Been doing good at home and decent overall, but will need to rededicate myself next week once I am back home for good. All that being said, I couldn’t be happier with my results. Down 69 from starting (53 from surgery date), and closing in on 250. My face is much thinner now and I have dropped a size or two in clothes. Daily energy has been good, but I have noticed a huge change in my energy and strength levels while working out. I feel like I am running at 50-60% of what I was at pre-surgery. Everything I have read said that gets better as the caloric intake increases, so I am not too worried about it. also reading an interesting book called Wheat Belly that talks about the damaging effects of modern wheat, and I think it has convinced me (along with the general guidelines from my doc) to move to a paleo type diet long term (very very low carb).

Hey all, back from my 2+ week vacation and wanted to give an update: First, you look awesome Lindsay! Second, the update (2 weeks traveling around Germany and Italy): Protein was VERY hard to hit. The "on the go" protein mixes that I brought got real tiresome real quick. I wasn't able to do them everyday. Thankfully, I got approved to have protein bars the day before I left, so I made use of those pretty heavily. Water was also VERY hard to hit. I wasn't keeping exact track, but based on the color of my urine, I wasn't doing great. I was also sweating a substantial amount too, so I needed even more water. The 30m no-drink after eating restriction was a killer. We would stop for some food, I would grab a nice cold bottled water, then have to wait 30m for it to warm up to 80 degrees before I could drink it (I never realized how spoiled I was with cold water) Exercise was easy. Nothing specific, but we averaged 15000 steps a day so I counted that There was a significant amount of cheating: I would usually order a meat based meal, but then try a bunch of different pastas from my family (tiny bites, but 3 or 4 different ones usually). I also occasionally had a bite or two of bread, and ate a piece or two of pizza. I drank wine...quite a bit. We had a couple of wine tastings booked, but I would also do wine before dinner with all my family. I had a grand total of 3 bites of gelato (which I am pretty proud of). The kids got gelato pretty much every night, and I only stole 3 bites as I wanted to try the flavors (coconut, stratiacello, and milk???) In addition to wine, I did have a glass+ of champagne (so double dip of alcohol and carbonation) I had unapproved meats. I didn't always have good options for meat, so there was a couple of nights I shared steak with somebody, or had some other non-approved meat. That being said, I only ever had one stomach issue on the whole trip. I ordered a plate of various meats (ribs, bacon, sausage). I am not sure what the problem was, if I ate too fast, didn't chew enough, or it was too fatty, but I had a pretty quick reaction and didn't feel good at all. There was pain in my stomach area for about 15 minutes. After getting up, walking around, and burping a WHOLE lot, the pain passed. Overall, I was very happy with how it all went. While I have a decent list of cheats above, other than the wine, I really only had a bite or two of non approved stuff each meal. My stomach felt great 98% of the time, and....I lost 9 pounds!!!

Rocky, hopefully the past 10 days since you posted this your weight has started its gradual decent back down. It is a long process, so don't fret over daily/weekly movements (I know that is way easier said than done). Water weight can really move the scale from day to day. You might be dehydrated one day, then over the next week your body starts to retain some of the water that is has dropped over the past month. It is pretty normal I would say. During my 5 week stall, I went up 4 pounds, but have since dropped that and more. When you look back on this 12-18 months from now, this will just be a blip.

Synlee, sorry for the late reply (been out of town). My buddy's wife had similar issues, although not as bad as you. She couldn't keep anything solid down, but could do liquids. It lasted for over a year with multiple revision surgeries to try to open up her esophagus. Finally, she switched doctors and he was able to solve the issue. She is eating real food now and doing much much better. I hope everything gets better, but if it persists, you might look at visiting another bariatric doc just to get a second opinion.

Omrhsn, you look awesome! I hope I look that good 14 months out

Im in the same boat Lindsay, and having very similar thoughts. I think I am starting to get a little more room for solid foods, so I was hoping to drop to 1 shake a day soon. Although I have also been ignoring veggies at meals, just because I was barely able to eat anything (so focused on protein). I will probably add more veggies in, so that my protein says around the same for the next few weeks and shoot for dropping to 1 @ 3 months. ms.sss's timeline looked pretty doable to me.

I will add a little math to the equation here: You lost a bunch of weight pre-diet, of which, a very large portion of was water weight. Once you get past that, it can be broken down into a simple calories in - calories out (this is too simplified, but it will get the job done). I went to a website (https://www.garnethealth.org/news/basal-metabolic-rate-calculator) and made some random assumption as your gender/age/etc, and got a resting metabolic rate of just over 3100. Add on another 900 for activities during the day and you are at a nice round 4000 calories burned each day. If your intake is around 600 calories in, then you are at a 3400 calorie deficiency. A pound of fat is roughly 3600 calories, so everyday you should be losing 3400/3600 ~ .95 pounds. So just under a pound a day. That being said, water and other factors can make this fluctuate day to day. Also, all of these numbers are averages and vary from person to person. So if you are noticing less, then maybe your BMR is a little lower than 3100. I was at 307.6 the day of my surgery, and 285.1 3 weeks out or 22.5 pounds down. Since then, I have been consistenly loosing about .6 pounds per day. Not every day, but on average. Stick with the diet your doctor/nutritionist gave you and give it some time. It takes 12-18 months for all of that weight to come off.

Under 300 is AWESOME! Way to go!

What sort of after care are you needing? I am 1 month out (as of today) and I have been back to my doctor once for just a quick check up. The only thing I have needed since surgery was a refill on my antacid prescription. I have another visit next week, but it is just a nutrition class. Hopefully you aren't having any complications (as that would require an actual doctor), but if you have any questions, or feel like you don't have info on any subject, feel free to ask away here. I am happy to relay things my doctor/nurses have told me and I am sure others would be as well.

Welcome in, how has the recovery been?