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My pants still fit. A slightly snugger fit. I am adopting a different strategy. One that was mentioned of giving myself a week to incorporate one habit at a time. I get very impatient and want to do everything all at once which is great for the first day or 2 but very difficult to maintain. I am working on sleeping 2 hours earlier first. I also started taking Berberine. Let’s see how it goes.

I have yet to get a date. I was trying for the Duodenal switch. Insurance denied, it was expected since that was the only bariatric surgery they don't cover, but it was worth a try. Resubmitted for Rouen-Y gastric bypass. Should hear back in a week or so. Hopefully I can get a surgery date in February.

I am turning 50 in a few months, and I've struggled with my weight most of my life. At 26, my BMI was probably around 30, but I didn't have the health issues so it was just a nuisance to me. I tried dieting and healthy eating for years, but my weight increased steadily in typical yo-yo fashion. Post-pregnancies, I spent my late 30s and early 40s in the 35-39 BMI range and started getting co-morbidities. By the time my BMI hit 40 this past year, I was aching in my feet and joints, had high blood pressure and cholesterol, and was prediabetic. So it's not about weight or appearance at this point but getting control of my health now, while my body can still bounce back and hopefully age more gracefully. I feel like I'm at that tipping point where if I don't act, the next decade will not end well and I will not have a good time of my senior years. This is despite all my best intentions and 7 years of actively going to a weight management doctor. All of that is to say that trying hard and knowing the right things to do rarely leads to success if you are prone to obesity. It's a disease, not a moral failing, no matter what people tell you. Unlike dieting, weight loss surgery provides lasting metabolic changes, as close to a cure as you can get. And you still will have to make all the lifestyle changes you would need to do anyway to lose weight, but they will actually work (instead of spending the next 24 years getting bigger and less healthy like I did). I have posted frequently about what a huge fan I am of Dr. Matthew Weiner's books, YouTube videos, and new podcast. Honestly, his books were life changing for me in terms of my perspective. I highly recommend starting there. He has 3 books, one is called Pound of Cure and gives great, scientifically sound information on what a healthy, set-point lowering way of eating looks like and how to get there. The second is a book that explains exactly how gastric bypass and sleeve surgeries change your metabolism and why they work (it's not just a smaller stomach and eating less!). The third is a cookbook with bariatric friendly recipes and serving sizes for different stages. These books are super fast reads. You can probably get through all three in a week (minus making all the recipes, of course!). With three months to go, my suggestion is get these books and start implementing the diet changes in a deliberate way. Start exercising in a sustainable way, working up to it little by little. See how you feel. Don't do crash diets. Don't start anything, whether food or exercise, you don't think you can basically do 90% of the time for the rest of your life, because there's no such thing as doing it for long enough to lose weight and then getting to "go back to normal." This has to become your new normal, with or without surgery. In three months, if you really aren't sure about the surgery, don't do it. It'll always be there. But know that it's an additional tool that will make the hard work you have to do either way in order to keep your health for the rest of your life more likely to stick. Without it, there's a very high (but not impossible) chance you will not be able to keep your weight in a healthy range.

You sound as if you have a great deal going on in your life. You need to take a moment out of your busy life to just breathe. Three months is still a long time to decide which way you want to go, either with surgery or not. You can cancel right up to the minute you walk into the hospital. A few have. This may not be your time. So lets take the things that you are most worried about, Your hair. You will not go bald. You probably will loose some of your thickness. You are young, you have masses of hair. When you are as old as I am you would have already have lost lots of hair due to menopause, so I started off with a deficit. It did get a little scary and I needed to get my hair cut really short but I do love the freedom that it gives me. I felt it was worth it. This surgery was my last chance at a normal life. You will not loose too much weight, you will stop a right place for you. You need to up your calories until you get to a balance. I am ok on 1500 calories a day. I have a slow life, I dont work anymore. I go out with friends, I eat and drink as before. The only thing I do not do is overeat. I don't miss doing that, my friends might do. Especially if they liked to overeat with me. How do you see yourself ? Not how others see you. They may want a fat friend to bolster their own negative ego's. Do you put weight on every year and keep it on ? We all did. We did diets after diets and put it all back on again with added weight. Lots of us ended up with weight related illnesses like diabetes and blood pressure. If you think you can loose weight yourself and keep it off then you need to try. Give yourself 6 to 12 months to do it. Bariatric surgery is not an easy option but if you stick with it, it is a solution. If you do not follow the guide lines then like a diet, it will fail. You should go back and chat with your surgeon. You need to be totally happy with your decision. Give yourself the time you need.

1). there are a lot more people who don't reach goal than there are who lose too much weight. Plus if you feel like you're losing too much weight, you can always increase your calories to put the brakes on it - or to start gaining. So I wouldn't worry about this one AT ALL. 2). fewer than 5% of people are able to lose weight and keep it off. You may be one of the lucky ones who can do that - and if so, and you're afraid of the surgery, it's not too late to pull out and try it on your own. I wasn't one of the lucky ones. I spent my first 55 years as overweight or obese. I gained and lost weight a million times and could never keep it off until I had weight loss surgery. 3). hair loss, if you experience it (and not everyone does), is temporary. I lost hair during months 5-8 post-surgery (so...for three months). It wasn't much, though. I could tell because there were more hairs in my combs and brushes, but I really didn't notice it at all when looking in the mirror, so I'm sure no one else noticed it. Plus hair loss after surgery is more like shedding - not huge clumps of loss like one might have after chemo. For a lot of people, they're the only ones who notice it. It's usually more loss of volume than noticeable "bald spots" - and it does grow back. to me, the risk of losing some hair temporarily vs. being morbidly obese for the rest of my life was a no-brainer. But you may think and decide differently for yourself - and there's nothing wrong with that. If you're not mentally ready for this yet, or want to try on your own to lose weight, then there's nothing wrong with canceling or postponing your surgery. You wouldn't be the first..or last.

HI!!! First, i wish you all a happy new year I had my first appointment with my surgeon a few days ago, i have some blood tests coming up in 2 weeks. So my surgery should be in 3 months. I'm 26 years old, height 5'9 and weight 260 lbs. My surgeon said i should be getting the sleeve. Okay, that being said...... I'm terrified. I'm scared about the hair loss because my hair is part of my identity and my self-love..... I can't stop thinking about it. Second, I'm scared of losing too much weight? I don't know if i'm over-reating.... but I've always been overweight so I don't know how I would react to my new body. People around me have always said that my weight looks good on me... Third, I'm wondering if I had tried enough before getting it ? I don't know if I should try to exercise and diet again one last time before getting it since I have to change my lifestyle anyway if I do this surgery.? I never really tried any diet and exercise program consistently in my life. Everytime I tried to do something, i would give up shortly after starting it. I'm a nurse and a university student, so my life is kind of crazy. My sleep schedule is crazy, my work schedule is crazy... Honestly, i'm just writing down all my thoughts because I feel like no one around me can understand what i'm going through.... and I'm looking for some advice or some guidance... Only my parents & brother know...

Do you have a dietician? If so ask them for more specifics. We all need the amount of information & depth of detail that makes us feel comfortable & confident about we have to do. We have different needs (food preferences like vegetarian or vegan, food sensitivities or allergies, general health, current weight, age, mobility, etc.) which is why I suggest you get the specifics from your dietician for what will best complement your needs. Your surgeon may have requirements too. As some general advice, start tracking your food (lots of tracking apps available like My Fitness Pal). Increase your fluids to 2L/64ozs. Reduce or drop any carbonated drinks. Reduce snacking. Reduce the highly or ultra processed foods in your current diet. Increase your protein & vegetable intake - look at around 4oz protein & a good cup of vegetables for a meal. Modify some of your cooking styles like use an air fryer or bake not pan fry. Swap simple carbs for complex whole or multi grains. Reduce the number of sugary/sweet foods you eat. You don’t have to do all these things at once, unless you have a tight time frame but certainly start introducing a couple of these things each week or two until you get more definite information from your dietician. PS If you don’t have a dietician yet, ask for a referral to one from your team.

What does your pre-op diet look like? Mine will be 2 weeks of full liquid, so basically protein shakes, water or sugar free flavored water, decaf coffee and tea, sugar free jello and pudding, sugar free popsicles, broth, skim milk, Greek yogurt, unsweetened applesauce, and cream of tomato soup. I think she said up to 5 shakes per day but I need to clarify at my final dietician appointment on Feb 1. Not gonna lie, I am not looking forward to this part. My previous clinic only did a 2-day liquid diet. But I can survive!

Hi all, I am glad I’m not the only one having issues. I haven’t had steak in 16 months. A month ago I was woken by my husband as I thought his arm was a big ice juicy steak🤣 Cat you could be gaining muscle and that’s why the weight doesn’t look different on scales. But your measurements do. The surgeon also said when you go to soft diet/full diet you can have a stall. But also fluid intake plays a part. Some Guy you are doing a great job. Screw what others think. Sarcasm is the way to go. meisha tell them how much you’ve lost overall. As that is when your weight loss journey started. Some people don’t know I had the partial sleeve. But I went in for hernia repair august 2022 and ended up with the Partial sleeve cause of stomach damage. So mine was a bonus and a kick start to reality. Me……When I had my 8wk post appt we had talked about the pain I was in and not stomaching soft foods and how I might end up having gastric bypass……. Well I ended up in hospital NYE. I couldn’t drink/eat or even swallow my own saliva without excruciating pain. Turns out I had a perforation in my oesophagus and stomach with a lot of inflammation. We had to go on a drip as I was also very dehydrated. Have intravenous meds 3 times a day as I was becoming septic too. So I am back on fluids for this last week and the next two weeks. 🙄. So over fluids/liquids. I cried Christmas Day as everyone was eating turkey and prawns. but the plus side is I’ve lost 10kgs since Nov 2nd.

So I eat 4200 calories a day. Long story short. 456 pounds at age 19 had DS 39 now and I weigh 178 pounds I've been working out 3x a week for two years. Lifting weights. At first I lost muscle, because I was eating 2200 calories most days maybe 60 grams of protein. I now I eat 4200 a day and get 250 grams of protein easy but even with gaining muscle I don't gain weight on the scale yet. I've gained in the past but once I started lifting weights I stopped. I just stay at 178ish.. my doctor wants me to take enzymes but I want to be able to gain weight with food... It's annoying to me I can't even gain a pound. I'm slowly raising calories 200 at a time. I wait a month then I'll raise it again but does anyone know how many calories I probably need and can anyone tell me for sure how many calories I absorb and how much fat, carbs, protein I absorb? My doctor says he can't tell me because everyone is different but... I need answers. I find myself scared every day I'll lose weight.. it's crazy to me im eating so much but my doctor's kinda not cool.. so I don't trust him last time I took enzymes I ended up getting up to 240 pounds on accident and the idea of gaining that much weight scares me.. I prefer to do it normally I just wonder what the calorie number is need. What works for you

So I got my psych eval back on Thursday. I also found out that I can do 2 of my dietitian appointments in the same month. I've already did 1 and I only have to do 4 total. I did the clearance with my pcp and have pulmonary and cardiology scheduled for this month. I also called my insurance and they said that approval comes one week after the file is submitted. So it looks like I might be able to get my surgery done in March. I'm actually hoping for the end of February but I digress lol

i always feel a little anti-climactic after the holidays. so much go-go-go for weeks to basically flat-lining on the couch in a blink. be nice to urslef, and try not to succumb to the pressure to be "on" nor the guilt of being not. ❤️

i was told it would take anywhere from 1-3 months. i took over 3 months because i did too much too soon and busted open my stitches twice. oopsies. so at between 3-4 months i had no more bandages, all my stitches (original and new) had all dissolved, and i could stand upright and had about 85% range or motion in my arms...it took about 7-8 months for me to fully "raise my arms in the air and swing 'em like i just dont care" 😂😂😂 but essentially at about 4 months i could do everything i was doing pre-PS except for the aforementioned arm-swinging. (oh and i was swollen/bloated, in lesser and lesser degrees - mostly in my abdomen - for about 6-7 months...but this didn't stop me from doing anything so i don't count it as something to recover from, if that makes sense?) my surgeon did all three (breast lift, arm lift and tummy tuck) all at the same time. it all depends on the surgeon and how long they are willing to keep u under, at what speed the work, if they will have an assistant, etc.. he told me he didn't want me under longer than 6 hours and that he could do all 3 within those hours. i believe i was in the recovery room in 5 and a half hours. i will say though that i was on the smaller side on surgery day (doc said i was the smallest person he's ever worked on)...so this may contribute to the shorter surgery time? i dunno... i had very very little actual fat to remove...it was basically just excess skin. the "material" he removed weighed a measley 400g . but oh what a difference 400g makes lol.

at 7 months my triumph/sv was reaching a my "revised" goal. i basically called goal 7 lbs above my original as i felt as i was looking way too skelator-ish. I was eating about less than 800 cals a day at the time and decided to start upping my cals. got to about 1500 cals 3 months later and settled into about 1800 today (5+ yrs later) ..,i was up to over 2300 at one point, but i was an exercise fiend during that era. i was exercising min 1 hour a day (sometimes twice a day) almost every day at the time. Today im at it 1-2 times a week. despite all this i weigh less today than both my original and revised goals. go figure. AND, i dont look skelator-ish at all. SCORE! lol WLS is still one of the best decisions i've made so far. Good Luck! ❤️

My first (of MANY stalls) was at 2 1/2 weeks. Every time I have a stall, I gain 3-4 pounds. Then I gain and lose the same 2-3 pounds throughout the stall. Once it finally breaks, I lose like 5 pounds in 1shot, then go back to losing my normal 2-4 pounds a week until another stall hits. That's why paying close attention to Non Scale Victories (NSVs) is so so important.

not going to sugar coat it: recovery was not easy for me. i am not one to take pain meds, but i did after PS for almost 2 weeks. BUT: TOTALLY WORTH IT. I'd do it again for the results i got (even with the scarring - i scar terribly). I remember in the year after PS, i was all never again...im happy with my results and don't need anymore. NOW im contemplating doing something about my butt and my neck. hahhaa, never say never. PRO TIP: take your recovery easy and don't do too much too soon. I did not adhere to this and attempted to go running (TWICE!) too soon and busted open my stitches (TWICE!!)...which resulted in a longer overall recovery for me. 🙄

Yeah, while I work for myself so don't have to deal with coverage or time-off approval, I was somewhat grateful February was the option the doctor gave me. I had already rearranged a lot to accommodate the December date, and when that fell through, it left me scrambling. Turns out the week in February they gave me is pretty ideal, so I'm glad about that, even if the countdown is killing me. Between now and then, my main focus is on getting back to healthy foods after the holidays and developing a better schedule for meals and exercise that will help me be a bit more regular about both.

I have been in other support groups and people say that a slow or even a stall is normal in the first couple months because your body is adjusting. When you start eating healthy foods and more intake your body will start burning again. The weight will start again. The slower weight loss is actually better for your recover is my understanding. I am 10 days out and down 15 pounds. I’m not in any hurry and as long as I’m still losing I will just follow my plan and keep going. keep us posted!

Reading a lot about tiredness and fatigue, is anyone feeling the other way at night? I’m struggling to sleep! I feel tired but ever since the op I have not got to sleep easily, have tried walking further in the day, reading etc but doesn’t seem to help!! (I’m 3 weeks post op on Tuesday) Feeling really positive otherwise though, the weight is coming down and the pureed stage doesn’t seem to be bothering me so much!! Just need to keep up with protein water to ensure I’m getting enough in, as only manage a few mouthfuls of the pureed food! Xx

Hi sorry I’m new here I had my surgery December 19 so it’s been like 2 weeks and 3 days so the first 7 days i lost 17 pounds but right now I’m loosing weight very slow like a pound each day its that normal or mybe I’m doing something wrong right now I lost 27 pounds total 2 weeks and 3 days

I am 3 weeks and 3 days post op and do also experience the same tiredness and fatigue. Couldn't even grt going for work yesterday and had to reschedule 2 meetings to go back to sleep. My nurse and Dietician said this process and the lack of nutrients during the healing stages will make you extremely tired/weak to the same effect covid does. She was right, very much so. I've now had both. But I am feeling much better aside from that. I lost 22lbs on the 2 week preop diet and have lost 34lbs since surgery December 13th. Had my follow up and down 56lbs since November 29th. One day at a time. Process is more important than the goal. We can all get to our goal but I believe the process comes first.

Wow I’m 3 weeks out and got entirely exhausted today after a shower , and 2 loads of laundry ( wash dry and fold) I didn’t even put it all away. Then ended up taking a 3 1/2 hour nap

Mmmm Cheese. Good. I ate low fat Jarlsberg from solid foods but I did revert back to full fat after a few weeks cause it tasted nicer. And would sprinkle Parmesan on my bolognese & in my omelettes. Close to goal I would eat Brie, Camembert, a soft blue if out socialising where there were snacks but not a meal, A couple of pieces were ample. Full fat is so much yummier but it’s all about how much you eat each time & what else you’re eating. Saw something recently about there being something in cheese that makes it addictive. I can’t recall what because I don’t care - it’s an addiction I’m willing to indulge.

I'm 2 1/2 weeks post op and I'm feeling alright, but with a LOT of sleep. I'm up for 2 or 3 hours and down for 4 or 5 hours. I'm doing okay on my protein/hydration, but I just can't seem to get going. I plan on going back to work on Monday, but I don't know that I'm going to have enough in the tank for an 8-hour day. Any ideas? *edit - did my 2 week check in yesterday, down 33 pounds post op.*

I am preop and was just reading through the folder my surgeon's office has given me. There's a section called keeping the weight off where they talk about portions after you've gotten past the honeymoon period. They say that a meal should be 3-4 oz of lean protein with 20-25g protein, 1/2 cup of whole grain or starchy vegetables, and then half of the plate is leafy/non-starchy veg and fruit. The most important part for me was where they said: Sometimes portion sizes increase over time. If you feel you are able to eat more at meals, increase the portion of non-starchy vegetables. I would start there, because I think the tendency as appetite increases is to grab a bigger plate and increase everything proportionally. So now you may be eating 5-6 oz protein and 3/4 to 1 cup of starch or grain. And maybe adding in more sauces, more fats, a piece of bread, some alcohol, juice, some sweet treats, a daily snack. My surgeon's plan emphasizes keeping to 3 meals per day without snacking once you're past the first few weeks where you need to supplement with protein shakes just to meet minimum protein goals. But if you can regularly get 20-25g protein at a meal, plus 1/2 cup starch or grain and some veg/fruit, you don't need to eat more than 3 times per day, 4-6 hours apart. This is something that isn't always made clear. When I started this journey, I was certain that gastric bypass would mean having to eat lots of small meals all throughout the day, which is exactly what I'm being told not to do! But you do need to get at least 64oz of water or more all the time, and you can add as much veg and fruit as you need to feel full. I think that is where I would start in your position. Go back to measuring your meals, setting timers to remind you when your meal times are if you need to, eating only food you prepare yourself and/or know exactly what's in it. Check your cupboards for temptations and get rid of them. Pay attention to the urges you have to do something that isn't part of your plan, because that's probably going to show you the problem areas and help you figure out how to change. And most of all, give yourself a little bit of grace, because this isn't easy (no matter what people try to say). Take care of yourself. Get enough sleep. Get fresh air and exercise. Be kind to yourself.